I’m not gonna lie. Yesterday we finally decided to go out and leave the dogs for a few hours and expect some damage. What I came home to was VERY upsetting so I vented on Twitter about it. I am not really ready to go the negative route with my dogs until I can find some humor in it (I am already trying), but at this point, I’m not finding the situation very funny so I need to concentrate on something positive!
It’s already working. My Mondays with Max feature photo is so cute and I keep saying that his cuteness makes up for his badness. It really does. No face that cute can be denied for long so even when he does bad things, he makes up for it be looking at me with those cute Max eyes and my heart kind of melts.
So this week, I’m going to share something that I did with Max last Halloween (October 2009). Before we got Turbo and after we had my other dog put to sleep for some major issues that he had (a whole other story, but I promise I will tell it sometime), Max was all alone. Socialization is VERY important to me because it’s good for a dog to be well-socialized so I took Max to a local rescue organization event called Greyhound Planet Day. It’s run by Greyhound Pets of America-Central Texas and once a year they get together to celebrate everything greyhound. I had volunteered wrapping gifts at a fundraiser at Barnes & Noble during Christmas time so they told me that more than greyhounds were welcome at greyhound planet day. Sure enough, Max was the only whippet there, but no worries…there was also a lab or retriever of some kind there too so he was not alone in his un-greyhoundness!
In addition to the get together, they sold some food and greyhound paraphernalia (t-shirts that said, “Keep Austin Grey”, greyhound owner cookbooks—human food recipes, etc.). It was all for a good cause and the dogs and owners get time to share and socialize with each other. They also had a cool thing called “Speed Alley” where they set up a short running area with a lure and let the dogs chase it. There was someone at the end to catch their speed on a radar detector as well. For $5, you could let your dog run the short run and see how fast they are. Max had never seen a lure so he wasn’t quite sure what to do. He’s also quite clownish so pretty much nothing surprises me about him. Anyway, we paid our $5 and let him run! It was super cute and fun and it raised a little money for charity!
So, here are some pictures Kevin took of Max running his heart out (sort of). He was and is my pride and joy!
GPA-Central Texas is going to be at Dogtoberfest at the Domain here in Austin on October 23. It’s a huge “festival” that tons of people take their dogs to. There’s many booths and treats that people sell for dogs and many rescue groups are also there. If you are in town, it’s a great place to take your dog for some good socialization and fun! I took Max last year and I think we’ll be taking both Max and Turbo this year. If you are in the Austin area, let me know and maybe we can meet up!
By the way, if you are looking to adopt a dog and live in the Central Texas area, I highly recommend GPA-Central Texas. My hope is that one day we can be a foster family for a greyhound because they are amazingly cool and loving dogs! Even though they are big, they have big hearts and are the sweetest dogs. I really need to get my dogs trained well enough that they don’t teach a foster dog bad habits though. We’ll get there! Someday they will be good boys almost all the time!
Look at him run! I'm so glad you're focusing on the positives. It can be very hard to do (I'm thinking of my very adorable-yet-lovable toddlers when I say that!) but your pups are so gorgeous :) Just with a little dose of mischief on the side.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really nice and positive story, Carin. Well done for finding something good about your dog.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that foster dog is something for the future, at the moment, but who knows... It would be nice. I actually know (knew) another blogger who adopted a greyhound but haven't seen her online for a while, or maybe I unsubscribed (I do that sometimes!).
Hmmm..one of my dogs did something which made me very unhappy this weekend, too. The good thing for them, is that I don't know for sure which one it was, so they both get to live!
ReplyDelete@agirlreads - Oh he only clocked in at 26 mph. The lab that was there clocked in at 23 mph. Most of the greyhounds were clocking around 30-35 mph. I don't care though. It was fun and he seemed to enjoy himself. I'll do it again if they have the event next month. :) I am trying to focus. I found an ornament that is similar--it's of a pueblo and I can buy it for my house. I just realized that I also own a preserved ristra so that's a little bit of home too. :)
ReplyDelete@leeswammes - Thanks! I have to remind myself not to be negative. I kind of thrive on negative energy so I'm trying to make big efforts to not be that way anymore. A foster dog would be super fun I think because it's temporary. The only thing about greyhounds is (and this is here..not sure about Europe) that a lot of them come from the track so you have to train them to get used to things like glass doors, stairs, carpet...anything that they would never see at a track. The track dogs though all come crate trained so your house would be safe. You would have to potty train him/her though. I want to do it once I get my dogs past their destructive phase.
@Scrabblequeen - How old are your dogs again? I am hoping their badness isn't a forever thing. That would make me a sad person indeed!