My Non Perfect Doodles

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Appealing, adorable, non shedding, easy to train, great with kids and other dogs etc etc etc.  I love perusing the various doodle websites and am a sucker for cute videos of sweet doodle babies.  This feeds the same need in me that has me oooing and aaahing over adorable baby pictures.  But I often leave these sites with a heavy heart. How realistic are these claims?  How much is sales hype? How much is this selling a dream?  For non shedding read copious and frequent grooming and if you can't/won't do it yourself then insert very expensive frequent trips to groomer.  You get the picture.  A quick glance through some of the groups here will do any prospective buyer the world of good.  Good Breeders/Bad Breeders?  Giardia, parasites, genetic illnesses, injuries, vet insurance the list goes on and on.....

So for those of you who love puppies here is a little snippet of my day.  I got up at 6 am to bring Boris out for morning pee and poop. It's freezing cold here by the way and he spends 15 minutes finding the perfect spot while I shiver.   Back to bed we go and Riley and Boris are now on the bed and I can't find any place to put my feet. At 8am we all get up and it's breakfast time.  Boris goes out to poop and comes back in with poop trailing all over his behind.  I am in a terrible rush but spend half an hour cleaning poop off him so I miss breakfast.  This involves using my fingers to remove poop as the shampoo is doing little to shift it.  During the day my partner comes home to feed and let the boys out.  I collect them at 3pm and drive them 40 minutes to day care so they can run off some of that energy while I do some work.  At some point during the day I collect the worm meds and order dog food  ($140 gone like a flash out of my account.)  I get home and we spend ten minutes doing some much needed training as Boris is learning bad habits from his brother and is jumping up.  I am going away for three days on business on Wednesday and this has necessitated lots of planning so the boys remain well cared for and get plenty of exercise in my absence.

My boys are easy, they get on with everybody and are total love bugs BUT they are hard hard work.  Our lives revolve around their needs.  Every thing we do or plan takes them into account.  For websites to be realistic they need to ask hard questions.  It's one thing buying the 'perfect' puppy.  It's quite another achieving that expectation.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I love the "can't give my dog the time he needs line".  I once read this thing online about how everytime you don't do something you said you would do, you should stop saying "I didn't have time" and instead say "it wasn't a priority".  You will always find time in your day to get done the things that are of highest priority to you and everything else will wait.  I can't remember when I last made the time to sit down and give myself a mani or pedi, but the dogs always have mat free coats and clean ears and trimmed nails.  It isn't that I don't have time to do indulgent things for myself, it just isn't an priority anymore because I have other things that have a higher priority now.

[Leslie and Halas]

I agree with this.  You can apply it to so many things in life.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Well said, Amy!

[Leslie and Halas]

It reminds of me of a saying I read a couple of months ago. It doesn't relate to dogs, but it's a similar idea.  "It's not about having the willpower to start or stop doing something.  It's about being truly ready to make that change in your life."

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

oh I like that Leslie!

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Perfectly said Amy.

Oh and I don't have time for exercise by the way, no really I just don't have time, LOL.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I don't have time to make myself a healthy dinner so I totally understand the exercise thing Lisa!  lol

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Oh, Nicky. Welcome to the "tired doodle puppy mom" club! I've expressed my thoughts on this topic as well when we got Auggie this summer. Hang in there, my friend, it does get better (I say this with caution as we just got back to crating Auggie for the few hours when we want to go out to eat since he started surfing the kitchen table and pulling the tablecloth and everything that's on it...)

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Jarka, I think Nicky is hanging in there just fine...go back and read her post and look for all the sarcasm in there. ;) She was politely poking fun at the people of a disillusioned by not having the perfect dogs that they believed all doodles to be.

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

LOL yes, I think Nicky is handling it better than I did those first few weeks. But I would clean the poop off their behinds anytime with no shame. :-)

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Oh goodness I've been gone too long! You have Boris already!!! He's a doll. Perfect post Nicky

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I think dogs do have a place in the home of children, but I wonder if the dog is presented correctly  to the children sometimes?

My children never bothered the dogs.  Their first dog came when they were, 6 months and 26 months old. Just mere toddlers.  You don't have to tell me what a mistake that move was on my part. Ugh!  But, I never presented the dogs as theirs.  The dogs were in my charge, my dogs, the youngest of the pack. Mom is in charge.

They were never brought into the home as a gift or a playmate.  Actually, the first dog came because I wanted him and I also was home alone a lot. I wanted ears and a companion for myself. Sure, the kids are companions, but just not the same as my children.  Strange but when you have toddlers, a dog seems so mature  :)   My best friend.  Just no comparison in any way.

The dogs bonded with me, mostly. I trained them, fed them, protected them.  My kids just thought they were .... well no big deal.  The dogs were part of life. Not an enhancement of their lives. They were .... there.  They added to life but were not there for entertainment or cuddling. The dogs were a part of us. Not separate in any way.

I never told them to water, feed, take out, play fetch with and give them any responsibility for them.   I set an example by taking care of my dogs but  never expected or asked my children to do any thing.

Hard to explain.  But, sometimes I see the failure with the children because of family expectations.   They expect so much from the dog. A lot of pressure is put on the emphasis of GETTING the dog instead of adding a dog. 

Maybe I am not making sense, but I just never saw so many problems with children. Maybe I was oblivious in my busy motherhood?   No, I know I wasn't.