Tiny dogs are the winners in new US stats and take over the country!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/26/how-litt...

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I think that there might even be a trend in Doodle breeders to be downsizing.  I know that AnnaBelle's breeder was only doing one Standard liter a year and I'm not sure she is even doing that one this year.  I was looking at one other breeder just today and they had no standard size doodles either.  While I get that smaller might be a little easier in many areas, I love my big girls.  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I love big dogs, but when we got Ned, we opted for a smaller dog because we are getting older and lifting an ill or senior dog is getting harder.  When we adopted Clancy, we thought he was a lighter weight dog than he is.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I was just telling someone the other day, that my next dog is going to fit in my purse :) I always wanted a big, BIG dog....I got one. LOL I forgot with big comes strong. I am too old for another huge dog. Vern is such a great dog, but he needs so much more exercise than Fudge or we pay at night. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

My little 7 month old girl is a 12lb mini. Don't tell her that, she thinks she is a big girl. I had a big 85lb golden retriever. He had cancer, but still was doing fine. We were going to have him put down once we felt he was declining. He was still active and playful and just didn't feel it was the right time. One day while we were both at work, he declined drastically. He died on the deck shortly after my husband got home. I won't go into details, but it was a violent death. He covered him with a tarp. Then the real fun began. I could not find anyone to come and get him. There was no way we could do it. The city animal control, told me to wheel him out on the front yard and someone would come by in the next 2 days to get him. UUmm...No!! The vet, didn't offer a ride to the office. Call after call I was met with no, they could not come and get my dog. After looking through the phone book I finally found a place that would come and get him. By the time I talked to this person I was sobbing. The guy felt so bad for me, that he said he would come and get my dog that afternoon. Little did I know that they were really booked solid and really had no time to come and get my dog. Anyway, his business was next door to a funeral home. So the funeral home did his neighbor a favor came and got my dog. They put him on a stretcher, and wheeled him out to the van, dropped him off at the place I had made arrangements with. It all worked out, but if he had been a small dog, we could have just taken him to the vet ourselves. Not only was I upset that my dog died, then I had to deal with the aftermath of finding someone to come and get him. It was pretty traumatic for me. We knew we wanted small this time around. We are 15 years older and Annabelle is big enough for us to handle. Him dying like that had never crossed my mind. I thought we had plenty of time with the way he was acting. Also big dog=big poop. Annies are big enough.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Amy. I'm so sorry you had to go thru that. I know it must have been devastating!