Charged by a Service Dog...

This afternoon Novel and I took a training trip to the Mall. He did very well and I think we made significant progress on his fear of elevators. We also practiced "under" "up" "back" and "jump" quite a bit and carefully worked through a bunch of distracting situations. One of these "distracting situations" was...shall we say...unique? Let's put it this way: it's not often that I get to observe Novel's reaction to another dog in the mall.

Sure, we train at Petsmart sometimes, so Novel knows about meeting other dogs in a public place/building, but Petsmart is a completely different environment from the mall, and even similar situations in different environments often end up producing different results. But besides all this, Novel is, in general, very distracted by other dogs. Regardless of the environment.

Petsmart birdies :)

Practicing "under"

Interested in the bungee jumping ride and the smells
of the food court

Practicing 'up'

Imagine my almost-horror then, when as we entered a store in the mall, we were met with a volley of shrill, high pitched barking. I looked up just in time to see a small dog squirm from the purse of a lady checking out and charge headlong down the checkout counter to prepare for a mighty leap to the ground, barking all the time. She was apparently intent on engaging in battle the large black mass who was placidly trotting into "her territory." I say "almost-horror" because while horrified, I honestly was not entirely surprised at the scene playing out before me.

Being a totally good boy...just before we entered
the fateful store... :)

Just before said yapper made the leap to the floor, her owner swept her up, (still barking) cast a nasty glace at me, and proceeded to chide with just a hint of embarrassment:  "now now, calm down, he's a service dog just like you." I really shouldn't have been surprised by that "service dog" line, but it still flabbergasted me. I could understand a puppy in training barking. Heck, I could excuse an otherwise well trained working service dog giving a startled bark or two upon seeing another dog. They're dogs after all and they're not perfect. But this dog was completely and utterly out of control and without even a leash. To call that a trained service dog is very irksome to me.

However! The incident wasn't entirely without it's merits. First of all and most importantly, Novel handled the whole incident like a shining star professional who has been dealing with yappy untrained service dogs his whole life. He looked up at the yapper when the barking started, but then right back at me, and trotted right beside me without breaking pace once. I honestly think he handled it better than I did! As soon as we made it around the corner he got a handful of kibble and loads of petting and praising. Although it was completely unpredictable and could have gone terribly wrong, it turned out to be the perfect training setup. It was the perfect amount of stimulation for Novel: close enough to be tempting, but still out of his threshold range, and although it was a real life situation, the whole thing lasted no more than a few seconds. Secondly, it gave us a chance to prove just how awesome CCI dogs are!!

Can you tell I'm proud of my pup? Way to go Novel!!