No Dogs Allowed

Echo went to the farmer's market in Madison. It is a great opportunity to meet and greet different people and dogs. The normal pace is painstakingly slow, but a good pace for an eleven week old puppy. We started walking around the capitol square and he did well surrounded on all side by beings five times his size.

A woman walking the "wrong" way rudely reminded us that there are No Dogs Allowed on the square. A number of people behind us told her that he was a guide dog in training. Since no dogs are allowed, Echo caught every one's attention. As usual we could hear people mentioning that there was a working dog that couldn't be disturbed or that it was hard to resist petting the cute puppy. On most occasions we invited them to show Echo some love.

These meet and greets caused a bottle neck on the square so after a block and a half we took Echo to the other side of the street to keep traffic flowing (it was also shaded). The purpose was to meet people, not work him in a crowd. The entire four block trip took us two hours which included many interactions with people and dogs, water breaks, and a little nap. Echo also spent an inordinate amount of time admiring himself in all the mirror-like windows.

The most difficult part of the day was transitioning from being invisible in the crowd to being noticed by evryone. It was great to interact with all the interested puppy people and answer their questions.