New Tricks.

 

If you ever found yourself scrolling my photos, phone or laptop you'd run into thousands of dog pictures. Yup over 1000 times, I, one of my kids or husband or mom has snapped a doggie and it's ended up in my photos. 

Dogs. I love them. 

You don't have to go through the whole history lesson with me, but it does start with my first dog, Piper, being born the day before me. (I remember the odd piece of information, I admit it.) My enjoyment and attachment is long-standing. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I notice changes in behavior. The little one here, is Lucy. She was a pup in this picture. Sweet, sleepy, puppy. Now she's eight and still sweet but now with clearly defined likes and dislikes:

• No loud noises
• No dogs on our lawn
• No cats
• No car rides, especially to the vet
• No home fire alarm "battery is running low" chirping
• No sneaker squeaking because it sounds like the above
• No picking her up
• Breakfast is before 7am, followed by 2 treats
• Walks are at 5:45 - the list goes on.

She's not wild about extra people in the house so, this weekend when our eldest brought his fiancée to celebrate with a backyard garden party, I was shocked to find Lucy in the middle of it all. She was out on the sofas, the rugs strewn across the lawn, greeting, sharing, sneaking pizza crust pieces, enjoying the day and the night. In fact, the morning after, when I let her out in the early hours, she simply didn't come in. She'd found a chair and seemed to have declared herself an outdoor party dog. 

All of this sums to a couple of things - old dogs/new tricks is not so true when a dog sees things in a new way. Also, how sweet is it to watch a pup celebrating favorite family members in their joy?

Dogs. I'll say it again. I love them. More to come.