The Pet Supplies Plus experience

So, we tried Lowe’s and as I stated in my last blog it wasn’t awful. So, we decided to test out a smaller isle and more chance of encountering another dog experience. People alone obviously aren’t a big problem - he doesn’t bark at them, he doesn’t run from them, he doesn’t get aggressive in anyway toward them. Let’s see what his reaction to people with dogs is.

The automatic door opens and we walk in. Immediately we are stopped by an associate who advises that a scared dog had just had an accident on the floor and she was cleaning it up. My mind immediately goes to, “I sure hope Arlo doesn’t do that.” She advises to simply walk around her but be careful because the floor could be slippery. We gingerly make our way past her and I decide to start by walking the perimeter of the store then wind down each isle.

We walk to the far right wall and Arlo has no problem with fish tanks and tank decorations. We get to the back corner (it’s not a big store) and there are birds chirping and fish swimming. I thought he would want to check out the birds since at home he’s always looking around trying to figure out what was making all the chirping noises. (We have an Arborvitae fence that is full of sparrows who have been very vocal lately but don’t leave the trees.) But, no, he turned the corner and wanted to keep walking.

That’s when it happened. There were 3 dogs in the grooming section - a large Poodle, a German Shephard, and a mixed breed. The German Shephard spots Arlo and lets out a loud series of barks. Arlo hugs the floor and starts to army crawl, pulling me; trying to duck down the nearest isle to get away from this dog. I softly reassure him that it’s okay and state the command for him to walk. He listens, which is good, but at each isle we passed, he would try to pull me down it. The other 2 dogs just watched the commotion.

We get to the far left wall now, away from the grooming station, and his nose takes over. We are now in the cat isle. He is frantically sniffing bag after bag of cat food. I pick up the pace in case he decides to try to open a bag.

We are now at the front left corner of the store, he can see out through the wall of windows. He tugs for me to let him go outside. He doesn’t want to be in here anymore. I tug him to walk down the next isle, determined to stick to the plan. We walk by a lady looking at cat toys and Arlo stops to sniff her coat. She smiles politely and says he must smell her kitties.

I urge him onward hoping a friendly dog will be down one of the isles. No luck. We arrive back at the grooming area. The Shephard is now gone but the mixed breed dog now starts to bark at Arlo. If only we could find a dog that would remain calm. The only dogs Arlo is exposed to at home are the neighbors dogs and all of them bark at him too.

My husband joins us again and we remember that we wanted to buy Arlo a new harness. The one the shelter sent us home with is a little too big. We go to that isle but there are so many choices and we are overwhelmed. My husband finds an associate and he comes over to help us decide. As he is explaining the differences, Arlo lays down on the floor beside me - calm as can be. The associate even complimented us on how good a boy Arlo is. All I could picture were the horns holding up that halo now on display.

All jokes and stress aside, he is a good boy. We just need to keep working on teaching him how to act in order to keep him safe, and allow him a happy, healthy life. And, we have decided to stick to Lowe’s for a bit - work on one fear trigger at a time.