Ever wondered how Lucky came to join our little family? His “Gotcha Day” story is a little bit of wanting, a little bit of planning, and whole bunch of luck.
Tomorrow is Lucky’s second birthday, so I thought I would write up his “Gotcha Day” story (which is just the story of how we got Lucky). He joined us only a month before we found out that we were expecting Calvin. If we had gotten pregnant any earlier or Lucky’s litter had been born any later, we honestly probably wouldn’t have gone through with his adoption.
DECIDING WHAT KIND OF DOG
I am a very research-oriented person. I like to read reviews, recommendations, watch videos, and see actual product before I make big purchases. I really like to do this before I make any purchase, but especially big ones.
Colter’s only “wants” were medium sized with black curly hair. I don’t know when or where he saw a dog that fit that description, but he decided that he wanted a dog like that. I knew that for the hair, the dog would need to be part poodle, so I started reading and researching different “designer breeds” that have roots in poodles. I also looked at poodles, but the temperament just didn’t seem quite right for our family.
On my “wants” list I had: intelligent, minimal shedding, big enough to play with kids, small enough to not accidentally squish kids. I didn’t care as much about what the dog looked like (even though we ended up with a flippin cute dog), but I was more concerned about how the dog would fit into our lives.
As I read and researched, I decided that either a miniature goldendoodle or a miniature labradoodle would likely be a happy fit for our family. I knew that we were likely going to have to find a breeder and pay a higher price tag, but finding just the right puppy was important to us. (I also understand that we likely could have rescued a lovely dog that would have fit our family, but at the time, we felt a puppy was the right choice for us.)
ADDING A DOG TO OUR FAMILY
I actually did all of this breed research in secret. I was thinking that Colter would be over the moon if I surprised him with a puppy for his birthday. I knew that he wanted a dog, and I am the logistics person in our family. So if I said that I had done the research and math and a dog would work for us with our finances, work, schedules, lifestyle, and living arrangement, Colter would trust me.
(Even though surprising Colter with a puppy would have been amazing and I regret not doing it, I ended up chickening out when it was time to put the deposit down on Lucky and I double checked with Colter. As I knew he would be, he was completely on board with my plan. I was being a chicken for no reason. Should have kept the surprise. Oh well!)
FINDING LUCKY
I actually found Lucky’s breeder completely by accident. I was scrolling through Instagram on the goldendoodles hashtag because I wanted to see pictures of puppies through adult dogs and Google wasn’t doing it for me. As I scrolled, I realized there was a hashtag called “goldendoodles of Utah” so I clicked on that one. Why not scroll through some cute pictures of local dogs?
As I scrolled through this hashtag, I came upon this picture and caption:
I could not believe my luck. I quickly sent the owner of the account a message and we started talking. I must have asked her a million questions, but she was able to answer every single one of them. They had done extensive research on the breed, on safe breeding practices, had all the health records, and were going to be very selective about where they placed their puppies for adoption. I put my name down for one of the black male puppies and waited.
I got the message that we had been selected to adopt a puppy and I was very excited. I was told that we would need to put down a deposit and that we would have second pick of the black male puppies. They would start allowing us to make selections when the puppies were four weeks old. I chickened out of my surprise idea and told Colter. We put a deposit down and made plans for a quick day trip down to Southern Utah to pick our puppy from the litter.
PICKING LUCKY
At first, we were really drawn to the pup on the far left of the picture above. He obviously had the curliest hair and Colter wanted a fluffy, black, curly haired dog. However, the family with first pick reserved that puppy (his name is now Chewy).
As we drove down south, we were kinda discussing the other puppies and trying to decide which one we wanted. We chatted for the whole four hour drive about it. When we arrived, the breeder invited us in and let us interact with all of the puppies, not just the ones we were choosing from. As we played, I kept picking up the smallest puppy in the litter and cuddling him. (You can see him on the far right of the above picture). Colter and I immediately agreed that he was the one we wanted to take home in a month. The breeder wrote it down and asked if we had a name picked out for him yet. We nodded and told her that his name was going to be Lucky.
GETTING READY FOR A PUPPY
We had about six weeks from when we decided to adopt a puppy to the day that we brought Lucky home. I had only ever had outside dogs when I was growing up, so I immediately jumped into research about the different options and training philosophies.
The trainer that I resonated with the most was Zak George. You can find his training methods on his website, on YouTube, or in his book, Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution. I used all three resources when preparing for a new puppy.
We also made several Amazon purchases. We wanted to be fully prepared for our little black fluffball, so we made sure to have all of the necessities ready before he came home. If you want to read more about what we purchased, check out this blog post:
BRINGING HIM HOME
We got lucky (again) when it was time for Lucky to leave his litter and come to live with us. We were not looking forward to driving for four hours down to the breeder and then making the four hour drive back home with an eight-week old puppy. And then the luck hit.
Our breeder contact us and let us know that her daughter was scheduled to dance in a competition being hosted fifteen minutes from our home, and that the competition was the same weekend that Lucky would be ready to come home with us. The breeder simply brought him with her to the dance venue and we met her there to bring our pup home! It worked out wonderfully for us.
We brought sweet, tiny Lucky home and we were instantly smitten. We introduced him to his food and water bowls and to his crate. We added the scented item from his mom to his crate and he seemed right at home. For the first couple of days we were focused on watching for his bathroom cues and getting him used to us. But we loved him from day one.
All in all, bringing home a puppy was a big step for our little family and I am so glad that we chose to adopt him when we did. Even if we had waited a month, we likely wouldn’t have felt ready for a pup (because we found out we were expecting Calvin a month after we brought Lucky home!) And, as I said when I opened, we have been very lucky to have our dog.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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