Dixon and the mall

Today, I went to Lancaster Mall to train Dixon while Joy working with Kagnee and her person. Dixon wears a harness now that his person will hold while walking. He has to learn to stop at curbs and stairs and wait for the command to go forward. He is also learning to obey all his commands though hand signal alone because his person is deaf. It was fun working with Dixon again and reminded me of the times I used to take him to class with me at college. He was only a puppy back then and a lot smaller. He is famous at my school because he had his picture put in the 2008-2009 yearbook. The funny thing is he was called a guide dog in it, which he is actually an assistance dog. But, ironically, he is now wearing a harness that is similar to what guide dogs where and he is learning to stop at curbs like guide dogs do. :P Anyways, he did very well at the mall, but I think he was wondering why I was working him and not Joy. He kept wanting to be where she was. Joy worked with Kagnee, well I should say Kagnee's person worked Kagnee as well as her person's caretaker. Kagnee's person's caretakers all have to learn how to work with Kagnee. She will probably have 3-4 different caretakers that she has to learn to obey. It was very cool seeing Kagnee interact with her person. She really enjoyed eating treats off of her lap and putting her nose under her person's hands so she could have physical contact. Kagnee really really likes to be pet, it is her favorite thing in the world. After we were done at Lancaster Mall, we went downtown to try to catch the Wednesday Market, but sadly when we arrived, it was closed. So, we decided to just walk around the Salem Center Mall. Dixon worked on not being scared of the elevator. At first he was appalled that I wanted him to go on it, but after about 8 times of going up and down, he got used to it and did much better (treats helped a lot :P).