Today there was a Howl-o-Wine doggy Halloween costume event hosted by a local therapy dog organization, Wags for Hope, and the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard. I took Bennett and Romeo, Gio stayed home as I didn't want to stress him out too much after his recent vet hospital stays. Bennett rocked a pirate costume, and took part in the costume contest. She quite liked the stage, and upped her prancing when people clapped and "awwww"ed for her.
The event consisted of a number of local vendors, a wine tasting bar, food booths, and some live music. Our goal, in addition to checking out the wine (!!!), was to hunt down as many people and new distractions as we could. Anyone that looked our way was asked to "give the puppy a cookie". I had a bag full of treats, and all children and adults were prompted to feed the puppy. Initially, she was a little stand-offish about the strangers, but by the end of the afternoon, she was readily crawling into laps for cuddles and kisses! Nothing fazed her at all. Between revving motorcycles, a squeaky windmill, loud speaker announcements, live guitar music, big bouncy dogs, or any of the myriad of things we ran into. She took it all in stride, stayed happy and enthusiastic for the entire ~3 hours we were on site.
I broke the afternoon up a bit, moving off to the side of the action to work on some skills. Bennett is eagerly offering sits in all new locations, "get in" and "down" are generalizing really nicely, too. Once her puppy excitement started to wear off, we worked on settling in public. Her tiredness and having Romeo as a role model really helped, and she was comfortable laying down in the grass and watching the excitement as we chilled for a while.
Despite her sustained enthusiasm and good mood, the event tired her out completely! Apart from the occasional potty break, she has been napping in her crate for the entire evening. Tired puppies make me happy!
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