Ember has the week off in the country. We drove up to the farm today to drop her off for a stay with my mom and grandma. She needs some downtime. With the next step in Journey's training about to begin, needing to work with him learning how to walk beside me for balance and bracing work, and wanting his full undivided attention during this process, it all works out. I have a cane and a grabber if I end up with a bad flare or anything, and Ember can always come home early if I need her to.
Today was Journey's first trip to a restaurant. So far we have only gone to pet friendly locations or outdoor excursions in parks, parking lots and such for social interactions, exposure to stimuli, and teaching him the foundation of public access skills. He did amazing!
We stopped at the IHOP in Picayune ( grandma's treat ) so I could eat and take meds before driving back to New Orleans. The staff was phenomenal. I have to say probably the best experience / reaction to a working dog being present in all our experiences here in the South.
We were greeted and the woman asked "Table for one...?" and trailed off and glanced down "...or two rather?" and grinned. One of the waitresses that was up front and the staff behind the counter area were gushing over the cuteness, but they all kept it very quiet and didn't do anything to distract Journey like some people have done with him and Ember both.
We did get plenty of stares and random comments from other customers who had probably watched us walk from the parking lot or seen us walk in the door and heard Journey's tags jingle. He walked nicely going to sit and went under the table and settled with only a little grumbling and only got up the first time the waitress came over to take the order, just to sniff at her when her legs appeared at the table. He did real well ignoring distractions and sounds, people staring and walking by the times we were walking to and from the booth. There was a baby and small children somewhere who cried and made some noise and he ignored that too. After brief puppy grumbles from being asked to lay under the table and be still, he sprawled out and slept the whole time after. I got some video with my phone, I'll try and process and post that later, along with a ton of others I have collected over the past several weeks.
I made sure to compliment the manager and staff on their reaction to his presence and thanked them for a positive experience. They were all real nice. We stopped for gas at the Exxon station right next door ( thanks again grandma! ) and first I took him to do his business and then went in to prepay. The gentleman behind the counter smiled and asked if Journey was going to be a guide dog, and I told him he was close, that Journey was a mobility assist dog in training. He thought it was very awesome, and he and a customer who had walked in gave Journey compliments on what a beautiful dog he already was, and laughed when they saw his paws and imagined how big he'd get. They wished us good luck with our training and his future as an assistance dog, and off we went.
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