Out & about

Things have been quite busy for me on the work and personal front lately, so I haven’t had the chance to give an update until now. But rest assured that everything is going extremely well. I’ll do a separate post specific to the progress of our in-home tasks, but the big news is that we have now moved on to the next phase of our training together. 

I wasn’t aware of this until after receiving my dog, but apparently, there are two different types of certification from PAWS you can earn with your service dog. One level is for those who don’t plan on taking their dog into public spaces and just need the dog’s assistance while at home. The other type of certification involves being able to take your dog into places like your workplace, restaurants, and stores.

While I feel as though most of the assistance I need is while I’m at home, and I generally don’t go many places on my own, I didn’t want to be limited in what I could do with G. So, I opted to move forward with getting certified to be able to take him with me anywhere. Since receiving my service dog, the only places he had been outside of my home and occasional car rides were at the vet for a wellness check-up and to the groomers for a wash and nail trim. (The photo on the webpage is of my incredibly handsome boy fresh from his trip to the groomers.) In both of those instances, someone came out to get G, so I did not even have to leave my car.

Our first opportunity to venture out into the “real world” together occurred two weeks ago when G, Aidan, and I met Connie and her beautiful Aussie at a nearby park. The park wasn’t very crowded, but it was right next to a busy road, so there was a constant stream of traffic and activity—plenty to distract a dog that hadn’t had much stimulus outside of our home. 

I brought my walker because I just didn’t feel confident that I could safely manage a distracted dog while only using a cane for support. We walked around the parking lot a bit with me loosely holding onto G’s leash, making sure I could drop it in an instant if I felt him pulling me off balance. As we walked together, I was instructed to call his name and give him a steady slew of treats every time he responded by giving me his attention. Considering the barrage of new sights, sounds, and smells all around us, G exceeded our expectations, only needing a quick correction once. Even when Connie brought out her dog and walked near us to provide an even more irresistible distraction, G managed himself very well.

I’ve received my second COVID vaccination and, as of this week, I’m “fully baked” with the two-week waiting period to build up immunity. So, this coming week we are going to meet Connie at a store to further our training. I’m feeling excited and anxious about it because it’s a pretty big step for us, and I have no idea what to expect. It’s important that G does not sense any nervousness on my part, or I could be setting us up for failure. With my personality, this is way easier said than done! But I plan to take a lot of deep calming breaths beforehand, and having both Aidan and Connie there will certainly help.

We are going to be armed with plenty of wipes and poop bags just in case G has any “accidents.” Connie says you haven’t had the full service dog experience until your dog embarrasses you by taking a dump somewhere he shouldn’t. Fingers crossed that we can avoid this initiation!