For Want Of A Dog...

So, I thought the best place to be would be a collection of the random journal entries I have regarding our decision to get a dog.

Basically, what happened is thus:

The first semester of last year was hell at my husband's uni. I'm not exaggerating; at least two or three of his classmates were put onto anti-depressants because it was so terrible. I shan't go into the details, but suffice to say, my Boy was feeling pretty blue.

In keeping him company one long evening (as they all were then), I stumbled across an acquaintance's blog, where she talked about getting a new puppy, and clicker training him. Clicker training? I thought. What is this? And thus began stage one: infatuation. I devoured everything the internet had to offer about clicker training in the space of about three days, and decided that the time was right for a dog - not least of which because it would provide Boy with a loveable distraction, and a reminder that he was loveable too :)

There was never any question as to the breed: in Boy's mind, it was a lab, or it wasn't a dog. So we began looking....

A workmate of Mum's had a pedigree dog who had had puppies - and they were ten weeks old, and there was one left that the potential buyer had withdrawn from because she wanted a show dog, and his testicles hadn't fully descended. His name was Irish Creme, and I fell in love...

Thursday 7 June 2007 @ 10:03pm

Irish Creme will probably, sadly, prove too much too soon. He is an absolute DARLING, but we can't really afford him right now. He may not even be available after all; the breeder who was initially interested and who paid a deposit contacted Gai again. We'll know either way on Monday. BUT Meg, Irish Creme's mother, has had several litters in the past... and one of her previous pups is pregnant :) She's due late next week. Woo! Sooooooo, provided they check out (hip scores, eye scores, pedigrees etc), we'll aim for one of those pupples. So we get a puppy in 9 weeks time!! Yay!! Something actually exciting to look forward to!!! Whoot!!

Friday 8 June 2007 @ 10:08pm

YAY!!! PUPPY!!!

So, we talked to Robyn tonight (the owner of Bella, daughter of Meg, mother of Irish Creme... confused yet? :D) and the puppies are due next Wednesday or Thursday. Bella's hip scores are 4 and 5. The father's name is Catraz Razz's Encore (see pictures here), hip and elbow scores all 0 (can't get any better than that!!) and his eyes are clear. Bella had an ultrasound yesterday, and she's having a small litter. The father is a chocolate lab, carrying yellow genes. The mother is yellow carrying chocolate genes. Thus, the litter (genetic probability-wise) will be half yellow and half chocolate, and they'll prob all have chocolate noses (rather than black). Nose thing is a bit of a bummer, but yellow is good. We'll probably end up getting a female, because we're both interested in breeding... So yeah.

Which just goes to show how educated I was; yellow-furred brown-skinned dogs are not permissable in the show ring, and if you wish to breed both yellows and chocolates, it's advisable to keep two distinct lines. So, it seemed we were set for a puppy in nine weeks. And then we found an ad in the paper for far less money, but still microchipped etc. We investigated, and they were pedigree pups after all. And so....

Saturday 30 June 2007 @ 7:33am

GUESS WHAT?

WE are getting a DOG!!

Damo's just been given 5 nights of night duty (der, as opposed to days of night duty??), and has thus agreed that we can get puppy after all. Provided it's a nice dog, that is :)

Yay!

Monday 2 July 2007 @ 8:50pm

We're getting a puppy, we're getting a puppy!!

Just got off the phone from mum, who just got off the phone from the puppy man. He is too sick to drive, but his father is going to bring them down for us to look at!! Wednesday 4:15 we'll see them... and we can take them home then if we like them :)

He'll register them for us if we want, but it will take six weeks, so we'll prob get the pup and then he'll register them, and then we'll pay him for the registration. Added bonus here is that we get to choose their registered names!! Yay!!

The girls are thinking of Avantha as the registered name, so it will be Rose Delight Avantha. (Rose Delight is their kennel name, so we have to have that). Avantha is quenyan for shadows. Appropriate, since dog is black :)

I want to call ours something to do with sunshine. We're only supposed to use 10 letters after the kennel name, and sunshine is eight... We can go over a bit we think, coz the father's name is 13 letters... So, thinking of something like My Sunshine, or May Sunshine (she was born in may).

AND, mum talked about the fact that we want to show our dog etc, and Les (dog man) says that he probably wouldn't bother showing the black one, but the yellow one is good. Of course, mum thinks this is wonderful, as they have no interest in showing etc, and we do :)

So all in all, things are good. Puppy on Wednesday... As mum says, why does everything have to happen at once?!! Damo was like - we can't get a puppy on wednesday! I don't know how to look after it!!

hehe.

Oh yeah, and he brings them up as outdoor dogs once they're 4 weeks or so, so that no matter what home they go to they'll be comfortable - so no crying coz of sleeping outside :)

Which is most definitely mostly good... but a little sad too. Would have been a bit nice to have it inside. But can still have her inside during the day :)

And that was how we came to find Laura :)

Plans

So, even though I went through that yicky pressure-ful phase, I still have rough training notes scattered around the place, and I'd really like to collect and collate them. What better place than here? :o)

So for the next few weeks, posting will primarily be playing catch-up as I hunt down said notes and put them up here - with photos, of course!

To begin, a bit of background.

Laura, aka RoseDelight My Sunshine, was born on the 5th of May 2007 - even though her certificate says the 8th! We really couldn't afford a purebred at the time, but after watching my last dog degenerate severely from conditions that ought to have been prevented by a responsible breeder (she was a petshop pup, a rough collie), we were determined NOT to go the petshop route.

My mum and sisters were also in the market for a pup, having lost the collie a few months prior.

I had just decide that, alas, I must give up on the idea of a dog for now due to funds, when Middle Sis stumbled across an ad in the online classifieds: Labrador puppies, bargain price, but microchipped. My ears pricked up. Non-breeders don't usually chip.

We investigated, and lo-and-behold, it was indeed a legit breeder, a small family who breed their dogs purely for the pleasure of the puppies, and not in any way for profit. We were sorely tempted - but I refused to say yes to a dog without having seen it. I had no first-hand experience in judging puppies, but I'd practically memorised the breed standard and read every thing I could find on choosing puppies - what to look for in temperment, quick tests to perform, etc etc.

The breeders were marvellous. They offered to drive the puppies down to us (about a two hour trip) so that we could see them, with no obligation.

Of couse, I'm sure they figured they were pretty safe - four girls, two squiggly puppies... Are they really going to say no?

I would have, had there been anything to say no to. But my little yellow honeycake was, as near as I could guess, a pretty well-shaped dog, and even after a two hour car trip was attentive, curious and friendly. I checked out her papers, and was pleased to see that I recognised a few of the kennel names in her pedigree - of course, at the time I didn't realise quite how good they were!

And so we brought her home, and my mum and sisters took home her sister Abbi. And let me tell you, despite the accidents on the carpet, despite the howls at night, despite the poo up all the walls at times and the complete lack of anything that resembles a backyard at either house - we haven't looked back. We love our dogs. They're here to stay :)