It was tight, but he used to fit in the front of our RV with us. Now, I can’t even get a picture of his whole body in one shot. He seems to have outgrown even this space!
We had a great day-trip yesterday to Hyde Park, the birthplace and home of FDR. We walked all over the grounds and gardens with Dutch, and I can happily report that he is finally behaving more like an adult GSD should: he’s relaxed around the crowds, walks nicely with me (with the leash relaxed most of the time), and sits or lays down whenever we stop to read the information boards. I have never seen him so ALOOF with strangers – I love it! He must have appeared very well-behaved to people because while we were standing at some of the information boards, other people actually walked over and stood right next to us, with no concern for the enormous GSD sitting or lying there at our feet! We were so proud of him.
Caveat: we did not encounter any other dogs at any time during our visit. They (especially the little yappers) can trigger embarrassing reactions. We’re still working on that.
Dutch: “Alta Tollhaus Wyatt West” (Gavin x Kira)
Beverly, you need to get a bigger vehicle so poor Dutchie can ride in comfort!!!!!
You are right about the little yappers-takes lots of patience and counterconditioning to get them to ignore being threatened in dogspeak by something the size of their head! Folks let them bark and threaten the big dogs and then if your dog even looks at them the owners freak out! On occasion I have had to step in between when they let their little darlings come charging to the end of the leash at one of my girls. Owners and dogs are taken aback when I shout “knock it off!!!!!”, but it usually works 🙂
Dutch is maturing into such a good boy! Thank you for sharing these pictures – they made me laugh.
OMG……..Please people! It is so obvious Dutchy was out of his GSD skull! Information boards on FDR???? Really? What else was he supposed to do……..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz yawn
FYI….Information boards on….Balls, chasing cats, food, nap time, training your human?????
That’s what a dog wants!
Qwendi
(Gavin/Inga)….oh yeah……..Julie and Terri
Dutch was very interested in the board about “Fala,” one of the most famous presidential pets in history! One of FDR’s speeches was actually called the Fala speech:
On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt opened the 1944 presidential campaign in Washington, D.C., speaking at a dinner with the International Teamsters Union. The half-hour speech was also broadcast on all U.S. radio networks. In the speech, Roosevelt attacked Republican opponents in Congress and detailed their attacks on him.
“These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I’d left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself … But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog.”
Good boy, Dutchie!