Smaug at the Smokehouse

We've said many times that we love the Dunedin Smokehouse.  We usually go there once a week for some wings or a sandwich and we take Jam and Coach with us because we can sit on the patio with the both of them.  Our usual waitress, Lisa (pictured below), adores Coach and dogs in general.  Coach happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to her first dog, a lab, and he brings back very happy memories for her.

Lisa and Coach.

Usually, when we come in and sit down, there may be another dog or two, but they are all well behaved and there isn't a problem.  Last night was a bit different.  We walked in and tried to take our seat by the big fan so the boys could catch a nice breeze.  As we were sitting down, the table that was a table away from us and had a HUGE white German shepherd at it sort of vibrated with people moving and flailing and looking about.  Mr. Shepherd had sensed our presence and like Smaug in The Hobbit he was waking up and about to express his annoyance.

Then we heard it: a deep threatening, growling bark.  And since we had not seen the sleeping white dragon and had, like peaceful hobbits just come for the food, had sat down without scoping out the area like a Ranger, we were surprised.  Jam and Coach both sat up at attention and then looked at us.  In our best Gandalf voice we told them to sit down.  They did and then they went into a down stay. Comforted that no harm would come to them.

Smaug was still not happy.  He could spy them through the forest of legs and hobbits were in his territory. He let loose another yell.

"Oh, criminy! Let's get out of his line of sight." I told Fred.  I pointed to a table at the other end of the patio. Fred nodded and we packed up and moved.

Smaug drifted off to sleep and our peaceful hobbit dogs, silent and happy, never made a peep the whole night.  If I had had Gandalf's pipe of smugness to smoke, I would have.  Hobbit dogs are so much more well mannered.

Where are you pooping?

LUNCH

Summer vacation for us means that we are going out to eat.  Fred recently celebrated his 60th birthday and he received a lovely present of a Visa gift card of $60 dollars, which we decided to use at the Sand Pearl Resort to have a nice lunch out.

Fred and Coach relax by the player piano at the Sand Peal Resort in Clearwater.

The Sand Pearl is pretty hoity-toity and even though it is a dressy place, we decided that we would take Coach with us.  After all, he is 15 months old.  Old enough to go poo beforehand and know how to behave himself in a restaurant.  Right?

We decided that we would park a bit of a distance away from the Pearl and walk in just to make sure that he had a chance to poo.  We walked out to lone bit of grass that bordered the entrance to the beach and Coach did his little circle dance.  It was a three twirler.  Oh my!

We walked up to the Sand Pearl with confidence.  Our boy had pooped.  We were poop free and ready to eat and experience the high life.  (And people wonder why we don't go out much! 8-)

After walking through the lobby, we encountered the player piano.  It was doing an admirable job of toodling through some barely recognizable tunes, so I had Fred and Coach stand beside it for a photo.  Coach didn't see too impressed with it.

Lunch was delicious.  The hostess was very impressed with Coach.  Coach was on his best behavior and entered and exited with calm assurance.  Nicely done, Coach!

DINNER

Dinner was different.  We decided to take Jammers with us and go coatless and more informal: to the Dunedin Smokehouse!

Now, we love the Smokehouse for several reasons

1. They have amazing wings.
2. They have a great beer selection (Magic Hat)
3. Our favorite waitress is there (Lisa) and she loves Coach and Jam
4. They have a big patio that allows dogs 
5. All the staff brings water bowls
6. Coach in coat is treated like a king
7. The rest of their food rocks too!

So, it's a natural for us to go there with the boys.  We usually pick a table by the railing and under the awning and since they had the fan on, by the fan.  We were lucky.  We got all three tonight:

• Table by the railing
• Table in the shade
• Table right in front of the fan!

The boys were out of everyone's way.  It was cool, the wings were hot, the beer was cold.  Awesome.

And then, the poodle man showed up.

Really.  

It was a family.  A mom, two middle school kids and a dad.  They had a poodly-doodly thing.  But essentially, Dad was a poodle man.  I saw them coming down the sidewalk and I knew trouble was coming in caramel curls.

Poodle man peeled off from the pack and pulled the doodle into the empty field that sits next to the Smokehouse.  The empty field that borders the railing along which we were sitting. Jam had spotted them.  He sat up.  

"Hmmmmmm." I said.  Grrrrrr was what I was thinking.  Poodle man was walking up the empty field following the railing like a trail. His doodle was sniffing around.  Jam was standing now.  Mind you, we are eating.  "Fred," I said.  "Grab Coach. This man is bringing his dog!"

And poodle man stops.  Doodle stops.  And the world stops. 

Jam thrusts his whole head through the bars of the railing in an attempt to get to the doodle.  He makes it to his shoulders.  He is straining.  The doodle is straining too, but it is of a different sort.  

"Oh my God!" I am actually hissing. "Fred! Is that dog pooping?"

"Yes."

I turn back around and poodle man has a baggy out to scoop up the offending poo.  I cannot catch his eye to scald him with my irritated look.

"Really?" I turn to Fred. "Really?!"

Fred with Jam and Coach sitting at his feet as Fred frowns thinking
about the rude customer at the Dunedin Smokehouse.

