Dog Log Day 5

This weekend Renton was allowed into the restaurant for the first time. Obviously accompanied by me and not on his own, in case you thought that he was sitting at a table expectantly with a napkin tucked into his collar waiting for Sunday lunch. (oh..and there was another grown up there, Christine,..to supervise!) Last weekend was really the first time he had been in and around the main part of the hotel with me only and not on harness, only his lead. So this was my first experience of being with him in a restricted  public area with so many people around. As I said in my first posting, German Shepard’s tend to get a very strong reaction of love or hate  and true to form I had experience of both..

Obviously I tend to be fairly unaware of the inaudible reactions unless people come and actually talk to me or the dog. To be honest, the general public are much more likely to talk to the dog, yep..tell the dog, where my table is..to be careful with the sticking out chair ..honestly!…  So I tend to literally blindly push on, causing chaos, if I don’t know people are there...and Renton and I were causing chaos, as Christine was telling me..although she had a hard time keeping up as she is only wee and had to run behind to keep up!!! 

Heading down one of the hotel corridors we came face to face with a delegation of Chinese visitors. The sounds were incredible, scuffles, hotel cards being shoved in locks, doors not opening, sounds of people literally climbing walls in their terror to get away.

One poor woman was trying to get into a bedroom that clearly wasn’t hers with a card that wouldn’t work. Whilst a man stood transfixed in horror not knowing where to go or what to do. ..But no-one spoke, coughed or made any noise at all!...Renton and I strode through   -  the only thing on my mind was my cooked breakfast!.

Christine has spent a lot of time in China (something that she is constantly reminding me of) explained to me that there is a different cultural attitude to dogs in China which explained their re-action. Plus the average height is 5ft 7 and tiny dogs. (cough.. I'm 6ft with...a biiiiiggg dog) I must have looked really scary to them.  The difficulty is, there aren't many places you can hide in a corridor.

On the way back, just to underline Renton’s gentleness. He came across two small children in reception. One stood with her arms out stretched wanting a hug from the dog. Renton didn’t let her down and very gently put his head on her shoulder and she got a massive hug much to her delight. The little sister seeing this ran around a pillar to head Renton off at the pass, with her arms out stretched. Renton didn’t let her down either and she to got a hug and a delicately nibbled ear, from the dog, the pair of them giggled away (the same dog that only 45 minutes earlier was causing such fear and terror). 

I think I'll need to get used to this!