I WAS RIGHT THERE!!! :( (help)

ok so i had this dream two nights ago about one of my dogs that just recently passed away. So, (and by the way i find my dreams to be more vivid and lifelike if i drink before i go sleep) the setting was my family was grilling, and they were all outside. I think I was coming downstairs to join them when all of a sudden this chocolate lab came from one of the rooms on the first floor and just started walking towards where his food dish was always located. So I realized at that moment in my mind... wait Hershey (the dogs name) was dead, and so there's no reason he should be here in real life unless... Then for the first time in my whole freaking life I said "I'm dreaming" (in my dream) so i go outside to tell my parents that I'm dreaming, and I'm so excited and they are being all like "that's nice", and "whatever". So then I say again to them "Look Hershey's alive, and we all know he's dead, so I must be dreaming." So then one of my parents said "well if you're dreaming prove it." And then I knew it was showtime, so I tried to do something, I tried summoning a book, nothing happened, I tried to change it from day time to night time nothing happened, I even tried to blow up my backyard (why? I don't know lol) and still nothing happened. So then I just gave up and went on with the course of the dream.

So after at least 4 freaking months of trying to have a lucid dream I get to the brink, and I fail horribly. Now I tried again yesterday to see if i could find dream signs that would make me say "I'm dreaming." I slept from 5-7 pm and all last night and still nothing remotely close to that experience. I'm starting to believe an opportunity like this won't happen again! I don't know what to do it's like my mind wouldn't let me be lucid. What do I do? And am I going about it the wrong way or what?

Congratulations on your first lucid. Dont worry about "failing", almost everyone's first few lucids are like this, it is very short. What I recommend, if you are doing the DILD method, is to increase your reality checking in real life so you can make it a habit for your dream. You can also use a mantra to say all day, such as "This is a dream", etc.

Try doing other methods of inducing a lucid like the WILD method. It is my favorite personally, if you master it, you can have a lucid dream every night.

Good luck

so that is technically considered a lucid dream? or no? thanks for the help also

Yes, it was a lucid! Congrats! If you realize you are dreaming then you are lucid. You should add a WBTB to increase your chances of having another lucid.