Basketball

Lucy HATES the basketball we have.  She likes all sorts of other balls but the basketball is her enemy.  She snarls and barks at it.  Kind of like the Dustbuster!

Duke of Upton

Lucy's new friend is Duke, the mini-Dachshund who lives upstairs.  She loves to play with him and will whine and hang out by the door if she smells him leaving the building for a walk.  When we let them play together, she knows he is a young and small puppy and will be much gentler than with her other friends.

Catching Up

It has been a long time since we wrote last - Lucy is doing great...here are some of my favorite anecdotes:

Brad and Leslie's Wedding:
Lucy got to go to Brad's wedding.  During the ceremony she was inside but during the party she got to attend with us.  She socialized with everyone, danced on the dance floor with Web and even got pulled on stage with the band.  She wasn't even afraid during most of the fireworks, until the finale.  Everyone loved hanging out with her and she had a great time running laps during the weekend with Web and playing with her cousin Scout.

Puppy Kindergarten:
Lucy has had a great time going to Puppy Kindergarten.  She plays with Lola and Luke, and new friends Loki the Boston Terrier and Sadie the Wheaton Terrier.  Only Louie the Hound scares her with his size and playful nature.  She likes cheese from a string cheese log during training.  She even got to try the agility course one week!

Training in General:
Lucy is mostly housebroken now, even at friends' housees like TJ & Aimee's and Web's parents'.   She comes to my desk and stares at me and barks when she needs to go out!!  She sits and goes "down" on command, also stays and comes to her name when she is called.  The biting and chewing has gone down by a lot.  She did great at the groomer, got a little face haircut, trimmed nails, and a bath - the groomer said she was great and she was incredibly "chatty" when I picked her up all full of babbles and comments for me.  The groomer blew out her hair which looked funny but I was glad that she was clean!!

Teeth:
Today she lost a second tooth that we noticed!

Dog Park:
Lucy has started going to the dog park - she loves to chase her racquetball but doesn't fetch (i.e., return).  She likes to play with the other puppies in the little dog area, and she loves running around laps with either one of us.  She also likes to come to us when we call during her play time for a treat!  She also throws a little fit outside the doggie bakery when we don't go in.  Cute.

Eating:
Lucy likes her "chow crunchers" pretty much.  She is not an excited eater but will generally eat about 3/4 cup/day .  She's up to 8+ lbs and growing.  She LOVES ice cubes as her favorite treat.  She likes carrots, sweet potato, and cheese as well.  She grabs her treat, whatever it is, and runs under the dining room table to munch.

Time with Mommy:
Every time Web goes away, Lucy has a major health calamity.  The worst one was a few weeks ago where she threw up in her crate while I was getting a manicure, then threw up all over the house...poor baby didn't know what to do with herself and even woke up in the middle of the night with diarhea.  Fortunately she woke up hungry and happy and all better - no way to know what was wrong, very relieved that she was ok and that I had developed some intuition as to what to do.

Dogs Welcome

I am not a lifelong dog-lover.  My dad was bitten by a German Shepherd when I was a kid and I was scared of dogs until about five years ago.

Now that I have one, I try to balance how much we think she's the greatest with how to teach her to interact with a public who may or may not like dogs.

This weekend we had two great dog experiences - one was when we went to Picco's for pizza.  We sat outside and after the server brought our waters, he asked if Lucy wanted a glass of water too.  (Of course she did!)

Then yesterday we went to the Apple Store.  I sat outside with Lucy while Web went to get a replacement set of headphones.  The store manager came up to him to let him know that Lucy was more than welcome to come in - they were dog-friendly. 

More on Lucy

Lucy's growing fast.  She is over 5 lbs now, 25% increase from when we got her.  She went to the vet and got some shots and the vet says everything else about her is very healthy!! 

We don't want to forget the cute things she does as a puppy.  Like she is not heavy enough to create friction on our hardwood floors - so she slips out when she tries to sit still.  And she likes to drink from a Dixie cup in the bathroom.  And loves to hang out at the foot of our bed. 

Lucy's growing!

Lucy is growing quickly!  She can go on a long walk now (1 mile today!), and responds to Sit along with Come and Lucy.  She is pretty good with the housebreaking unless Mom and Dad mess up her schedule.  She seems to like her crate more and more, although she doesn't ever walk into it herself.  Last night when we came home from dinner we heard her howling, but we think it's just because she heard us talking outside the bedroom window.

Lucy is still very happy to play with anyone who stops to talk to her, kids and grownups.  She is friends with Lola, the Frenchie next door, and Scout - her cavapoo cousin who visited this weekend.  Also Tess, the lab on the corner.  Even the biggest dogs don't scare her. 

Tomorrow Jen the dog walker comes to take Lucy out for the first time.

Lucy Has Arrived!

Lucy has come home!  She is adorable and friendly.  She is also a handful and a lot of work.   She came home Saturday, so it's been about 5 days.

Here's what we know so far:

We made a mistake with her crate the first night by not showing it to her and not putting it in our bedroom.   She doesn't mind going in now but still cries if someone leaves the room.  We have not left her alone yet.  When she is in the crate, she presses her body up against the grate in the front - I think about it as her trying to go through a pasta machine! 

When she sleeps, she dreams, or at least she twitches and moves a lot.

Lucy likes carrots and not dog treats.  Maybe she is reading Michael Pollan!

Lucy is a biter - we need to learn to train her better on that.

Lucy knows where to pee, most of the time.  We take her out often and she uses the little garden in front of our house.

What she does not know is where to poo - that is still something we are working on.

She went from barely eating and drinking to doing just fine with both now. 

Sometimes she likes to go for a walk, but it take a million hours because she stops to talk to every person who goes by.  She isn't too interested in other dogs - yet.  She is ok around toddlers who want to play pretty rough.

When she hears a noise, she stops moving and 'points', lifting one of her front paws and sitting entirely straight up.  She hates buses and airplanes because they are very loud.