New Places for Dax

I try to take Dax to one new place every day. Eventually, I'm going to run out of new places. :) But today Dax got to go to TWO places - the Grove City Farmer's Market, and the local PetSmart.

The farmer's market I used primarily as a place to get Dax used to a lot of people milling around. It wasn't as awful as it sounds - I had Dax with Popper, and we just stood on the corner, about 30' from the very last booth. Dax was treated heavily the entire time with hot dog and ham. A very nice woman and her granddaughter were kind enough to pet on Popper and completely ignore Dax for me, and the result was that Dax was free to sniff all over them without having to give them anything in return or feel threatened in any way. When he was done sniffing, he came to me for his treat. A very positive interaction!

The next stop was PetSmart, because I wanted to buy Dax a DAP collar. PetSmart was a much more positive place for Dax; he had "happy tail" the entire time, and went up to all kinds of people. He even allowed several of them to pet on him. In fact, he did so well, I think I may take him there every single day so he can have a positive experience like that. It was decently crowded in there too, and he acted like a fairly normal dog, who just was picky about who could touch him. :) After every interaction he came back to me wanting an ear rub or a treat. He understands the game perfectly. He also really likes the dog toy aisle. :)

I put the DAP collar on after we checked out, while my husband made a new dog tag for his corgi, and after only a few seconds it had already made a difference. Dax likes to randomly bark, and with the collar on, he stopped barking for a good three minutes, and after that, he rarely barked at all.