Training walks

I've decided that it's time for Paige to get used to wearing her vest and to learn what the vest means for her. Every couple of days, because that is about how often it fits into life, I've been taking her out with her vest on. We'll walk for a few blocks with the vest on and her on high focus. Then I'll take it off and we'll carry on with our relaxing walk.

A few days ago, a guy saw me taking Paige's vest off and stopped to ask some questions. I was calm and collected and answered them no problem. There was one point where one of them got a little bit personal and I panicked a little bit. But I looked down and Paige was sitting right between us, not paying any attention to either of us. She was blocking me. I thought that this was going to be an idea that was going to be hard to train but here she was doing it automatically. I answered the question easily. My dog made me feel safe and secure and not alone. :)

Today, we went to Safeway. We walked in one door, across the front of the store, and out the other doors. That was then entirty of our public access trip. Just let her get used to the sounds and smells. Eventually, we'll wander down an isle and then back out. Even further away, we'll go and actually buy something, just one thing. And so on and so forth until we're making full, small shopping trips.

After we had walked through the store, I borrowed a shopping cart and pushed it around the parking lot a little bit. I wanted to see how Paige would react. She just walked calmly beside me. She moved closer to me to get out of the way of the cart at one point. I had turned very sharply and tried to run her over. She didn't care but she didn't let herself get run over either. Such a good girl.

Then I took her vest off of her and we carried on with our walk.

Stay tuned. More public outings to come.