Isaac at Panera - Take Two

I read through my blog posts from last December because I thought I would have written about this, but I guess I didn't.  This time last year was a crazy, stressful time for me.  I guess I just never got around to blogging about this particular event.

Last year at Christmas time, I met a good friend for lunch at Panera.  We planned to have lunch, to talk and to exchange gifts.  She lives about three hours away from me, so we were meeting about midway. 

I'd only had Isaac for about a month, but I'd taken him to a few restaurants and he'd done OK at them.  He did not do well at Panera that day, though.  As soon as my friend and I got our food and sat down, he started to bark.  I couldn't get him to stop.  I even took him outside in case he needed to go potty, but I don't think that was what he was barking about.  To this day, I don't know why he was barking.  I just know that I had to cut my lunch, and my visit with my friend, short because I had an out-of-control, disruptive service dog.  It was really cold that day, too cold to just leave him in the car while I ate.  I was really mad at him.

Well, today I met the same friend at the same Panera to have lunch and exchange gifts.  Isaac was so well-behaved.  The difference was like night and day.

I got there before my friend, so Isaac and I waited in the entryway for her to arrive.  While we were waiting, a number of people went by us, either coming into the restaurant or leaving the restaurant.  One middle-aged man howled at Isaac.  Howled.  Like a wolf or something.  That was a new one for me.  I've had people bark and I've had people meow.  But this was the first howl.  And one woman stopped to do some baby talk at Isaac.  Isaac ignored both the howler and the baby talker, though.

My friend got there, we ordered our food and got our drinks and found a table.  Isaac went right under the table.  He lay down with his head on my foot and slept until we were ready to leave.  When we got up to go, and he came out from under the table, a couple of people seated nearby exclaimed, "There's a dog!  Look, it's a dog!"  They hadn't known he was under there, because he was doing what he was supposed to do.  I imagine last year, everyone in the whole place knew there was a dog there, because he barked pretty loudly.