A few of you longtime readers saw my Instagram post over the weekend and were clearly shocked, judging by the many comments of surprise that started rolling in. You see, I’ve been crystal clear on this matter from the beginning —
I did not want a dog.
Ever.
I’ve written posts about why I didn’t want a dog. I nudged Matt to get his puppy fix by volunteering at animal shelters (yeah, that definitely didn’t solve the problem). I even grudgingly allowed Matt’s grandpa’s dog Minnie to stay with us while his grandpa was in the hospital a few years ago, mostly just so I could show Matt that having a puppy around didn’t magically make me want one (which was perfectly true — it actually made me more set than ever against having one).
And while I still would have preferred to never get a dog, I finally decided to budge.
My only reason for giving in?
I love Matt, and he has wanted a dog more than anything else for our entire marriage.
Perhaps I still wouldn’t have given in (at least at this point in time), but when I saw how much Matt has supported my dream of running a flower farm 110% this last year — even when it meant WAY more work on his end too and pretty much has taken up 90% of his weekend with work — my heart started to soften.
You see, Matt has the most tender heart towards animals of any kind — he’ll often even capture bugs in our house and let them out outside rather than kill them — and if you saw him around animals, especially dogs, you would understand that there is clearly something deep in his nature that is called toward animals. In fact, he’s dreamed of opening up a rescue shelter for years and even did quite a bit of planning and organization towards that end a few years back.
And while there were other times in our marriage that wouldn’t have been a good time to let him have this wish, right now is a sweet spot — we own a home with a fully fenced-in backyard that has ample space for the dog to run around in, I am not pregnant nor do I have a newborn to care for, and our kids are mostly old enough to play well with the dog and even help out with it on some things (especially Raven, our oldest). We’re also financially stable enough that we have more wiggle room in our budget, so we can handle the extra expense of adding a dog to the family.
Have I totally changed over to Team Dog and am 100% loving having a dog in the house?
No.
But I have to admit that it’s already been pretty amazing watching Matt and the kids bond with our puppy, and it’s brought a lot of wonder and play and even more outside time to their days, which is pretty awesome.
So, dear readers, meet Onyx.
He is a 12-week-old Ausselier Doodle, and even though he’s definitely a puppy, we can also tell that he has a very sweet temperament. He’s not aggressive with the kids, he loves to cuddle, and he’s quite intelligent — he’s already made enormous progress with his training in just the 4 days we’ve had him. He also is non-shedding (or as non-shedding as dogs can get) and will stay relatively small, both of which were MAJORLY important to me.
I’m glad he’s slightly older than when most puppies are sold — the rest of his litter was sold around 8 weeks — because that gave his breeder a whole extra month to start doing some light potty training and socialization and such with him. The first night he stayed with us was a bit rough as he was whining and crying several times in the night, but he’s done worlds better these last two nights and has only had two accidents thus far inside.
I’ve never had a dog at any point in my life (other than when we watched Minnie for Matt’s grandpa), so I didn’t much know what to expect as far as training and such. Matt’s doing the majority of the training thus far, but he’s teaching me the tactics and methods so that there can be consistency when Matt’s at work or otherwise not around.
It’s still a lot to get used to and I’m sure there will be plenty more to learn over the next several months, but we’re (mostly) happy to have Onyx here with us as the newest member of our family!! 🙂
