My two and a half hour trip to Wal-Mart

Yesterday my watch broke. I can't stand not having a watch on, it drives me crazy, so I went to Wal-Mart, Sherman in toe, on a quest for a new watch. Little did I know all of the events that were going to occur. What I thought was going to take 5-10 minutes ended up taking 2 1/2 hours!!

I walk into wal-mart and head for the watch section, which is right at the front. I look for a few minutes decided on a nice analog watch with a sports band and then my phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket, look at the caller ID, and it is my mom. I answer and she asked where I was. I told her I was at Wal-mart and she said she was too and to meet her in the deli because she needs to talk to me. So, me and the Sherm head over to the Deli, on our way we are stopped by a lady asking about guide dogs. We chatted for a few minute before heading on my way.

I met my mom by the deli, we started talking and walking around when we got stopped again. This time by a husband and wife, the husband was holding onto the cart while the wife was pushing. They started passing us when the wife (later I found out her name is Shirley) said to her husband, "Hey Dave, it is a guide dog puppy in training." They stopped and wanted to talk. I then learned that the man was blind and had had two guide dogs from GDB in the past. He asked if he could meet Sherman. I usually say no to people in public because Sherman gets REALLY exited and bounces around and such, but I decided that it would be okay. I said "sure." The man bent down and stuck his hands out and I guided Sherman to him. I told him Sherman was a 7 1/2 month old Black lab and he was so exited because his favorite guide was a male black lab. He is between dogs right now because of some health issues but is hoping to put in an application again soon. We talked for nearly 1 1/2 hours about all of his dogs and experiences and all that. It was fascinating. I don't run into handlers very often. Only twice since I started raising. Sherman was the little model of perfection the whole talk. He was calm greeting Dave, and then layed next to me while we talked. About half way through our conversation a woman and her daughter stopped to talk to us. While we talked and answered the women's questions her daughter, who looked about two or three years old, was on the floor laying with Sherman, rolling on top of him, pulling his ears, pulling his tail. I was so proud of Sherman because he barely moved a muscle the whole time this little kid was on him. The mom kept trying to get the girl to stop but she wouldn't. After a bit they continued their shopping and me Shirley, Dave, and my mom continued our conversation. They had to get going so we parted ways and me and my mom continued our conversation and shopping. After another few minutes we ran into a lady with a little cocker spaniel/Poodle. We ended up talking to her forever. Her dog is a seizure alert dog. It was really fascinating learning about that program. She self trained her dog through a place in Salt Lake that certifies service dogs. We talked until her dog started barking at Sherman, so we said our good-byes and nice to meet you's and continued our shopping. (Sherman looked shocked by all the noise this little puff ball was making.) :) This is a first running into a dog in a store. Even with the 7-8 dogs being trained for GDB in the area, I have NEVER ran into a single one. It was really neat.

So my in-and-out trip to Wal-mart was anything but that. Can you ever do an in-and-out when you have a dog with you? I don't think it is possible. I was very proud of my boy though, he was so well behaved meeting people and dogs and walking around as much as we did. I think it was quite a successful trip and really shows how much Sherman has grown up and matured over the last few months.