We took Tallie to her first official event/outing today. It was a fun doggie event held at a local park. It was put on by Natural Pet Foods Solutions, a local Portland boutique. They were promoting a new monthly subscription box that they have started. Each box comes with toys and treats made exclusively in the USA,many from local vendors right here in the Portland area. They are calling it Dog Is My Religion.
We first went to the table that had sample boxes of their premiere box that launched this month. We thought the Buddha-dog was pretty cute. Tallie proved all morning that she is a natural poser.
While our Tiny Human got her face painted, Tallie and I walked around to see the displays and talk with people. They were having a raffle with some really nice prizes. We purchased some tickets and Tallie posed with some of the prizes while I filled out the tickets. The proceeds of today's events were being donated to our local Clackamas County Dog Shelter!
She was quickly becoming the hit of the event. How could you not love that face???
One of the reasons I was excited to take her to this event was the chance to socialize and meet all kinds of people. We have plans on getting her certified as a Therapy Dog, she has the perfect personality for it! A huge part of her early training is to get used to being handled by all kinds of people, as well as to learn to be comfortable in all kinds of situations. She got the chance to be held and petted by lots of people today!
I really loved the Puppachino bar they had! So cute!!
Another way to win a prize was to guess the number of dog treats in this jar. It was as big as Tallie!! She was willing to briefly pose next to it, but was very interested in all the other dogs that were there. Her little head was swiveling back and forth!
We went to the photo booth, where she sat and posed for pictures without me! That's fine, she is much cuter than I am! We talked to some dog food vendors and got some samples to bring home and try. Tallie watched everyone while I visited.
Next, we tried our hand at the little agility course they had set up. She thought I was a little crazy as I tried to get her to go through the weave poles, but humored me anyway.
Once she got into the tunnel, she became very brave and had to bark ferociously (in her mind if was ferocious anyway) at a large dog that was walking by. That was the only time she barked through the whole thing. I guess she felt pretty protected in there!
It took some coaxing to distract her and get her to come back through the tunnel, but she finally did it. We have a larger tunnel at home and she loves to run through it, so I don't think she really knew what this smaller one was all about.
The people who put this event on were very clever with their play-on-words for everything. The BBQ menu was adorable!
When we sat down to eat our lunch, Tallie made sure to give me the sweet face, making sure I was going to share.
Pretty much impossible to say no to that face, huh?
It was really a great first event for Tallie. I was super proud of her and how well she behaved. She was a wonderful ambassador (or is it ambassadress?) for the Chihuahua breed. Lots of people are not aware that they come in a Long Coat variety. Others were impressed with how friendly she was, not shaking or growling. While I was proud of her, it makes me sad when people have that impression of Chihuahuas.
In the end, we won a prize in the raffle!! We brought home the bag of food that she posed next to earlier!
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This next Monday is the big Solar Eclipse. We live in Oregon, which is in the path of totality, and has brought nearly 1 million visitors to the state! We are staying home to watch it from our own yard, but I decided to have a little fun and took some pictures of Scarlett wearing the safety glasses. She was such a GREAT sport, considering you can't see anything but blackness when you wear them.
She even got her picture on a local news station's Facebook page! We are trying to not let it go to her head though. Haha!
