Brayden

 After losing my mom, my dad, and Ollie in a matter of 46 days, things around our house were pretty depressing.  Our lives were littered with sadness and, to a degree, anger.  Nothing could ever replace Ollie, but I felt that we needed some happiness and joy in our lives so I started looking for another dog. 

After several dead ends (mentioned briefly in previous post), I stumbled upon a lady about two hours from here who had mini-goldendoodles for sale and she was only charging $650 for a puppy.  

We talked on the phone briefly and she sent some pictures of the litter.  I forwarded them to Zack and let him pick.  There was a white one that resembled Ollie which is the one I thought he'd pick, but he surprised me and picked this one.

This was in mid-January and the puppies, who were born on December 17, 2024, were not available until mid-February.  The wait seemed endless, but we were finally able to pick him up on Friday, February 14. 

Brayden's gotcha day.  My plan was to put him in this bowtie collar for a picture, but we seriously underestimated his size and it was way to huge for him.  So here is Zack holding the collar so we could at least get the picture I dreamed of. Haha.

He also had hair covering his eyes and I don't know how the poor thing could even see well,  

so I quickly cut the hair away from his eyes.

Brayden was a dream puppy from the beginning (as was Ollie).  There was no whining or separation anxiety.  From the first night he went in his kennel without any whining and barking (about 9:30) and slept until 7:15 the next morning. 

He very quickly became attached to us.  Right now, he is very fearful of strangers.  If we are on a walk and he sees someone, his tail will go down and he will stop, turn around, run back to us, and sit at our feet. I do not want this.  I want a friendly dog, so I will usually pick him up and let the people pet him so he knows people are nice. 

He is also a very fast learner.  He does not usually have accidents anymore as long as we take him out every 2-3 hours during the day or after he wakes up from a nap.  I became real strict with him about his puppy bites. It only took one night and he no longer nips at me at all (Zack is still working on this with him).  He understands, "no" and will stop and look at me when I yell it.  Haha

He had his first (first with me) vet visit on March 3 and he was 10 pounds.  He got his second round of puppy shots, some heartworm pills, and some flea medication.  The vet said he will probably end up being between 30-35 pounds. 

He needs to grow into his car seat.  

We are having so much fun with him and he has brought so much joy into our house.