Hound Land

I went to Norwich today, to look at curtain material in John Lewis.  I'd already noted down some I quite liked from their online shop - not sure that I've found the right thing yet, I'll keep looking.  Afterwards, I ambled round the shop looking at the stuff in the sale (I bought really dull household items) and, in the space of less than ten minutes, three people passed me with their dogs on leads.  Is this a new thing?  A dog being led round a department store?  They were all well behaved and one looked reasonably happy (I'm not sure a waggy tail is great around shelves of items for sale) but one of them was clearly miserable.  Surely it's better to leave the dog at home or in the car?

I've never come across this before - of course, dogs being walked in the city, but not dragged round shops. I feel sorry for small dogs being taken into crowded places anyway, such as our local street markets, but at least that's in the open air.  Were dogs so indulged during lockdown that, even years later, they can't cope at home alone?

My daughter's family had a puppy during lockdown, in fact.  She grew up with people all around her - can't remember all the Covid timeline, but the children were being home-educated when she was a puppy, Weeza was furloughed and Phil was working from home.  They made sure there was a gradual transition for her and bought a camera to check she wasn't pining.  She wasn't.  It all went smoother than they'd really expected.

These dogs were well behaved, which a lot of lockdown dogs were not, so perhaps it's just a matter of them being considered family.  That doesn't mean that being taken to a busy department store, where a dog is knee-high to a lot of strangers, is a kind way to treat it.  I didn't think much of the first one, but by the third, it seemed to be a trend.