Hawk

Well... it happened.  We are officially dog owners.  Actually, let me be more specific... we are dog caretakers until he is three years old and then we are dog owners.  Let me explain.  This is Hawk the Australian labradoodle and we are his new guardian family!  We got Hawk from Ladd Hill Labradoodles, a local breeder that uses guardian families to care for their dogs.  Instead of a "puppy kennel" business model, this breeder gives a dog to guardian families to love and care for it.  During the three year breeding contract, we need to make him available for the occasional "date" and in return we get full ownership after that time.  It was a way we can get a dog that is otherwise really expensive ($2850) for pretty much nothing.  We wanted this breed because the are non-shedding, less allergenic, and great with kids.  He's almost 4 months old now and is really smart.  He's getting the potty training really easily, although we learned yesterday that we can't be overly confident in his abilities yet.  And he has adjusted extremely well to being a part of our family.

This is the first time that I've ever owned a dog (although Steve grew up with dogs).  I did a LOT of research before we made this decision, so nothing has really surprised me about him.  He is definitely a puppy and loves chewing EVERYTHING.  But we've figured out ways to mitigate and prevent most of that.  The part that was MOST surprising to me, was that I had to train my kids how to act around the dog.  They wanted to install bad habits in him right away... things like jumping up and chasing.  So we've had to not only train the puppy, but train the kids about how to act around him.  We are definitely looking forward to many adventures with Hawk and are in love with him already!