Puppy party: seven weeks old

Unfortunately, we were not able to make it to the puppy party. I was pretty bummed about it, but J had to work. The puppies all went through a temperament test to make sure that they were matched to the best families. Fortunately, plenty of people posted pictures to the Facebook group for me. J emailed Barb to tell her that we were so sad that we couldn't make it, and she told us that the perfect boy for us will be Mr. Blue!! The two other families who will be getting boys are older than us, so Barb wanted them to have two more mellow puppies. Our boy was the most energetic, but she also said that he was incredibly attentive and biddable. Sounds like a perfect match to me!

Photos by Corinne Dumais and Cathi Mnich

You can actually see our boy in the third picture!! He is the sleeping pup right behind the two holding hands. We can't wait to meet him! Just one more week!!!!

Six weeks old

My goodness, the waiting is getting difficult. I keep feeling irrationally nervous that we aren't *actually* going to get a puppy even though we paid the deposit. My heart is just so full of love for these little creatures even though one isn't even in our home yet. I drive home from work with a smile on my face knowing that in two weeks, I'm going to have an excited little furry face there to greet me. This picture got posted on the Sunfire page today and I have just been staring at it for ages. They are just so cute... I can't even handle it!!!

Photo by Frank Schectman

Five weeks old

They are getting bigger as each week goes by, and it looks like they are really developing little personalities! I wish we could go visit them again!!

Photos by Corinne Dumais

Puppy Visit

Oh my goodness, what an amazing day!! J and I drove out to Connecticut to meet the puppies! We were a bit worried about getting to Barb's house, since she had told us during the winter that we would need snow chains to make it up her driveway. Fortunately, the weather has finally improved, and despite being rainy in the past few days, we were able to make it up the driveway no problem. She wasn't kidding about a long driveway though! I was glad we took the Subaru instead of the Scion. Offroading in the Scion would not have been a fun time.

We got to the house and we were immediately greeted by a cow! Barb told us that his name was Porterhouse and he is her lawnmower. We also got to meet Rainey, the puppies' mother! What a sweet dog she was. She reminded me of Maxine so much! I was so excited I could barely contain myself.

There were other families there to meet the puppies as well. We all gathered around as Barb brought the puppies out to the pen on the deck. It was their first time ever being outside! They could see, but not terribly well. It was so funny watching them trundle around and squabble with one another.

They were just the sweetest little loves. J and I each cuddled a boy puppy and a girl puppy. I was quite enamored by the girl puppy in my arms, but I realized holding both that I would be so happy with either, as long as we got to go home with a pup in another four weeks!!

And the best part!! We officially ARE going to be going home with a pup in four weeks! We happily gave Barb a deposit. She will be doing a puppy temperament test and helping us pick the best puppy for us. Now the really hard part... the waiting!!!

Three weeks old!

We are back! J called Barb today and arranged for us to go visit the puppies next Saturday! We can barely contain ourselves. It is looking like we will be getting a puppy from this litter, but it probably will be a boy. I'm still keeping my hopes up for a girl. I've never had a boy dog before, and the idea makes me nervous for some reason. It mainly just concerns me because boy dogs are a lot bigger than girl dogs in general.

From the research I've done, the personality differences in Golden Retrievers are subtle and it completely depends on the puppy. For every person who says "girls are better, they mature faster so they get potty trained faster" there is a person who says "boys are better, they have better bladder control so they get potty trained faster." For every person who says "boys are better, girls are aloof and independent" there is a person who says "not my girl dog, she is a velcro dog."

I guess the fact is, we will be happy with whatever we get, but I still just want a little red girl! The boys are so blond. Very cute though, take a look!!

Photos by Corinne Dumais

Two weeks old!

J and I are on vacation right now, but I am so excited to see a puppy update! We decided that we will call Barb when we get home to set up a time to come meet the little creatures. Things are starting to sound promising for us!

Puppy belly!!

Brothers

Sisters

Photos by Corinne Dumais

Getting bigger: One week old

Photos by Corinne Dumais

Not being able to visit these sweet pups is getting so hard! They are one week old today and so incredibly cute. We still don't have an update on which puppy could be ours. The darker ones are all of the girls, and the light ones are the boys. I like the coloring of the dark one the best, of course. They are all adorable though!!

Little cuties

Still no news on whether we will get one of these puppies are not, but boy are they cute!!

Photo by Corinne Dumais

The internet is a magnificent thing. We have joined a Facebook group for Sunfire Goldens and we will get to see pictures of the little creatures as they grow! It's so cool to be a part of the community, even though we aren't dog-owners yet. People on there have dogs of all ages, some have multiple dogs, some show their dogs or do competitions like agility... it's very cool!

