Out & About January 20, 2008

Today I decided that Sarah would need to get out and see some of the world. She has progressed so well in the house and has really come out of her shell. I wanted to see how she would fare when she was not in one of her comfort zones. I decided to take her to the local park that is just 2 minutes from my home. I thought that way if she did become stressed we could get back to familiar territory easily without having her become too worried. I also decided that her first outing should be with one of the dogs she is familiar with. We decided to bring Bama along for moral support for her. I figured she would read his signals and with him having fun there, she would think this must be OK. Sarah did very good at the park. She even walked up onto one of the slide platforms with me. She had to walk up a wooden plank board and then onto a steel grated walkway. She took everything in stride, following Bama's lead. She did not seem like she was stressed at all. We went home and after dinner we decided to go to Petsmart to see how she would do there. Again, I took Bama with us to lessen her stress. My husband walked Bama and I walked Sarah around the store. She seemed very curious of everything in there. She only got a little spooked once or twice, but I just told her "come on Sarah" and kept walking and she recovered quickly. I did not want to make a big deal out of the couple of things that scared her. The first was someone coming up closely behind her with a shopping cart. I think it was just the fact that it was something she did not see until it was directly behind her. The second was the birds. When she went past the birds in the glass enclosure she startled a bit when they flew up. I took her past the birds a few more times to show her that it was nothing. My husband and I stood there with her for a few minutes and just talked for while so that she would see that it was nothing that anyone else was worried about. She did let a little girl, and the girls parents, pet her and she seemed to enjoy being petted by them. We stayed there a little while talking dogs while they pet her. She also got a few rubs from some other people in the store.

I think this was a good day for her all and all. Once her confidence is built up a little more I will have to start taking her out on her own, without Bama, but for now we will wait. There is time for that when she gets stronger.

Donna