Why are we holding our mentoring sessions in Balboa Park?
Weekly there are new and different distractions.
Our dogs are learning to handle new and different distractions.
Trainers are learning to handle new and different distractions.
Trainers are learning to remain focused on their dog despite the unexpected.
Unexpected new and different distractions.
Unexpected interaction and interruption by the public.
When we work together in Balboa Park we are handling a microcosm of public access in the life of a service dog team.
As we change locations within Balboa Park, we control our environments.
Soon we will hold our mentoring sessions near and beside the Balboa Park Dog Park.
Soon we will hold our mentoring sessions within the park itself with children, passing dogs, increasing traffic, birds and ducks and music and fortune tellers.
We use Balboa Park to determine threshold.
We use Balboa Park to be aware of our surrounding.
To use stairs and fountains. Buses and statues. Ice cream vendors and groups of school children. Horses and zoo smells. Homeless people and disabled. Surfaces of every description. Restaurants and tourists and weddings and parades. It's all there. When we are ready. As we are ready.
We have begun in remote parking lots and are moving to busier ones. Step by little step.
On the road to service dog work.
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