Wishing for Puppies

When I was 11, my best friend's cat had kittens.  I loved it.  But I didn't like that they were going to grow up to be cats.  (I am a dog person.)  I wanted the same experience with dogs.  After we adopted Clover I hoped we would be able to breed her, once she was old enough.  Standard poodles aren't fully mature till they are 2 years old.

After a ton of reading and research, I had her vet, Dr. Kristi, check her hips for defects and her eyes as well as anything else that would preclude her from being a mom.  My vet not only endorsed Clover's health but her excellent disposition.  Clover is smart and sweet.  I swear she understands English.

At least I was able to snap this picture while we tried to breed her.

So when Clover was 22 months old, I tried to breed her with a stud in rural community 2 hours from home.  We drove her to see her new boyfriend on Day 7 through Day 12, but she would not stand for him.  She would flag and flirt but off she would run if he tried to mount.  I was so frustrated.  On day 14 we tried a different stud and took the two dogs to the vet for artificial insemination.  The vet then gave me the bad news that Clover was no longer in estrous. I was devastated.  I had spent hundreds of dollars on gas and vet bills and we were still no closer to our goal of parenting puppies.  So we went home and hoped for better luck on her next heat cycle 7 months away...

Finn AKA Phoenix, Phinneas, Ferb

Briefly this passed winter, and I mean perhaps for a mere 24 hours, I thought that I wanted to adopt a male chocolate lab. The fleeting infatuation with chocolate labs was just long enough for me to post an ad on kijiji, and forget about it. My inbox got a single response regarding adopting another standard poodle.  How serendipitous, I was just thinking I would rather have another poodle rather than a hyper, shedding lab.  The poodle was white.  Yuck. I mean what about if he peed on himself, would his fur stain?  He was also bigger than Clover.  Could I really handle a dog who was bigger than Clover?  I had my doubts but it just felt right. I became really excited about possibly about adopting Finn. My husband was not.  For 2 and half months we talked about adopting Finn and finally we brought him home in the end of April 2012.  

We all love Finn, now.  He is very gentle with people, in fact my four year old rides him like a pony. He does pretty well with other dogs but Finn has to do a little maucho posturing to let every dog know he is alpha.  He came to us untrained so I am working with him.  He is eager to please but he is still a work in progress. I am so glad that he ended up with our family for his forever home.

 Finn after we got him home and groomed.  

I just love his pom pom tail.

Clover AKA Cloveroo, Clovis, and Cloves

The deal was: When we buy a house, we get a dog.  

In three weeks we were moving 1000km away and into OUR brand new house. It was time to make good on the deal we made as newly weds.  Time to get a dog.  I wanted a red standard poodle, not black, not white, not champagne, not silver and definitely not parti, but RED.  Slight problem, I could not find a breeder with red poodles anywhere in Alberta.  And of course there was this perfect red, well maybe apricot coloured, standard poodle puppy, who had had even rolled on to her back for my kids, -"a sure sign of a non-aggressive dog".  This perfect puppy's breeder was located just an hour away. But this perfect puppy needed to be adopted pronto.  Before we moved to Alberta.  No, they would not hold her for us 'till moving day.  Ugh.  What to do?  What to do? 

Well there wouldn't be much of a blog if we hadn't adopted her. Clover is my beloved apricot* standard poodle.  Today, she is two years old.

Clover age 10 weeks, strawberry picking with my husband.