Stay!

By now many of you know that the house move hasn’t happened and that we’ve decided to stay put for a while longer. That’s not all bad news: we miss the notion of being right by the sea, but it’s also nice not to have to go through the upheaval of packing up and moving.

Bingley of course has been oblivious to all these deliberations. Actually, oblivious may not entirely accurate: during some of the more stressful moments he would come and sit quietly at our feet in a most sympathetic and understanding way. And he wasn’t remotely oblivious to the people who recently called round to quote us on the removal costs! That was a bit disappointing because I thought that he might be getting better at resisting the temptation to transform himself into a barking frenzy of jaw frothing embarrassment every time someone visits us.

He does calm down again very quickly once first contact has been made. Unfortunately most people value their lives and are very reluctant to even contemplate allowing first contact to get anywhere near taking place.

During the plans for the move only one visitor recognised that this barking 36 kilo beast was actually just a puppy who wanted to say hello. He was a dog owner himself and wanted to meet Bingley up close and personal. Brave man! Interestingly once Bing had introduced himself with his usual overwhelming vigour he went on to quickly settle down and play with his toys. Brilliant! But as I’m quickly learning, one breakthrough moment does not a well trained puppy make.

In fact training is obviously going to be a lifelong process with all the usual ups and downs. Stay, which until recently was a command which Bingley was really good at following, has now been completely forgotten. At the moment he won’t let me get too far away and won’t wait to be called before enthusiastically running over; and actually going out of sight before calling him is impossible.

Could it be that he wasn’t at all oblivious about our plans to change house after all, and that he’s worried that he might get left behind? It certainly seems that he’s not going to let us out of his sight until he’s convinced himself that we’re the ones who are going to stay!