Welcome Home- Moose!

So you know how they say "Never say Never"  --- yeah, that's where we are.  I've said for a long time no dogs or cats.  I have a multitude of reasons we'll skip, but today we brought home our dog Moose.

 Moose is an 11 week old Goldendoodle.  Today was his first time riding in a car, wearing a leash or collar, or leaving his litter mates.  He is handling it pretty well.  That said, he did vomit in the car, but that isn't even the first time that has happened in our car this week.

 He is aggressively loved.  The children had all but despaired of having a dog after my many "No" answers.  This summer though they managed to persuade me and they are over the moon.

 Come to find out, his original family named him Moose because he was the largest of his litter.  He is quite a bit larger than I was imagining an 11 week old puppy would be. For example, he is much larger than the dog Brent had as a kid fully grown.... and probably bigger than our youngest nephew and niece.

 The kids have the amazing benefit of daily contact and weekly visits with all of their immediate family so it was essential for them to talk to all their family and by video, if possible.

 Such a pretty dog. (For reference, my husband is 6ft 4...... He is seated here, but you get the scale issue).  His parents are 55lbs and 65lbs respectively so we "think" he will be in that range.  Although his current size suggests he could be larger.

 His face is adorable.

Brent and I are very concerned about doing a good job training him from the outset.  So we've been working on learning what we can and spent the ride to pick him up listening to dog training information. The kids listened too and read a dog training book for kids.  We have protocols for some basic things.... we'll see how it goes. It is going to require a lot of consistency and it is clear already that getting all five of us to consistently reinforce in the same way is going to be a challenge.

 Here they are.  Ready to raise a happy puppy and change their story.

I admit, I'm still a little terrified that this might be a horrible idea.  But I'm also delighted at how much joy and learning it is bringing our kids and how nice the companionship is already.  Moose has slept next to me while I type and if I move my feet away he snuggles closer so we're touching.  My, oh my, do I like snuggling.  

So, here we go, on to our next great adventure with a brand new buddy to snuggle and love along the way.  Welcome home, Moose!