A New Friend

Today Grouchy and I went to meet a potential new dog walker.  Dog Walker is a man.  Maybe he will be Grouchy's new Chris!  The initial meeting went ok.  Grouchy didn't bark or growl at Dog Walker when we were standing outside the car just talking, but he did stare for a while and then went to lie down.  We did some easy BAT stuff around the car, letting Grouchy notice Dog Walker and then running away.  We did some touches.  We did parallel walking, Grouchy is more ok being between me and Dog Walker than when we turned back and I was between them.  Either that or Grouchy was looking at me for treats, it was hard to tell if he was looking at Dog Walker or the treats.
Grouchy did pause a few times but not the full freeze and I think I gave him the chance to disengage himself.  I will have to try to do that more instead of cueing him, because eventually I want him to learn that.  But ultimately, I don't want him to react so I think I often err on the side of cueing him away.
Dog Walker is willing to give us a shot and do more outings and some stuff in the house too.  Hopefully this will work out well since I have started working afternoons in a cafe and Sassy has to be crated for almost 6 hours when Dad is on swing shift.  Grouchy doesn't have to be crated and he just sleeps on the couch, but I'd still like it if someone could let them out to run around or even walk at the 3 hour mark.
We'll see how it goes - I think I'll let Dog Walker give Grouchy more treats next meeting and we'll try a full on walk like we did with Lisa the Trainer in Maine.
Oh yea, Dog Walker said I was really good with Grouchy.  It's nice to be recognized.  =)  But really, I would never have learned so much if Grouchy weren't Grouchy.  And he's pretty willing to work, so he gets a lot of credit too!