Lucy Blog - July 2021

I decided that, similar to babies (I think), it is time to stop talking about her in "months". So this blog is for a bunch of things that Lucy got to experience during July 2021.

We don't get to see her friend Potter very much anymore, but last time we did, they had a good play session. At the end, you can see Redson (the sheltie) and a beagle trying to get into the action).

This one is with her buddy, Elmo. Elmo's mom, Lisa, is a good friend of ours and we like to get the dogs together. They tend to play the same way, and so it is nice to have them play. If you have your sound on, you can clearly hear Lucy trying to get Lisa to throw the ball as Lisa taunts her :-)

Another day with Potter, this time on the path behind our puppy school before classes.

A puppy that lives near us is Rosa, who is a guide puppy in training for the blind. She has grown a bit bigger than Lucy, but they still like to play together. Here, they met up in a little grassy area.

One of her favorite past-times now is to rip up any junk mail that we receive. In France, we can put a sticker on our mailbox which stops almost all of the junk mail. We still get some sent to us specifically by the city or our neighborhood, mostly to do with elections, which we can't take part in. Lucy decided that it might be a good thing to rip up, even though Mom was still trying to look at it!

This is one of Lucy's absolutely PERFECT runs in agility! She didn't make any mistakes!! She is such a STAR! Mom isn't too bad, either.

And after all of that running, it was time for a little nap.

This is hilarious, really. SO we bought a new car and we bought a new bed for Lucy for the back seat. It took her a bit of time to get used to the texture. This picture is actually the correct side up, even thought it is difficult to believe. She is literally sitting in the bottom of the bed (the black part) and you can see the white parts which are the interior sides. Then she is leaning her head up against the back of the car seat with the pillow of her bed pushed up (they grey thing). She was SOOO tired but she hadn't gotten comfortable yet with the bed.

Lucy is getting more and more used to water, and you'll see a few more instances later as well. This one is a beach on the Mediterranean that we stopped at on our way back from Italy.

Our puppy educator has lots of different activities for dogs of all ages and sizes. One of the things that we had seen events for but never tried was CaniVTT, CaniCross, and CaniMarche. CaniVTT is mountain-biking with your dog, CaniCross is cross-country running/jogging with your dog, and CaniMarche is walking with your dog. We decided to try it one Sunday and Lucy really seemed to enjoy it. She was the smallest of the dogs there but always wanted to be in the front. We also didn't have the proper equipment but she did okay with just our longest leash. It was REALLY muddy and she seemed to want to walk through every mud puddle along the way ... look at that muddy stomach!

From the back of the group .. you can see how most people have both hands free. This is due to the material, which consists of a belt and then a leash that has an elastic bungee. The leash is attached to the belt so that your hands can be free. While it isn't really required for the walking, it is necessary for the CaniCross where you jog with your dog. In this case, the dog walks/jogs ahead of you.

These pictures were taken by the guide. You can see Lucy peeking from behind the front person, and then her wanting to play with the guides big dog. The last is the group picture.

This is a common little group that tends to meet up at about the same time during the week at the park behind our apartment. The white bulldog doesn't run that much although sometimes she'll play a little big with Lucy. The black poodle LOVES to chase the ball and Lucy seems to like other dogs' balls more than her own. The two dogs will usually chase after the ball, Lucy steals it but then drop is and the black poodle will pick it up and bring it back. It is a similar game that she plays with her buddy Elmo.

Our snoozy little baby!

At our educator, they also have a pool during the summer. Lucy has now gotten VERY used to the pool and goes in there without needing any coaxing. This was after a very hot Agility session this week, and the other 2 dogs are Ollie (the Sheltie looking towards us) and Maiko (a Pomeranian that you can only see the backside of).

This morning, we did a "puppy swimmer" class at a lake just outside of Toulouse. There was a nice area where you could walk your dog in and then just keep walking a little bit until the water gets gradually deep enough that they have to swim. Lucy did great ... going immediately in the water and swimming around. One of her first outings got slightly interrupted by Snow (the little white golden retriever puppy who decided to get Susan's shorts wet).

And then like ultra-proud parents, we have several videos of her taking her little swims. These have her leash on, but I wasn't lifting or holding her up ... it was just to keep her close to us when she exited the water, since she wanted to run a bit and there were lots of joggers and bikes zipping by where we were at.