 Of all the places to walk your dog to poo, you walk him in front of the people with dogs, who are eating in a restaurant.  You had an entire empty field.  And you chose to have him poop 2 feet from our table.

Really? I. Don't. Have. The. Words.

If only I was Amy Poehler.

Lunching with Super Models

Since we have gotten Jam back, we have been taking "the boys" out for lunch.  Dunedin has several restaurants with patios where both Coach and Jam, who doesn't have a coat, are welcome.

One of those restaurants is The Dunedin Smokehouse. They love Coach and are super friendly to dogs on the patio.  They always bring out bowls of water for them. There are other restaurants, but on Sunday, we went to the Smokehouse because we wanted some amazing barbecue (their wings are splendid as well!).

Photo of Jam under the table looking up at me and smiling.

What I've noticed about taking the boys out in public is how many stares we get.  As soon as we got to our table, the small boy at the neighboring table had run over and asked to pet Jam.  I said yes.  Jam was lying down on the ground as the boy told me about his lab and how it was in the hospital.

"Oh no.  Is he getting better?"

"She's getting better every minute," he said with confidence.  He patted Jam on the head and stroked his neck and down his body.  Then he patted his feet. "Those are big feet."

"Yes, they are."

"Thanks!" He jumped up and ran back to his table.

Coach is sitting and smiling and looking at the camera.

Last weekend when we went to the smokehouse, there was an older couple sitting a few tables away from us and they just could not keep their eyes off of Jam and Coach.  The lady in particular would eat some of her sandwich and gaze with adoration at him, much as I imagine women gaze at Ryan Gosling doing yard work without a shirt on a film shoot.  Finally, she called over to us.

"He is so beautiful." She waved her hand at Jam. Her husband was nodding in the background.

Fred and I smiled.  "Thank you.  They are pretty well behaved too." I tell her about Jam being dropped from Southeastern's guide dog program.  They are very impressed with Jam and think Coach is the bee's knees.

When we first got Jam he was fuzzy like a polar bear.  Very distinctive.  On one of our first outings to the Sarasota Discovery Center we made the mistake of eating lunch at St. Armand's Circle at a table next to a big picture window.  Jam was in full view of every tourist who was passing by.  We learned what it was like to be a zoo animal as almost everyone stopped and pointed at Jam and then mouthed the words: "HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!" It was like eating lunch with super models.

Now, when I take Coach out, everyone comments on how handsome he is, but the two of them together seems to be an overwhelming amount of labby attractiveness.  Coach goes in for training on July 20th. Until then, we will try to spread his handsome mug around as many places as we can.

Street Fair Exposure

Saturday we went to downtown Dunedin for lunch and then the plan was to go over to the concert in the park and see if we could find Coastie.  But we got distracted by the street fair that was going on in Dunedin and ended up spending our afternoon in Dunedin.

Coach and Fred getting reading to start walking down the Pinellas Trail to Dunedin.

The nice thing about Dunedin is that it is so dog friendly.  The bad thing about Dunedin is that it is so dog friendly.  This visit was going to be an exposure heavily laden with dog distractions.  However, since we were on the trail, our first distraction proved to be bicycles:

You can see two cyclists off in the distance on the the trail.

As we were standing there putting on Coach's coat, the cyclists came up from behind, called out that they were coming up from behind and on the left and then passed us.  Coach calmly looked around at them.  No problem.

A lady in a wheelchair is being wheeled down the cobblestone walk.

Not only were there bikes, but there were canes, walkers and wheelchairs, too.  Coach was indifferent to them all.

Photo of a chocolate standard poodle walking toward us.  The poodle is being held closely to the owner.

He was moderately indifferent to all the dogs.  What has happened with other puppies (Bingo and Jam) is that we would get lunging and jumping.  We got none of that with Coach.

Here is a chocolate lab being held closely to the owner and walking toward us.  

 Coach doesn't lunge or jump.  He does a mean stare though.

Coach staring at a small Westie.  Fred has him on a high collar. 

Unfortunately, at street fairs, it isn't just Coach's behavior that you have to be aware of.  You also have to be aware of all the dogs around you.  Not only in front of you, but coming up behind you.

A backend view of the doberman who sniffed Coach's butt.

The owner of the doberman in the photo above was not paying attention to him and just let him wander all over the place. Of course this big, scary dog was going up to every dog he could and sniffing them.  He managed to get up to Coach's butt and goose him.  I had been watching out in front, but moved over to the other side of Fred to be on Coach's left and keep the doberman away after the initial goose.

Honestly.  If people would just pay attention to what they are doing!!

Coach walking in a nice loose leash on the cobblestones.

There is a yellow dog project (see the photo of their poster above for more details) that seeks to highlight dogs who really do need more space by placing a yellow ribbon on their leash.  If you see that ribbon, you should give them space, NO MATTER WHAT.  In our case, our dogs are working.  They shouldn't be distracted by your dogs sniffing them or wanting to introduce themselves or by saying hello.  They have a job to do and learning to ignore you and other dogs is part of it.  

Coach did really well.  I am also going to be on the lookout for a yellow ribbon too.  It looks so pretty with blue!