Wanting freedom!
We’re in early December and it’s already too cold! Tonight I took Viktor to a pet store to exercise him by walking and training indoors. I expected more activity for 5:30pm but we only saw a few customers and employees. The only dogs there were in a training class.
One of the challenges of the indoor walking plan is that most pet stores have slippery tile floors. This limited how much we could do play or fast behaviors, but we did get in a lot of calm walking, recalls from smells, stays and easy tricks.
Viktor also got to do a lot of cuddling with employees, greeting customers by rubbing on them like a cat, and practice getting on and off the scale. He may be 40lbs now! Even though he’s not always great with other dogs, he’s very social with people and loves petting. I really like the way he interacts with new people. One of the employees shared that she does dog walking time indoors too. Much warmer!
We practiced attention and staying near the small animals (but not close enough to scare them!). Initially he thought it was impossible but within 2 minutes he could turn away, stay still, and respond to cues while near the mice enclosure. That was a great opportunity to work with a controlled distraction.
I feel silly switching dogs and going back into the store, so I usually do just one dog per visit. Griffin and Tonks got very short walks on the shopping center sidewalks. We’ll be making a lot more pet store trips this winter to give everyone lots of time out in public and around people!