Mall Walking Tails

Field trips are as much fun now as when I was a kid.

Last night, the Working Wonders group went to the mall - yep, even the boys. We didn't shop but we practiced lots of cues - including how many dogs and people can fit in an elevator at one time. We had eight foster pairs and two instructors in one elevator. Eileen gave us several instructions regarding the elevator - primarily how to enter and exit (identify how the doors open, center or side; dog and human enter and exit together with body in position to block door if it starts to close) and no sniffing allowed - for dogs or humans. That last one cracked us all up.

The dogs were great! All were very calm as we sauntered through the halls and in and around the bedding department at Macy's. We practiced attention, back, behind, around, under, step (both up and down), get it, bring it, give, LLW (Cathy reminded us all to weave more to encourage good dog position during our loose leash walking), attention, rise, drop/stay, heel, side, front, attention, and several others that varied by the dog. I think the hardest part of the whole night was finding a place to better go now. The snow piles were horrendous.

The best news of the evening - the perfect home was found for Peaches, a yellow lab in our breeding program. She's going to a new caretaker home with 25 acres to roam and an owner with lots of labrador and puppy experience. Eileen gave kudos to all who worked at the Land O' Lakes Kennel Show because this man was inspired to contact Helping Paws by the volunteers that worked the booth that week-end. Finally, two of three dogs just bred, Maisie and Glennie (Eileen's personal dog) have confirmed pregnancies. It's still too soon to tell yet if Tiga is pregnant. There will be lots of new pups born starting the end of March - and hopefully, lots of happy graduates in two-some years.