Puppy Preparations

For the past month we have been preparing for our new little bundle of joy, and I am starting to think that puppies are as expensive as children! We have bought a crate, a dog bed, toys, food and water bowls, a collar and leash, a brush, doggy shampoo, an outdoor kennel, a dog house for the kennel, and we paid to fence our yard. (And we haven't even bought his food or scheduled his first vet appointment yet!) So, this got me to thinking, what all does a puppy really need...

After a pretty exhaustive online search, it doesn't look like we went THAT overboard. The things that most sites suggest are:

1. A Name - I have read that two syllable names are best because they are easier for the puppy to differentiate between their names and one syllable commands.
2. Food Dish
3. Water dish
4. Leash
5. Collar
6. Wire Crate - We got one big enough for Bauer when he is full grown, but it can be adjusted for proper puppy size.
7. Pet Bed
8. Toys
9. Brush
10. Veterinarian Care and Puppy Shots - Our health guarantee that comes from our breeder requires a vet health check within two days of getting our new puppy, so we will have an appointment set up before he even arrives.
11. Puppy Food

Puppy Pics!!

I just thought I would post a picture of the male puppies...

I wonder which one will be ours?!?!

The Name

As I have said before, my plan has always been to name my Chocolate, Barkley. However, as it goes with marriage, there must be compromise. We would like for our dog to be a duck dog and a family pet, so Kaleb says he needs a strong manly name. He also claims that Barkley does not denote masculinity... What? Anyway, we have decide to name him Bauer. Bauer... it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it!

Our Labrador Puppy... The Saga!

From as far back as I can remember I have always wanted a Chocolate Lab. As a child my family had three Black Labs and a Golden Retriever. They were very exceptional dogs that were the most loving and loyal pets a family could ask for. All of that to say, I have always wanted a Chocolate, so I told myself that one day when I got married and settled that my first dog would be a Chocolate named Barkley!

When my husband Kaleb and I got engaged last December, we immediately started planning for our first puppy. After a lot of searching, we found a breeder that we really liked that was expecting a litter in the spring. We liked both the sire and bitch, so we put down a deposit for the first pick male. The difficulty was that the breeder was in Minnesota and we live in Oklahoma. So, in making the decision whether to have him shipped or drive to pick him up, we decided to go to Minnesota for our honeymoon. I was not super thrilled about driving 21 hours on our honeymoon, to go to MINNESOTA, but the promise of a puppy was enough to overlook it. A few months later, we found out that there would be no litter because the pups were born premature and did not make it. Disappointed, we made other arrangements, and went on a beautiful honeymoon in Charleston, SC instead.

We kept checking back with the Minnesota breeder on future litters to no avail. So, we started over in our search in early summer. We found an Oklahoma breeder with a litter that was born on July 14th. The parents were blocky English type Chocolate Labs, just like we have been looking for. So, we again we put down our deposit, and now we wait!