Supervised Vested Training: Starbucks, Coronado

A coffee to warm up.  A planning session.  Suddenly it was 2 hours later.  We had to awaken the dogs when it was time to leave.

Yes, "Shake" was an issue with both dogs, much to Jan and Cathy's surprise!

Settling in at Starbucks

Two hours later.....

The FD SDiT are practically invisible.

Jan and Nadador:

I was fortunate enough to find parking close to Starbucks (thank you Parking Karma!).  I was watching Nad closely to make sure there was no sniffing going on and looked up to find Lynn had disappeared.  I had a very short leash and continued walking to the end of the block.  I walked into a couple other coffee shops to look for her and was able to do some door work.  On my way back around the corner, there was a woman with a Beagle straining at the leash.  When she saw Nad in his vest, she pulled her dog in - I had asked Nad to sit and I stood on the side where the straining dog was.  Nad held his composure.  We then found Starbucks (and Lynn) and passed a couple small dogs going into the coffee shop.  When we left to put more money in the meter, I had forgotten to watch for his shaking, which he started to do.

While we were in line he stayed standing most of the time directly on my side.  I did ask him to sit when I noticed him starting to look around.  When we got to the counter, I used Touch to move him in front of me between me and the counter.  That is what we used also to wait for our coffee so he would be out of the way of people passing by.

Nad remained down (sleeping on and off) during the time we were sitting down, with only getting up once or twice to reposition.  When we were getting up to leave, I worked on him staying down until I was up and in position to try and prevent him from shaking.  I walked out with my hand on his back to prevent him from shaking until we were outside past the tables. 




Cathy and Rooster:


Unlike Jan w/parking Karma,  Rooster and I had to park a bit away which really was a good thing even thought Starbucks  makes no effort to make its presence known.  I didn't vest Rooster on the long walk from the car though now that I think about it, I probably could have.  At that point my criteria was to find Lynn and Jan as effortlessly and inconspicuously as possible.  Rooster did a great job on our search, LLWing,  no sniffing, and sticking with the program.  Just as I was about to ask an innocent passerby (who had a very small dog on a leash and was talking on a cell phone ... I was waiting for her to finish...) if they knew where Starbucks was, Lynn appeared and the vest went on.  Rooster's new job as a SDiT began.  For the next two plus hours Rooster did great and I learned even more.

 Rooster has never been inside a location where food was being served.  He has never stood in line waiting for me to order or waited for the order with wonderful smells right in front of his nose and people all around.

What I learned:

• There is a "science" to all this
• Rooster is a big dog and I need to be very aware of his "footprint" especially in small spaces.
• I need to be very aware of the people around me  and where I place Rooster in relation to them
• ditto when there is food at his level
• the unfolding value of "Target"

• Rooster seems to understand the vest means something but I'm not sure he knows for sure exactly what yet
• using the Sensation harness in the past  has something to do with this,  I think he really learned to respect it...
• Yes, he will shake and I need to be prepared 
• This is exhausting work for him.  He slept non stop from the time we left SD until the next morning and  is still tired.

Halfway through out time at Starbucks, I left with Rooster (still vested) to put change in the parking meter.  As we walked down the street he didn't falter once and he had many opportunities:

• a big black barking dog under a table that charged out at him as we walked (SDWed) by
• a small child in a stroller at the same table
• many people on the street walking in both directions.
• the same dog under the table barking as we returned (except this time the owner was under the table holding its mouth closed telling it to be quiet)
• The man that attached himself to Rooster's vest as we were SDWing down the street (and remained attached as Rooster continued to walk as if he, the man, didn't exist)  This man did ask, as we were walking, if R was a SD and I said,  "Yes,  he is in training, thank you for asking" and kept right on walking.  
• I still had trouble finding Starbucks a second time but was glad to return to our safe cozy spot in an out of the way corner.

It was a learning day for us all and especially for me.