Lucy's Story
Lucy's Story
Lucy is our big (90+ pounds; she started at 85; we're cutting back on her food and upping her exercise again), mostly-Black Lab. She basically looks like a field Lab, is friendly to *ALL* people (babies on up), loves to swim, loves sticks, AND has an extremely strong ball-retrieving drive. Plus, she loves to dance. She's stocky, with crinkly ears (at least in part because of past ear infections), brown eyes, and a thick, bushy tail that she usually carries curled about 320 degrees, as in the photo below. Sometimes it's just barely curled, but it's rarely-to-never held completely straight (as with most Labs) unless she's in the process of tucking it under herself. The hair on her back is rather wavy (but not curly or wooly). Lucy is going grey under the muzzle, a little in her ears and on the bottoms of her feet, and a little around her belly. We thought she was all-Lab until her summer coat came in. Now we realize she must have some Rottie in her somewhere, as her summer coat is a bit brownish around the eyebrows, muzzle, and lower legs, and she's rather large. That might also explain the tail. Since she was a stray originally, we'll never know for sure. But look at this picture of Bennie, an undocked Rottie, for comparison, and please visit S.P.U.D., the Society for the Promotion of Undocked Dogs.
If you have URLs for any photos of Rottweilers *with* tails, please e-mail me the URL(s)! Thanks!
We adopted her at the end of December 1997. The vet's best guess at that time was that she was about, or a little under, six years old. She'd had puppies at some time before we got her (we don't know how long before), but she's since been spayed. Since her adoption, we've finished Dog Obedience I and II. She passed both with no trouble. She's very well behaved almost all the time - hasn't yet chewed or jumped on people (just a paw) or run away or had an accident - but we're trying to work on "heel" still. That one's her worst. She's a bit stubborn and independent, and is definitely moody. Most days she likes to cuddle up to people (particularly if you lie down on the floor next to her), but every once in a while she wants to be left alone.
When we first saw Lucy (we arranged to meet her finder/keeper, Lea, at a local pet store), we thought she looked like a seal: she was all black and shiny, and was so excited that she was wagging all over (and pulling us across the slick floor with her front paws splayed and her head down near the floor). That's how she got the name Lucille (Lucy for general use).
She gets two long walks a day (one is at least a mile to two),
plus daily ball-playing, frisbee, and the like. I'm
looking for play areas in Fairfax or Loudoun County where we could
take her, but there don't seem to be any public ones yet - hence
my dog park page.
Lucy rarely barks, but when she does it tends to be deep (a bass?) and loud. She howled a couple of times - at fire engines - soon after we got her, but hasn't much lately. We think she's gotten used to the daily sirens (fire station is about two miles away; engines go within half a mile of our house on a regular basis) except when they're on the next street. She mostly communicates with her expressions and - when very excited - with yawning noises. She *loves* to swim in this little creek near our house, and will retrieve balls that we throw into the water. She fights sticks and huge logs into submission, biting off pieces and spitting them out. If she thinks she's going in the car, she'll run (skitter - she slides because a lot of our first floor isn't carpeted) and jump around with excitement until it's actually time to leave. She spent this Father's Day bringing a tennis ball to each of the guests so they could each have a turn throwing the ball for her to retrieve. Each person was chosen at least once throughout the day. This was her idea - even when I offered to throw her the ball, she'd bring it to one of the visitors.
She's terrified of
thunderstorms
and lightning (even heat lightning, so we think it's the static build-up
that gets her, as she doesn't mind rain in general, even on freezing
winter nights), but she's gotten much better. She used to hide in the
upstairs tub or in the guest bedroom between the bed and the closet
doors, no matter where we were when she sensed the storm coming,
but now she tends to stay in the same room where we are. If she notices
a storm between bedtime and morning, she shoves herself under the bed.
She then scratches at the rug, as though she's digging herself a hole
to hide in. She sometimes stays there all night. Only her head and
neck fit, and she looks pretty silly sticking out like that.
It's an improvement over staying in the tub until the storm passes, though.
Lucy hasn't had a single accident (in our house or anyone else's), hasn't chewed on anything we didn't give her to chew on or eat, and hasn't wrecked the house or gotten on the furniture. The only food she's gotten into was stuff we shouldn't have left out on the counter for extended periods of time (her favorite treats, once; some rice and chicken kebabs another time; several slices of raisin bread that was left over from a BBQ; in September, some garlic bread we didn't put away after dinner). Bread is a big weakness for her.
We've done obedience classes with her through the Fairfax County
Recreation Department.
As I said, her worst area is "heel." She's really bad on walks, but does
okay in class for the tests (go figure).
