Zuko loves to run the lure course at the pet expo! 🏁
Talcon and Strider took on day 1 of the pet expo last night! 🥳🐾
This might seem like a long, boring, and uneventful video, but it’s actually night and day progress in this type of environment for Strider and something I’m extremely proud of.
While Talcon has always been an extremely confident, outgoing, and bombproof dog in every environment and situation, the same cannot be said for Strider.
I have shared over the years that he struggles in very specific types of environments and this one in particular has always been the worst. The very first time I ever brought him to one of these pet expos he was just under a year old and could not leave the safety/comfort of our booth without entering true flight mode and a complete state of panic. It broke my heart 💔
After that I saw similar behavior from him only inside certain stores. He just got extremely overwhelmed by what seemed to be all of the shelving and objects looming and leaning over him and the loudness/busyness of the environment.
So for years we have worked on building his confidence in all types of these environments, using Talcon as a role model, creating fun games for him in stores to play, rewarding interactions with inanimate objects in these environments, rewarding checking in with me, etc. Most of the time we practice in Lowe’s and Home Depot but we’ve also gone into various stores in our local dog friendly outdoor mall as well. I have not seen flight mode from him in a very long time! 🤩
Last night made my heart want to burst 🥹 I have taken Strider to the expo every year and never pushed or forced him past what he was comfortable with. Up until last night he has only been able to make it about 3 to 4 booths away from ours before he felt overwhelmed and we would turn back…
Last night he walked around the entire expo with Talcon and I!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 In the beginning you can see some moments of stress/overwhelm as we leave the area of our booth but he is able to work th