We spent considerable time debating if and when we should add puppies back to the Sliwa household. Nancy had picked out a name years ago (“Beckett”), but we still had to consider the options.
We decided to plunge ahead and start 2017 with new puppies. We scoured the internet for information and after numerous starts decided the best approach would be for Steve to pick one and for Nancy to pick one. Our first dogs, Honey and Chandelle were Golden Retrievers. That was great but we decided diversity in breeds and similar ages would be a better solution. There was some appeal to having two very similar dogs again, but decided each would pick a different breed as well as a specific pup and we would get them as close to the same age as possible.
I went first and decided that I wanted to get another Standard Poodle. Losing Pixie was hard on me and this seemed like a good approach for filling the void. I was thinking maybe white or silver, but was intrigued by getting a red one. This honors Honey and Angel as well. I selected a litter at Springer Clan Standard Poodles (link). The pups were born on 11/11/16 to a black female that reminded me of Pixie and beautiful Red male. I got on the list as the 2nd customer for one of the 4 red females in the 10 dog litter.
On puppy pick day (where the families are invited to visit in order of their selection preference) I was introduced to a couple of red females. I put Shale on her back and she resisted a bit then went with the flow, which is the response I prefer. Thereafter she followed me around constantly. So we like to say that Shale picked me out.
I chose the name Brandy. The first persons to suggest the name were Lynn Kimpan followed by her husband and my business school buddy, Jeff Kimpan, about 30 minutes later. We decided to go with the spelling of the drink since that’s her color.
As I was honing in on Brandy, Nancy decided she wanted a mini Golden Doodle. She wanted something a bit smaller than our last dogs to make it easier to lift into cars and planes than our goldens. Obviously, she loves both the golden personality and the poodle lack of shedding. She also wanted a deep red color. After research, she discovered the Irish Goldendoodle. This has even more gene diversity, Irish Setters shed less than Golden Retrievers, and the combination of the intelligence of Golden Retriever and Poodle should be a big help.
So Beckett was selected from Sandy Ridge Puppy Farm (link link). Beckett was born 11/17/16, just 6 days after Brandy. Nancy also had pick number 4 but did this remotely.
On Brandy’s puppy pick-up day we traveled about 75 minutes to Surprise AZ and rendezvoused when all of the owners were picking up. We all got briefed at the same time and met the other new owners. We got Brandy home and she was quiet but seemed to appreciate our affection.
We tried to get her into a routine before Beckett arrived and she was making progress. She had been inoculated just the day before we left and we think that knocked her down a bit. She started running around and grew quite a bit.
Our plan was for Nancy to fly to Iowa to pick up Beckett. She arrived the night before and met at the farm at 8 AM. It was a two-hour drive to Des Moines airport, a three-hour wait, and then 2.5-hour flight home. I met them at the airport and everyone was fine. Beckett is less timid and more assertive than Brandy. Probably a good think given that she will probably give was a few inches in size and a good 15 lbs in weight.
When we got her home we orchestrated the first visit and it went slow. But within about 30 minutes everyone was playing and happy. Even Casper, the 22-year-old cat, wanted to get in on the fun.
It’s now been 2 full days and everything is getting into a new order. I would call it chaos. I originally thought that having the two learning at the same time would bring some order; like having a pair did previously. But being virtually the same age while very young is causing some JJDI (Joint Juvenile Delinquency and Independence) which is exasperated by schedules which are not yet synchronized … or at least that’s my position at this point.
Nonetheless, it has been loads of fun so far and we are looking forward to our journey ahead.
Here is a link to some SmugMug galleries: Brandy • Beckett • both
A brief gallery of puppy pick-up experience is below:
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