After years of convincing, they finally broke me, we got a dog! Meet Leo!
Ever since I met James, I always knew he wanted to dog eventually. Initially, he thought it was a good idea to get one while I was on maternity leave and I shot that down idea pretty quickly. Now that I actually have one, I am confident that was the right decision! I’ve always been a dog person, my grandma had two boxers growing up, my brother had a dog, my mom had a dog,...but I’ve personally never had one. James had a dog growing up that I saw exactly one time before he passed, I still remember his fluffy white face. I always suspected a dog would be in our future, and as the kids got older we realized the time was now or never.
We decided to surprise the kids. They’ve been asking on and on since James' brother got a dog two years ago. It was in the spring that James started looking somewhat seriously on Kijiji to find one. We had even scheduled a FaceTime call with one pup but before the we could call it was sold. It was a really frustrating experience to try and find one available immediately. In the end, we decided to go with a breeder.
My girlfriend got her pup last spring from
Wildflower Labradoodles out of Salmon Arm. Yes, it seems ridiculous to get your dog from BC when you could easily find one closer but we really wanted to make sure that it was a good breeder and she had nothing but good things to say, so we decided to follow in her footsteps.
Leo was born on September 4th and we got his pictures weekly from the time he was born to the time we picked him up on November 18. The timing of our vacation wasn’t ideal as we could’ve picked them up the week we left, but instead he stayed with his mama an extra two weeks before coming home to us.
Let’s talk a little bit about his name. When we started talking about getting a dog in the spring, the boys were all excited to name him Wiener, yes, Wiener. I’m a name person, so this was not gonna happen on my watch. Instead we used the same method we used to name the kids, I made a list of all the names that
I liked and then James vetoed them and chose one from the list that I accumulated. I knew that I wanted a real name for our dog and Leo was the front runner almost immediately. So our dogs official name is Leo Wiener.
I have never seen James so excited. He made a special trip to Salmon Arm to meet the puppies and choose the perfect one for our family. When he called me after the visit he said there was a smaller calmer one and a bigger rambunctious one that really seemed to like him. I said the obvious decision was the smaller, calmer one, but of course he disagreed, he wanted the one that showed the most interest is it in him which happened to be the wild one. He is already a perfect fit for our loud and rowdy family!
We decided to surprise the kids with the pup. James went to Salmon Arm to pick them up on Monday, and the boys and I went about our regular day, including a hockey practice that evening. We ate at the rink knowing that James needed some extra time to get the dog into the house to greet us. James was waiting in the family room with Leo expecting that he would run to the door when we came in,
but he was wrong. When we arrived after hockey practice the dog bolted behind couch, he was terrified. Grady happened to catch a glimpse of the dog running behind the couch and asked his dad if that was a dog. He asked if we were dog sitting again, and when James said no that was the moment the kids realized that the dog was theirs. Grady came running over to each of us to give us a giant hug and then proceeded to convince little Leo out from behind the couch.
Leo started out as a very timid dog. When people came over he would run away rather than greet them and shake when they tried to pet him. He was scared of everything. Leo had a lot of adjustment to do to get used to our chaotic family.
On day two, the boys had three friends over. So let’s count, that’s a total of five boys in a house with a new puppy. He spent most of his time hiding and on more than one occasion I had to tell the kids to be quiet and go to a different room. Maybe day two
wasn’t the day to introduce him to our extended brood of boys…
Our first weekend with Leo, Grady and James went out of town for a hockey tournament. Cooper and I were left in charge of the pup. It was way harder than I was expecting. It was cold and I would spend the majority of my time standing outside waiting for Leo to pee or better yet, poop. Instead, Leo mostly pooped on the carpet in the house. One particular time, I caught him in the pooping position. I grabbed him and I ran him outside where he had a little turd, I praised him, we came inside and found 90% of the poop on the carpet. This whole training a puppy thing is hard!
Here we are, almost 2 weeks into having a dog, and things are WAY better. Leo seems to be a very social dog, he no longer hided from people, and he excitedly greets us when we come in the room. He’s had his first set of puppy classes, and got an 'A' on his report card. We no longer have to stand outside for 45 minutes minutes waiting for him to do his business, most times we are down to under 5 min.
Leo has worked his way into our families and most of all our hearts. Even though he poops on my carpet, he nips constantly, and he gets up at 6 AM sharp, he is the most lovable and adorable dog I’ve ever met. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t threaten to give them back if he bit a hole in my dress pants, but I was only kidding. Mostly. I’m glad that James made the executive decision to add Leo to our family, it is hard to imagine our family without him!
