First Off-Campus Outings

Pebbles went to her first public establishment on Tuesday night with Maddie, Colleen, and Taylor. We walked several blocks to the local drug store to purchase hot dogs, a delicious special treat that Pebbles loves. We have decided to only use hot dogs when we are teaching Pebbles new tricks or for encouraging behaviors she needs to work on. It was wonderful to be able to walk into the drug store without anyone questioning us to why we had a dog in the store. People seem to understand that the vest identifies service dogs. Since it was our first time taking her into a public store, it was nice to not have to deal with disgruntled store owners not wanting “pets” in their establishment.

Pebbles was extremely well behaved and did not get into any mischief while in the store. Her only hurdle came as we were exiting the store when a truck with a loud muffler was idling in the parking lot. The loud noise seemed to scare her. However, we had her sit and when we did not seem phased by the noise, neither was she. I would say her outing was a success! She was well behaved and got hot dogs!

On Friday night, Pebbles got the opportunity to experience an Airport! Maddie and Heidi drove with Pebbles to the Cleveland Airport to pick up a friend. She did great the entire way in the car. When we arrived at the airport, there weren't a lot of people at the baggage claim area, which was probably good being that it was her first time in this new environment. We walked around and a family with 4 small children walked past and really want to pet Pebbles. In her past experiences with kids, Pebbles has been quite nervous with them coming up to her, however, she did pretty well with these ones! I gave each of the kids a treat to hold in their hands, and I told them that Pebbles would come up to them. She was a bit cautious at first, but she eventually took all of the treats and let the kids pet her. We picked up our friend and then drove back to Wooster.

Pebbles is gaining more and more experience each day, and we're thrilled to continue working with her :)

More photos on her Facebook page



-TCHRM