[nagdu] Beyond the ovvious...

[Tracy Carcione]

It is annoying, when I walk in my local diner and the counter gal says Hi
to Ben, and not to me, THE PAYING CUSTOMER.  I believe last time I called
her on it, too.
On the other hand, I have had conversations at my gym that started out
about the dog, then went on to other things, and now some of those women
say Hi to me when I come in, and pretty much ignore Ben.  Kinda nice.  I
did also just recently meet a woman while shopping who came up to ask me
about Ben.  Turned out she was a puppyraiser, and we started talking about
the puppy club, which was very interesting to me.
And the sales gal at a store I frequent always says Hi to Ben, but then
asks me if I need any help finding anything, which sometimes I do.
So it can be annoying, but not so much as it used to be.  I'm mellowing in
my old age, I guess.  Or getting better at steering conversations, maybe. 
Though I'm usually happy to talk about my dog.
I do think it works better with people I see fairly regularly, like the
ladies at the gym.  Maybe they get their curiosity satisfied, and then
they're ready to consider other topics of conversation.

A friend of mine made me laugh when he got a dog.  He said, in his very
disingenuous way "Gee, I never realized how much people talk about dogs. 
Everywhere I go, I hear someone discussing dogs."
And he's so right!
Tracy