Pandemic Pups vs. Not-so-pandemic Pups

Who are my pandemic puppy suckers out there? 9 out of the 10 of y’all should be raising your hand and mine is waving in the air! Penny (the redhead above) was our quarantine dog that we got in April of 2020. She just celebrated her 2 year old birthday (with a hat and birthday cake biscuit treat). Just a few months after I got Penny, I started saying I would get another puppy for sure in the not so distant future. I kind of planned on it being after the next kid graduated (this May!). I called the breeder in December, just to see if she was planning any litters this year, and to my downfall, she told me she had one due New Year’s Eve. I knew I wanted a lighter color this time, so when she told me the mom looked like Penny and the dad was a white and apricot parti poodle, it was pretty much over. I knew her name immediately, and we started planning on adding another dog to this crazy house.

We picked Pearl up February 19th and brought home a 10lb blonde F1b goldendoodle to our Penny. Let the games begin!

I’ll be honest in saying the pandemic and quarantine did not slow us down too much over here, but when the world stops, you do have a whole lot less to do! Penny had our undivided attention, and she is the smartest girl ever, so she trained quickly and was the model puppy. I said model, not typical. We found out quickly that Pearl had a different personality – she’s bold and curious…and typical. But she is super cute!

What I’ve realized is that I’m not getting to give Pearl the undivided attention that Penny had (because we do have a few more things to do), and mixed with her personality, this has been a much more eventful experience. We have “events” daily, and it’s a little exhausting.

However, she is a smart girl. She knows “sit” and, I think, “leave it.” If you are looking for training advice, Zak George is my favorite and has a 30 day puppy app with Pupford. It’s great! Sometimes we just binge his Youtube channel, but watching doesn’t make it happen at home! 😉 Also, Penny doesn’t drink much water. Pearl pees to make up for it! There are just differences, just like kids – go figure!

My girls are getting along really well, but Penny is a typical big sister. She likes to sneak toys away from the little one and then tease her that she has them, running in circles to play keep away. Pearl also watches Penny like a sister, and caught on really fast to sit when she saw Pen getting a treat for responding.

Take aways? A puppy in normal life is hard. I really love my doodles in this season of life. It’s great if you are home primarily and enjoy being at home. Some people can take their dogs places but I have not found a good groove with that. Plus, have you ever met Penny? She would lose her mind meeting all the new people! That’s a skill we really need work on. It can be a little stressful leaving an animal that you don’t know how it will react or what it will eat! It is for a season though, and these furry girls have made life exciting around here (even though it’s never boring) and given us lots of laughs!

I finally got around to getting some portraits of the girls together and realize how much Pearl has grown already! Hope you like our little session!

Thank you for indulging me with my baby pictures. Pet Photography is fun…and sweaty!