Lottie Moon Rocks the Pet Expo!

Lottie working the show . . .

 I wasn't sure if I was up to handling Lottie Moon for four hours at the Petsmart booth at this years Pet Expo, so I brought Tango also.  I figured he needed the hours for his Honor Scout Badge, and I knew he would be reliable and easy to work with in addition to, or instead of, Lottie.  Of course, Tango did great, but I was happy to see that Lottie did great, too.  In fact, I'd guess that she enjoyed it more than Tango.  He doesn't always care for other dogs, and he can be shy around strangers, but Lottie loves it all.  She worked that show!  It was constant attention, and that seemed to suit her just fine.

At first she was a wild thing (and by "at first" I mean for about 2 hours!), but she did calm down as she tired, I'm guessing.  But even from the time we got there, she was great with all her tricks.  Sitting, and lying down for treats, and before we left she was greeting new people by sitting!  She also is starting to make "down" her default behavior, which is totally cool with me.  I always say it is hard to be a bad dog when you're in a "down".



Dahlia and Lottie with a fan

  

 Dahlia was there, too, and the girls worked nicely together.  Dahlia is much calmer than Lottie, but they do get on well.  I think both dogs (and of course, me and Victoria) did quite a bit of education today.  I must have told at least 20 people about double merle aussies, and Victoria did the same.  We are well on our way to educating the world ;-)

One of the most interesting parts of the day was the women at the Reiki Center.  They met Dahlia first, and she loved their energy.  They kept their hands about 6 inches above her body, but as they moved their hands, her body would twitch and move beneith the hand.  A sure testiment to the power of subtle energy for me, absolutely!  Tango loved them, and he melted into the Reiki worker, which is very unusual for him, as he tends to be a tightly wound dog.  A couple of years ago I bought him a massage, but the worker was never able to get him to relax.  The Reiki workers, however, had no problem.  Lottie was still wound up when she visited them the first time, and while she didn't dislike the work, she didn't soak it up like Tango and Dahlia.  Later, we went back to listen to the animal communicator there do a reading on Dahlia.  She was quite good, and said that Dahlia had special work to do, possible with handicapped children, to teach them that she is quite comfortable with her limitations.  Dahlia told the communicator quite a few things about Victoria, with a lot of insight, so I was impressed both with the skill of the communicator, and the wisdom of Dahlia.  I would like to have her talk with Lottie at some point in the near future.

A beautiful drawing of Dahlia
by a wonderful artist, Kelly Zalenski at klzart.com



What a nice sit for a greeting!

Lottie and Dahlia