[nagdu] Interesting Weekend Adventures

[Shanna Stichler]

Hi all,

Here are some Diamond stories for your reading pleasure. I hope. :D For 
anyone new to the group, Diamond is my 2.5 YO German Shepherd that I 
trained. As a warning, this post got a bit longer than I thought it 
would, so grab a sandwich or a drink or something before reading.

All of these took place over the weekend when we attended what I've been 
calling, well, a hippy concert festival. There were many drunk hippies, 
and also there were high hippies, which just so y'all know, intoxicated 
hippies and service dogs are not a good combination, ever.

In any case, Diamond did very well at the concert itself. It was 
outside, naturally, and there were I think 10,000 or so people present. 
Her behavior and guiding could not have been better, and I think she 
really did me and owner-trained dog guides proud, getting lots of 
admiration from the masses. Actually, there happened to be another dog 
at this event that was trained at a well-respected school, and my dog 
did far better in terms of dealing with the chaotic and loud environment.

Aside from generally being awesome, poor Diamond had to put up with a 
lot of stupid. There were lots of people who petted her without 
permission, and she didn't care about them at all, remaining focused and 
businesslike while being mauled by random strangers. One woman went so 
far as to grab Diamond's face and hug her around the head while I was 
working her. For real, I can't make this stuff up. Diamond didn't really 
react much, and actually I didn't understand exactly what was happening 
until the person I was with explained the situation to me.

The most special experience of the weekend though, well, first of all I 
learned a very valuable lesson that I would like to pass on as a public 
service. Meth is death, boys and girls. Really, stay far away from the 
Meth, and you will avoid ending up like the gentleman who came over and 
began petting my dog without asking or even addressing me. Again, 
Diamond didn't acknowledge him at all, acting like the dignified, aloof 
GSD. Lol So my friend actually stepped in and told the guy, who did I 
mention had a grand total of one whole tooth in his head, cause of the 
aforementioned Meth, not to pet my dog, and I jumped in with the usual 
spiel about working service dogs, etc. His response? "I can't pet her? 
Well, that's dumb as hell!" He got a bit belligerent, and we were a bit 
concerned that he'd become a bit more than just a nuisance. Luckily he 
didn't escalate, although he did apparently feel the need to cast 
periodic death glares my way.

So those were the highlights of the weekend, at least where Diamond is 
concerned. All in all, the whole event turned out to be a rather surreal 
experience, which I felt the need to share with you all.

Shanna with Diamond
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