How to run an agility course with Baxter and Lucy...more than you ever wanted to know

Ever wondered who Lucy and Baxter are? You're not alone....

Well, Lucy is a 2-year-old border collie mix. Baxter is a 4-year-old border collie mix. Even though they look very similar, they are not related. At least once a day someone will ask me if they are related. In response, I begrudgingly admit that I just picked out two dogs that look alike. And yes, I totally fell for it-- I thought that if I got a second dog who looked like my first that they would act alike. HA. Not quite so. I have been doing agility with both of them for about a year now. It is great fun for both me and the pups. Baxter's favorite obstacle is the chute and Lucy's is the table (even though she has slid off it because she was going too fast).

Here are some pictures and a description of their personalities...(and now at the very bottom some terribly old and bad videos of them doing agility!)

I got Lucy about a year and a half ago from North Shore Animal League. They said that she had come up from New Orleans. Lucy is a very intense dog. If she gets fixated on something she will not give up. She will chase Baxter around the coffee table for hours if he has a toy that she wants. If you start playing fetch with Lucy she will not let you stop unless you are really sure about it. Sometimes you even have to put the toy away and most importantly out of reach, if you want some peace and quiet. Lucy is also a love. She will lick you to death if you let her. She loves any and all attention. I call her an attention whore. She loves to stick her little nose in when I'm giving Baxter attention. She is happy to let me pick her up and cradle her like a baby. Lucy likes to sleep right next to me on my bed.

Now for Baxter, he couldn't be more different than Lucy. I adopted Baxter from the Kentucky Humane Society in Louisville, KY. Baxter is a very sensitive guy. He worries a lot too. Whenever he hears a sound he perks up. Often times he will growl or bark. If he walks by a suspicious looking person on the street he will growl at them. I'm sure he sounds like a nervous nellie but he has really come a long way. When I first got him he wouldn't leave my side. It was as if he was glued to my shoes. He did not like new places and crept around them. Whenever a bus or garbage truck would come by he would tuck his tail and start to walk faster or even run. One time I brought him to a college football game where we were selling cupcakes. When the marching band began to play he took off like a bat out of hell. A police officer was finally able to track him down, but not after 30 min of searching the nearby streets. Baxter likes attention but only so much. He will come over for petting, but the minute it stops he will go lie down. In the morning he loves to snuggle. He does these things I call "handstands" where he puts the top of his head on you and nuzzles into the sheets. Recently Baxter has taken to telling time. You probably think I'm kidding, but really. I usually feed my dogs dinner at 6. He will sit in the kitchen from 5pm onward until I feed them. It's as if he thinks maybe he could just once get dinner an hour early.

So there you have it....Lucy and Baxter in a nutshell. (Lucy doesn't like the flash so much).