Puppy Pre-School: Day 1
Jack had his first Puppy Pre-School session today with Aaron. When we arrived at the local vet’s where the pre-school is held Jack was rather nervous (even though there were only 2 other puppies there). A couple of minutes later and the place was PACKED with puppies of all shapes and sizes.
We sat between a cute wee Foxy named Roxy who was the same age as Jack but a quarter the size, and a lovely wee Spoodle named Ellie who was the same size as Jack but 4 weeks older. The spoodle and labradoodle look so much alike, and both were generally well-behaved (Ellie especially so) – I can’t wait to see the size difference next week.
Jack had so much fun playing with Bess (the hyper dog), Hugo (the Bulldog), Roxy the Foxy and Ellie – and all the other dogs whose names I can’t remember, but I’m sure will get to know in the coming weeks. Everyone that was there were wonderful, and we all got to give all the dogs lots of hugs and cuddles – Jack, as usual – lapped up all the attention.
He was actually really funny – wanting (or should that be NEEDING) to be involved in EVERYTHING that was going on, and generally couldn’t sit still for 30 seconds.
I was dreading the whole “we’ll hold Jack around the corner – you call him, give me a treat when he comes, then get him to sit, and then lie down”… Well, Jack does “come” (sometimes) and “sits” every 3rd or 4th time, but I hadn’t tried “down” yet – so when it was our turn I was rather concerned.. It doesn’t help that I am generally anti-social with people I don’t know, and detest being made to perform like a seal in front of others (comes with being an IT geek I suppose).
Anyway, Jack got held around the corner and I said “Come Jack, cmon mate, Come Jack” and we came roaring around the corner…. and then got sidetracked by one of his new friends. A little more prompting and he cam racing up, but instead of stopping he just wanted to wag his tail, jump up and give me a kiss. Then I produced the treat for coming, and of course he sat without prompting. So, I had to pick him up, get him to sit (easy peasy), and then suprisingly got him to go “down” first try. Then he followed me all the way back past all his friends to sit and my feet back at my seat. He was such a good boy.
When we got home, he instantly Came, Sat and Lay Down – such a good boy and so intelligent!
Right now he’s stuffed – but I bet he can’t wait till next week 
Aaron
New Puppy Toy
It’s like having a new baby in the house. Today Jack got some new toys.
These are mentioned with a lot of appreciation on the overseas labradoodle forums we’ve read, so we were pleased to find them available at our local pet store. Which is no mean feat given where we live.
Heart Murmur
Took Jack to the vet today for a general checkup now that we’ve had him for a week. And also to discuss vaccinations, his incessant chewing, and obedience training.
He hopped up onto the table for his checkup, tail wagging and immediately searched out the doggie treats. The vet had a good look over and then popped her stethoscope on to listen to his heart. She was taking an awfully long time so I figured she couldn’t hear properly. As I had Miss 5 and Master (nearly) 3 with me, I got them to be quiet. The vet still took an age. I started to worry then, especially when she said: “I’m just going to get another stethoscope“.
In the end she “thinks” he may have an innocent heart murmur. They will check for it at his next check up, and if it’s still there, then will check again at his 6 month checkup. I got the impression she thinks it will be gone by then. And there’s nothing in the vax book Jack come with to say the breeders vet had noticed anything at his earlier vet checks. She did say at this stage not to worry about it.
I found this link interesting and it put my mind at ease (for now at least).
So finger’s crossed!!!
PS: He starts puppy pre-school next week.
Seven Weeks Today
Ok, we took photos … I just need to uploaded them and then I’ll come back and edit this post with how little ole Jack’s been doing..
Meet our new labradoodle puppy
Jack Black at six weeks before we picked him up from the breeder:
We purchased him via this TradeMe auction for NZ$850 with no requirements regarding desexing. He was the breeders first litter from their female family dog named Phoebe. Here’s some of the photos of the mum and her first litter (two boys and five or six girls):
She’s an F1 labradoodle who has a lovely nature and interacted well with children. She was a lovely golden colour with curly but coarse hair. She was bred from a, both of whom have papers.
And here is Jack’s daddy. A lovely black poodle who also comes from a family of school-age children (four kids in total I think). We didn’t get to meet him in person though.
We picked up Jack one day shy of six weeks, and he was the first of his litter to come home. Four more puppies went home the next day. When we collected Jack, he had just had his first lot of vaccinations that morning. he was also already weaned from his mum. Probably due to the fact this was his mums first litter, she started to wean the pups herself at around 4 weeks and they were introduced to watered down purina puppy food. The vet give him the ok to be sent off to his new home. Just as well as we live about four and a half hours away. You can read more about our trip to Christchurch where the breader lives, and the excitement of bringing him home over here and here on my personal blog.
I am intending to keep this blog for journalling about the life and adventures we share with our labradoodle puppy, as we watch and enjoy him grow into our family dog.
We’re a family of four with a five and three year old, and a cameo persian named Wiket (or Wikie for short):
