Introducing "Gaston Cramer"

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Our family is excited to announce the birth of
"Gaston Cramer". He was born Sept. 11th and is an F1B Goldendoodle. We had to change our direction in breeders, to absolutely NO FAULT AT ALL to our original choice breeder :) and found our little tank yesterday. He is 2 weeks old today and will be joining our family mid-November. I just wanted to share our joy with you all and warn you that I'll be taking tons more photos and posting them as he grows! He will ultimately be trained as a therapy dog as part of our daughter's senior high school exit project. How much fun will THAT be! We are so excited!



*edited to add that I've been having a devil of a time posting a photo so for now you'll have to look at my avatar until I figure out how to add a photo to the thread...it keeps "uploading" but never completes. Oh well....:)*

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Thanks Debbie. I'm not sure how this thread popped up after a year but Gaston-Cramer is now a year old and full grown! He has turned out to be the most remarkable addition to our family and we couldn't have asked for a more loving and devoted creature. Here is a photo of him in the car as we get ready to pick up our son at school. It's not quite the best quality photo as it was taken from my cell phone but he's come a looooooooooong way since his baby scale days! LOL

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

I'm thinking close to 70. Not certain though. He actually appears to weigh more than he does as he's so tall but he's just a string bean! LOL He look quite stocky in the above photo but he was just chillin' waiting for "his boy". :)

[Jeannine]

He is such a beautiful doodle and... I think that he know it!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Saw where this resurfaced this morning as well, as as I reread I was wondering how your Daughter's Senior Exit Project went with regard to the Therapy Dog Training! Thanks for posting the updated pic too!

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

He got fired! LOL Actually the senior exit project did! LOL The school district decided, in their infinite wisdom, that they hadn't really gotten all the kinks out of this whole "senior exit project" thing and shelved it. They will revisit it again in 2012. All Ali was required to do, when all was said and done, was a research paper on her project. So technically, Gaston-Cramer was fired! LOL

As far as the therapy dog training goes....he did pass his CGC test but we've decided to halt any more "formal" training with him until the winter. We pushed so hard with his training as a pup (due to her project) that I, personally, am not confident it all stuck. I think he was too young, and it went too fast. He'd started training at 12 weeks and didn't stop formal training until he was 9 months old. He's remarkably well training but I honestly don't think he should have passed his CGC that early. We're going to "tweak" him a bit more over the winter and revisit the therapy issue in the spring. The desire is there, just not the confidence. He tends to like to "hug" people when he greets them and given his size, that's something I need to curb! LOL