We took Sonny to church with us for the first time today. He’s ten weeks old, so I wanted to keep things as easy for him as I could. We sat wayyyy in the back corner (near the door to the outside, just in case), and parked him at my feet between our pew and the one in front of us.
Of course, it was Communion Sunday, which always makes for a longer service. And it was our beloved interim pastor’s last day with us as well, so there was a special little presentation at the end. And then there was the annual holiday dinner afterward in the multipurpose room, where we purposely sat at the table farthest from the food lines and foot traffic…only to find ourselves dead center in front of a pair of speakers and a microphone for people to use in expressing appreciation for the pastor. I was prepared to take him out of the room if he showed any signs of “TOO MUCH!”
But you know what? Sonny was fantastic. He took a while to settle into the church service — mostly because this is the first time I’ve expected him to be quiet for a longer period of time in public — but once he did, he was solid (even if he did snore during communion). He had a couple of appropriate chew toys, and eventually got the hang of my placing him and re-placing him in a down. I took him out to relieve in the parking lot, which he was happy to do. Then I sat him under our lunch table and he figured that out as well (without even being too sniffy/floor-licky). He didn’t seem to care about music playing or people talking or kids running around or the wafting smells of food. AND everyone was really cooperative about not petting him or distracting him (sometimes that’s the hardest part).
I thought he’d be exhausted when we got home, but after an hour or so of running around and playing with Truman, he is finally, FINALLY asleep. He’s napping, Truman’s napping, the pack leader is napping, and I…well, I’d nap too, but I have things to do that can’t be done with wide-awake puppies in tow.
Hooray for my confident little dog!
LabradorRodeo 
Even though Uma flunked due to “food agression,” she was just like this in public places, even when she was a tiny puppy. She could lie under tables for hours and we took her to church too (when friends got married) and we sat right at the back “just in case”. Once when she was about 4 months old, we took her into a restaurant and the manager didn’t want to let us, so we explained about the puppy walking thing and he very reluctantly allowed us to have a table. He made it very clear that if he saw one bad move, we were out. After we’d been there an hour, the manager came over and said, “if I hadn’t known there was a puppy under that table, I’d never know there was a puppy under there.” Or words to that effect. 🙂
I love those moments! Out there being good ambassadors for the school (and the idea of service dogs in general)!