I took Benton to the protest yesterday, and he was very good. (Also extremely popular. People love a friendly dog who knows how to sit peacefully in public.) This one was standing by roads into and out of a local mall with signs, so there was a lot of honking in approval and people driving slowly by, which was awesome to us but not thrilling to Benton.
We had a young twenty something sitting by us with a sign who I don't think had ever protested before, and she immediately fell in love with him—and even more when I slyly noted that he could really use someone to pet him to get him through all the cars. (He had in fact edged over to her in the hopes of petting, and I wasn't really lying: Benton likes pets on his own terms, and he could use the physical reassurance from honking.) I think it helped her calm down a little when she was nervous, and I definitely think she had fun. Good. The fun parts of protesting are what make it sustainable: seeing everyone's signs, talking to people, sharing experiences and feelings and showing off that we care about one another.
Until/unless the tenor of protest safety changes, he's about to be my protest buddy moving forward. (There are often dogs at protests, so Matilda is benched until I really trust her to have a handle on dog reactivity; she's improving a lot but protests are not the time.)
Anyway, I forgot to get pictures at the time but Benton was absolutely bushed afterwards:
I'm going to make him a cape with a sign of his own for May Day. Need to settle on a slogan first, though.
