Just had the cutest interaction while training Forte.
We were working on alternating between casual heeling/llw and fmp with him in harness around the block. We'd come full circle back to the driveway when I spotted a young kid on a bike coming up the road.
I put Forte in a down and planned to reward him as kid and dad passed by. But the kid saw Forte and stopped in front of us while repeatedly pointing out the doggy. (Kid was young, training wheels and dad's hand on the back of his seat.)
I could tell dad was getting uncomfortable because kid would not move on and was very fixated on Forte. So I looked at dad and explained that this dog is learning to be a service dog, which is a special dog who helps people. That this dog loves people but needs to be able to ignore them when he's working so he can focus on the handler. And if they had a few minutes, would they want to help me train him.
Dad relaxed and said yes. So I asked the kid if he could ride around real fast and call to the doggy. If the doggy stayed in his down I'd reward him with a tasty treat. Kid was pumped to do so. After a few minutes I thanked them both for helping me train my dog.
As the kid rode off I could hear him excitedly telling his dad "I helped train a service dog. They're really special dogs ". And dad agreed that he did and that he'd done a good job. Kid proceeded to say "I'm going to tell mom I helped train a service dog. Does she know they're special dogs?" To which dad said mom's going to be impressed because she knows those are special helper dogs and their training is really important.
It was such a wholesome interaction.
