Carbon is pretty starved for dog interaction. I've made a couple of poor choices over the last week when it comes to understanding how deep that 'starvation' goes. Our SD trainer, always wanting to be R+, said that this shows I'm highly optimistic even in the face of overwhelming odds. That made me laugh pretty darn hard.
The worst example of this was last Sunday. We went for a walk on the coastal path. On the end of that particular section of the path, you come to a small bluff overlooking a massive beach (Constantine Bay). It's quite safe there for Carbon to be off lead, so he was. The path ends with a wooden fence and a large staircase down to the sand. We'd already had a long walk, plus I'm not fit enough at the moment to get back up that staircase. Carbon and I just paused to look at the beautiful beach. I leaned on the fence and he sat by my side. Ah, human-canine bliss.
"Bliss" until I realised that the crazed black Labrador running hell-for-broke towards a family and their two dogs on the beach below was MY CRAZED LABRADOR. I still don't understand how he left my side, went all the way down the stairs and then across the beach without me noticing. Maybe if we travel in a TARDIS, Carbon is a Time Lord in his own right? In any case, it ended as it always does, with me trudging towards Carbon, apologising to the family (from a socially appropriate distance) and dragging my hooligan away from the party.
"Awwww, M.L. do I have to go? No, no, you are a horreeeeble mama lady, de verdad, really you ARE!!!"
Argh.
On the bright side, I got lots of exercise hiking up the dunes back to the path. So...win?
Another dog, another country: my friend in Germany, Nadine, and her erstwhile off-road Chihuahua, Fine, are also feeling the social distancing blues. I just talked to Nadine this evening and she said Fine is FED UP with not being able to interact with all the customers coming into Nadine's newly-opened shop. Fine rules the roost at the store and I can only imagine how disgruntled she must be. Nadine says she notices Fine trying to interact more with other dogs as she's not allowed her normal allotment of adoring humans.
Oh, and yesterday all the beer gardens opened in Regensburg, so since then there haven't been many customers in the shop anyway, doubly depressing for poor social butterfly Fine...