Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Pitlandia in Portlandia: Cartlandia Food Carts

Wow...Pitlandia in Portlandia at Cartlandia...that's a mouth full!  But, that's what happened yesterday when we took Athena to her first food cart pod in the city!
It was a spur of the moment decision that turned into a great experience for us all!  We have been taking Athena to a lot of new places in the past week to help her with her socialization and fear of pretty much everything.  We thought that going to some food carts would be a perfect opportunity for her to get out of the house and practice her politeness in public!
We decided to go to Cartlandia in SE Portland because it's fairly close to our house and is one of the larger food cart pods in the area.  They have all sorts of different food carts that serve food from around the world.  This time we had some authentic Mexican street tacos from Brother Express and shared a delicious bavarian cream dessert from Cake on a Hot Tin Roof.
There was one other dog at the food carts who barked at Athena the ENTIRE time that we were there.  At first Athena wanted to approach the dog, but we made her heel and walked away.  As we sat down to eat our lunch at a picnic table, Athena kept wanting to see the barking dog.  We practiced her sit/stay and down/stay while we ate and she quickly became uninterested in the very annoying dog.
I was shocked at how well behaved Athena was at the food carts.  I swear that it was like being with a very well trained dog who has been practicing for months!  She let us eat our food (for the most part), got tons of attention from people at the carts, and listened to our commands even with all of the distractions around.  I don't think that anyone would have guessed that we have only had her for one month (and she didn't know any commands when we first got her)!
Now that the summer is coming to an end, I'm a little sad that we might not get to go on too many more food cart adventures.  But, I'm feeling like Athena is on her way towards being a great pitbull ambassador!

Check out our other Pitlandia in Portlandia post here.

-A

10 comments:

  1. We loved the food carts in Portland! We made it a goal to eat at as many of them as possible when we visited last May! We never tried Cartlandia though. Maybe on our next visit? :)

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    1. Emily- We LOVE to try different food carts around Portland. There are so many pods popping up all over the city, so there's always something new to try! We are so excited that our food truck outing was successful with Athena!

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  2. Isn't it wonderful when our dogs exceed our expectations? Keep up the good work, Athena!

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  3. Way to go Athena! I'm a little jealous though, we don't really have that many food trucks around here... sad.

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    1. Food carts are the BIG thing in Portland right now. They are pretty much everywhere! Maybe they will catch on in your city soon =)

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  4. Your food carts look amazing! Chicago still has a long way to go in the food cart arena. And so great for Athena! I can't believe you've had her such a short time, but making her world bigger is so important.

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  5. Okay, I want to move already...
    Also, I think your little girl with fear/socialization issues is doing pretty fantastic!

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    1. Yes, the food carts are an amazing addition to the city! We love them!

      And, thanks =) We think that she's doing pretty well too and hope that she just keeps getting better the longer that we have her!

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