We purchased Brent (named by our 15 year old son) 3 weeks ago. Brent was recommended by the doctor (not specifically him - but any dog) as my husband had a stroke at the age of 41 last year, due to high blood pressure. A dog would, in the opinion of the doctor, be company in the life of a home worker, relieve stress as he could go and play with doglet when work was getting him down and also get exercise by walking the dog.
So we started to look around for a suitable 'animal'.
We first thought about a border terrier, but we have cats and border terriers are a bit ferocious. We then found the perfect dog for us, a goldendoodle based in Chepstow. We arranged to go and view and possibly collect, and I got a stomach bug going around the school I work in and that prevented that!
I was a little dubious about the goldendoodle in that the breeder was willing to meet me half way in a lay-by - set alarm bells ringing!
So we started looking again. We looked at every breed under the sun and my husband then revealed that his 'dream dog' was a Rough Collie (Lassie). So I started looking at them. I looked at Collie.Net and viewed the collies available, and we found a breeder in Nottingham and arranged a visit to see the puppies.
We did this and were thoroughly interviewed by the breeder. The breeder genuinely loved her dogs and was not going to let her precious babies go to just anyone. I felt privileged that they felt that we would be suitable owners.
As such, three weeks later we went bak and collected Brent.
He is my baby and love him to death - we enrolled in a two week session of 'puppy parties' with our vet - where lots of puppies get to meet and socialise and had great fun.
Brent has also met Libby a Weimaraner - massive compared to Brent, but she instinctively knew he was a gentle soul and was equally gentle back.
Brent is wonderful. He is docile, placid and calm. He loves children, doesn't bite or bark and is all I ever hoped for in a puppy.
I hope here, to tell you about our adventures in puppy training and the wonderful experience of dog ownership that I really had not realised existed (I always thought of myself as a cat person!!!!)
