Well, our normal hunt for breakfast was standing room only so we decided to try somewhere else. Two other places we stopped were busts also and we settled at a "local" Cracker Barrel where we found a seat. The food was good and Dougal did well, tucked, and did his normal people-watching. While we were eating we talked about what we wanted to do for the day and came up with a list of places we wanted to check out as we were about an hour from home at that point.
As all we really needed was cat and dog food there was a nearby pet store and would drop in there as it would be quick, and there was a smoke shop and jewelry store in the same strip mall and then a pottery place to look for some stuff for the bathroom we just finished.
Dougal started to have a really rough time when we got to the pet store. New place, lots of new scents, seemed Dougal was a little overwhelmed. Then he saw a very large dog-shaped window sticker the shop had put up on their front window. One of those things most of us would never think to put in a socializing training episode... Well, we worked in a quick training session in the store and did some bridging with the giant sticker. He did calm down and the owner was very happy to see him run through some of his obedience. The owner was super nice, and also made away with several hundred dollars after the cat food and some really nice treats she had let Dougal try out.
The smoke shop, yes I vape. We entered and it smelled like the typical head shop. Dougal was very distracted by the new smells, wifey also said that the owner had a dog inside, then one of the customers in the store that had a 10-11 year old kid noticed Dougal and made a B-line to him. I had to do some creative blocking, but Dougal also decided he wanted to greet the kid and not by sitting and wagging his tail. He wanted kisses.
Took Dougal out to get him refocused on his job, returned, and seemed to have worked well.Then the Jewelry store. I knew they had some dogs in-store, but also saw, as we walked in, that they took the dogs to the back and out of sight. DOugals sniffer went into overdrive smelling the other pups nearby, but everything was fine. The he noticed that under the counters they had mounted mirrors. OMG! Something else new that he had never encountered. He is fine with normal mirrors but these only ankle-height mirrors seemed magical. His focus was decent but not like it should be, just because of these floor-mounted mirrors.
So, from all this what to do? Number one: don't stress. One bad day does not make a bad service dog. This is one of the things that can happen, all of us including our service dogs can have bad days. Number two: We will be focusing on his focus to make sure this was simply an off day and to reinforce his behavior while he has his vest on. When I say that training never ends when it comes to service dogs it is things like this that prove it.
