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This weekend, my husband and I went camping with our Sunday School class.

We decided we should try camping with our dogs this year. We have two golden retrievers: a 2-year-old named Chloe and a 1-year-old named Pascal.

We knew we wouldn’t be up for the craziness of bringing both of them, so we had to choose.

We immediately decided to bring our little one, Pascal, because he’s so incredibly calm. Chloe is by nature anxious and tends to get into stuff and not obey all that well.

However, just before the trip, we took Pascal to the vet and he had to be shaved a bit to take care of some wounds on his neck there from some rough play (gross? Yes.). So he couldn’t go camping with us because I was afraid of his wounds getting infected.

So our choices: bring Chloe or bring no one.

We decided to bring Chloe.

And she was an absolute angel. Listened well. Didn’t annoy people. Played well with the another dog on the trip.

We were shocked and pleasantly surprised.

The thing is, we judged Chloe before really giving her a chance to prove that she could be a good dog in this situation…to do something different. When she was on her own and had the attention on her, she did beautifully.

It just made me wonder…how often do I judge other people and think I know exactly how they’ll react to a situation? Probably a lot more than I want to admit.

And yes, dogs are not people…but I think the principle works the same.

Sometimes, you just have to give a dog her day. And likewise, sometimes, you just have to trust someone and give him/her a chance.

They may just surprise you.

Your Turn: Do you enjoy camping? Any fun camping memories?