Puppy Sitting

Above is a photo of Bingo with Stephanie and Joe who will be puppy sitting him when we are off on our spring break trip to Ireland. Stephanie is sitting in a wheelchair and Bingo is sitting next to her. Joe is standing behind Bingo with his hand on her chair. Bingo wasn't afraid of the chair at all. In fact, he didn't react to it. It was a non-threatening item in his eyes. (Yea Bingo! One more item off the checklist.) When Bingo and I got out of the car to walk down to their house, I was a little nervous because both Stephanie and Joe are experienced dog trainers and Bingo was pulling on the leash. I was doing my best to show some leash control, but he was really excited. So there was a lot of panting and pulling and me stopping along the way. Not quite the entrance I was hoping for.

The only thing I can think of is that Stephanie succumbed to Bingo's charms because she declared him a handsome boy and said that he was doing very well for his age and she even praised me (for which I KNOW I deserve no praise!). He must have been uncommonly cute that afternoon. At one point Bingo scooped up a rock and tried to eat it and I fished it out of his mouth; then he tried to eat mulch, then he tried to eat some strange 5 inch seed that had dropped from a nearby tree. Sigh. All this and she still said that they would love to take him on for us while we were in Ireland. My heart lightened. These were people who got Bingo. Who thought he was a good dog. I have a feeling that Bingo will come back to us a better behaved dog than when we gave him to them. I'm feeling a trifle guilty about that. Wee, small prickles of guilt, but guilt just the same. 8-).

On the walk to the car, Bingo walked right by my side, no lunging or pulling. I whispered, "Good dog. Good dog. Good dog." All the way back.