Ramblings of A Labradoodle Owner

First of all I am Annmarie, mother to 3 teenagers and now 2 doodles: Max a Labradoodle, and Peanut a Goldendoodle. Oh yeah, I have a very understanding, Doodle-loving fiancé, Dave.  We live in Upstate NY on 6 acres and in a home that is too big. I am no longer 21 nor over the hill. Rather, I am right in the middle of what I call “the comfort “zone.  A time in your life when your children are somewhat grown up and more independent but you can blackmail them to do wash and dishes. Leftovers are no longer left over more than a few hours. They are now responsible enough to be left alone without worrying they will kill each other or break something. Or get the dreaded call from a neighbor about a party going on in your house while you are out to dinner. Schedules are more flexible. My chauffeuring days are easing up as I have 2 teenagers that somehow managed to get their drivers license, though to this day I wonder if they bribed motor vehicles or someone felt sorry for me. Mopped floors stay clean and shiny.  Phone messages are not only taken but sales calls are no longer handed to me as my teenagers devised creative ways to say no or get the salesperson to hang up on them. Life is getting easier, I can take time to smell the roses, weed and mulch my gardens, paint my house and even have a cup of coffee in peace in the morning. So, if it isn’t broke, why fix it? 

I had 1001 reasons why not to have a dog again.  Being a mother I am the ruler, the rule maker, heck I have a list of ‘Mom’s Commandments” to follow which my teenagers and fiancé giggle about behind my back. We were NOT going to have another dog for a very long time or something like “till hell freezes over” if I recall correctly. Besides, I have bad allergies and one teenager has severe asthma on top of his allergies. And let’s not forget what dogs do : they don’t come housebroken rather they break in your home as they pee and poop, they chew, they bark at nothing, they stink, they sniff areas I won’t mention, they wipe their wet mouths on your lap, they steal food whenever possible especially steaks hot off the grill,  need I continue? Those once clean shiny floors fade right before your very own eyes to be replaced with paw prints with scattered slalom water trails intermixed with mud and dog fur. Getting up at 6am to walk a dog in 2 feet of snow with a wind chill factor of 20 below zero just to watch steam rise from a firm poop in pristine snow is not my idea of fun. 

So how did I end up with 2 doodles? Honestly, I wouldn’t go back and change a thing but somehow on October 7, 2006 a nice, sunny, warm, breezy, fall Saturday a Labradoodle managed to squirm into my heart and life. Years ago I read about how the Labradoodle came into existence. However they had a hefty price tag attached to their collars. Thus that ended that…that is till the day Dave pointed to an ad for a Labradoodle at a ridiculously low price in our own town while having breakfast at a diner. Now my first thought was, “yeah right”. Dave has been known to use his quiet sweet demeanor to pull the wool over my eyes when I least expect it. So to humor him I decide to read this ad thinking maybe it’s a joke. It  wasn’t! My bluff has just been called. Somehow I fell for the “why not just call? ” and next thing I am talking to the breeder whose name is also Annmarie. Warning bells did not ring. Oh wait, the breeder is running errands all day like us and won’t be home until dinner time, just like us. Another warning bell I failed to hear. At 5pm we drive 4 miles from my house to see a Labradoodle that Dave and I agreed to “just look” and NOT take home.  Long story short: she had an older, easy going, laid-back 13 week old black puppy with a crooked stumpy tail. I didn’t want a black, older, labby looking puppy. The breeder whispers: “Black doesn’t show dirt, you know” and quietly walks away. I do all the temperment testing and this puppy is too good to be true. Somehow 2 hours later this older black 30lb puppy was in Dave’s arms  while I was writing a check and getting his shot records. What did i just do? My head was spinning, I kept nodding yes to the breeder not hearing all her instructions as all I could see was a mile wide smile on Dave’s face as this huge Labradoodle puppy licked him to death.

Next we’re off to the local Wal-Mart to buy puppy supplies and a crate. I swore Dave wore roller blades as he got out in record time. Max had lived in a barn and believe me, he stunk! When Dave got back to the car all he could see was Max and me sticking our heads out the window competing for fresh air. My kids were unaware they won the battle of getting a dog as they were away for the weekend. Once home, my kids kept asking, “Okay Mom, whose dog is it? And how long are you watching this dog? As we know you would never get a dog.” It took several weeks for them to believe Max was to be a part of our family. Life was grand, Max stuck by our side, and easily trained. End of story, right? NOPE. 

The breeder and I became friends so when she had her first Goldendoodle litter, I gladly accepted helping her to socialize them. What was I thinking?  Somehow there may have been a point I socialized too much with the puppies because on February 9, 2007 we had doodle number two.  Peanut, a 9 week old Goldendoodle managed to come home with us and be Max’s playmate and now my teenagers thought I really had lost all my sanity. (I didn’t have the heart to tell them they caused me to lose my sanity, not a doodle). On the 3rd day Peanut managed to climb out of a 2.5ft high pen and to this day is still a little Houdini. My life has changed in more ways than one; we have a two signs hanging on our dining room walls that say, “another day in PARADISE” and the other one, “Thou Shalt Not Whine”. Between those 2 signs and our two doodles our sense of humor has risen to heights unimaginable. Never a Dull Moment and Poop Happens are two mottos we live by daily, laughter is plentiful as well as kisses and love. My life will never be the same again and I couldn’t be happier. 

Dogs show us daily something humans are incapable of: unconditional love. As much as I think I am teaching my doodles there are many days they teach me with their expressive,soulful eyes, comical antics, and wet bearded kisses, pouring on as much love as they can without asking for anything in return but loving them back while they steal your socks at any given moment.

So why not sit back, grab a cup of tea and enjoy reading about LIFE with 2 Doodles and how I went from 1001 reasons why not to get a dog and ended up with two doodles.                                                                     

The contents of this blog site are copyright (c) 2007, Annmarie Sparks. All Rights Reserved.         

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.