This past Thursday, we were supposed to go to agility class, and Brad had the time to come and take pictures! Unfortunately, the instructor was sick, so class was cancelled. We decided to go ahead and end Felix’s vacation with a training outing that Brad would document with pictures and videos! Afterwards, we headed to one of our favorite local restaurants and had a photo shoot in the sunset light there.
We showed up at TJ Maxx for our training outing in the afternoon. We chose TJ Maxx because it’s a store Felix likes and we are both comfortable in. He’s been there loads of times before, and even passed his PAT there. So we figured it’d be a pretty low stress store for him to re-enter the working world after a month and a half vacation of not working.
Brad got some pictures of us in the parking lot, and of Felix pooping before we went into the store. I had meant to take him on a walk before going to TJ Maxx, but it was too cold in the morning and then I just forgot! Luckily he told me he needed to poop before we went into the store!
I am wearing a grey sweater with pink, purple, and turquoise leggings, and am in my wheelchair. Felix has on a new light blue vest with dark blue tribal patterns on it that he got from Amazon Vine.
We ended up doing two laps around TJ Maxx. The first lap, Brad took pictures, which is his favorite thing. He used special lenses that were blurry on the edges and clear in the middle to get a special effect. Felix did a good job, though he was taking treats a little roughly so I could tell he was a bit stressed. Still, he managed to ignore a lot of people and things on the floor.
There’s a really cute picture of Felix mugging for the camera, several of him walking nicely next to me, a few in an aisle where Felix is alternatively looking at the camera and doing a paws up on my leg, and a couple near a cool toy that looked like a dog in a dinosaur costume.
Now you all probably know by now that I prefer videos to pictures, so the second time we looped around the store, Brad took videos for me.
This first video shows him at the beginning of the store, walking nicely next to me and ignoring some people.
The next video shows us going down a narrow aisle, and coming back up the food aisle. Felix doesn’t even try to sniff the food items!
The third video shows us working on some leave-it training, where he does OK but not great.
Finally, after about 20 minutes in the store, Felix was remembering what an auto-leave-it was and performed that successfully several times.
We were in the store about 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes total. Just walking around and working on getting used to being back out in public. It was good for both of us!
When we left the store, Brad took some pictures of us standing outside in the sun.
Then he got a video of us walking back to the van, which is always difficult! Walking nicely outside is the hardest place to practice since there are all kinds of dog pee smells and stuff to stop and sniff!
When we got back to the car, we got a video of me loading my wheelchair into the car, which takes less than a minute!
Also, the person next to us had parked over the lines into the access aisle, which made it hard for Brad to get back in the van. So he (in his blue tux) made a video about why it’s important not to park in the access aisle.
After TJ Maxx, we headed to Everbowl, one of our favorite local restaurants. They serve frozen treats made with coconut milk and fruits and nuts and things, so it’s all very healthy and tasty! We had been given gift cards to Everbowl for Christmas, and were excited to start using them! Brad got a picture of us in the store (now with me in my purple coat and Felix in his purple coat). Felix was highlighted by a shaft of light shining through the windows. Then we took our bowls outside to eat in the sunshine, where he got pictures of what we ordered.
After we ate, we did a photo shoot in the dying light. It was golden hour, with everything having a very golden hue. We got some pictures of Brad in his tux, he tried out a new lens that was supposed to make it look like things were moving fast (with like fast lines after the main part of the image), and he tried out a new soft filter that gave the highlights a soft, fuzzy look.
It was a fun photo shoot, but got quite chilly by the end, so we were happy to head home! Overall it was a great outing where we had a lot of fun, got Felix a chance to get used to working again before we head to Ohio for our next trip, and got some great pictures and video. We hope you enjoyed reading about our outing as much as we enjoyed going on it!