We've always wanted a dog; it was just a matter of which breed and when. It took us a few months to do some background research to whittle down some of the tempting choices out there.
I was honestly surprised at the amount of willpower it takes to give up on "the type of dog you like most" in exchange for more realistic options. How many folks fall in love with a pretty face and want to take it home, right? In any case, my husband and I talked it over for months and months and have narrowed it down to a dog that is medium-sized (about 30-45 pounds), easier to train, allergy-friendly, and more independent, among other features. Hence the goldendoodle (golden retriever + poodle). As this breed comes in 3 sizes (standard, mini/medium, and toy), we'd really like to take home a mini/medium puppy to be a part of our family.
We've been looking into several breeder sites, such as
Goldendoodles.com, and delving into private websites from individual family breeders. There have been a couple of disappointments (e.g. puppy we wanted was already sold), but we're learning.
It's going to be interesting in meeting our goals this summer: 1) finding a reputable, caring breeder within a few hours' driving distance radius, 2) finding a litter of pups that will be 8 weeks old by the time my summer job ends, 3) finding in said litter a male, apricot, mini/medium pup, 4) socializing the puppy early to our pet birds, 5) educating ourselves about puppy feeding/care/training, and 6) making initial vet appointments. There is a ton to think about, and we're expecting a couple of email inquiries to return this week, but I couldn't help twisting up a soft fleece tug-toy for our future pup (pic). So here's to finding the right dood for us!
One of my friends has recently gotten a very cute bulldog named Bruno, and we're both excited about having play dates with them in the future to dog parks and such (of course, after they are fully vaccinated, etc etc).
Now with their eyes open!
This week was a little stressful, so I decided to mess around with some fun crochet and came up with this toy for our puppy. It's made from 100% Lilly brand cotton worsted yarn and stuffed with soft fleece strips. I stitched it really tough, but wanted to make sure that, in case it does come apart from chewing or pulling, the only contents will be fleece (and not doll stuffing/fiberfill). It took about 2 days to make, in-between work and other things. What do you think? Maybe I'll come up with some more interesting shapes of cotton toys soon.
One of the first things we are concerned about is how to properly train our dog so that it's relaxed and happy and safe. After browsing several commonly recommended books, we found out that most were vague overviews with lots of photos that weren't related to the text (i.e. mostly "cute" type photos). We're big fans of the show It's Me or the Dog, so I looked up on Victoria Stilwell's fan site (see our blog links) and ordered her book How to Have the Perfect Dog. Just received it yesterday in the mail, and I love it so far! Mrs. Stilwell writes about her own experiences, and every chapter has tons of practical information. In many cases, more than one training method/sequence is given, in case the other doesn't work out. She lays out how a dog may understand or think; for example, if a dog has peed on the carpet and you come in the front door and see it and yell at the dog, it will only associate your arrival (from then on) with anxiety, since whenever you come through the door you yell. She says that dogs will only link words/commands/actions if they are within 1 second of each other. That is really helpful. There is a great chapter on dog food content, too. All in all, I'm riveted to every single word so far.
We went through a ton of names for our dog in the past year. Particularly if we went on a weekend drive, that's all we'd talk about. It's funny how most names you'd think of are attributed to people you already know. We wanted a unique name that none of our friends or family had, and we certainly didn't want our dog to be named after something like tobacco (e.g. Winston) or an evil hobbit (friends suggested Smeagol). It was also important that our dog had a name unique enough that it wouldn't be confused with an everyday word.
After a flurry of phone calls and emails (some breeders take emails only), we gave up on getting a dood from California, mainly because the litter availability dates did not correspond with the timeframe we wanted; all previous summer litters were spoken for. We thought of the alternate of getting a labradoodle, but decided we liked the goldendoodle coat better.
I'm relieved and excited to say that we're in line for an early choice on some beautiful F1b puppies from Texas! We've put in a preference for an apricot or creme boy (pic), the third up from the right. They haven't opened their eyes yet! Sometimes they remind me of walruses dozing on the beach.
We've always wanted a dog; it was just a matter of which breed and when. It took us a few months to do some background research to whittle down some of the tempting choices out there.
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