Puppy is home!

Well we went and got our new puppy today.  So far so good.   She slept most of the way home and has been pretty good since we got home.   She is still a little unsure, but she is adjusting fast.   

She is a little snugler.   She seems to want nothing more then to snuggle up to someone.  Pictures coming soon...

Preperation and planning

We bring home our new puppy this Saturday. During this process, I have been reading tons of books and trying to prepare for my first dog as an adult. I am not sure if I am more or less prepared for all the reading, but I sure have a bunch of stuff that is new to me to try. The biggest new thing, is trying to use a clicker for clicker training.

Clicker Training Wikipedia Article

Clicker Training Website

More info as we move closer the bringing home our new puppy.

Meeting the puppy parents and puppies

You probably all know where this is going, but lets just saying meeting puppies you don't expect to bring home is hard. The trip to the breeder ended up being meet the breeder, stock and our new puppy.

Puppies mom

As soon as Kate and I saw the puppies we were hooked. We ened up falling in love and deciding to bring one into our home.

The Chosen Puppy.

The Chosen Breeder

One we had decided on the breed, we had to decide on the breeder. I started by finding breeders listed on several of the Cockapoo registry sites.

Cockapoo Club of America

American Cockapoo Club

North American Cockapoo Registry

I called / emailed several both from the Chicago area and a couple as far away as California. Based on some recommendations from a breeder in California and my gut feeling on communicating with the breeders, the search was narrowed down too one.

Precious Pets Kennel in Hudson MI,

Next meeting the potential puppy parents

Why a dog / Why a Cockapoo?

Despite my earlier stated misgivings about the name Cockapoo, I have decided to keep using it just because it is the most widely used name for this type of dog.

Now I suppose for the least interesting question, why we have decided to get a dog. Everyone wants a dog. Don't they? As I have decided to write a blog, I will go ahead and answer the question. I have always enjoyed dogs, but have never had one of my own. When I was growing up my older sister got a dog. She didn't take care of it, so when I was old enough to have a pet. I got a cat. I have been waiting to get a dog for a long time. No time like the present...

Now to the second question to be answered in this post, why a dog with cock and poo both in it's name. First off, my wife is allergic to most short hair dogs and some others. This fact alone limited our choices. One choice would have been to get a poodle from the get go, but I find the miniature and toy poodle just a little too small and a standard poodle a bit large for our living arrangements. However, the hypoallergenic nature of the poodles coat was very attractive given our requirements. I had known and really liked a couple of cocker spaniels, but fears of over-breeding of cockers and getting an un-healthy or aggressive cocker was a concern.

A cross of a miniature poodle and the slightly larger cocker spaniel just seemed like a good possibility. With this thought I entered my research phase on the breed and looking for breeders. My next post will cover this.

Hello and welcome to my journey of adopting a new puppy

Hello and welcome to my journey. This blog is meant to share my wife and I's trials and tribulations of adopting a cockapoo or spoodle puppy. For those that don't know a cockapoo is is a hybrid dog or designer dog that is a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a poodle. I just read somewhere that they are also called spoodle's and for some reason that seems like a much better name then cockapoo to me. Any word that contains both cock and poo just doesn't seem right or manly. It is bad enough that we are getting a smaller dog but explaining to my buddies that is is a cockapoo is just tough. Perhaps we will just call it a poodle mix. Regardless, we are planning on adopting a poodle mix puppy in the next few months.

You may be asking yourself, if I have concerns of getting an unmanly dog why don't we just get a rot or doberman or something. My next post will explain why a cockapoo