Ours coming home October 30th!

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Gaston Cramer will be joining our family October 30th. He was born on 9-11-08 from a litter of (5). Three blacks and two white/creams. He is now the largest in the litter! He is an F1B Goldendoodle. His Dad is a white/cream F1 Goldendoodle and his Mom is a black standard poodle. We have unprecedented access to him by the breeder and we will forever be grateful to her for the experience. We see him about every 3 days. We were there when he opened his eyes for the first time, took his first wobbly steps and heard him "bark" for the first time too. It's been remarkable and we've been able to document it all with photos. We do know how unusual this is and how Blessed we are to be able to form such an early bond with him. He's such a snuggle bunny!

Gaston is going to ultimately be trained to be a therapy dog. He's actually our daughter's senior exit project for high school. She had to pick a topic for a thesis paper....hers is service and therapy dogs in society...and present a "product". Her "product" will be Gaston, the therapy dog! We actually had planned on adding a goldendoodle all along and when the opportunity came up to have him be her thesis we went a different route and found a local breeder and the rest is history! We couldn't have asked for a better experience for our family. If all goes according to plan, she'll be able to present Gaston next year as a Delta certified therapy dog with her as his trainer. (both are/will be old enough by then! LOL) Our hope is to continue to work with Gaston in the community doing therapy work at our local senior center with an special emphasis on incororating him into an ESL literacy program at our local library that our daughter is a volunteer for. Maybe she'll have to teach him spanish too! LOL

We too are counting the days!

[Oliver]

That's incredible! I can't wait to see our puppies grow up together...even if it is just through pictures! We plan on training Oliver as a therapy dog as well! Our neighbor is on the Delta Society training/judging committee for Washington, D.C. which is kind of neat because we get to ask him specific questions every time we're together. His GS is 4 years old and is incredible...she just passed the Delta test a few months ago. He told me that GDs generally don't become therapy dogs until they're a few years old simply because they're very rambunctious...just to let you and your daughter know! Also, I grew up with a service dog that helped my dad with his Parkinson's, so if I could be of any help to your daughter and her project just let me know :)

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Thanks so much Meredith! I really appreciate it! Ali just might take you up on that! Her senior exit project doesn't require her to have Gaston be a therapy dog before graduation! LOL It's just the process;) but we are keeping our finger's crossed. Gaston is incredibly mellow. So much more so than his litter mates. He allows us to do absolutely anything to him and he just snuggles in and loves back. So here's hoping!
We went and visited today and the change in just three days was remarkable! The 1st photo I posted above was taken on Wednesday of this week. This is what he looks like now on Friday! He's a TANK! and walking like a pro! He's a bit wet in this photo as we were there when he ate and he made quite a piggy of himself! LOL