On Monday, September 21st we held our annual public outing field trip at Petco. The turnout was excellent! 7 service and therapy dogs were able to attend this outing. Four of the attendees were puppies out of GAP’s last litter of service and therapy puppies. It sure was nice to see how well they are maturing. I can see that they are getting close to moving into their forever homes.
As soon as we arrived 18 month old Talia started practicing her long down stay out on the sidewalk in front of the store. She did a very good job staying put while her handler took pictures of everyone as they walked in from the parking lot.
As we ventured inside the store the real fun began. I don’t know about your dog but my dog loves to go to the pet store! It’s his favorite place in the whole world and he is just sure that he should be able to pick out his own treats, toys, and a new kind of food while we’re there. Service and therapy dogs must learn to resist this temptation while they are working. So we walked up and down aisles practicing commands such as “leave it” and “no sniff”. We also took our dogs over to politely investigate the ferrets.
Of course, Robin decided to put a tennis ball out in one of the aisles so we just couldn’t resist showing how well our dogs could walk by that ball. Everyone of the dogs did a great a pretty good job ignoring it too! Except maybe Ranger, who walked right past it. Then on the third time his handler walked past the tennis ball he turned around and grabbed that ball so fast she didn’t even notice he had it! Oh, well better luck next time! Besides that is exactly how they learn. Yes, you heard that right! Like people, dogs learn by making mistakes and having their person remind them that they made the wrong choice!
We ended our visit with a long sit or down stay in front of the toy aisle, during which time not a single dog broke their stay! Considering the fact that 5 of the dogs in our group were under two years old, I think that is awesome!
