Prada goes shopping

This morning another student and I soloed a short route up to Walgreen's and the instructor had me occlude while working in the store. Working inside isn't too different from working outside when it comes to general technique and commands; your reflexes should be a bit faster for avoidances but that's about it. The main difference that I noticed was that I was so focused on making sure I turned down the aisles that Bryan indicated that my pace suffered. I think he might've chalked that up to uncertainty but it wasn't—I trust Prada to make sure we don't run into the Keebler display (I just don’t trust my sense of direction—those of you who know me understand.  I am exceptionally directionally challenged!  It’s a true gift).

I just now got back from Century 21, a department store in the area.  Our focus on this particular lesson was escalators.  Procedure for escalators:

1) Work up to 'onramp.'

2) Drop harness and heel while working escalator.

3) halt 2-3 steps onto escalator, lay left hand (while holding leash in same hand) on the backstrap of the harness and, telling the dog to rest, take one more step on the escalator so you're ahead of the dog,

4) slide your right hand along the rail as far as you can reach.

5) When you feel the up/down curve of the rail command 'heel' and start walking again. The important thing here is to make sure the dog is moving when you step off the machine, otherwise puppy toes get caught and that's just a big, painful mess.

Dog guide handlers prefer stairs or elevators over escalators but in some cases we can't avoid using them so we learn anyway. But they are a bit on the dangerous side for the dogs. Prada handled our 4 escalators beautifully but behaved like an untrained puppy throughout most of the store. Every time we stopped she jumped around to face behind me to see Shannon and Bryan and I spent most of my walk towards the store giving her leash corrections (the quality of which have improved significantly, by the way, thanks to some practice and a shorter leash) for looking over her shoulder.  I think she got the impression by about halfway back to the van that I wasn't taking that from her anymore and she needed to straighten up a bit. This is what's usually referred to as a bad trip because of the apparent regression in behavior, but overall I think it was a good learning experience for the both of us.  It was a bit disconcerting, and rather comical, the first time I heard retrains talking about “good trips” and “bad trips”—I tell you, dog guide routes was not the first thing that came to mind lol!