I went out a couple of hours ago to take a little walk through the neighborhood, once the sleet had gone all the way over to snow and it was sticking pretty well. First thing I did was go around back to see if Lucy was outside or had barricaded herself in the basement against the advancing glaciers.

...but isn’t it a scary resemblance? I’d love to find out the breed makeup of the dog in the picture. (It’s from the SMARTHOME catalog, BTW.)

OK, so Lucy and I won’t be heading to the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge anytime soon.

With Miss Lucy’s pre-August-2004 life a mystery to us, we have freely indulged in all sorts of speculation. Since she’s likely a Border Collie mix, I had wondered if she might have done any agility stuff in the past. Well, I think that’s been answered.

The Fayette County Humane Society held a fundraiser on Saturday, June 2nd, at the Peachtree City Dog Park. One of the many attractions brought in for the event was the Doggie Fun Zone, a traveling agility course specially designed so that dogs with no experience can run the course.  A typical agility course contains a number of obstacles such as jumps and tunnels scattered about an area, and the handler must direct the dog through the obstacles in a specific pattern. Doggie Fun Zone had a definite course laid out with mesh fencing, directing the dog (and handler, sort of) through a maze that contained the jumps and so forth. There was also a lure line running through the course—a white cloth on a cord that would hopefully entice the dog to chase it through the obstacles. All in all, a pretty cool setup, and some of the dogs were barreling through the course for all they were worth.

Lucy chose that particular time to act like she knew how to heel.

Baby gates were set up between the sides of each obstacle and the mesh fencing, to ensure that the dog didn’t go around an obstacle. Handlers, however, were cautioned to go back and forth over the mesh as needed rather than over the baby gates. So I was doing quite a bit of awkward swinging over the mesh, while encouraging Lucy to stay on course. (Do as I say, not as I do.) The lure was of almost zero interest to her, and she was very content to wait around until I had finished my gymnastics to find out where I wanted her to go next. But to her credit, she didn’t balk at the tunnels as some dogs might—if she could see me calling her on the other side, she would happily trot through, and then continue to stick right with me until the next obstacle.

Our not-exactly-blistering run was capped off by Miss Congeniality’s noticing a group of dogs she wanted to meet just outside the Fun Zone, and she hopped right over the mesh fencing, missing the last tunnel. Honestly, instead of a cloth, I think the very best lure for her would have been one of the other dogs running through the course at top speed!

But, we’ll be ready for ‘em next time. Lucy doesn’t have any “fetch” instinct that I can detect, but we’ve been quite successful with a game called “Get The Treat!”, where I throw a dog treat across the yard and she runs after it, then comes back to me for another round. Not “fetch” exactly, but it’s a start. Maybe I’ll start tying the treat to a white cloth or something. We’ll get this figured out—she’s a smart girl, not to mention the best doggie in the ‘verse.

I am continually amazed by Lucy. Maybe it’s just because she’s my first dog, but I dunno…

Over the weekend I was cleaning up the bedroom. Lucy found a small box, picked it up in her mouth and walked out of the room with it. Since that was exactly the sort of thing I was trying to collect and throw away, I griped, “Aww, Lucy, bring that back here.”

She put the box down and came back to where I was.

Intrigued,  I went for broke. “No, go get that box and bring it back here.”

She DID.

Massive hugs and praise ensued.

I know border collies are notorious for this kind of thing, but it’s amazing to see it in action.

Lucy can be scary sometimes.

Just now sitting here at my computer I heard her do something uncharacteristic—bark like an ordinary stupid dog for no good reason. Normally if she’s just excited about seeing somebody in the next yard she will stand on the deck and wag her tail. If she gets overexcited she may give out with a bark or two and then shut up. But this was a veritable State of the Union speech by her standards.

So I went to the nearest window from which I could see her, and I opened the window so I could speak to her. In a matter-of-fact tone that an ordinary stupid dog would have interpreted as merely attention and therefore a reward, I informed Miss Lucy what I would do if she got into the habit of barking like that—the idea involves going to PetsMart and buying something to put on her.

An ordinary stupid dog would have stood there wagging and hung on every word.

Lucy put her head down and looked penitent. She either not only understands English but can parse compound sentences, or she’s psychic and picked up the mental image of what I was predicting as her fate.

This is quite remarkable, even though Lucy is an actual dog. Up until now she has shown no interest whatsoever in various dog toys we have brought her. Cat toys, however, are a big hit, but we have to take them away from her because they’re just not made to stand up to those jaws.

Then one night this week, she picked up a sock off the floor, I grabbed the other end, and a game of tug-of-war ensued. The sock was much the worse for wear afterward, so I decided to see if I could find something more appropriate. We had gotten her a hard figure-8-shaped rope thing before, and Kevin and I had played tug-of-war with it in front of her, making play growly noises to try and get her interested. (It was surprisingly fun, too!) She was pretty excited about the whole thing, but we never could get her to join in.

But this sock business got me wondering if she’d like something softer, so I found a big, soft knotted rope toy at Wal-Mart, and it’s a hit. She is some kind of fur-covered tractor, by the way: I keep threatening to hook her up to a sled, because she can really pull.

Our dog, Lucy, and our youngest cat Mickie, were playing in our bedroom yesterday.

Mickie would pop out from under the bed, and Lucy would chase her back under.

Our dog and cat were playing cat-and-mouse.

This fencing system supposedly contains both cats and dogs without the use of electric shock or any other form of negative conditioning. We’ve been wanting to give Lucy more room to run around for awhile now, and if the cats could safely get a little fresh air and exercise that would be a real bonus. Has anyone else heard of this? purrfectfence.com

Mickie likes to make sure Lucy’s face is clean and shiny bright…

...including way down deep in her ears, which you would think would tickle like fury, but Lucy seems to be perfectly fine with it.

Chris has been fighting what now appears to be a succession of bugs for the last several weeks, and last night she—who never gets fevers—had a pretty significant fever. She’s going to the doctor this afternoon.