Project Benji - FAIL

I'm terrible at keeping up with my blog on the weekends. Is it bad that the only time I update it is when I'm at work? ;-)

well, the week went by without any exercise. :-( ugh, I feel like such a slacker. I tell Benji every night that I will walk him the next morning, but then the next morning I find myself crawling back into the warm bed after taking him out for potty.

I shouldn't be able to resist this face:


but my laziness consumes me.

Saturday, I invited a few girlfriends over for lunch. It was part of my soon-to-be year-long "Project Benji". We adopted Benji, a little terrier mix, from a local rescue about 3 months ago and he's been a fantastic addition to our little family, but as we are also in the midst of adopting a human baby, we want to be sure that he'll transition well when the baby arrives sometime late next year.

I've been reading books on preparing dog for baby, and one of the suggestions they made is to expose the dog often to well-behaved children. I had my BFF over a few weeks ago with her kids and Benji snapped at her 10-month-old when he reached for Benji's stuffed moose. Thankfully, Benji missed making full-on contact and no one was injured (although tears were shed), but in my opinion, it was still a major FAIL.

On Saturday, things were going great until my friend's 5-year-old, Bella, reached to rub Benji's chin as he was chewing on his bully stick. Benji snapped at her and left a bruise on her forearm! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!

I am SO upset. :-( I feel like such a failure b/c I should have been watching more carefully. Benji is so NOT food or toy possessive with J and I that I got too complacent and assumed he would be ok with others. Obviously not!

Next time, I will have to put away all his treats and toys when little ones are around. If anyone is even brave enough to bring their kids around our house. :-(

Benji has obedience class tonight so I plan on asking the trainer what I could do better next time. I can't have him snapping at little ones!!