Halloween Arrived Early This Year

[Heidi & Milton]

This past Saturday, my doodle friends and I, with our respective doods, of course, attended Barktober Fest 2012 at Fort Woof in Fort Worth.  As can be imagined with the crisp fall weather (temps in the 50s), the Halloween spirit, and dogs on parade, it was a magical morning!  Here is our little party:

Leo the Lion and Lindsay

Hops the Bucking Bronco (Thuy)

Newton the Monster (Thuy)

Milt the Frog (me!)

Fort Woof is a tremendous dog park with a common middle ground flanked by separate small dog and large dog play areas.  The event was nicely organized with adoption dogs and lots of vendors giving out free swag, like all-natural dog food, doggie disposal bags, and even pig ears! 

Our crowd spent some time in both play areas.  Milton was lucky that his mid-size weight allowed him to play in both; however, I did swiftly kick him out of the small dog park when he latched on to another little dog's frog costume and proceeded to run him around.  I don't think Milt liked the frog competition!

Milton and Hops fooling around with a pretty cool boxer onlooker

A delicate flower

A turtle waddling along

Leo battling a bumble bee

Sometimes the humans dress up too!

The highlight of the event was when a couple of our dogs participated in a "Stupid Dog Tricks" contest.  It was actually commented by a local radio celebrity, T'he Great Gordo!  Thuy and I felt pretty professional as we coaxed our dogs into the ring.  The bad news was we could only showcase one trick, and our dogs have such a vast repertoire.  Actually, I think it's more like we need to show all of the tricks together to achieve the wow value!

The dogs practicing before they go on!

Thuy picked "sit pretty" for Hops which required him to sit up on his hind legs.  Likewise, Milton performed his trademark "crawl," but once completed the commentator remarked, "I hope you folks didn't spend too much time teaching your dogs these tricks!"  Needless to say, Milton and Hops would rather wrestle than perform.

We didn't stick around long enough for the Costume Contest, but we did catch a glimpse of a dog obedience school performance.  The show consisted of the dogs perfectly parading around, and the below shows the dogs' amazing ability to sit still while festival goers ran around attempting to distract.  After Milton's lack of heel at the festival, Jeff and I are really seeing the need to up training in this area!

Perfect concentration

Overall, Barktober Fest was the perfect way to spend the day.  The cold weather precluded us from eating lunch out, but I think all the boys were quite tired, including this one!

Sleepy frog

Something tells me we just might become regulars at this Halloween doggie festival!  Good thing I bought the Milt an extra-large costume to store away for next year.  Happy Early Halloween, everyone!

Three girls and their boys To read more about Milton the Goldendoodle, visit www.goldilocksandherdoodle.com

[Donna P.]

What a great time.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

How cute... you guys look like you had a blast :)

[Becka]

Great pictures! Looks like a blast. I love the frog costume.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

They are all too cute. Looks like fun was had by all.

Happy Halloween!