The “Garage Sale”.

We have some new people across the road  and, as part of their process for getting settled into their new home, they decided to hold a “Garage Sale”**

Yesterday morning we took Ray out for his walk and, because he often resists in high temperature and humid conditions, we let him decide where he wanted to go. He chose the “Garage Sale”. Of course it could be argued that he had no interest in the sale itself, but just wanted a short walk. However, once we crossed over the road, and while we were chatting with the new people (and buying a paper trimming guillotine and heavy duty stapler for $10.00 total!), Ray found a nice shaded spot a few feet away and lay down.

As people showed up, to see what items were for sale, Ray decided to check them out as soon as they were within his leash range and was his normal social self. A couple with small children arrived and Ray let a young girl touch him and stroke him (she was so thrilled!). Eventually however, we wanted to continue with his walk.

Once again we headed off and had gone probably 5 minutes when Ray started resisting. Going over the road and back is not much exercise for a 75-80lbs Shepherd/Rotti so we coerced him on until he really put the brakes on. As we were at a point in our route such that, if we turned around., he would be within relatively easy reach of any number of his favorite places, we again decided to let him dictate the route.

He turned around with excitement and started pulling. He was clearly on a mission. My first guess was that he would take a left turn and take us to the Lululemon store. He did not turn left!

A left turn a little further down the road would take him to the Dog Guides building where the hamburger BBQ area was last weekend, but he did not turn left there either.

We were now approaching a small park area and, if he crossed it diagonally, he could be taking us to a number of stores, or even a rather circuitous route to downtown Oakville (which he has occasionally done). No…. he made no effort to go into the park!

His obvious options were depleting fast as he was heading for the street that would take him home, unless he had Fantastico Pizza in mind? Again we were surprised because, just before we would have reached Fantastico Pizza, he turned onto our street and was clearly going home.

He stayed on our side of the street, so we were convinced that he really did not want a walk at that time, but would rather just chill-out at home. Again he surprised us. As soon as he reached our driveway, he made a sharp turn and crossed over the road and back to the Garage Sale!

Who knows what was going on in his mind? They had a nice sheltered spot on their front lawn? They had two dogs who were not out at that time, but he has met them? He liked the social aspect because that would mean treats now and then? He is an interesting “guy”!

We took him out in the late evening for another walk and he was much more cooperative. Perhaps he is just really uncomfortable in the heat and humidity.

** A “Garage Sale” is a method of privately selling unwanted items by setting them up on a front lawn or a driveway.  I believe that it is a similar concept to a “car trunk sale” in England.

26 thoughts on “The “Garage Sale”.”

  3. Well there you go. Ray is a male that knows what he wants. I can well imagine that the heat gets to him since he has such a thick coat and with the history of heart worm disease his stamina might not be quite up to par. However the treat thing idea is a highly motivating factor, if he is anything like my dogs.

    For general information, we call that sort of sale, a garage sale or an estate sale. I have obtained some lovely things that I use or that I collect such as dog, cat and bird figurines.

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    • Ray is highly motivated by anything edible. It has made training him relatively uncomplicated, but does lend itself to manipulation if we’re not careful! We have wondered whether there is some residual damage as a result of his heart-worm, but X-rays are not much use in that area. We also wonder whether his Rotti side is his predominant personality and, as you note, wearing a thick fur coat can’t be much fun at this time of year. So many possible explanations, so we just play safe and take note of his body language. 🙂

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  4. When I was younger I would do garage sales. I’d pull all the stuff we wanted to get rid of and organize it on the driveway and spend the day watching people not buy our junk. At the end of the day I carried everything back into the garage and then the following weekend take it all to the dump. I finally got smart and now instead of garage sales I cut out the middle man and do dump runs. 🙂

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    • Hi Ann – I think that falls into the same area as when somebody cautiously says “Can I ask you a question?”, and I reply “Of course… but are you sure that you want to hear the answer?” It reminds of an interesting quote “Advice is what you ask for when you already know the answer… but wish you didn’t!” 🙂

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    • Hi Lexi buddy! Yard sale makes slightly more sense to me as I haven’t seen too many of these things in garages. Humans are really odd though aren’t they because they don’t sell yards or garages at those things. Why don’t they call them “Unwanted Stuff Sales”????? Woof! Ray.

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  8. Hot day, big dog, shady tree, treats. Yep.I know where I’d be headed.
    It’s not unusual to see signs for garage or garden sales in private houses over here now. We used to hang out at car boot sales, then when we were downsizing, became sellers. Over the course of the summer, we raised over £550, which was enough to revamp our kitchen and put up a higher front fence to reduce some of the road noise. One man’s trunk junk is another man’s pleasure treasure sotospeak.

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