Our First Trip Out to the Breeders

[Kristen Eric Lacey and Paisley]

March 15th finally arrived and it was time to go meet our beautiful litter. We got up quite early, hustled to the car, and began our three hour car ride. With no traffic we were approaching our destination earlier than expected so we went and tanked up on gas to kill some time.

Finally we pulled into the breeder's driveway and were immediately overwhelmed with the amount of cuteness running around outside. We were greeted by the most adorable doodles I have ever seen. After meeting everyone outside - including the mommy of our litter - we were able to go indoors and meet the puppies. After getting so many pictures week after week, I was shocked to see how little they still are! They look so big in the pictures! Our beautiful litter is now ranging in weight; the largest being six lbs - known as Squares, b/c of her adorable square collar and the smallest being four lbs - known as Rainbow, b/c of her zesty rainbow colored collar.

Before going to see our litter, I was doing my best to educate myself on what kind of bond I should look for when going to meet them. We found out on our visit, that we are third to pick our pup out of six, so I wanted to be sure that we would be able to make our best decision. I read up on coats and noses and temperaments and shedding, but none of that seemed to matter when meeting our pups. All of the pups in our litter are very, very, very similar in coat and appearance. They all have a light English Goldendoodle cream coat, with dark black noses and brown eyes. Many of their temperaments were the same. I kept reading, "take the one that falls asleep on your lap" - well in reality, they all fell asleep on our laps, so that didn't help. After 2 1/2 hours of visiting with the puppies, we did however have our favorites. They were those puppies that kept on coming back to us. They were the ones that would go off on their own but then running back when we said "come"- at 5 weeks they already know a few commands which I think shows how wonderful and intelligent this breed truly is. They were those puppies that would go play but then would come back looking for some lovin - they were the cuddlers and the ones that loved giving lots of kisses.

After we got back into our car and said our good byes to the pups - which was harder than expected, we set out for lunch. We made our way into Columbus and went to the first restaurant we found. We were starving! We expected to sit down at lunch and have a clear cut understanding of at least the top three pups we wanted - but that was impossible. All we had to go on was our one visit with six amazing puppies and the names given by the types of collars - Paws, Argyle, Square, Apples, Scooby, and Rainbow. We talked in circles about the ones we loved, how impressed we were with our breeder and wonderful they care for their doggies, and each bond we felt already forming.

After much going back and forth and looking at all the fun pictures we took, we finally narrowed down our list to give the breeder. Regardless of which pup we end up with, we are so blessed to have this fluffy, little angel in our lives. Both Eric and my families are anxiously awaiting the day we bring her home and have already figured out when they will be stopping by to see her. We are so thrilled that we will bringing her home in 13 days and we can't wait to make that three hour car ride again because this time she will be coming home sleeping in my lap and entirely our little girl.

[Kristen Eric Lacey and Paisley]

Thank you Julie!!! We bring her home Saturday so I am sure there will be tons of homecoming pics!

[Julie and Max]

omg she is so so so freaking adorable, congrats Kristen! I want to see more pictures as soon as possible ;D

[Julie and Max]

Oh I'm going to look right now!!!

[Kristen Eric Lacey and Paisley]

Hi Julie! We just found out on Thursday which one she is. I posted some pics of her in my photos and in my most recent blog :) we pick her up this Saturday to come home!

[Julie and Max]

Kristin I can't wait to see which lovely puppy you get!

[Julie, Eloise & Beasley]

Kristen, I'm looking forward to more of your posts!  You're also the first person I've met on here with one of their puppies (I'm pretty new to DK, so it could be a function of that, too - ha).  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!  If all goes as planned, I'll be getting another pup from them this year, too.  Ellie needs a little sister. :)

[Miss Ellie]

Kristen...I am so excited for you...it was just about 7 months ago that we were doing the very same thing and bringing home our sweet little girl Ellie...it is such an amazing time and I can't believe how much she has grown and just turned into such an amazing addition to our family...Good Luck and we look so forward to seeing pics of your puppy:)

[Kristen Eric Lacey and Paisley]

Thank you Linda and Nancy!!! I plan to blog pretty regularly once she comes home so I will be sure to keep everyone updated on our little bundle of joy!!! :)

Julie, that's amazing! You're the first person I've met on here that has a pup from the same breeder. Eloise is beautiful!!!!! I very much hope Lacey looks like her. I haven't been able to meet their dad yet, but hopefully when we pick her up to bring her home we will. The experience has been wonderful - while it feels like it takes forever, every minute has been exciting and well worth it. This is my first dog on my own as an adult so I can entirely relate to your other posting. Thank you so much for commenting and I will be sure to keep everyone posted! :)

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Congratulations Kristen & Eric.  Looking forward to homecoming photos.  Enjoy!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thanks for including us in your journey.  I can't wait for the next installment.