We're Puppy Shopping!

To start, there are a few things you must know.  I am NOT a dog person, or really even an animal person.  (and Yes, because I was once asked... I do still like babies and small children!  sheesh!)  Because of this, we wanted to make sure we got a breed that would have a decent chance of being fairly low maintenance.  I am pretty intimidated by big dogs, because I grew up with toy size dogs, and so we wanted to start out with a puppy so that I could snuggle and bond with it a little easier before it gets big enough to eat me.  

Chris is a major dog lover, but we decided to put off getting a dog for a year and a half after getting married.  We didn't want to be tied down from being able to go out of town last minute or have to worry about going home to feed the dog.  We also wanted to wait a bit because we knows dogs can be very expensive to take care of.  We were in an apartment for the first year so it was generally just best for us to wait a little while.  We definitely recommend this decision to newlyweds!  But I know for many, not having a dog is unthinkable and that's okay too!

So now that we have a house and a fenced in backyard...we're going for it!  And even I...the non-dog lover...am getting really excited.    

We are thinking we want to get a goldendoodle.  Chris grew up with a golden retriever.

We are hoping for the calm laid back tempermant of a golden retriever with the cute curly non-shedding coat of a poodle!  Let's keep our fingers crossed.


We were hoping to get a mid-size dog, and thought a mini-goldendoodle would be perfect.  But we soon realized that "Mini-goldendoodles" have to be breeded through artificial insemination and thus are very expensive!  They are WAY out of our price range.  And frankly, so are standard size goldendoodles.  Even though we couldn't afford their prices, we went to see a breeder anyway just to get a better feel for what goldendoodles are like.  They didn't have any brand new puppies for sale right then, but it was good to see what goldendoodles can look like as they get older.  

Here are a few of their dogs at Mountain Spring Farm...

Born September 28th, 2009 (5 months old) - Mini F1 Goldendoodles

Born July 4th, 2009 (7 months old) Mini F2b2 Labradoodles

My favorite (looking) puppy there...

(from the litter in the picture above)

At this breeder, I actually thought the labradoodles had cuter faces.  But Chris sold me on the golden when he made an interesting observation.  There were probably about 60 dogs at this breeder-- labs, goldens, poodles, labradoodles and goldendoodles-- all lined up in different kennels.  When we pulled up the dogs went crazy!  They were all barking and jumping all over the place.  Then as we were leaving they did the same thing and Chris said, "Sara, look around at all the golden retreivers."  One of them was yawning, another was laying down, they were totally relaxed.  So this convinced me, a golden mix would be better for our needs, since I'm not used to having big energetic dogs.

Going to the breeder was a good experience to get a better feel for the goldendoodle breed in general, but their dogs were outside our price range.

So we kept on our hunt...

ALAS, we found a friendly pet owner (non-professional-breeder) in TN that is desperate to get rid of some standard size goldendoodle puppies and selling each for less than 1/4 of the price they normally sell for.  We are a little concerned about how big they may get, but the parents are smaller and so we are, again...crossing our fingers and hoping for a smaller standard size dog.  They may not have the same championship pedigree that we would have gotten at the breeder, but we hope we will luck out with a great pet.

We're leaning towards getting a girl.  We want one that's really calm, and we like the ones that are really light in color, and we like the really curly ones.  

Here are some pics from the litter we're looking at...

8 weeks old...

Here are the (only) two girls from the litter.  We are trying to decide between the two.  Hopefully we can decide when we meet them.  The one on the left is curlier, which we love.  The one on the right is lighter, which we also love, and she is supposed to be the calmest in the litter.  Right now we are leaning towards the lighter one.

  

Here are some pics of Chris's sister's goldendoodle, Bentley, just to give you an idea of how to look as they grow...

At about 8 weeks...

At about 4 months...

That's all for now.  We're going to go up to Tennessee this Sunday and hopefully come home with a puppy!  I'll let ya know how it goes!  If any of our friends in Birmingham have a kennel (or other dog accessories) you'd like to get rid of, give us a call!

If anyone is interested in getting a dog from the family we're buying from, contact us by email or comment and we'll send you their info!

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