There is something that has held me back from writing an entire blog about my dog. I think this may be because when I no longer have Lupin, I will dread people asking about her. But today I am going to face this fear and tell you about my dog. Lupin is 12 and although she is a senior citizen, she acts in many ways like a puppy.
Lupin is a mixed breed dog. She is small, just 26lbs and stands 18” tall. We think she is a mix of Border Collie, Whippet and Blue Heeler. Lupin's life is all about running and still, at her age, she can out sprint our e-bike at 29km/hr.
Lupin loves people but dislikes most other dogs. A few dog attacks when she was young, and one as recently as 4 years ago, left her weary of most dogs. Now she usually growls or snarls when other dogs come near her. There are some dogs that she has let into her inner circle, but they are few. My sister calls her the Sea Hag. That is probably a pretty good description.
Lupin is the perfect trail running dog. She will run next to your bike and never get too close to the pedal or wheel. Her sense of spacial awareness is uncanny. She won’t chase a deer or a bird, she stays right next to you unless you tell her to run off on her own. Lupin became a mountain bike or running dog at a young age. When she was two we did an Enduro mountain bike race with her and she loved it. Up until about two years ago she would happily run 30km with us on the trails and once finished she would look up at us as if to say 'When are we going again?'. As long as Lupin gets lots of exercise, she is a very happy dog. If we don’t give her a good run twice a day she will make her way quietly around the house looking for someone whose leg she can rest her cold nose on. That is her method of telling us she needs to go out and have some fun. No barking or whining, just a cold nose on the leg.
One of the things that is sort of disconcerting about Lupin is that, because she is so quiet and submissive, it is easy to forget her. We can put her outside at night to pee before bed and if we forget to let her in she will sit at the door all night. She would never bark, whine or scratch at the door. So yes, we have forgotten her before, and we feel HORRIBLE when we wake up and find our little dog at the door.
I want to show you a little picture now of Lupin in the Xtracycle. As we don’t want to run her on the roads much anymore, she takes a free ride in the bike pocket. The thing is, she will jump up so fast to get into the pouch that we don’t always have it open in time. She settles right in and seems to enjoy the free ride.
OK, another fun fact about Lupin is that she loves to sing to certain music. Her favourite bands are Coldplay and Alt-J. She will howl as soon as their music comes on. Her #1 song is Paradise, by Coldplay. Anytime we start to sing it she will howl, even if it is just the tune! It is pretty crazy. On canoe trips we sing a lot and you can hear Lupin from a mile away.
One time Jody gave Lupin to a buddy who was going to hike the Chief in Squamish. On the way there the guy turned on the music and when Paradise started playing Lupin started singing. He could not figure it out so he stopped the car to see if she was injured or uncomfortable. Finally he phoned Jody to find out what was up and Jody asked what song was playing. . .
This is Lupin at work waiting to hear us say that she can go eat her bone. You can leave food on the floor and she will never touch it unless it is in her food bowl and we have invited her to start. I have never had a dog that is so restrained around food.
Ok, this may seem a bit weird but when Lupin rolls in something yucky we just have to look at her and say 'Lupin it looks as if you may be a bit smelly' and she will literally go to the shower downstairs that we use to wash her off. It is very handy that she knows the drill and even submits to being washed off in a shower.
When we go out with Lupin for her morning run in the woods she always takes a stick from the pile on the lawn. After we chuck it she rarely brings it directly back. Instead, she does this elaborate exercise of nudging her nose under the stick, flinging it into the air so that it spins a circle and then she catches it. She will do it as many times as she can until she sees you taking off. She is very proud to carry her stick and will always bring one home with her.
So that is a little about my dog. The great thing about dogs is that everybody’s dog is the best and ours is no exception.