John Kerry

Frances Plessner of Puddleduck Boarding Kennel in Morrill said that Ben was a pleasure to work with, and so was the politician. She spent about an hour Tuesday evening working with Kerry and his dog together before Kerry and the retriever drove off in a black SUV.

“He was really good. He’s a really smart puppy. He pretty much exceeded my expectations,” she said of Ben, who will be a family pet. “John Kerry loves the dog. … [Kerry] was awesome. So polite, so nice. I honestly thought I would be so nervous, but he was so relaxed.”

She said that the secretary of state got Ben as a 5-month-old puppy from a woman in Massachusetts, who told him that the dog needed a lot of training. When Kerry asked the woman for help finding a trainer, Plessner, who raises Labrador retrievers and trains dogs professionally, was at the top of the list.
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“I thought maybe he was going to be a jerk, but he’s not,” Plessner said. “He’d call me, even with his busy life. He’d call me when he was in other countries. He just wanted the best for the dog — not over-the-top, just whatever Ben needed.”