I am surprised at this thread. Do a lot of people have family and friends that do not have dogs??? The reason I ask, we just had a Christmas Eve party and Christmas brunch at my house and then had Christmas dinner at a friend's house. At my house there were 15 people and at the friend's house there were 23 people (including 4 little kids). My dogs were at all the celebrations and no one held them, or passed them around. Everyone likes my dogs and they talk to them and they even gave them Christmas gifts but that was that. All the adults were talking and socializing, the kids were playing and the dogs were either walking around or laying in their beds. The focus was not on animals at all. At our friend's house there were 5 dogs: 1 black lab, 1 golden retriver, 1 cocker spaniel, 1 shih tzu and 1 yorkie. None of them were treated any different than they are any other day. ALL of our family and friends have dogs, so they are not that big of a novelty. Not even my cute, little, dressed up, girls. But even their clothes are not that big of a novelty, because yesterday everyone (all animals) were donning their Christmas finery, including the black lab and the golden retriever.