It looks like she *can* go on to Dog Obedience III (beginning
off-leash), as she did pretty well on all of the testing,
but we're holding off for now. She (and we) think of the class as good for
socializing (before, between, and after work sessions) as much as for
training. The Level I class was like that. This Level II class, though,
had a lot of people who didn't seem to want to let their dogs sniff (or
be sniffed by) Lucy, even before or after the class times. As a result,
none of us enjoyed Level II nearly as much as Level I. We're afraid the
Level III group's attitude will be similar to the Level II group, so
we're not going to do other classes for the rest of the summer at the
least. Now that we're expecting, we've decided that *after* the baby's
arrival would be the best time to bring Lucy to more obedience classes -
in case she needs a refresher at that point, and so we'll be spending some
time just with her after the baby's arrival.
In the meantime, we make a point of having her socialize with all of the people and dogs we run across in our walks who seem interested in visiting with her. She particularly likes seeing the schoolkids off in the morning (the bus stop is just across the street from our house), and they seem to like her presence - many of them call to her from across the street and/or go out of their way to pet her, as do some of their moms.
Although she's friendly (though not playful) with most other dogs, and loves to have dogs come to our house for a visit (even if she hasn't met them before), she gets very grumpy and mopey and acts up a bit (as in, pretends she hasn't heard our commands) when we dog-sit for friends for one or more nights. She primarily gets mad at me ("mom") for the duration. My mother says it's because Lucy knows she has a good thing going and doesn't want to lose it - or have to share it. Lucy'll be a bit dominant with the other dog, at least the first night, but will then settle in and get used to the dog - even letting the dog sleep in our bedroom "den" and napping next to, but not on top of, the other dog - but will still be upset with us until the other dog goes home. This has made us hesitant to do much in the way of dog rescue/fostering. We haven't yet dog-sat for Lady (my husband's parents' dog - see Lucy's pictures, but Lucy considers Lady to be pack and has stayed at Lady's house for as long as eight days, so we think that would be different.
Really, though, she's a better dog than we could ever have expected. We sometimes joke that we'd never have a kid this well behaved. We'll find out soon enough...
Akita fun:
I: In mid-September, our Akita-owning friends came to our house with their
Akita,
Kuma, and
their new baby. I'd invited them all, but was a little unsure
of how Lucy and Kuma would get along, as Kuma is supposedly
very protective, including of the baby. We've been to their house (sans
Lucy) a number of times and have even watched Kuma from time to time;
while friendly once we get inside, though, Kuma
always barks quite a bit while we're coming to the door.
Lucy had met all but the dog before. What happened didn't surprise
our friends much, but it sure surprised us! They got out of their car with
the baby and Kuma. Lucy ran over to see them; she immediately went
over to the baby and licked him on the face. Rather than defend the
baby or anything remotely like that, Kuma ran away. She spent
the evening trying to stay as far away from Lucy as possible. If Lucy
looked in her direction, she'd run out of the room (early in the evening).
Later, the dogs stayed in the same room, but Kuma still wasn't looking
comfortable with the idea. Our friends explained that Akitas - at least
theirs - are more protective of *territory* than of anything else. Since
Lucy's smell was all over our place, their dog knew herself to be on
another dog's territory and wasn't happy with that, not knowing our dog.
They explained that Kuma was part Akita and part chicken.
Lucy spent most of the evening hoping for leftovers (we'd ordered Afghan,
one of her favorites) and watching/licking the baby. Kuma looked
in on the baby periodically and explored our house a bit (with permission),
but was mostly settling in. They actually got along pretty well, and
Kuma likes to play ball, so maybe the two of them will play a
bit the next time we get together.
II: Lucy has lately been introduced to a friendly pair (male and female) of Akitas who live on the next street. They certainly like her, particularly the male, who is even bigger than Lucy. Their owner and I are amused by Lucy's response to them, though. Sometimes she'll sniff them (she prefers the less-forward, her-size female), but she'll often lie down if she sees them, and will stay in that position for a long time. She doesn't growl or raise her hair or even move as they come near - we think she's trying to look invisible so the male won't notice her. Hasn't worked, of course, but it's very funny, particularly coming from such a big dog.
Depressing "Lucy" poems:
Wordsworth's poem "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" was a
fave until I reread it recently - it's the one that ends,
"she is in her grave and oh, the difference to me" - and
noticed the girl in that poem is named Lucy. The poem is a
sequel to another Wordsworth poem, "Strange fits of passion
have I known." Actually, these are part of a series of "Lucy"
poems he wrote, all sad. :-< Depressing.
I think most of the text of these poems is here:
Lucy poems
Lucy's site has these main sections:
...and don't forget these:
*REAL* e-mail is good! - lucydog@imstumped.com
Spammers are forbidden to use this address for any reason.
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This page last updated 07/30/10
