Easter egg hunt

Today we took Clarisse on an Easter egg hunt put on by a local dog rescue that specializes in puppy mill rescues. We were excited to get a fun outing, give her some good socialization, walked away with some nice treats and, most importantly, support a cause we care about. It was $7.50 well spent for a family outing.

She was totally overwhelmed at first. The check in was at a pet store and it was packed. She shook badly, so I held her for a moment. In those instances, I always aim to keep her in the situation but keep my voice calm and laugh and talk with her as much as possible. I don't want her to think that every time she feels scared there is a reason to be. I want her to learn to trust me fully. That I will tell her "stop" when she must stop, "no" when there is danger and "careful" when she needs to act with caution. However, I want her to see that sometimes she is going to be scared, but that if I am okay, she won't get hurt.


By the time we checked in and got our goody bag and route map, she was ready to go. We walked at her pace, letting her sniff the air or the bushes as needed. She met lots of dogs over the course of the day and overall did well, even if she was rude and didn't return sniffs sometimes. There was a group of women with their poodles that walked along with us for awhile. One of their boys was quite taken with Clarisse and would drag his mama over to her whenever he possibly could. She wasn't used to that attention and would run into my arms. Poor baby.

We talked with a lot of people about blind dogs. We met a store owner whose dog is starting to go blind. I shared some tips with her and recommended the book Living With Blind Dogs. So many people are devastated when their dog loses his/her sight, so I love helping people get resources lined up ahead of time to make the transition as easy as possible.

By the end of the journey, she was more comfortable meeting other dogs and was super excited when she found the treat-giving people. We had walked a full circle around the downtown. At the start, we had walked up the ramp into the backside of the pet store, then out the front door to do the walk. When we were finishing, we walked along the side of the building towards the back where we parked. When she hit the area that she had stood before walking up the ramp, she sniffed around a lot. Even with all those dogs and people walking across that spot, and her super nose could still pick up the scent of her own feet.

When we got back to the car, she passed out. When she woke up, she went crazy and we wrestled around a little. I love putting her in new scenarios where she can learn that the novel is not the scary, that new things can be good things and that she is always going to have a good life with us.