Lucy's first adventure on her new doggie agility set

Stuart surprised me with a hand made doggie agility set for my birthday!!! It includes a see-saw, a jump, a round tunnel and the weave poles.

We introduced Lucy to the agility set for the first time this past Sunday. To my pleasant surprise, she literally jumped right into the whole set. The cheese treats didn't hurt either. Check it out:

Lucy jumps even higher!

Check out Lucy's increased jumping skills:



Lucy playing fetch with her signature high energy approach:

Happy Howl-o-ween & Canine Carnival

Today, we took Lucy to the Canine Carnival in Crowder Park. It was a dog festival, full of dog related vendors, rescue organizations, a show of doggie agility and even a dog costume costume.

Yes, I did dress up Lucy. I was embarassed about this interest, but when I went to Target last night, there was a whole section of doggie costumes and let me tell you this -- we were not alone. There were lots of other excited dog owners right next to me reviewing the selections. One lady said that she was a nurse and wanted to dress her dog in scrubs, but the scrubs they had were way to tiny for her 25 lb pooch. After much back and forth with Stuart about the squirrel costume, devil costume and martial arts costume, we finally voted on the martial arts costume. I figured that Lucy wouldn't wear the necessary hat for the squirrel costume, so that was out. Plus, the black and white of her coat matched the black and white of the martial arts costume.

Costume offerings at Target:






Today, Lucy made us both proud. First of all, despite the hundreds of dogs at the park, she didn't freak out. In fact, she was rather polite to 98% of the dogs. There were only a few dogs that seemed to rile her up. I was impressed that she was comfortable with all of the very large dogs. Secondly, Lucy won one of the awards in the "Dog Costume Contest"! Stuart suggested that once I walk her on the stage, I pause, have her sit and say "Hi-yah!" like a martial arts command and have her high five me with her paws. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to do tricks on the stage, but I went for it. I heard a few "oohhhss" and "ahhss" as Lucy played along. I'm convinced that it was that more than her costume that got her her award for "Most Energetic!". We won a training session with a local dog trainer to train for the "Canine Good Citizen's Test". I"m excited to train Lucy for that.

I took tons of photos and will upload them to this posting tomorrow. I had to get in my monthly blog update about Lucy.

Here's Lucy & I just before going on stage:



Here's Lucy nicely greeting some other dogs:

Dogs of Nice and Berlin

On my recent vacation, unfortunately without Lucy, I observed dogs and dog culture in Nice, France and in Berlin, Germany.

I was pleased to observe that the French and the Germans love dogs as much as we do. In fact, they seem to cart along their dogs to more places that I bring Lucy!

My friend Christine's Aunt came to Nice for the wedding and brought the whole family, including their adorable lab. Here's a pic of me with their nice dog. Photo:







Christine and her sister each have cute little doggies named Bijou and Bo-Bo. Here they are: (Left to right -- Bijou and Bo-bo):





Bijou and Bo-bo participated in most of the week's wedding events. Bobo even took a mini dip in the pool with us too! Bijou, however, is scared of the pool and didn't venture in. What impressed me was that both dogs were off leash pretty much all the time and just hung out with Christine and her family. As much as I've tried with Lucy to get her to listen off leash, it hasn't worked. Perhaps it's a breed thing? Lucy can jump through hula-hoops, sit, stay, roll-over, and even wave when asked, but not come when called when she's off leash. Well, she does, but only 80% of the time, which is not enough for truly letting her off leash.

Even at the beach near Nice, the "beach club" area where we hung out one day had 3 resident dogs. There was a large and docile German shepherd and two smaller terrier like dogs (both a mix of black and white fur). I snapped a pic of the lovely German Shepherd trying to chill in the partial shade.





Once in Berlin, I noticed dogs everywhere...in stores, in restaurants, in cafes, especially side-walk cafes.

My favorite dog sighting was in Old Towne Nice. I was wandering around the market place when I spotted a Dalmation dog trotting alongside a young blond 3 year old girl. The dog's leash was in a loop, and her little hand held onto it. However, it looked more like the dog was assisting the little girl and walking her. He kept an eye on her and seemed very gentle. An older woman, apparently the grand-mere, was walking close-by. I was dying to take a picture, but I restrained myself. I did go up to the woman and say, "Tres mignon!" and pointed to the little girl and the dog. That means, "very cute!". That seriously could be an advertisement for Kodak, aka, "a Kodak moment."

Lucy's back to back dog shows & first swim

This past weekend was quite exciting for Lucy.

On Friday, we had a company picnic, and Lucy joined us at the park. We had her do a little dog show for the kids. A colleague took a videclip, which I'll upload later.


