Balder is adorable---that's what I was sure we would get---light in color, but fate had other plans!! Actually i was going to get medium sized and light in color and older---we saw ours who was dark, full size and a pup and fell in love.  I'm so glad you got a photo of him on here! Now you have to start a photo album---that took me FOREVER to figure out. Our guy has been here for 7 weeks now---started obedience class and isn't the worst one there!!! He has some fear issues mostly we think from someone being mean in disciplining him---it's sad to see him run and hide when we do something simple like fold laundry---he must have been hit with a towel we think from his reaction to us when we folded towels one day and the person must have been a big man because he freaks when he sees one..........we are slowly teaching him it's okay and no one here will ever scare or hurt him. other than that he is a wild happy puppy and we are having so much fun with him.  So glad Balder has blended into your family so well!

How are you doing with your new dog?

Congratulations (!!!) on Balder and choosing a name! I can't wait to see pictures and hear all about him! Lynn suggested that I do a blog on Quincey and Susan suggested that I post pics (that took me a while because I had to find a different server to let me make the downloading process work, but i did it and the blog and it's fun!  When things settle a bit for you you too might want to do it so we can hear about Balder.

Have fun with him!

So Loki won't be the name....what is the name he came with? We were advised to choose a name that sounded similar to the one our dog came with although changing them over can be done fairly easily with treats (of course!). His name was Prince (not quite our choice) so we went through the alphabet and thought of Quince, but that wasn't quite right either; then we thought Quincey with starting out calling him Quince for the same sound as Prince and after a week of using "Quince" a lot we added the "y" and he did great. We're sure he likes his new name like we do!

So, how did your 1st day go with your new dog?!!!!

One thing I noticed right off is that ours doesn't gobble his food like our Labs did--and if we left his sight he would stop eating and follow us. He's a real lover boy---loves to snuggle; loves to be close by; loves to play and is learing what certain things actually mean after just 3 weeks; now to get him to stop dragging us on the leash when he sees all the FL lizards on our walks---i am armed with supplies of various collar assemblies; this weekend we are trying the Gentle lead that goes over his nose---time will tell if it works.

Enjoy your pup!

What I'm learning is that it depends on the actual breeding as to how much shedding we actually get; even if it's 50/50 it will be better than the huge amounts of hair from the full breed retrievers. My son lucked out in a way with is Golden; Branson has a thyroid issue which he is on lifetime meds for, but the dog doesn't shed much at all when he is balanced which is most of the time unless the meds need to be adjusted; obviously you know that's not the norm.

We miss our Aspen (Black Lab that we lost in May) and our Yellow Lab Cody whom we lost 1 1/2 years ago; like you we would love to have them back even though they shed and drooled like crazy, but in this reality driven world we are so happy with our new naughty boy Quincey and like I said before when we see so many of the same traits in him we know our dogs had a hand in him coming to us.

I am proud to announce that after a 7 day trial (of no vacuuming) for shedding I swiffered all of the 5 rooms of hard wood floors in this house and got little to no hair---now that could change because Quincey is only 8 months old but so far I am shocked and thrilled!!!! Hope your experience will be the same.

Congratulations! I'm so excited for you!  You sound like us----I started looking and saw a couple that might works but then of the 2 saw the dogs we got; we thought "we'll just go meet him"---well, you know what happens when you do that....and that's how our search was cut short and we came home with him! You also sound like us in that you got a Doodle that is part of the dog you lost (Golden while we had a Lab and got a labradoodle).  I promise you you will time and time again see your Golden in this one's antics...we see our Aspen in so many things Quincey does and it is amazingly comforting.  We are pretty sure our finding Quincey had something to do with Aspen's sending him our way; he is so Aspen-like .

Good luck on the pup pick up and get ready for puppyhood!!! No doubt we will have to share and compare what they are doing! You will notice a definite difference with poodle being in the mix---we have!

Yes that's him in the profile. It'

s good to wait a bit; have some fun without worrying about leaving dogs behind. Once we have dogs we truly plan our lives around them; like you we either take them with us or have friends or family watch them or we don't go. We love our dogs.  It's good to start looking now, research the breed and figrue out what you want. Trust me when you least expect it they find you!

Hi---I am so sorry for your loss and know too well the pain you are in. We lost our last of 2 Labs 3 months ago to heart failure. Losing two within 1 1/2 years was so heartbreaking but the joy they bring in life far outweighs the pain of losing them not that we aren't crushed when it happens and not that we don't cry still when we think  of them. Two weeks ago we adopted a 7 month old Labradoodle, Quincey, from a kill shelter in GA who was rescued by the Florida Poodle Rescue and we have smiled every day since...they never take the place of the ones we lose but they fill the hole left by them. Quincey is so wonderful---everyday I ask him if he knows how naughty he is, but that will change with time and in the meantime he brings us laughter with everything he does. I hope you find the two you are looking for. Just by chance I looked at FL poodle rescues thinking they might have mixes and they had two---you might also look in whatever state you're in to see if the Poodle or Golden or Labrador rescues might have some Doodles. Good luck! There's a nice one i found through oodles of Doodles on FL's East Coast (Finn) but the people were on vacation and I found Quincey before they returned.