Welcome Callie: "Snow" much fun!

We finally got a real snowfall and the dogs have been having fun. Lucy has been very good about going out and doing her business even when we weren't keeping up with the shoveling. We do try to keep at least part of the patio shoveled off so the dogs can do their business. Yesterday it was snowing so heavily we couldn't keep up but Lucy did great.

Today, we were able to plow the patio and the sidewalk in the back and I was even shoveled a few paths into the grass for them.

Last week Lucy started ringing the bell on the back door to be let out. She has it down now. She rings it loudly when she has to go out. She still rings it even when she just wants to go outside and play but that's fine. She's doing it less frequently now as I think the novelty has begun to wear out a little for her. I was able to capture another video of her ringing it and will add it below. My dogs use their noses to tap it but Lucy uses her paw to swipe it. (Pause...she was ringing...so had to let her out...back now). It's very cute when she does it. This has been a tremendous help for her housebreaking.

In fact, the only accidents she's had in the last couple days have been when we've been gone. When we're home, she rings the bell and we let her out. As you'll see in prior posts Lucy can keep her crate clean all night when she's sleeping but recently, if she's crated when I leave, she will poop in the crate. I think she gets upset about me leaving and that's her reaction. Now, I say that but on Saturday we had two families over for dinner and I put all the dogs up in the master bedroom while they were here (one woman is afraid of dogs). I put Lucy in the crate and the other three were not crated but were in the room with her. They were there for about 4 hours and Lucy did fine. No problems.

Today we all left to go out for lunch. I decided to leave Lucy out of the crate this time. She had a #1 accident on the rug in the foyer but everything else was fine and in order. Not bad. So, I will continue to work with her on trying to get her comfortable in the crate (having the other dogs near appears to help a lot) and/or to use a pee-pad when no one is home.

She is a smart girl and she already mastered the bell without me really training her. I do work full time (from home but travel some) so we squeeze in what training we can here and there. I can tell she's a smart girl because I've seen her open doors with her nose and she comes when she's called.

Lucy has a wonderful personality and we all just love her. I enjoy cuddling with her. She and I decided to skip the Super Bowl and watched some shows on Animal Planet instead. Lucy was watching with me. When she heard some puppy noises she got up and ran over to the TV. She cocked her head from side to side and then came back to my lap and seemed to watch the screen with me. It was very cute.

Here are some pictures from our snowcapades!

TRY THIS LINK FOR THE VIDEO IF VIDEO BELOW DOESN'T WORK