SD Adventures Training is the key!

The wife and I decided to have a movie night, you know just to sit back and enjoy a few hours zoning out, enjoying some together time. With that in mind, I ran up to the local grocery store to grab some snacks to engorge on while we watched the movie(s).

Normally we (Dougal and I) have no problems headed up to the Winn-Dixie, all the workers know and enjoy seeing Dougal come through the door as we go at least once a week. Well, tonight the fates had some fun in store for us. After vesting up and taking his mandatory break we headed towards the store only to see two kids maybe 10 or 12 years old playing with the automatic doors. Now Dougal has a real weakness towards kids, mini-humans as I call them around Dougal. As expected Dougal was quick to notice them but stayed on heel, a real champ. My nerves were on edge already, just going through possible scenarios in my brain.

The kids did okay as we walked through the doors. I hung Dougal's lead over one of the close buggies. He does not like having to walk down an aisle of buggies to get one of the small ones I tend to grab. This is what happens when your poor dog has been run over so many times by unaware or hateful shoppers, so I make it as easy for him as I can. About this time is when it started to go downhill. Dougal, still acting the champ sat while I got the buggy, the young boys decided it would be fun to start jumping towards Dougal loudly. Dougal's ears went back, he was terrified and my inner drill sergeant voice became active as I crossed the 3 feet to get to Dougal. Before I really realized I had given the kids the command to "knock it off", I am sure this was done more loudly and forcefully than intended as the kids turned white as ghosts. Yes, I do feel a little bad about it today. Well here comes Daddy (?) with that Richard look on his face, yea you know it. Before he could get the first word out of his mouth I, still in drill sergeant mode, informed him that he needed to control these kids and that it was against the law to interfere with a service dog in this state and as he appears to be the caretaker of the 2 kids are as guilty as they are. Following this up with; Now are you going to control these kids or shall we get the cops involved? The grown-up actually said "Sorry" gathered the 2 brats and went back to their checkout line. Oh, Dougal had tucked in behind me like he has been trained with things like this.

Only as I came back into my body, looking around I noticed the entire grocery store was silent, and most eyes were glued to me. I really felt like that little work on that huge hook. My first thought was to leave, quickly, but then I figured out that I had won! OMG, I didn't back down! Quickly I found that my excitement overcame my embarrassment and I tossed Dougal's lead over my shoulder and went shopping!

Well, it seems the fates were still not finished with me. Finishing up my shopping, doing my best to avoid the other shoppers we passed two families talking that had 2 little girls who were sitting on the floor playing while the parents were talking. Then I hear the "Ohhhh looky a puppy" issued from one of the girls. I stepped up the pace as the aisle I was targeting was just in front of me. The blocking aisle would save us, right? Nope! Here come the kissy sounds and then barking from the 2 little crotch goblins! Poor Dougal was almost at his breaking point by this time. His focus was teetering as he wanted so badly to go greet or investigate these interesting sounds. Time to go!

While waiting in line one of the young ladies that checks me out more often than not came to me and asked if I would like to check out. She apologized for the earlier craziness and I told her there was nothing to apologize for as the store nor she had anything to do with it. I did apologize to her also, as I did not expect to be so loud I was just overly stressed in the moment. She said she thought it was great. LOL