Out On The Town With Rigby

It's always a good idea when a new foster dog joins one's family to get them out and see how they do in different environments. Also, I want them to know that the car can lead to happy, fun places too, not just the vet and long transports.

Alert, but fairly relaxed in the drive-thru

So Rigby and I headed out for an adventure, just the two of us. We started out at the drive-thru at Starbucks. This was both to check out how he did at drive-thrus (not all dogs' favorite spots) but also as positive reinforcement to me for being such a thoughtful foster parent. ;)

Our destination was the Mud Bay in town - a natural pet food store. Because there's steady traffic through there but rarely more than one dog at a time in the store, it is a perfect place to practice public appearances.

Watching things from the back of the store

At first Rigby was too nervous to take treats from me so we went to the back corner of the food section were it was quiet and I just pet him and sat on the floor with him. After a bit of this he relaxed and got curious and started wandering away from me to inspect things. Perfect!

Inspecting the toys

There were all kinds of great things to check out - toys, bulk bins of biscuits, buckets full of bully sticks and roasted bones...

A couple of our favorite employees were working today and they took time to introduce themselves to Rigby. He was a little nervous but before long, his nub was a wagging blur and he was jumping up on them to give kisses. Rigby is a friendly boy and really loves people.

As a happy ending we picked out some allergy friendly cod skin sticks as a treat for the drive home.

He came, he saw, he conquered --- and he left with cod skins.