Monday, June 6, 2011

Whisker Walk was Wonderful




The dog's worst fears were not realized we made it to the walk and it was a wonderful event. We could not find the Buddy Dog booth to make our donation for the walk with so we donated our money to the Sterling Animal Shelter and got two Whisker Walk t-shirts. We chose Sterling since they seem to be the main sponsors of the event. Our first choice New England Sheltie Rescue being located in CT was not a likely participant for a Massachusetts event.

The dogs had a wonderful time. They will be blogging their stories about the event all week. Katy did so much better than I expected. She loved the actual walk. She had such bounce in her walk and was not at all intimidated by the huge numbers of people or other dogs. As long as she trailed Bailey, she was happy as could be during the mile walk.

Bailey and Katy discovered dog sports. I have blogged several times, about how they love to watch human sports with their Dad. Well for the first time Bailey saw humans and dogs watching doggy sports. There were flyball and agility demonstrations and Bailey and Katy were fascinated spectators. His head would jump up, as a dog would miss a tag or a gate while watching flyball, just like his Dad does when watching a play on TV. He had the same reaction to watching agility.

Katy and Bailey will be discussing their own first experience with the agility ring later on in the week. Let us just say Bailey loved it and Katy could not see the purpose. She still needs more time getting used to strangers and being comfortable with new situations before we would ever consider doing any training in this area. However, she did do a few exercises and was quite proud of her success.

The crowds were wonderful. When you bring that many dogs and humans together, it can be a challenge. We had no bad dog or human incidents. Dogs were restrained and we had no incidents of children attacking the dogs. I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I was amazed to see what a great respectful community assembled. I hope that that spirit spreads out to more events that are not dog centered, but still have dogs and humans interacting.

We came back from Whisker Walk and did fulfill one of the dogs’ fears, the evil veggie’s are in the garden. This means no more playing in the gardens or as Katy refers to them, the sandboxes.

I will leave the dogs to tell the stories of our adventures. I will say if there is a Whisker Walk 2012, we will be back. I have no association with the group that planned this, but I want to say thank you for a wonderful day.

11 comments:

  1. Having her favorite doggie by her side made all the difference - Glad everyone enjoyed the day

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  2. What a fun event! Looking forward to hearing more about the dog sports.

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  3. Looking forward to the posts to come about the events at the Whisker Walk! Agility is supposed to help dogs build confidence so maybe Katy will want to try some day!

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  4. She may with time. We are taking it at her pace. I was pleased with how well she dealt with the crowds and all the other dogs. It shows she has made huge progress. It can be hard to remember that when you want to see her enjoy every opportunity.

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  5. This walk sounds like it was so much fun! I wonder if my mommy would ever consider signing us up for something like that. I don't get to see many doggies, so it would probably be a lot of fun for me. :)

    Thanks for sharing your experience!

    Woofs & hugs,

    ~Bailey

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  6. Sounds like a wondeful adventure! Sorry about the evil veggie garden:)

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  7. I am so happy that Bailey and Katy (and YOU!) had such a good time at The Whisker Walk!
    You should send this post to the organizer, I bet they would be tickled to read such a rave review!
    I know how much Bailey and Katy looked forward to going (as they mentioned in their blog) and I am so happy they were able to attend.
    I look forward to reading their updates this week!

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  8. Sounds like an awesome event. They have a "Dog Bowl" every year in the city next to me. Its a huge deal. I would like to take Cain and Casey, but you never know what personality you will get. The scared or the super friendly.

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  9. I'm glad you guys had a great time! I've always thought agility contests would be fun to watch/participate in.

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  10. Sounds like it was so much fun! I really want to see if Havi would like agility...

    www.twogradstudentsandapittie.blogspot.com

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  11. What a wonderful event and all of you had a good time. Katy seems to be more comfortable with the outside world and she has more confidence these days. It's a good sign, I'm sure she will be more and more confident. Bailey is a good brother and companion!

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