The Irish Brothers...An Update

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

A few DK'rs have asked me whether Murphy is bigger than Guinness yet, and how that's going over. Well, he is WAY bigger than Guinness. Guinness weighs 17 pounds, and Murphy is now up to 27. Murph is also a few inches taller than his "big brother". It's really cracking me up. My puppy is going to be on very large, beautiful Doodle boy. Guinness is taking it all in stride. Murphy "body blocks" Guinness, and sends him flying across the room. Guinness just gets up and goes right back at it. Murphy is rapidly "becoming a man". His "equipment" is often in a state of excitement (if you get my drift), and that is just fascinating to Guinness. When Murph was at the Vet this week it happened when she picked him up to give him a kiss. She was quite surprised and suggested that we need to neuter him immediately. She says "the testosterone is flowing" and now is the time before it gets any worse. Guinness will be so disappointed...to say nothing of Murph who seems very proud of this accomplishment. He's also "peeing" on himself regularly which means "wipe downs" or else he stinks. So, April 26th is the date for his "operation". I will be a wreck that day...and then the challenge of keeping the boys apart for a few days. Can you even believe he went from being my "little rescue baby" to a boy with "raging hormones" in a month!

Murphy has developed his own "big" personality. The Vet calls him the "Drama King", because he acts like he's being tortured for any little thing. Today I took him to Daycare for the first time. I wanted him to go without Guinness for just a couple of hours and to have a bath and get his nails cut. I really wanted him to see that I can take him somewhere and leave him, AND COME BACK! Because of his rescue background, I didn't want to send him in for his surgery without having some confidence that Mommy can leave him somewhere, but she always comes back and he comes back to his "forever home". I was really curious about how this would go. I watched on the video, and it was actually pretty interesting. They first let in two dogs (hand picked) to interact with him, then one by one they add more as he got comfortable. He did not want any other dog smelling him at first. He "hung out" right by the Daycare staffer and sat so that the other dogs couldn't get to his "butt". Then little by little he gained confidence, and after about 10 minutes he was fine...running and playing. Then it was bath time....I left for this part. He gave them a real run for their money...did a couple of back flips in the tub and gave lots of attitude. They said once he knew that this just wasn't going to work, he relaxed and did fine. Then it was nail clipping time....same thing with the attitude. Again, he finally figured out they "were not impressed" and relaxed. When I picked him up the owner said...."he's a beautiful, smart dog, but what a "Drama King"....hmm, where had I heard that before. She also said that she was really glad he was with us because we wouldn't let him get away with it. That got me to thinking that I have been letting Murphy "get away with" a lot more than Guinness at this age...probably because I was feeling a little sorry for him. I need to get over that (within reason, of course).

Guinness has his first "practice" therapy visit on Sunday at an Alzheimer's Facility. Then in two weeks he'll take his final TDI evaluation. I think he'll do fine with most of it. We are working on the "supervised separation" which will be the one big challenge. He is "whining" when I leave him and actually get out of sight which is not acceptable. I'm a little worried about Sunday...not for Guinness, but for me. My Mom had Alzheimer's, and I'm thinking being there is going to be emotional. I'm going to just focus on Guinness, and then the rest should fall into place. Another Doodle adventure.

So that's our story for this week. I sometimes feel like I'm living in a parallel Doodle universe. Between the Doodle romp, the Vet, the Groomer (tomorrow), Daycare, Doodle home cooking, combing, brushing, demating, teeth, ears, walks, training, playing, buying "stuff" (new toy bought today already destroyed), reading (dog books), and not to forget the "pee-pee" trips outside at least every hour for Murphy....this guy pees more than any dog I've ever met. The thing is, I really love this Doodle world I'm living in. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Here are a couple of pictures...Karen, my Murphy has a pretty awesome Doodle Nose...not as good as JackDoodle yet, but maybe in a couple of years, he cold be a competitor. LOL Here are my "sleeping beauties"...

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

I love the photo....isn't it just amazing how quickly they've bonded! Size won't matter at all with those two! Heck look at Bindi! She could care less about Gaston and Rose's size!
What a wonderful wonderful world you've opened up to Murphy :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL- Big dogs, big noses! Murphy's big black shiny nose is definitely a contender! Jackdoodle will be happy to pass the crown to your precious not-so-little Drama King!

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Minus the 'excitement', you are describing my life! Isn't it just wonderful?!?!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Loved reading this post. My Vern is a bit of a chicken, so I was interested to hear how Murphy did at daycare the first time. I also can relate to the constant potty breaks...I swear he goes every 15 minutes, but can hold it all night. I took Fudge to the groomer a week ago and when she came back, my sweet baby Vern would not get off of her....I guess she smelled better or something. My life is doodle crazy too and I am tired, but I think Fudge is more tired than I am each day.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

I love it!! He is a very cute Drama King!!! I think it's sweet that they still love each other even though Murphy is growing and changing so much!