In honor of National Puppy Day, I wanted to share how, when and where we got our dog. I get this question a lot, so I thought this would be a great outlet to share the info.

The process can be overwhelming and you may not know if you are making the right decision based on where you are getting your puppy from — Did the dog come from a puppy mill? Will the dog grow up healthy? Should I go to a shelter? Should I go to a breeder? Do I have to transport it on an airplane? Will that have long-term effects on the dog’s behavior? Am I allowed to pick the one I want or will he/she be selected for me? What if I don’t like the dog? What if I get allergic? SOO many questions!! I know because I had them all too.

So, I will share with you the process we went through to get our little muffin, Freddy.

First, I did A LOT of research on the breed because of my allergies. I am very allergic to cats and some dogs. If you are still in the stage of deciding if a dog is right for you and your family, please read my post here FIRST.

I wanted to find a local place so that we could go visit and see how the environment where the dog was brought up was like. Unfortunately (& fortunately), 3 years ago when we were looking — miniature golden-doodles were not as popular as they are today in New England. A golden-doodle in a shelter – forget about it! I called every day for months. There was a breeder in Maine and another in Connecticut – however they had crazy waiting lists and a strenuous process of getting on the list, which knowing what I know now, is a great thing. You want to make sure you find the right people to adopt a dog, to own a dog, to care for a dog. Both breeders wanted to interview and determine personality traits of Nico and I to match us to a dog that they thought was the best fit. That is great & all, but I did not like the idea of that very much and I also didn’t want to wait for months and months to then find out that I didn’t match with a particular dog….

SO, I looked elsewhere and came across 2 greats sites: this one and this one. I saw this picture of Freddy on the KP site and the breeder was located in Lititz, PA.  He was 10 weeks old on August 28, 2014 and ready to be adopted! I sent Nico the picture, called the number provided and booked us a hotel right outside Lititz, PA for the night.

I was determined and I WANTED him! After work on Friday, I picked Nico up and we drove off to PA, about a 6.5 hr drive. We stopped in NYC for dinner and then drove to PA to spend the night about an hour outside of Lititz. Saturday morning came and I was nervous? What if I didn’t like the family, what if they were a puppy mill!? What if the puppy hates us? #crazythoughts

We got cash out of the ATM and drove to the address given. 

and we were greeted with this:

HOLY CUTENESS!! I’ll take all 3, please!! No, but seriously, Nico, can we take all 3? Go back to the ATM and get more money!

We learned a lot about the family living on that farm — like that they are not breeders. That they simply bred their dog, Freddy’s mom with another family member’s poodle, with the assumption of getting 2, maybe 3 pups and with the intention of teaching their 5 young children about responsibility and how to take care of a living thing. Well, they got 9 puppies and had to find a service that would help them advertise and sell the pups. Keystone Puppies came and took pictures of the puppies and posted them on the site.

We got to meet Freddy’s mom, who is a golden-doodle – weighting in at 50 lbs. Freddy’s dad is a miniature poodle,(about 20 lbs) but he was not at the house and so we did not get to meet him.
I told her I was taking her baby and I felt bad! #pisces but that I would take the best care of him!
Kiss of approval from Freddy’s momma <3

We spent 1.5 hours debating which pup to take. The real Freddy kept running off and jumping into bushes while little Frisky stayed close by and kept nudging himself towards N’s leg. Can you guess which one is our Freddy aka Frisky aka we renamed him Freddy 🙂 I sent this picture to my brother for help and he responded right away….

The one on the left, defiantly the one on the left. Look at that face!

The one on the left was named Frisky. The one on the left was the one that wanted us while the others ran off to get sticks and explore the yard. The one on the left is now named Freddy, after his brother that we originally thought we were going to take home.

We stopped at a Walmart on the way home when we realized we didn’t even have a collar or leash for him to take him out during the ride home! 

My little bear has brought and continues to bring the entire family so much joy! He is going to Europe this year for our wedding and to meet the rest of the family. He has been so healthy and perfect thus far and we love him dearly.

Let me know if you have any questions! I hope you have the same luck if you are adding a puppy to your life.

XO, K