Jinx94
Well-Known Member
T;ldr: Z joined me at a festival, behaved like a superstar and made many new friends 
Quick preface: I know that many people are anti having their dog in a large crowd (understandably!) - the level of the crowds did take me by surprise and we kept out of the thick of it as much as we could as well as heading back to the tent at various times for a much needed break.
Zazu and I went to Fantasy Forest Festival at the weekend at Sudely Castle she put up with many trips between the car and campsite - more than intended as the tent that I borrowed from my folks had no poles with it 
luckily I'd brought my little tent 'just in case' due to listening to mum's advice for once 
The gents we pitched up next to were besotted with her as was everyone else that walked past. Neighbours came from a good 50m away just to say hello to her she also had offers of spare sausages and bacon in the mornings!
Very kind I felt as she loudly announced herself to any passers by and had to tell the site whenever she spotted someone going in to or coming out of their tent
Every dog was greeted very politely. If we went past one that had a bark or a grumble she just stayed by my side and kept an eye on them. People were adored and we mostly managed to say hello without any jumping! (Probably due to all the other distractions!!)
I kept us well back from any of the stage speakers as it's not fair on her to ask her to cope with that level of noise and she relaxed through the songs of the acts that we caught but she wasn't a fan of the clapping
I distracted her with her rubber ring as best I could and she improved through the weekend, but she did join in with her own barks and howls at times 
thankfully everyone around us smiled and laughed and said it was her joining in. Something that we definitely need to work on.
However she was golden at the workshops that I attended and just curled up at my feet. Same went for the talk with Terry English (an armourer that has had an incredible film career) and the costume and bodypaint competitions.
There were loads of people in various costumes with a variety of props and she didn't bat an eyelid at any of them. She was a little curious about the orcs and the skeksis but that was it. I didn't take her too close as didn't want her to feel threatened or for them to get slobber all over the cosplays that they had worked so hard on!
We did have a couple of irresponsible owner moments where she had an adventure over to our neighbours who loved the intrusion and said they'd been desperate to say hello since pitching up
I definitely learned my lessons - make sure the stake is well into the ground and don't trust anyone else to hold on to the dog as they may let go! Cue a very strategic and gentle tackle that had everyone in stitches we also have videographic evidence of one the lads being clearly told to keep his face out of Z's reach when playing as she has a tendency to jump when excited and has torn the cartilage in my nose previously 
'don't worry, I'll be careful!', promptly leans right down and... THUNK. Barely 30 seconds later. Cue me having kittens and the rest of them peeing themselves as she head butted him when going for the ring, split his eyebrow open and gave him a black eye it could have gone very badly, but thankfully he took full responsibility and we all spent plenty of time drinking and playing games together after. Who knew Uno was so competitive?!
We had an incredible time and will definitely be attending again next year, camping with our new friends of we all get tickets
This time in costume!
(Current contenders are Red Riding Hood and the wolf, vault dweller and Dogmeat, a Stark, Artemis... let me know if you have any other suggestions!)
Quick preface: I know that many people are anti having their dog in a large crowd (understandably!) - the level of the crowds did take me by surprise and we kept out of the thick of it as much as we could as well as heading back to the tent at various times for a much needed break.
Zazu and I went to Fantasy Forest Festival at the weekend at Sudely Castle
she put up with many trips between the car and campsite - more than intended as the tent that I borrowed from my folks had no poles with it luckily I'd brought my little tent 'just in case' due to listening to mum's advice for once The gents we pitched up next to were besotted with her as was everyone else that walked past. Neighbours came from a good 50m away just to say hello to her
she also had offers of spare sausages and bacon in the mornings!Very kind I felt as she loudly announced herself to any passers by and had to tell the site whenever she spotted someone going in to or coming out of their tent
Every dog was greeted very politely. If we went past one that had a bark or a grumble she just stayed by my side and kept an eye on them. People were adored and we mostly managed to say hello without any jumping! (Probably due to all the other distractions!!)
I kept us well back from any of the stage speakers as it's not fair on her to ask her to cope with that level of noise and she relaxed through the songs of the acts that we caught but she wasn't a fan of the clapping
I distracted her with her rubber ring as best I could and she improved through the weekend, but she did join in with her own barks and howls at times thankfully everyone around us smiled and laughed and said it was her joining in. Something that we definitely need to work on.However she was golden at the workshops that I attended and just curled up at my feet. Same went for the talk with Terry English (an armourer that has had an incredible film career) and the costume and bodypaint competitions.
There were loads of people in various costumes with a variety of props and she didn't bat an eyelid at any of them. She was a little curious about the orcs and the skeksis but that was it. I didn't take her too close as didn't want her to feel threatened or for them to get slobber all over the cosplays that they had worked so hard on!
We did have a couple of irresponsible owner moments where she had an adventure over to our neighbours who loved the intrusion and said they'd been desperate to say hello since pitching up
I definitely learned my lessons - make sure the stake is well into the ground and don't trust anyone else to hold on to the dog as they may let go! Cue a very strategic and gentle tackle that had everyone in stitches we also have videographic evidence of one the lads being clearly told to keep his face out of Z's reach when playing as she has a tendency to jump when excited and has torn the cartilage in my nose previously 'don't worry, I'll be careful!', promptly leans right down and... THUNK. Barely 30 seconds later. Cue me having kittens and the rest of them peeing themselves as she head butted him when going for the ring, split his eyebrow open and gave him a black eye it could have gone very badly, but thankfully he took full responsibility and we all spent plenty of time drinking and playing games together after. Who knew Uno was so competitive?! We had an incredible time and will definitely be attending again next year, camping with our new friends of we all get tickets
This time in costume!(Current contenders are Red Riding Hood and the wolf, vault dweller and Dogmeat, a Stark, Artemis... let me know if you have any other suggestions!)
