That's a nice doggie

On the weekend we had a look at some lovely puppies in a pet shop, as we are considering getting one for a little boy who is about to turn four. I have no illusions about who will be feeding, washing, walking and toilet training this possible new pet, but I think it's important for kids to grow up with pets. We won't be having five dogs like my brother and I did at the high point of our dog owning childhood (don't believe fathers when they say they think the puppy they bought home from the pub is too young to have pups, she had 10 and we ended up with two, plus their mum, their dad and the other dog who would have very much liked to have been their dad).

Anyway, the petshop. We weren't intending to buy anything just show Charlie and Gemma some cute animals. There were quite a few puppies all very cute and expensive. The Schnoodles were lovely, but I couldn't imagine trying to tell my family what the new dog was. I could just imagine my brother's astounded laughter and my stepfather's "mmmm, and how much did that cost?" and the answer is probably at least two years of supporting a child through world vision so we won't be getting one of those.

So I moved on to the next display which was, wait for it, Shihtoodles. Got to be careful with the spelling of that one. I could just imagine Charlie getting in trouble at school for swearing while trying to tell his friends what type of dog we had. These were also quite expensive so the decision that we weren't going to buy one of these ever was also quite easy.

Then I found the really lovely ones. Just like this one. They are called Spanadors, crosses between Cocker Spaniels and Labradors (Mum is the lab).


















Photo from Rivergum Designer Puppies

There was one the same colour as the one above, a lovely toasted caramel colour one, and a gorgeous jet black one too. They were all big eyes, floppy ears and cute cuddly little fat bodies. Of course you couldn't break up the set, you'd have to buy all three. At least that's what I told myself. As they were $995 each (at the pet shop, not sure what breeders charge) I also decided that we didn't need one or indeed three of those, lovely as they were. Also, we want a little dog and these guys have the potential to grow almost as big as labradors. So the search for a doggie continues. At least we know now, lovely as they are, we don't want a designer puppy.