Lalu is the best-loved Bihari street dog

As you may have guessed from the title, Jeff and I decided to name our new puppy "Lalu." Not only is it a fittingly cute name, it also sounds like Lulu, Jeff's dog from home. However, that's not why we chose it. We named our little rascal after Lalu Prasad Yadav, notoriously corrupt and wildly popular Bihari politician running against Nitish Kumar (current Chief Minister - think Governor). Jeff mentioned this in a previous blog post, but one highlight on Lalu's resume was when he was jailed for corruption while he was Chief Minister and put his illiterate wife in his place so he could rule from prison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalu_Prasad_Yadav . Although our pup will never be given the opportunities for devilry that his namesake has had, he's stubborn and charismatic enough to deserve the name. Jeff reminded me that I probably shouldn't use his name on the streets, however, since some people might find it offensive.

 Jeff and I had planned on adopting a street dog here, for a number of reasons: it'll take one copulating animal off the streets; it'll give a dog who would otherwise have a rough life a glorious one; and it's free. There are additional benefits that we didn't expected; most people we encounter in the street (who are already fascinated by us foreigners), think it's hysterical that we adopted a street puppy and show quite a bit of pride when we say we got him here in Patna. So when people ask what breed he is, as they invariably do, I say "Bihari," to general hurrahs.

I was very nervous at first about how my apartment building manager (and the security guard at our office) would feel about him (since they're quite literally the gatekeepers to those buildings), but they transform from gruff, standoffish fellows to absolute blubbering babies when he wags his tail and runs up to them. It's pretty unbelievable.

But he's not always such an angel. We take him out every hour to pee so that he'll stop peeing inside (thank goodness he somehow instinctively only ever goes on the newspaper in the "puppy zone" - no clue how he figured that one out). I also take him on a morning walk that has rapidly become a source of extraordinary stress. For Lalu, it's fabulous: he gets to dig in the sand, he gets to eat bugs, and sometimes he gets to sit in the middle of the road just for the hell of it, wondering why mama's face is turning blue. This is particularly infuriating at times because he grovels like crazy with everyone except me (and to some extent Jeff) - I can beg and plead with him to walk with me, and he stubbornly sits down in the middle of the road, but as soon as someone walks by, he leaps up and runs up to him or her, tail-a-wag.

What doesn’t help is that work has been hellish the past week, so we've only had time to teach him one command: sit. We taught him this by waving a treat in his face and only giving it to him when he sits, paired with the verbal command "sit." Now he's a sitting champ. Unfortunately, what this means is that when I try to bait him to follow me on our walk with a treat, he promptly sits down, expecting praise. The rational part of my brain knows he has the attention span of a flea, so he doesn’t understand what he's doing, but the rest of me is going a bit nuts.

And I realized with a bit of a shock a few days ago that he's going to be with us (hopefully!) for over a decade, so all those days of sleeping in without consequences are suddenly over, and for the foreseeable future I have to get up at 5:30am to take him out to pee, every day. After all, it's not like just because it's Sunday, he all of a sudden no longer has a bladder.  I'm hoping to trade the early morning shift with McManus on Saturdays, so I get to sleep in a bit - he's been crazed with his project and sick with a cold, so he's been spared at least a little of puppy duty so far.

Anyone with tips on how to make your puppy obey you instantly with avid, unconditional love would be greatly appreciated.