Saturday, March 06, 2010

The Adventures of Lucy


Today was a big day for Lucy. It was a first day that Lucy & I went out together, just the two of us. She has been full of energy all week and I've been taking her for walks after dinner but that doesn't seem to tire her out too much. Or if it does, just for an hour or so.

This week I've registered her for Puppy Kindergarten starting Tuesday. I was also looking for places to take her to play. I don't want to take her to the dog park yet as the vet said there is a big outbreak of Parvo. Plus she really hasn't been around other dogs besides Paige & Snoopy. So I found a training centre that has drop-in puppy play times. They are from 1-2pm on Saturdays and it is only $10.

I put her smaller crate in the backseat of my car and put her in it. Let's just say the drive to the training centre was a little ear piercing. She didn't settle down at all. Even when I turned the music up to try to drowned her out.

We got to the centre and I took her out hoping she'd pee before going in. No good - too many distractions and vehicles driving by.

We get into the centre and it has two sections - 1 for large puppies and the other for smaller puppies. I thought she was OK to be with the large puppies but they were just too large for her. They started to over power her so I picked her up and took her with the little puppies.

Our side only had 4 dogs - 2 Bishons, 1 Jack Russel & Lucy. The other side had a lot of larger lab-type dogs - I'd say close to 10.

The two Bishons were running around chasing each other and the Jack Russel just stood there. Lucy, she was unsure of what to make of this. She whined and tried to get into my arms for the first 50 minutes we were there. She didn't want anything to do with anyone besides me. I kept walking away from her trying to let her know it was OK to explore and play.

Finally in the last 10 minutes after watching the Bishons run around all the time, she decided maybe this wasn't so bad and started to chase them too. Still unsure but wanting to attempt to play. Unfortunately our time ran out and it was time to go.

I was proud of Lucy as she was one of the only dogs who didn't eliminate on the floor, but she headed to the door as if to tell me that she had to do out. When I took her out afterwards she didn't do anything but going to the door was a good sign.

We got back to my car and with her in my arms I opened her crate. She jumped in there so quickly - she was glad to be in a safe place.

The ride home was peaceful - who would have thunk? Not a peep out of her.

We got home and Dad & Jacki were in the back installing a new light fixture outside. Snoopy & Paige were out there too. It was actually a very nice day out.

Snoopy had to smell Lucy and check her out and then the most wonderful thing happened. Snoopy started to play with Lucy! She started chasing her around and wanted to actually play with her. Lucy was taken aback as Snoopy has been so standoffish since Lucy came home. We had to put Paige in the house as she was being a little bit of a bully and they played for a good 15 minutes. This was nice to see.



Lucy sure was tired after her adventures today and crashed on my lap on the couch.

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