The time has come...

...to hire a dog trainer. 

We've lived the past two years in tacit acceptance of our homebound fate. We're workaholics (i.e. it's no big deal to spend a night in, typing away at our laptops), we work from home (or 2 blocks from it), and we have incredibly understanding friends and family (who haven't yet stopped hanging out with us despite our furry brown appendage). So somehow we've made do living with a dog who won't let us leave him alone.

There are rules that developed that have enabled us to lead this sort of lifestyle:

1. Make sure one of us is always home. Since Mike is a consultant and works out of our front room, this is easy most weekdays. On weekends, and evenings, we take turns minding Marlo if the other has plans.


2. Visit only friends who welcome our mutt. Luckily, Marlo has endeared himself to our San Francisco family. His soulful brown eyes and belief that he really is a 65 lb lapdog has earned him a standing invitation to dinner parties at a handful of homes around the city.

3. For rare date nights, eat only at restaurants with outdoor patios. This is lovely throughout San Francisco's Indian Summer months, not so fun in the freezing fog. Liberties and the Slow Club are our most often go-tos. Walkable, and they bring water bowls out for Marlo.

4. Ingratiate ourselves to friends and relatives who will help out. We've made it to weddings and to welcome new babies by leaving Marlo with a good friend or brother. Our dog walker comes twice a week and we can sneak out for an afternoon when she's here.  We couldn't have made it this long without them.

Despite the relative smoothness of life with these rules, enough is enough. We can't be spontaneous, or whimsical, or wild. We are under house arrest, and Marlo has buried the keys. We're ready to travel, visit museums or go to plays, see the inside of a fine dining establishment!

And so it is with enthusiastic, but cautious optimism that we embark on our training program with Kelley Filson, dog anxiety expert. She believes Marlo can do it. Now Mike and I need to believe we can, too.