shopping with the collie

Between all the work today and keeping up on the news, I took a few walks with this guy to get a little relief. The sun came out for the first time in probably 10 days, so we took a long walk in the early afternoon, and then in the late afternoon I was going to walk up to the wine store for a bottle of Tempranillo to serve with dinner. The wine store is three blocks away, so I thought I'd bring the boy along. I have noticed on my past few visits that they have a sign on the door saying dogs are welcome, along with a big bowl of water on the floor. So off we went.

Merlin is so well behaved that I wasn't too concerned about how he'd react in a store full of expensive bottles of wine (despite his 85 lbs and tail), but I was concerned at the volume of his squealing if another dog was in the shop. Lucky for us, he was the only canine. Since it was his first trip running errands with Mom, I thought I'd photograph it. I had him sit and stay while I took off my gloves, set down my backpack and unpacked my camera. Then I stepped back to shoot 10-15 frames of him sitting and waiting for me. There were shoppers throughout the store, and he sat there patiently. I OWN THE BEST DOG ON THE PLANET.

And when we checked out, they wanted to pet him and give him treats. I think this is great because a) we know we can bring him back and b) should he ever get a rebellious streak and run away from home, now we know where he'll go.