Walking the Mall

As you may or may not know, Chris and I are going to South Bend to watch the SC vs Notre Dame game.  Well, you can't go to the game without proper clothing.  This meant a trip to South Coast Plaza and the Trojan Shop for Chris to stock up on SC gear.  It also meant an opportunity to take Dylan along for her first Mall visit.  First off, South Coast Plaza is an amazing place.  I felt under dressed the moment I stepped out of our car.  Dylan looked great in her Puppy in Training vest and you could see she likes to strut her stuff when she knows she is working.  Riding up elevators and hearing waterfalls were all taken in stride.  I remember from puppy kindergarten being told that when you walk a  puppy in training with its vest on, people act one of two ways.  They either smile and nod and respect the fact you are working with a puppy for an important purpose or they rush up to you and want to play with the puppy.  So to keep that from happening, you don't make eye contact with people.  I tried that and it actually works.  Of course most people were on their cell phones and didn't know a puppy was anywhere around them.

Walking through a Mall with a puppy could be a guys chick magnet especial.  But, I kept strong and just kept looking ahead like I knew what I was doing and so did Dylan.  We then had lunch and she was great, sitting on her blanket and playing with her squeaky toy or licking the floor.  Only a few people came up to us, but were really nice.  One lady asked if she could pet Dylan and once I got Dylan sitting quietly, she got her puppy fix and Dylan fell all over herself loving the attention.

Last night we went to a monthly meeting where all the area GDA dogs come together.  Their ages range from 8 weeks to 18 months.  Some come for training and/or new raisers get feedback and learnings from long time puppy raisers.  But the best is to acknowledge those raisers and their dogs  that are moving on and going back to Sylmar for formal training.  This is known as giving back.  Tears not withstanding, it's a very cool time for the puppy raisers to know they have done their job and now it's up to GDA and the dog to do their jobs.  The other thing that Chris and I realized, of the 20 some dogs there that night, all those dogs are just as squirrelly as Dylan.