Sorting

We have had our dog for a couple of years now. Something that surprised me at the beginning was the number of conversations with strangers that resulted from simply being out and about with a dog.  Today, on the beach I had several doggy related conversations as we compared our respective hounds.

Being around the public with Archie is similar. He will often draw attention to himself with his behaviour, and whilst we do sometimes have to suffer the inhalations of the tut-tut brigade we do also get to meet some really lovely people. Today, we visited the beach a little bit later than usual, which meant quite a few cars were leaving. If Archie spots a car that looks as if it is about to move he will dash over and stare slightly disconcertingly through the window at the handbrake willing the driver to release it. He doesn’t touch the car, although he can rather risk his feet being run over at times (I do move him out of the way) and if someone winds down their window he will stick his head through and point at their handbrake. Drivers responses vary. Some get really quite stroppy, occasionally angry. Sometimes they even swear (yes, at Archie), some strike the hands on hips pose while some look utterly confused. Others; my favourites, will have a conversation with us and even give Archie a guided tour of their handbrake. Some put the handbrake up and down several times. Today someone suggested that Archie operate his handbrake (I did say that probably wasn’t a good idea), and Archie used his talker to tell him handbrake down.

I sometimes call Archie my filter. He fast tracks me to the lovely people out there.