Coco and I had a great time at the Western Suburban Humane Society event called Barkapalooza. We were visiting with other owner-handler/trainers in the Thomas F. Morris Sr. Service Dog Program. Our training instructor Sarah was there too.
I had no idea what to expect. The event was being held in a park we had never been too before. It was a lovely place. A path ran alongside this beautiful pond that ran through the center of the park. There were dogs and people everywhere. This was a great training opportunity for Coco and me. We were looking at all of the dogs and were pretty distracted when we first got there. But soon we got used to it. Coco was so relaxed that whenever I would stay put and visit with people, she would lay down beside me and just look at the sights.
One of my friends from class walked her service dog right next to Coco. They walked beautifully side by side. Totally concentrating on watching where we were going. It was great.
The sun was out and it was a little breezy. Every now and then a gust of wind would blow and I would get dizzy. Coco figured out that when it got windy or there was a sudden noise or lots of people were close by that she needed to cup her body around me and be steady for me to hold onto her and be balanced. My other two Akitas had figured out the same thing without service dog training. This was one of the reasons why I knew training an Akita to be my service dog would be a good idea.
Here is a picture of us gals at the park.
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