Public Access

Stitch and I go to Wal-Mart. I borrow their electric scooter, and we go off into the wilds of the store to find some unoccupied aisles - not easy as we're getting into the Christmas season. Stitch rides at my feet on the scooter until we find an empty aisle, then I tell her to get off and we start practicing walking politely beside the scooter. I've brought a sample bag of Temptations cat treats - dry and very small but seemingly utterly delicious - to keep her focused in this very distracting situation. I'm clicking for maintaining the desired position with her nose even with my knee. This isn't HER desired position, she'd rather be up front leading, but pretty soon she gets it. I put some effort into remembering to click when she's looking where she's going - I don't want her to spend her entire Service Dog career with her head cranked around looking at me.

When she's getting pretty good at maintaining position fore and aft, we go to the end of our aisle and stop just out of traffic so she can watch everyone walking by. This is tough. She wants to visit and sniff, sniff and visit, but she's boxed in on the left by shelves, and on the right by the scooter. The leash is short enough to keep her out of the intersection, so she's got no real choice but to maintain position and watch the crowd. She really gets into this when she realizes she has no choice but she's going to get clicked for doing it right anyway. Wow!

When she's able to watch the people and hold position and still know what I'm doing - that is, when she's stopped drooling like a hick in the big city - we go back to our quiet aisle to work on some jobs. I brought a sock to drop, but just in case she won't pick it up, I start with the end of her leash. It takes her a few reps to decide that "Get That" might mean the same here as it does at home, but once she gets it, she... um... gets it. And gets it. And gets it. I drop the sock, she grabs it and gives it back. I toss the sock here and there and she gets it every time. We go to another quiet aisle where there was a bit of packing foam on the floor, and I ask her to get it. Nope, can't, she'd have to get out of Heel position to do that, and she doesn't recognize it, so it doesn't have any inherent pull on her like the sock does. It's OK, you can do it, Get That. No, really, you CAN do it! So she goes to it - but it doesn't smell like me, so I didn't drop it and obviously wouldn't want it (good grief, I never worked on her picking up something I didn't drop first!). With a little more encouragement, though, she picks it up and gives it to me. I make a big fuss.

One more thing I've noticed. She's holding front-back position very well, now we need to work on a swing Finish to keep her close to the scooter and not glomming her butt out into the aisle. Between her butt and the scooter, people are starting to avoid the aisle we're in. She HAS a swing Finish, but not with me in the scooter. And, apparently, not in strange places unless I pivot to my left. I can't pivot left in the scooter, so I back up slowly instead. That does it, she scoots right in, and we spend the next 15 minutes working on better and better Finishes. By the end, when she gets too far out to the left, too far forward, or her butt starts drifting out, I just back up slightly and she corrects herself. I'm thinking next time we do this, I'll borrow the manual wheelchair so I can back up and pivot more easily.

Finally, we start going down aisles with one or two people in them and working on crotch-diving. Really, she's not THAT bad, she just wants to sniff their knees and packages as they walk by. At first I lure her past people, giving her a click and treat when each person has successfully past us without her turning her head toward them. Soon she figures it out and I can pass people leaving her to ignore them on her own. I'm adding a cue I've used all my life - "Mind Your Business".

And we go home. Very good session.

Sue.eh