lol what is the point of having a harness with big patches that read IN TRAINING DO NOT DISTURB on my dog, people just bringing over huge treats and handing them over to Ferris without asking me

DO NOT TOUCH THE SERVICE DOG.

I KNOW HE ISN'T A REAL SERVICE DOG YET BUT YOU ARE NOT HELPING THE PROCESS GO FASTER.

did they listen when you spoke up about it?

Ferris walks very nicely on a leash, but I want him to heel off of one. This is something we've always struggled with doing because I always let him walk a few feet in front of me to get all the sniffs in.

curieosity。 : It was an ancient eighty something employee at Lowes and I absolutely chickened out. In the moment I thought it was my fault because I couldn't stop my dog from approaching.

Lowes was probably a bad choice for training. We go there for sniffs in bad weather, so it's supposed to be a fun and happy place.

The treats the old man gave were huge, so Ferris was no longer starving enough to hang on my every word for a piece of kibble. I made sure to close out the training with some sit and paw, just to let Ferris know he is still a smart, good boy.

He looooves clicker training, so we'll just work on other stuff until his mobility brace harness comes in the mail. Heeling with a loose leash may just require a lot more time and effort, but the harness will make it a moot point.

Honestly, it's because those materials identify service dogs are set up by opportunistic companies who sell to anyone and are bought frequently by bad actors who want their pets to go places but never sincerely put in the work to actually train them

Not that it doesn't suck to have what's written clear and plain ignored, but I cannot tell you how frequently I see people with service dogs or the "in training" vests/tags/harnesses just go "ha ha it's okay to pet my dog" as they let them climb up on furniture

only goes to 11 : That's honestly my biggest pet peeve. If your dog isn't meeting the standard for behavior, they're not being trained at that moment and should not be wearing a vest.

After Lowes we went to the local record store. I took off his training harness, which is supposed to cue Ferris that he can stop hyper concentrating on me, his handler, and do Dog Things.

I'm trying to create a distinction between his natural behavior as a good pet and when he needs to be On Task.

At the end of the day, we still got training into the schedule and he got to have a nice walk with me afterward.

His big official harness is coming in the mail this week. Just got the shipping notification.