Well, for years now the kids have been begging for a pet, with this last year the begging being more persistent. A few months back I started researching dogs and breeds to determine which would work best for our allergy ridden family. I had pretty much narrowed it down to poodle, bichon frise, maltese or miniature schnauzer. Further investigation indicated that the bichon can have separation anxiety issues and that the maltese can be difficult to house break. Our former neighbors had two adorable schnauzers...that barked all the time! Two months ago I sent an email out to the person that organizers rescue/adoptions for unwanted pets requesting any of the above dogs. Nothing came through. I knew that if we were to finally get a dog this year the summer would have to be the time to do so, and the earlier the better.
One night while the kids were in Florida Brent asked if I wanted to go to a pet store and look at some dogs. We went to a Petland, now I did not intend to buy from a pet store, but nothing had come through on the adoption end...Well, I fell in love with this tiny all black Yorie-poo (designer dog breed from a Yorkie and Poodle). He was so cute! I had even named him Shakespeare. We spent about an hour at the store playing with the dog and I think the sales guy had just about convinced us to buy him. However, I am not the most spontaneous person, and luckily with me reason usually wins out over emotion. I told the guy that we needed 24 hours to think about it. We came home and right away googled Petland. The reviews were strong and on opposite ends. I decided to look up breeders in our area. About 20 minutes north were two Maltese breeders. One would have a litter ready in about a month. We decided that perhaps this would be the best option. I would have one month to read up, research, and prepare the house and kids.
In all my calls to breeders within a two hour drive, I had spoken with a poodle breeder. They were not conveniently located, but were at least on the way down to Florida. They had a 12 week old parti-poodle. He looked cute in the pictures but I had made up my mind that waiting a month would be best and I didn't think he would still be around in a month. It just so happened that the breeder called us the morning we were getting ready to go and get the kids from Florida. She asked if we were still interested. I told her no and that we had decided to wait a month and get prepared first. She then told me they had a litter with an all black male that would be ready in a month....Well, I did read that poodles were intelligent, smart dogs, that were easier to housebreak in comparison to maltese...Brent and I got to talking, all of this about an hour before we were to leave to pick up the kids. We decided to call back and say that we did want the poodle, but that we also wanted the dog, then called Boo, that was 12 weeks old. We asked if they would work us a deal for both. She agreed. Wow, talk about spontaneous! We had no dog food, crate, dog toys or anything and I had not yet read up on being a doggie parent!
Brent and I had a dog briefly while at UF. We were not good dog-parents. We really had no clue what we were doing. We got Jada, a dachshund, at 8 months old. She was NOT housebroken or crate trained and subsequently peed and pooped all over our apartment. She had separation anxiety and I felt horrible about having to leave her alone. It ended up that we had to give her away (thanks Vicki!) when we moved to New Jersey. Being that that was really my only experience as a dog owner I knew I had to be better prepared and do it right this time. Thus I fought off car sickness to read as much about house and crate training a poodle as I could on my black berry while we drove to get the kids.
We were able to keep it a surprise the whole way to meet the breeders! The kids were shocked! Aislin spent the first few days screaming when Charlie came near and smothering him when he was ignoring her. Blaine has really stepped up to the challenge- Charlie is his dog! Once we arrived back home we stopped by Petsmart to get the essentials and to make a grooming appointment for the next day. Here are some pictures from our first day home:
Charlie's first night went very smoothly. He pottied outside when we took him and only whined briefly when left in his crate for the night. He kept his crate clean the whole night and relieved himself in the morning when taken outside. So far he seems to be a calm dog...He even did well at the groomers. We just did a trim of his puppy cut for now. The next appointment we will do some kind of poodle cut. Blaine was so nervous about leaving him:
But all worked out okay.
Coming next: More reading up on dogs! And can I really handle housebreaking two dogs before heading back to work?!
No comments:
Post a Comment