Our first meet-up was a success!

On Sunday March 1st, 30 foster puppies and graduates from the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides (where I got Troy) met at Square One to socialize as well as work on some mall-training with the puppies. I organized this event and I am so grateful and overwhelmed by how successful it was! I was expecting 3-5 people to show up but we had 30 dogs plus their handlers/foster families join us! 26 of the dogs were foster puppies and 4 (including Troy) were from various dog guide programs. I even met my first Autism Assistance Dog which was really exciting!

We didn't really have a plan for the day and I think that it worked out really well. We all met in a part of the mall that isn't busy and talked for about an hour there. Then after getting the dogs used to each other and settled down, we walked into the food court (which, if you've ever been to Square One, you'll know how busy it was!). We stayed in the food court for a few hours talking to mall-goers about what Dog Guides is/what they do, the difference between a foster puppy and a fully-trained dog guide, and people even had a chance to pet the foster puppies. This was confusing for some people (especially children) because they didn't realize at first that you can't pet the fully-trained dog guides. Although Troy was pet a few times, it was a great opportunity for everyone to learn more about the rules around working dogs.

After a few hours of talking with the other fosters/handlers, working on ignoring and staying calm around so many puppies, and walking around the mall, it was definitely time for Troy to go home and take a nap. He was exhausted.

I was nervous before the outing because Troy generally has a really hard time around other dogs and gets very distracted but he was a super-star and with some treats and praise, he was able to lay down and ignore the puppies!

I am looking forward to doing something like this again. My hope is that the next meet-up we host can also be a fundraiser for LFC Dog Guides. I am working on getting the necessary paperwork completed to make that happen!

Here are a few shots from the Square One event. I did not take these pictures but I have permission to post them from the photographers. Also, a huge thank you goes out to everyone who came and I hope you all had a great time too!

The crowd surrounding all of us in the food court.

A few people showed up after this was taken but here's most of us. Thanks everyone <3