Arcade Puppy Day!

My son and I had the best date ever recently!! He has a favorite special spot that we visit only on special occasions, and while we didn't have a special occasion, we made one up to visit. We deemed it Arcade Puppy Day!

Because right? Haddie needs to experience an Arcade! All the lights, mixed smells, dirty floor, loud noises, and spinning things ~ what a better outing for her.

My son was beaming throughout our 90 minutes of play time ~ and Haddie was too! He loved getting Haddie involved and finding things that "she could do" even if they were not his favorite game. For example, the dance machine. Ha! He tried it out and found it booooring, until he got Haddie dancing around.

The Laser Room was completely dark except for the laser beams glowing every which way across the floor. He was going to have Haddie crawl through the maze with him, but then saw the intense difficulty in that and had me hold Haddie's leash while he went through. Flashes of light would go off randomly, and there was loud music playing in pitch darkness. Haddie was extremely interested in watching, and held her Down command.

Other jackpot items were the Arcade games. Love these silly pictures. They don't need any explanation.

Haddie closed her eyes while my son enjoyed a Motorcycle game. Not sure if this was her way of tuning out the over stimulation, or if she was truly bored. But she held her Down for the extra long video game.

I did not treat her during this entire experience. I was trying to see how long we could go with out snack rewards. However, I did pull out her Teddy Bear as a reward off and on during our adventure. She loved that reward better than had she been offered treats. Yay - because word on the street is that CCI uses mini-toys such as these in Advanced Training. I think she will love it in California!!

My son never plays this game. In our family it is called the Big Rip Off Game. You see these in grocery store lobbies where the carts are stacked, just begging people to fall for the chance at a ball or toy. My son thought he would try for a Ball in honor of Haddie. He won!!! Even a Yellow ball for CCI by chance!!

Then he tried a different claw game and lucked out with Two Panda Bears at once!! Haddie enjoyed snuggling the Bears on the way home.

Haddie was more impressed than we were that he won a ball and stuffed toys - her tail certainly picked up and she pranced around following him. He played Ball with her a little bit to reward her behavior, and to put in her little memory bank that sometimes loud and chaotic places are a lot of fun - so don't worry!!

I am not sure what this game is called, but it involved baseballs and Haddie was all for it! She impressively held her Sit, and you can see how intent she is in learning the game. I was surprised she did not try to go after the ball once it was thrown - after all, Fetch is her favorite past time!!

Lucky for us the place was empty. We were the only patrons in the entire facility. This worked to our advantage because the music and noises of every machine were on full blast, so Haddie really got the overload and did perfect! Her first experience should be slow like this - and if there had been an over abundance of people - we might have been dealing with different behavior from her.

At least now when we return, perhaps on a more crowded day, she will hopefully remember the fun we had with her the first time, and walk in with a wiggle tail and prancing feet just like today.

Arcade Puppy Day was a huge success!! Thanks, Haddie!!