Pavlov and the angry young man

 Just over two years ago we welcomed a new member to our family, a cute little black Lab/blue heeler puppy.
Her name is Lucy, AKA "Lucy the wonder puppy" (however, we call her Lucille when she's in trouble.)

When we were first deciding to get a puppy I didn't really want a big dog. We learned that the dog of a family I knew just had a surprise litter* and there were 7 puppies that would be available for adoption. Aaron did the research and averaging out the size of a Lab (25%) and a blue heeler, (75%) he estimated that she would end up being 39.75 lbs full grown. (he practically promised this)

Either Aaron's facts or his math was off, because at last weigh in, our girl weighs 63 lbs.

Lucy is super smart, and we've been able to teach her a bunch of cool tricks! She also manages to outsmart us on a daily basis. One of her favorite things to do is what we call "distract and snack." This usually happens at dinnertime, Lucy will ring the bell on the back door to go outside, and when we open the door, she runs back to the dinner table and grabs the food off our plate.

The sad part is that we keep falling for this trick.

Aaron started picking up his plate and taking it with him to open the door. Lucy is not amused.

One of Lucy's favorite things to do is to go to the dog park. When we ask her if she wants to go there, she runs in circles, barks, howls, then runs to the laundry room where we keep her leash.
When we get in the car, she continues with the excited barking, woofing, and howling. When we cross the train tracks that are close to the park she's practically screaming with excitement.
When we arrive, she drags us to the gate and once inside she does the ceremonial sniff and greet, then spends the next while running, sniffing and jumping over the other dogs.
We love the dog park because when we get home she's so tired that she sleeps for a long time and doesn't steal food off the table.

When CJ takes Lucy to the dog park, he likes to play music. I'm not sure how this started, but the first song he plays in his car is "Fooling yourself" by Styx.
This has happened enough times that Lucy associates the song with going to the dog park. If we happen to be listening to Styx in the house, as soon as the first few notes of Fooling yourself plays, Lucy runs in circles, barks, howls, then runs to the laundry room.
The worst is when we're out in the car going somewhere besides the dog park and this song comes on the radio.
Have you ever heard a dog scream?

Oh, the looks we get.....

So apparently, during this "stay at home/social distancing" I've become bored enough to write a blog post. All of the kids are home for now, and providing hours of fun and snarky quotes. I may be back to write another post later. (The burping contests have resurfaced)



* When we first got Lucy, I was angrily berated by a woman who was disgusted that 1) someone's dog was not fixed, resulting in a "surprise" litter, and b) we didn't adopt from a shelter. The dog in question lives in a very rural area with a large fenced in yard. They said she got out of the yard once for about 1/2 hour. They literally didn't know the dog was pregnant until the day she started popping them out. (Plus, they were distracted by the fact that they were expecting their own little human baby in a few weeks) Also, I feel that every puppy deserves a good home.