I took Trout with me up to Chattanooga last Saturday to check out the market they have set up along the Tennessee River to see if I want to participate. I don't. Its way too hard. I was a little worried about taking Trout because she doesn't like little children - and by that i mean three feet tall or less - and she can also get aggressive towards other dogs when she is on a leash. V and I decided to split the dogs up for a while because their pack behavior was bad on Halloween night -they rushed the door anytime someone knocked and we couldnt make them get off or sit or do anything. So I took Trout and he kept Koby and we are working on having them stay seated when the door opens and waiting for a command to go through the door.
Trout also needs more socialization. She is free to roam around these woods and come and go as she pleases. She is not often on a leash and not often around lots of people. So when I arrived at the riverfront to find thousands of kids competing in a regatta I was concerned. There was so much activity and noises and food vendors and other dogs that I thought the day would be a drag of behavior management. But no.
Trout was excellent! She was charming. She was chatty. She was a ham. She climbed up the bleachers to look cute college girls in the eyes. She was given some steak jerky by a vendor which resulted in much "circus" behavior, barking and spinning. Trout the personality parade!
It was a beautiful perfect day too. A very pleasant way to spend a saturday afternoon:
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| from the pedestrian bridge |
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| moonrise over one of the TVA lakes on the way back to Georgia |
Good going Captain Trout! Apparently being nautical is her thing!
ReplyDeleteYay for Trout! And yes, a lovely way to spend a day. Sorry that the venue seems too much bother, but sometimes you just know what you want to get yourself into (or out of) ... Hope all is going well for the upcoming show too!
ReplyDeleteblue skys and diamonds
ReplyDeletehearted and drawn
warming of nature
fill and adorn
sunlighted pastures
moon and the stars
a peer through the instance
four rainbows ark
streaking of flowers
hearts made of gold
a volt of electrified
fullsome and whole
strolling vibration
near and afar
the sky and the earth
the tip of the heart
..peace..
have another one chickory...
love and respects..neil
Google has been eating my comments here lately for some reason.
ReplyDeleteTrout is a good dawg. Her behavior isn't that uncommon and has been studied. For some reason, dogs who go a little nutty when introduced to moderate amounts of new stimuli do not do so when introduced to a huge amount of it.
Heh.
ReplyDeleteGood ole dawg.
Trout is my hero. That is all. x.
ReplyDeleteI love Trout. She's such a gas!
ReplyDeleteDamn, I love that dog.
ReplyDeleteI love that dog. And, when you described them attacking your front door on Halloween I remember how Trout sits in her chair in your front room watching the street. Such a good Sentry, but glad to know she made you proud in public. It's so embarrassing when they make us look bad. Like Mickey attacking a migrant worker in my front of my office. Not a good day.
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFUL photos. Also glad you checked out the TN Market.... sorry it's not a good place for you to make $$
Von LX: you might be right! Kayaks are on the list for 2012.
ReplyDeletePam: i know I cannot get up earlier enough to drive over 2 hours, set up, pack in and pack out. But it is lovely and I want to visit Chattanooga again to check out the galleries. also Asheville.
Neil: so lovely. thank you!
Troll: interesting and i think that is true. SOmebody reached into my car a few moths back to pet trout and she tried to bite him. She isnt great if a child comes over...she will stand off or circle around them. it scares me. So it might be the one thing instead of the big to do. She is a good dog and this year i am going to take her more places.
aunty: she was that day!
kymmie!!! You out and about? good to see you and thank you - er, Trout thanks you.
roxanne: funny - its Koby that is the GAS factory. I switched her to salmon - its getting better
moi: and she loves you! she is so jaunty on her travels in the woods. so on top of her game.
Boxer: i might could make money there -but I have to spend too much to do it. I have some other ideas for next year thats more my speed and age appropriate. I gotta be staying out here to tend garden and wrangle chicks! Trout is the best sentry ive ever had -even better at the cabin.
I'm glad that you had a lovely afternoon and that Trout was so well behaved and sociable ... see she is a real lady, a southern belle. :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo of Trout and the river.
xoxoxo ♡
I know it hasn't always been easy, but I admire how you let Trout be Trout. In many ways, I think self motivated dogs are more interesting than the ones always at the ready to do our bidding. Ivan and JoJo taught me that. I struggled for a long time over S.B.'s decision to give them an open door policy, but they proved themselves capable of handling that freedom. And although they, too, had their quirks, they also proved themselves more sociable than I gave them credit for.
ReplyDeleteMaddie does not like little children, either. She will slink herself as far away from them as possible. But when they sit down? She's fine and will even get up on the sofa or bed with them. Very weird.
As for someone reaching through your car window to pet Trout and nearly getting bit. Well, can you blame Trout? That's a stupid human error, and a total invasion of a dog's personal space. If we're capable of reading body language cues to gage whether or not it's okay to touch our fellow humans, we should give the same respect to dogs.
Hahaha to "Trout the personality parade." And thanks to you for the sublime photos.
ReplyDeleteChattanooga's a cool town. Our son was in school there for four years (and raced on that river). Asheville, of course, too -- quite a good town. Same son is trying to motivate us to go down to some burrito place in Asheville he likes. Is a burrito worth a 150-mile round-trip? Depending on the personnel and how bad you just want to get out of town, sometimes it is.
ReplyDelete