My wonderful Lacy came into my life when she was just five weeks old. She was born on December 17, 1990. She was my first dog as an adult and I did not know that was considered too young. I had no idea what I was in for. She was an orange and white Brittany and I knew nothing about the breed other than they were medium sized. Well she changed my life forever.

I brought her home and set up her crate. I read the books and knew I should train her to be in a crate. The problem is she had not read the books. Every night she screamed all night long. I tried all the tricks, putting a clock in with her, a special stuffed toy etc. but nothing helped. I moved her crate to the end of the house so I couldn’t hear, but I could, so after a sleep deprived week I decided I needed to sleep and I plopped her into bed with me. Her screaming stopped and she was happy.

Lacy had energy and going for a walk was not enough. She loved to run. Just run, not to chase a ball or after another dog… just to run. So run we did. We started exploring and running the trails at Stone Mountain Park when she was 10 weeks old. We knew every trail in the park. Some days after work we would do 5 miles together. She also loved the water and a swim in the hot summer was just as good as a swim in the middle of a 20 degree winter. She would come out of the water and form icicles on her fur, but that didn’t stop her.

I took Lacy to obedience school where she was the class clown. She thought visiting the other puppies in class and getting them to play was so much better than this heeling and downing stuff. She could not walk by a person or a dog without wanting to say hello. We were always in trouble in class but she made me laugh.

When she was 9 months old we went to watch a friend at an obedience trial at Jim Miller Park. There was a woman doing an agility demonstration and it was love at first sight. Lacy had no fear and was up and over the contacts with gusto the first time she saw them. Back then we did not know any training methods and we just got on the equipment. Lacy loved the A-frame. She ran up it and down it at full speed, always hitting the yellow zone. I did not know that you need to train it and Lacy had the best running A-frame you could have. Lacy loved the A-frame so much that when running a agility course, she often skipped all the obstacles and ran right to the A-frame. I could call out scramble from anywhere and Lacy would run across the ring and find it. Lacy and I along with Joann Cole and her dog Dobie were the first people in Georgia to attend an agility trial. We traveled to Danville Virginia and did our first show. The first class was gamblers and as usually Lacy did her own course. I would say tunnel and Lacy would go weave. I would say jump and Lacy would go A-frame… the judge was in stitches but I was in tears. I was so embarrassed at my first show. But then came my standard run… and Lacy had gotten it out of her system and she was great. She not only qualified but took first place at her very first show. I was so proud of us. We had little clue back then how to train yet we were able to get through our first trial with success.

Lacy changed my life. She never became a great agility dog, but she did agility with such joy and gusto. Mostly making up her own courses. But what Lacy really loved was hunting. When she was about a year and a half old we started doing AKC hunt tests. Brittany’s are pointing hunting dogs and she was a natural. She point a quail her first time out. She screamed to get out of the car when we got to the hunting sites. She would run and hunt and would not come back until she was tired and exhausted. This usually meant she would fling herself into some muddy cow pond and come out stinking like cow shit. I finally learned to carry a huge water container with me to rinse her off so I could handle the stench on the hour long ride back home.

Lacy loved hunting and I loved agility. So I went hunting with her as much as I could. She decided that she did not like agility when it was structured and decided she hated the teeter. I remember I tried all the training tricks I could find. I even borrowed a teeter and tried to feed her dinner on it. Well she got so upset that she refused to get out of the car at agility training because she thought I was going to make her do the teeter. So I finally quit trying to train it. We took several months off from agility and when we started back up she decided she would do the teeter , but only once a day. Back then there was not AKC agility so just USDAA. Once she even started to get on it a second time when she got to the tipping point I am sure she remembered she had already done one and jumped off.

When she was two years old I got Holly and she became my main agility dog. Lacy still got to play but it was always on her terms. It no longer mattered to me as she had my heart and whatever she did was fine. She was beautiful and fun loving.

When she was 6 years old I got Chipper my Papillion. Chipper became obsessed with Lacy when we went to the park to walk in the woods. He would jump up and hang on her fur as she ran along. Lacy never seemed to care as she was at her beloved park. There was a lake to swim in and squirrels to chase, so a little Papillion hanging off her neck was no big deal.

When Lacy was 8 I got Blitz my first Border Collie. Although Lacy had allowed both Holly and Chipper to share the bed with her, Blitz was not allowed. If he came on the bed she would nail him. Lacy was always the top dog, but very rarely did anything to remind anyone; except when it came to the bed. To this day Blitz will not sleep on the bed with me. In her true style as a bitch Lacy would flirt with Blitz and try to get him to play. Once she sucked him in she would after a few minutes do her bitch thing and remind him she was still in charge and she would decide when the play was done. Even when she was deaf and blind, she would initiate play with Blitz. I loved to watch, as although her body was giving out, her playful spirit was still there.

It has been almost a year since we said good bye and my heart still breaks. She was my first most special girl. I miss her every day.