Starbucks and Saturday Market Outing

So I have taken the dogs out to all kinds of places this week!

Coastal

Petco

Lowes

Home Depot

Another hardware store

The park

Everywhere we went I took treats and the dogs interacted with people from babies to grownups and everything in between. And who knew that running a few errands can get a dog so mentally tired because of all the stimulation!

Today we took the pups to Saturday market and Starbucks. The dogs were really good, social, and calm. At Starbucks the dogs just lied down. "Bark" mode only happened once for Lucy and it was a single bark at a motorized wheelchair. She responded to my sit and with hundreds of people around she was very gentle and social amd curious about all of her surroundings. 

I've always taken my dogs on traditional walks like tons of parks and hikes, but I never made a real effor to take them to lots of new places and different situations. I used the shoppig cart at home depot and Lucy quickly got accustomed to the sound of loud air conditioning, loud lumber, etc. It's so simple and yet I never did it consisently and often. So I am really excited about her progress in just one week.

One thing that was interesting to learn was that Lucy seems to do better when another confident outgoing dog was there. I took her out with Tucker today and multiple other tomes this week and she did really great. Last night I took her to petco by herself and she was a little bit less confident. She never entered bark mode, but her tail was a little lower and she had a cautious look in her eyes when w ewere just standing around. When I was walking her around petco her tail was really wagging. But standing around she was cautiois and a little unsure, but still let people pet her and took treats, dhe wasn't as 100% enthousiastic about it.

Today when she was with tucker it didnt matter whether she was standing around or walking or anything, she was great the whole time! It's so good for her to be surrounded by so many different smells, people, sounds and sights!

Here are photos of our outing today: