Life with Benny

Submitted by: Cockapoo Place Member mbf203 @mbf203

When I was a little girl, my Kindergarten teacher, Miss Meyer, had a little gray dog named Smokey. Smokey came to school every day. I loved him as much as my own poodle, Louis, and thought it was the most natural thing in the world to have a dog at school. In my mind’s eye, I can still see Smokey–also every bit the poodle with his fancy poodle cut–prancing on the end of his leash, certain that he owned every bit of our small campus and that every kid there was “his” kid. Years later, I am now a college counselor and also a high school English teacher–and my dog Benny, a beautiful buff cockapoo, also comes to school with me every day.

 

 
Just as it was all those years ago, Benny being with me at school every day seems exactly right. Benny certainly thinks that school, and everyone there, is just an extension of home! (In fact, because the evil cats–or evil to Benny at any rate–live at home, he prefers school to the house any day.)

 

 

 
Benny, who is two-years old, loves everybody. My school is small–about 900 students–from pre-Kindergarten all the way through to seniors in high school–and everyone loves him too! On our mid-morning walk, kids run up to him and his little rear shakes with delight at the thought of playing with the little ones. He has some favorite students–they come to my office almost every day to play with him–and when he hears their voices, he goes running to greet them. One of my students–a senior who has just graduated–has a special relationship with Benny; she’s even taught him to roll over, something he does only for her! And recently, one of my other students was sitting at my desk, talking about some things that were stressful to her, and Benny jumped up in her lap and sat with her while she talked. “Benny is good therapy!” she informed me. He is for me too.

Benny has the typical places for a cockapoo to hang out in every day (meaning that some of them are unusual for any other sort of dog). Sometimes he sleeps on a bed behind my desk; other times, he sits in the chair across from me and looks like he’s having a college-counseling meeting. (He looks at me so seriously!) Often, I’ll find him sitting on my conference table; that’s right–he jumps up on the table so that he can watch the world pass by. At night at home he sleeps behind me on the top of my stuffed reading chair, just like a cat would. (Needless to say, my cats, Jasper & Charlotte, don’t love that.) Also like a cat, I will sometimes find Benny on top of my kitchen table, just keeping watch over what’s happening in the house. I know I should scold him when he does that, but he’s just too cute.

I’ve been really lucky to work at a school that loves dogs so much that Benny can come with me to work every day. He has been perfectly socialized because of all the time he spends with kids of all ages and lots of adults: Benny doesn’t know a stranger, and he thinks being around lots of different people every day is the most natural thing in the world. Every week day, as I’m finishing my morning coffee, I’ll say to him, “Do you want to go to school?” and he’ll jump up and down with excitement. The idea of getting in the car and going to school never gets old. In the afternoons, if the weather is good, we’ll take a walk around campus, and one of his favorite things to do is chase a ball on the practice soccer field. It’s as if he has own, private dog park.

I spent my whole childhood with dogs, and then my whole adult life–up until recently–without them. Getting Benny a few years ago was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

 

 
He’s the perfect dog: happy, loving, sweet, funny, and full of life.