Welcome to the Family!!

I really do believe that there are right and wrong dogs for different families. When Scarlett was 3, we bought a French Bulldog. Mostly because we wanted her to have a companion. She has been an animal lover since she could first talk.
I pretty much listened to what the breeder was telling me (mostly all lies) and didn't really do any of my own homework. Let's just say that it was a horrible fit. I am a clean freak. It drove me insane the amount of fur that would gather...EVERYWHERE. They told me she would be a very calm dog. HA! Then she decided she wanted to pee on every. single. bed that we bought her. I think I went through about 25 (no exaggeration) and finally I just stopped buying them. She also peed on every single piece of furniture we had. She was extremely challenging to housebreak and she just wasn't the kind of dog that wanted to please us...ever. She would jump up on the couch to pee in the middle of it!!! I had never heard of a dog who wanted to pee were she slept! We brought her to the vet to see if she had anything medically wrong with her. Nada.

When I got pregnant with Maxwell, I spent the whole pregnancy trying to train her and prepare for when I wouldn't have much time to focus on her after the baby was born. When Maxwell arrived, I just couldn't do it anymore. The new baby was going to take so much energy and time and I was still dealing with the dog who wouldn't pee or poop outside and was acting up non-stop. I decided it was the right thing to do to find a family for her that could spend the time that it took to train and take care of this diva frenchie. Luckily for us, a family member had been dreaming of owning a Frenchie and so Ula found her happy place with them. She is thriving there now without any of the issues she used to have and even has a Boston Terrier sister who keeps her company.

Looking back, I wish we had researched a lot more before we had executed. But you live, you learn. I actually vowed to never get a dog again after the experience I had. And if I did, I wanted it to be an older dog.
Scarlett is older now and an even bigger animal lover!  She tells me that she is going to be an Animal Rescuer when she gets older and live on a Rescue Farm. I can see it. She has been begging us for a pet for SO long. I keep saying, once we settle down, we will get one. In the meantime, I had been researching breeds just to see if there could possibly be a dog that would fit our family. For me, it had to be a family type of dog. One that wasn't too hyper and one that wouldn't shed. Also, it had to be smart. That was my criteria. I came across some silly quiz online that I took. It told me our perfect dog would be a Golden Doodle. I had never heard of this type of dog but as I started asking around and researching more, I started to think that maybe this really was the perfect breed for us! The poodle in them makes them smart as a whip! The Golden Retriever in them makes them great family dogs. They also don't shed because they have hair and not fur. This is MY kinda dog! So I decided that one day, we would look into getting a Golden Doodle.

Well, one day came a little sooner than I anticipated. For Scarlett's birthday, we decided to bring her to the pet store just to pet animals and possibly get a small caged animal like a hamster or a lizard. Of course they had 2 adorable and irresistible Mini Golden Doodles just looking out the window at us. We decided to go into one of the booths to play with them. I fell HARD for this little fluff ball of a pup. He was playful but had a calm sense about him. He looked up at me with his teddy bear face and I could tell this was just a smart, sweet dog. If you know me, you know that I am not a dog person really. (Mostly because of the maintenance) but I looked up at Ty and said, I want him.  10 minutes later we were putting a deposit on him. We didn't tell Scarlett. We figured we would let the kids be surprised when we picked him up a couple days later. We went shopping for puppy stuff and Scarlett thought that we were buying it all so that her and Maxwell could play "Bumper", a very exciting game where Scarlett is the human and Maxwell is Bumper the dog. She walks him and feeds him and sets up cages for him. It's the funniest thing ever! She had literally NO idea that we were going to bring home a dog in just a few hours. When we went to pick him up, we went back into the petting booth to play with him one last time. There we told her that we were bringing him home. At first she didn't quite grasp that we were saying she COULD TAKE HIM HOME. But once she asked a couple questions and figured it out, she was jumping up and down and hugging the dog. She was over the moon happy!!

Then it came time to pick a name. Scarlett wanted Cubbie and Maxwell wanted Benny. We all know he's a Benny Goodman fan;) But we have a dog name Cubbie now so you can see who won that battle. Ha. We took a family vote and when it was 50/50 (Team Maxwell/Mama and Team Scarlett Daddy) We flipped a coin and Cubbie it is! It is suiting since he looks like the most adorable bear cub I've ever seen! We've had Cubbie for a week now and I am thrilled with him. I anticipated a hard first few weeks with the puppy. I remembered what it was like with the Frenchie. But honestly, this is the smartest pup! At 11 weeks old he goes outside on cue and has only had a handful of mistakes! We just purchased one of those bells that go on the door so that when they have to go pee, they ring it!!

Even though the timing was a little off with us renting here, and moving again soon, we are thrilled with our new family member. He is such a cute little fur ball and I can honestly see him growing old with our family. The kids can't leave him be. This dog sure is loved! My advice for anyone thinking about getting a dog/puppy. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Don't get something that is not the right fit for your family. There is a family for every dog but I 100% believe everyone needs to find the perfect match before just buying.

I'm sharing the video here of the day we went back to pick him up below :D