Training, Day 8

Mindy was great last night and was really tired when she went to bed. We were practicing before bed and she got excited and overtired. It roll a little whole to calm her down and then Rob was talking to her and quietly said, "Do you want to to lay down with Evan?) and off she went! He didn't even mean it as a command!

This morning we were seeing the puppy in Mindy a bit. She picked up a brush an did some substantial nibbling in record time. I can't blame her too much though, it does look a lot like a nylabone. Then when I was in the shower she did some counter surfing and got the milk steaming pot for our lattes (yes, we brought an espresso machine with us) and was lapping up milk from the floor. We are working on correcting that now and she is doing very well at resisting a freshly popped bag of popcorn on the counter. So proud of her!

Today at training we went over everything we learned and also got to help Mindy get used to umbrellas. It was raining this morning and the umbrella scared her so Jeremy took some time to demonstrate the technique of helping her to gain confidence around something unsettling. Jeremy opened the umbrella from across the room so she could approach it on her terms. Then he had Rob bring her up with a tennis ball so she could connect the new experience with something good. It's all so logical and yet I'd have never come up with this solution on my own.

After lunch we were back at the mall for more public accesstraining. Walking into the mall is funny because as we walk past people in acrowded area, I've noticed there is a chorus of "awww" as peoplewatched Mindy go past.

Mindy seems pretty comfortable in the mall!

After training we had a ride on the train that goes through the mall. This trio had a blast!

After training today we picked up a movie for the kids so we could just relax a bit before dinner. Mindy sat with Evan the whole time and they were really cute together. After dinner the kids played basketball with some new friends they've made, both from class and from the hotel. When they were done playing Evan told us his finger hurt and from the swollen look and purplish hue we knew it was a trip to the ER. He barely complained of pain but to make a long story short, it looks like it's broken. Mindy went to the ER and was absolutely perfect.