"It's a Briard" Adventures
Okay, so we have a couple of dogs that hit that weirdo stage in herding dog development where everyone and everything is scarey.
So, Karen and I bundled up Boo and Banyon into the Hyundai and headed down to the town of Brimfield.
Both are black briards-- I don't have a recent picture of Banyon, but even though they are largely unrelated, they look like litter mates. While this is from a few months ago, they both kinda look like this:
While Boo is much younger in this picture, you get the idea.
Since both of them needed some serious "friendly stranger" time, we went down to the Brimfield Antique Show.
Really, it is a high-end flea market where the dealers do their "real" wholesale business during the Tuesday through Friday work week. Some of them hang out Saturday and Sunday for the retail population to wander through and perhaps land a sale they might not otherwise get. These are usually the vendors that didn't do as well during the week.
The nice thing about an open air market like that is that folks that AREN'T into dogs have plenty of room to take a wide circle around you, and the rest HAVE to ask "What Type of Dog is that?" Fortunately our goal was not to see the offerings but to socialize the dogs, as I think we would average about 20 feet between the one "It's a Briard" and the next.
We experienced:
5 people that knew what they were
46 friendly strangers that had to pet the dog
2 dog owners that recieved either grooming or behavior advice
1 person interested in a puppy
1 photo shoot team from Boston Magazine that recruited the dogs, and our help as dog handlers, for a photo shoot for a designer of one-of-a-kind outfits for the rich and outrageous.
I am not sure if the photos will come out as they were trying to shoot black dogs in the shade, but if they do, the dogs will be in the August or September edition of Boston Magazine.
It was a hoot. The outfit and the dogs complimented one another so well in person that you hardly could have picked a better pair out of a catalog of dogs. And the model, who probably missed the combined mass of the two dogs by a good 10-15 pounds made an honest attempt at following instructions on the dog handing part. Poor girl was a trooper even though she had not thought she signed up for that part and actually showed some good sense in introducing herself to the girls in advance.
Anyway, I'll post some of the pics if they get some back to us.
So, Karen and I bundled up Boo and Banyon into the Hyundai and headed down to the town of Brimfield.
Both are black briards-- I don't have a recent picture of Banyon, but even though they are largely unrelated, they look like litter mates. While this is from a few months ago, they both kinda look like this:
While Boo is much younger in this picture, you get the idea.
Since both of them needed some serious "friendly stranger" time, we went down to the Brimfield Antique Show.
Really, it is a high-end flea market where the dealers do their "real" wholesale business during the Tuesday through Friday work week. Some of them hang out Saturday and Sunday for the retail population to wander through and perhaps land a sale they might not otherwise get. These are usually the vendors that didn't do as well during the week.
The nice thing about an open air market like that is that folks that AREN'T into dogs have plenty of room to take a wide circle around you, and the rest HAVE to ask "What Type of Dog is that?" Fortunately our goal was not to see the offerings but to socialize the dogs, as I think we would average about 20 feet between the one "It's a Briard" and the next.
We experienced:
5 people that knew what they were
46 friendly strangers that had to pet the dog
2 dog owners that recieved either grooming or behavior advice
1 person interested in a puppy
1 photo shoot team from Boston Magazine that recruited the dogs, and our help as dog handlers, for a photo shoot for a designer of one-of-a-kind outfits for the rich and outrageous.
I am not sure if the photos will come out as they were trying to shoot black dogs in the shade, but if they do, the dogs will be in the August or September edition of Boston Magazine.
It was a hoot. The outfit and the dogs complimented one another so well in person that you hardly could have picked a better pair out of a catalog of dogs. And the model, who probably missed the combined mass of the two dogs by a good 10-15 pounds made an honest attempt at following instructions on the dog handing part. Poor girl was a trooper even though she had not thought she signed up for that part and actually showed some good sense in introducing herself to the girls in advance.
Anyway, I'll post some of the pics if they get some back to us.