Why the mud?

When I brought Brady home she was a cute little pup.

We immediately started working on things, like not chewing everything in sight

I quickly learned that she is super cute, and super loving, and super social. AND SUPER DEFIANT.

I was repeatedly told by my Aunt, who has always had well behaved dogs, that I needed to socialize her.

So I took her to work a lot that first summer when she was a puppy.

The kids made sure she was hydrated.

We also took trips to the lake to learn how to swim. She loves to swim.

She was unsure of the water in some friends' pool last summer.

but she eventually got in. She was a good pup and used the stairs to get in and out, so as not to damage the lining.

Brady is a hilarious friend.

She loves to pose for pictures. I don't normally dress her up, she had the bandana on because she had just gotten a grooming from the pre-vet students. It's cheep and they clip her nails, which I hate to do.


But what Brady really loves is mud.

She also loves to swim in lakes, ponds, and the ocean.

But those are just substitutes for mud.

Nothing makes her more proud of herself than to plop down in a mud puddle and roll around.

It seems that every time I take her to the dog park, she will play and frolic with the other dogs, until she finds the mud. Often the other dogs will just watch and stare.

She comes out looking like this.

That was last summer. Notice the pride and contentment with herself. And also her refusal to look at me because she knows I am not happy.

Saturday I took her to the dog park, there were a lot of other dogs there.

She found a mud puddle, she laid down in it. I told her to stop and get out. She listened, for maybe the first time ever. At least she wasn't completely covered in mud, just her undercarriage.

She still got hosed down thoroughly before being allowed back in the house.

So yesterday it was sunny out for a brief period. We went for a walk and it started raining.
We stopped at the softball game, where they were in a rain delay.

Brady refused to sit under the tent. She sat nicely like a well behaved dog, but out in the rain where she could get wet.

Here she is. I think if she could speak she would be saying "you can make me sit and behave, and you can refuse to let me roll around in the mud by keeping me on the leash, but you can't make me sit under the tent. So take that."