On Sunday, we brought Lucy to a birthday party for a friend's 1 year old daughter. It was at a local park with a lake. Not only did the kids all want to pet Lucy, but the grown-ups enjoyed seeing Lucy jump through the hula-hoop. Also, it was Lucy's 1st official swimm! I went in the water with her and she was a natural.

Lucy in the water:




After her adventure, she looked very happy and tired:

August 5th rambling about Lucy related topics

Well, I haven't done a blog post for a few weeks now. Let's see, what's there to write about?

Furminator:

Okay, this isn't the first time I've written about the Furminator, and it may not be the last. This tool works so well, that it keeps surprising me. But let me show you instead of tell you. Here is a picture of the furminator after brushing Lucy for only a few minutes:




Yes, that is a lot of hair! I'd really rather have it in a brush than all over my house. After each brushing session, Lucy looks sleeker, her fur is softer and I think she feels better too. I can only imagine what it would feel like to wear a fur coat in the hot North Carolina summers we have.

Lucy's long lost brother:

So, it's been several months since we first met Peanut in Chapel Hill. I have been trying to organize a "Peanut - Lucy" meeting, but haven't yet been successful. I am starting to feel that it might never happen.

Going Green:

I watched an episode of "The Lazy Enviornmentalist" via my Roku device recently. That episode focused on a pet grooming company and how it could use eco-friendly products instead of harsh chemicals on the dogs. I was really interested in that. They mentioned a facial scrub for dogs made only out of blueberries that makes white fur look very bright and clean. I wish I could have gotten the name of it. They also mentioned, to my surprise, that there is little to no regulation around ingredients in dog shampoos, or even worse, food. I hope that the expensive dog food I buy from Phydeaux is good quality and has safe ingredients. I also wish I could find an alternative to the monthly tick treatment we give Lucy. The show mentioned something called, "Neem" as a shampoo that works well against fleas and ticks. There must be a healthier alternative. I'll check online if that tv show has a website with product details for green-living. Oh, I located the URL. This segment of their show is available online at:
http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/video.php/?p=1525

Happy 4th of July!

Lucy helped us place flags out around Stuart's neighborhood this weekend. It was to help the neighborhood celebrate Independence Day and also to market his real-estate business to his neighbors. Lucy happily joined along in the festivities. I drove while Stuart jumped out and placed the flags out. When I needed to park, I parked in the shade to ensure that Lucy & I stayed cool. While parked, I put together the flags, with a note and his business card. I have to say that it didn't seem like much work, but when you actually take on putting out 100+ flags, trust me, it's work.

The highlight for me was when I was parked waiting for Stuart, a group of young kids noticed Lucy. They gathered around and wanted to see her. So I jumped out of the car, and brought Lucy out to meet the kids. There were 3 little girls, ranging in age from 4 - 8 and 2 little boys about the same age range. 1 little blond girl with braids stumbled over to Lucy saying, "pet dog, pet dog..." Lucy happily obliged. I think Lucy tugged at my heart strings when she lay down and happily lapped up all the hugs and attention from the little kids. Lucy, in fact, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. By this time, Stuart had finished placing out the flags in that cul-de-sac and walked over. He told me later I was beaming. I told the kids that Lucy does tricks. Lucy complied with sit and "right paw" and "left paw" but was too distracted to spin or do other tricks. I said to Stuart, "If only we had a hula hoop we could show them how she can jump through it." Just then, 1 of the little girls, not more than 5 or so, raced away down the hill. Just a minute or so later, she reappeared pulling a red plastic cart and a hot pink hula-hoop. "Here," she proudly declared. I thought I was in Heaven! The kids all clamoured over getting to hold up the hula-hoop, so we had to take turns. The girl who brought the hula-hoop went first and I held onto the other side. I was worried that Lucy, given all the distractions and the fact that she was on a leash, wouldn't jump, but I was wrong. Right on cue, Lucy jumped through and back again. The crowd of kids all screamed, "ohhh" and "ahhh" in amazement. Next was the tiny blond girl with braids. She couldn't quite hold up the hula-hoop high enough, so I tried to help, but Lucy had already jumped through and got her back paws caught up in it. She recovered quikcly. Then there was a 3rd attempt, at which point Stuart mentioned that we ought to get going.

I really wanted to take pictures of Lucy with the kids, but I have to agree with Stuart, that that would have been wierd and possibly freaked out the parents. But all in all, at least Lucy got some great kid attention and I got to enjoy the experience too. What is it about kids and dogs? They are such a natural combination and just love eachother. It's so adorable.