The wait is over!

It has been a tense few weeks. J called Barb at the beginning of the month to remind her that we are interested in a puppy. She told him that she still doesn't know if we will be able to have one of Rainey's puppies but she does have several other litters coming. It seems promising that we will at least get a puppy this year, but not knowing for sure is really stressful!

In brighter news, however, we found out that Rainey had her litter yesterday! Four girls and three boys. Perhaps there will be enough girls to go around and J and I will be able to get the little red girl that I want... I joked with my brother that if we get a boy pup, we should name him Brutus since he was born on the Ides of March. I don't think I'm going to be able to name a sweet Golden Retriever puppy Brutus, though....

Breeder research

The next step was overwhelming. Where were we going to find our little creature? 

Since we both wanted a Golden Retriever, we decided to try our hand at finding a puppy from a breeder first. Our time frame was to get a puppy in mid-May or June so that it would coincide with my graduation and the weather (hopefully) warming up. The idea of training a puppy in the inclement winter months was not really appealing, so we were hopeful that we would find a breeder with some puppies. If not, we would consider adopting a shelter dog.

As it turns out, vetting a breeder is a little more complicated than just typing 'golden retriever puppies' into Google. I very quickly got swept into a rabbit hole of learning all about OFA clearances, backyard breeders, and the warning signs of what to stay away from in a breeder. The most sensible piece of advice that I read over and over was to never go visit a breeder unless you have vetted them first and are fully prepared to purchase one of their puppies. Otherwise, you will fall in love with the adorable faces in front of you and you might find yourself willing to compromise on things like clearances and pedigree. The fact of the matter is, ALL puppies are insanely cute, so it doesn't make sense to fall in love with one that has a higher likelihood of health problems down the road.

We called a couple of breeders near us and were immediately discouraged. One breeder very bluntly told us that since we have never trained a puppy before, she wasn't interested in selling one of hers to us. I understand her point, to a certain degree, but where am I supposed to get a training wheels puppy to raise before I am given the privilege of owning one of hers?! This breeder and a couple of the others that we called also had all of their planned puppies booked already. It is only February... are there no little Goldens coming into the world that we will be able to call our own?

After several failed attempts to get in touch with some breeders, we finally had some luck! J called Barb at Sunfire Goldens and they had a lovely conversation about her upcoming litters. I had fallen in love with the litter due on March 15. The picture on k9data of the dam was a beautiful red girl, just like my Maxine growing up, and the sire was very handsome as well. She told us that she had a lot of interest in this litter, and priority was going to some folks who had recently lost their dogs, but we could call back in a few weeks to see how things were going.

The conversation left us anxious but excited. There was no firm commitment that we would be getting a puppy, but the possibility was there! I had originally thought that sometime in June would work out better for us as a Gotcha Day, but a mid-May puppy will be just as wonderful.

In which we make a very important decision.

My mother has always given me solid advice about adding animals to the family. She strongly advised that I wait until my future children are all around four years old before getting a puppy. That way, she reasoned, the youngest child will be old enough to respect and not torture the puppy, and if the dog lives a healthy life, he will be entering his twilight years right as the youngest child is heading off to college. 

Being a logical person, I stuck to this mantra for years, much to my husband's dismay. He was desperate for us to add a puppy to our family. I pointed out to him that he has never had a puppy, and that it is just a little different to train and raise a puppy versus a kitten. He would obstinately pout and grumble and offer veiled threats that one day, I would just come home to a puppy in our kitchen and I would have no choice but to love it.

The one thing we did agree on was that we wanted a Golden Retriever. My family dog growing up was a red-head Golden named Maxine and I knew ever since then that I would never own a different breed. While the idea of rescuing a pup from a shelter does warm my heart, I wanted the sweet temperament and warm smile that I grew up with. In fact, I wanted another red girl more than anything, but this was going to be years down the road.

Last month, I started taking my final two courses to finish my masters degree. I struck up a conversation with one of my classmates during our break, and she proceeded to gush about her dog and how much she loved him. I don't even remember how it came up in conversation, but when she showed me a picture of his sweet Golden Retriever face, my heart melted. 

It was like a switch flipped inside my brain. I don't know when J and I are going to have kids. It could be next year, it could be in five years. Do I really want to spend all this time waiting for my future children to turn four, when I could be enjoying a sweet puppy in my life? Do I really want our first experience caring for a mammal to be our kids? 

I texted J from class and said these fateful words:

"Let's get a puppy. I'm ready."