Walking the dog

It's hard to believe that Bingley has been with us for only 6 weeks! So much seems to have happened and Bingley has changed so much: a short while ago I'd intended writing a post headed '7.2 kilos of fun'. The fun part is still relevant, but the weight quickly changed to 11.7 kilos, and now the post would have to be headed: 14.9 kilos of fun!

When we saw the vet two weeks ago she warned us several times that he was going to be a big dog - but she didn't mention just how quickly he'd grow! Labradors retain their puppy mentality for a couple of years, so pretty soon we're going to have 35 kilos of fun on our hands...or laps...or just squashed on top of us.

The daily walks are great fun, albeit short. We're going out for about half an hour each morning, but less than half of that is spent walking and a lot of the time is spent sitting around enjoying the sights and smells. There are plenty of flowers and shrubs to sniff and explore, but of course his favourite smells are bits of rubbish and the scent of other dogs. There's a definite energy curve to these short forays: initially Bing wants to run across that field (pulling along anyone who happens to be holding the lead!); but quickly those attempts to run turn into attempts to just trot - in a very elegant fashion, it must be said: he really does have a lovely gait.

Of course we're trying to teach him not to be always pulling on his lead, and to politely walk to heel. But that's a story for another day!