Last fall I was in Washington, DC, visiting my family, and I went to the liquor store for my dad. Paul’s Liquors is a family run operation on Wisconsin Avenue, almost at the Maryland line and across the street from Rodman’s Drugs, another family run business I like to patronize.

When I walked into the store one of the owners was out from behind the counter, on his knees, asking a customer’s dog to shake for a cookie. “Oh this is a dog-friendly business!” It turns out they are more than just a little fond of dogs. The business has been supporting local shelters for years and were preparing to host a wine tasting to benefit a shelter. One of the owners has taken in shelter dogs, apparently as many as ten at one point.

So, of course, when Chico and I were in Washington for Christmas, we made trip to Paul’s.

Chico will do a sit-stay well enough that I felt OK backing off to take a picture of him here in front of the entrance to Paul's.

Chico is shy around strangers and in new places, so he wasn’t sure about all the attention he got, even though it was positive. The owners are real dog people and they were great with him. When Chico wasn’t so sure about accepting a piece of biscuit, they put the dog cookie to their own mouths and mimed eating it. Of course, that upped the cookie’s value immensely and Chico was willing to try it.

Doing his tricks is always a good ice breaker, it gives Chico a chance to make people smile and those smiles help relax Chico.

Chico is not entirely convinced that this is a super-great idea. He's wary; not ready to run away, certainly not scared enough to think he needs to look scary, but also not having the world's greatest time.

After just a few moments, Chico is much more relaxed. He's paying attention to his host, his body is more relaxed, his ears are cocked forward and he's more relaxed around his eyes. This is going pretty well.

It seemed to me that Chico benefited from this interaction. He came away happier and calmer than he started, and in our little world, that’s good progress.

Dog friendly, with a great selection of beers, wines and spirits at what seem to me to be good prices, this is my current favorite liquor store in the part of Washington, DC that I visit.