Luca's forever family was kind enough to not only send pictures of their beautiful "purple" girl, they also sent a narrative. I on the other hand have been lax with the blog giving fall chores, harvest and food preservation occupy my time.
Luca had her two year health exams. She has normal hips and eyes. Her next great adventure may be finding the perfect stud and puppies.
Luca’s first two years:
Luca’s second year of life was filled with fun, new
experiences and becoming a teenager.
Here are some of the highlights:
Luca has a mellow temperament and great personality. She is sweet, calm, very smart and extremely affectionate. We have used only positive reinforcement
training methods and the only correction we use is “leave it”. She does not recognize the word “no”. She responds very well to a
positive tone and encouraging words and will immediately shut down if she is
spoken to in a harsh manner. If anyone
lets out an expletive Luca feels it is her job to make everything okay and she
will come from anywhere in the house wiggling and wagging until you assure her
that everything’s ok. Anger or frustration is simply not allowed in Luca’s
world.
Luca is game to try almost anything we ask her to do, and
she learns very quickly.
A few months
ago, she showed an interest in riding on the flatbed cart
we use to transport our trash cans to the road, and we invited her to get up
onto it for a ride. She jumped right up
and let us pull her around the driveway. Now she thinks the cart is hers. She
recently started bikejoring and has learned some mushing terms.
She still enjoys walking on the treadmill and playing with any dog we
invite over. She is not fearful of any
of the usual dog triggers such as the vacuum cleaner, thunder, fireworks, or
even the tornado warning siren that sounds off a few times each summer. She actually howls along. I think we owe her calm confidence to
Brownstone socializing at an early age which we observed and tried to duplicate
by continually exposing her to unusual experiences. She loves water, but
doesn’t yet know how to swim. She fully cooperates with toenail trims, although
she really doesn’t like them,
and actually enjoys her daily teeth brushing and occasional baths.
Luca is very connected to her people, loves dogs, and spends
a good deal of time hanging out with our cat and flock of chickens. Her interest in other dogs makes obedience
classes and dog shows very hard work for her, and us. We also have to be very
aware when bikejoring around the nearby lake on the bike path. On the bike paths, she is getting better
with other dogs around and generally ignores humans unless they show interest
in her first, but the sight of a squirrel or rabbit sends us careening into a
hot pursuit. Despite her small size,
she has some serious power, and when inspired can launch us well off-trail in
an instant.
Luca sleeps on her back and welcomes tummy rubs whenever
anyone feels inclined to give her one.
She throws her head back while lying down and waits for someone to give
her kisses on her neck. If we say, “do
you want a back rub”, she comes up and sits very still, facing us with her head
hanging out of the way to receive a neck massage. She flips her food bowl over every time it’s empty, apparently
just to let us know, and waits for us to come and see. Sometimes she even wants
more food.
When we are eating, she quietly
lies nearby and throws her head back, rolls onto her back, and does whatever
else she can think of hoping we will notice her and give her some of what we’re
having (we do notice, but we have never rewarded this behavior).
She’s a 52-lb. lap dog who never misses an opportunity to cuddle and
snuggle (and lick).
She loves all her toys, but especially her section of nylon
climbing rope. After her walks, her
reward is to have a game of tug-of-war with her “special” rope. Just saying the
word “rope” in casual conversation sends her to the door with rope in mouth
expecting to play.
Her true love is Otter,
given to her by her first human mom, Kay Lee.
She would love him to death if we allowed her to. Otter is kept in a safe place and only
brought out for special occasions like birthday blog photo sessions. Luca will occasionally lie down by the
closet Otter lives in and cry for him until you distract her. She is very persistent when she wants
something.
When it’s time to play, she carefully selects a toy from her
overstocked toy bin, which by the end of the day is always emptied. Luca must
take the right toy with her to greet anyone that has been away, wagging her
entire body and making all sorts of guttural noises while she holds the special
gift in her mouth.
She has a way of immediately curing even the
toughest of days. In short, Luca is a constant source of joy in our lives. She
is our perfect companion.
