Dog Owners or Dog Sitters?

His name is Cooper. Isn't he cute? He's a good dog. We dogsat for my friend, Jillian, last weekend. The kids had a great time. It was a good experience. I never had a dog growing up, always had a cat. Jon's allergic to dogs and cats, but Cooper is "Hypo-allergenic" since he has "hair" instead of fur. I've always been curious how Jon would do with a "hypo-allergenic" dog. I'm sure Jon was excited for the little experiment as well. He stayed with us for the weekend and was in the house most of the time and in the backyard some of the time. Jon's allergies were fine - his eyes were a tiny bit irritated by Sunday night, but he wasn't sure if that was dog or just pollen?? There was an occasional dispute between Evan and Kate over whose turn it was to run around the house with Cooper on the leash. Cooper got a lot of attention over the weekend and was probably exhausted by Sunday night. It was cute when Jillian came over to pick him up. He snuggled up by her while she pet him and loved him and then after a while he would come over to me and snuggle up to me ( he liked me) and then he'd go back to her and then back to me. :)

Although the experience was fun and I'd do it again, I'm not sure I'm ready to be a dog owner - at least not now. I think I'd want a little more space for the dog to run around in outside and a little bit more room inside. Having a dog follow me around everywhere inside made me just a little closterphobic with 5 kids in addition. We kept him outside while we went to church. It had sprinkled just a tiny bit and when Cooper came inside, he smelled like Wet Dog! That's just one more thing to clean - another body to stick in the tub and scrub - hmm - maybe someday when the kids are a little more independent - although maybe they wouldn't care for a dog by then. Anyway, for now, we're going to stick with being Dog Sitters.