First and foremost, thank you to all the participants, vendors and helpers that made the Sweet Purple Haze Pooch Parade a huge success! I really had a blast on Monday night leading this pooch parade.
We had a great turnout with a wonderful variety of dogs. All the dogs were at a little different level in training as far as what commands they knew or were generalized with. Also, we had a few with fear or aggression issues in different stages of management. But all that being said, the dogs did wonderfully and had SO many distractions to deal with. Not just the distractions I planned, but all the ones DTLA threw at us too.
The night started with a visit to Pussy & Pooch for a little treat/meal for the dogs. Pussy & Pooch hit the ball out of the park once again. Our meals had little splashes of purple and all the dogs thought they were yummy! For the dogs that were a little too stimulated to eat, the fantastic staff treated us like royalty by feverishly packing up all of our meals in to-go boxes and allowing to get in and out on time. Thank you Pussy & Pooch!!
From there we moved through the streets of DTLA. We went up Spring Street and down Main. Along the way we encountered many people, dogs and even had a fire truck pass by. But those were just the distractions of the city. I made the dogs practice their stays through bubbles being blown at them, pom-pom's being shook around them and their owners being crazy! And they all did great.
At the end, every dog got to show their purple strut as they walked the line in front of all the participants. This was a favored moment for me. As each dog and owner strutted down the middle of our line, every other participant cheers and rooted for the dog and shook their pom-pom's. The feeling of community and pure enjoyment was certainly in the air.
After all that work, we sat down on the beautiful and dog friendly patio of Artisan House for some fantastic pizza, salad and wine! The dogs relaxed and the humans chatted. What a great night!
If you would like to join in on the next pooch parade, give us a bark!
