Doodle

*Disclosure: This post has Doodle overload. Please prepare yourself.

Most people who read this blog probably know about my poodle, Doodle. He is like our child, and he is pretty spoiled. A lot to people have pointed out to us that come October when Baby M arrives, Doodle is going to have his world rocked. And as sad as this makes me, I think it might be slightly true. I decided right now, while Doodle is still the center of our world, to do a little post on him. Especially because the Shadow post was so well liked.

Doodle came into out lives September 2012. We picked him out of a litter one day and I went to pick him up and brought him home the next day.

Doodle has a lot of names. If you ask Justin, his name is actually Dude, not Doodle. One side of his dog tag says The Dude, the other side says Doodle. We agree to disagree. But those are not his only names. He also responds to Poodle, Pood, Poodle Face, Kingsly (I don't know why), Dallamos (yea, I don't know why), Princess, Monster, and when he is in "trouble" Justin uses his full name… Dude Dallamos Kingsly Minert the Third.

His favorite way to lay.

Siblings.

Cuddling with Dad.

My brother, my brother in law, my in laws, and Justin and I all got puppies within a few months of each other. Doodle loves his cousins.

Doodle and Remmy.

When Doodle and Jax first met.

Once we let Doodle pick out his own toy at Petco. He picked out a little stuffed ear of corn from a bin of veggies. Most stuffed animal type toys get ripped apart pretty quickly around our house. But not this corn. Doodle loved that corn and babied it so much. Finally, when the cousins were over. The corn was done away with. The day we found out we were pregnant we had some time to kill while waiting to meet with our doctor, and we took Doodle to pick out a new veggie. He ended up with a little bundle of asparagus. The bundle has broken apart, so now it's a little strip of asparagus. But it is still one of his favorite things. He absolutely loves it.

Not such a little baby anymore.

Doodle is about to turn 2! His birthday is July 1st. And Since last year we were honeymooning in Maui and missed his first birthday, we have big plans this year. Including a doggy cupcake, a trip to Petco to pick out a new vegetable toy, and a new frisbee slash water bowl.

This is "his spot" on the couch.

Doodle hates the water. Hates it. Poodle's are supposed to be great water dogs, and Justin is convinced that someday Doodle will change his mind, so he keeps trying, but I don't think he'll ever budge. We have tried a million different ways and every time he tries to get out as fast as possible. He tries to put his back legs down and then walks out of the water. And then he does everything possible to stay away from us until he is sure we are not going back to the water. It kind of breaks my heart so I've given up trying.

His first bath.

Yes, my dog is wearing a life jacket.

Doodle gets his teeth brushed by Justin. He also gets to eat breakfast and dinner. Which I don't think is that weird, but lots of people tease us about it.

When we first got Doodle we swore we would not give him any people food. We didn't want him to become a beggar, or get fat, or all the other things that can happen when dogs eat too much people food. First we only budged with peanut butter. We would put it in his Kong. But the list has slowly lengthened and now Doodle has a whole list of favorite foods. Topping that list… Oranges. You can start peeling an orange and he will come running from anywhere in the house. He also loves carrots, bananas, green peas, air popped popcorn, watermelon, blueberries, and ice cubes.

Doodle is also very sensitive. We can't change up his dog food, he'll get an ear infection (which he's had 5 of in his 2 years of existence, all due to food allergies). He is allergic to real pine trees, he sneezed constantly during our first Christmas together, so we got a fake last year. No more sneezing. He gets the worst gas too. I immediately know if he got into something he shouldn't have or if someone gave him a new treat. To read about another story involving Doodle's sensitivities read this one. It's good for a laugh. He's also allergic to bone marrow. We used to buy him those huge bones that have marrow in the inside. Our vet told us that the marrow is like cheesecakes for dogs, super rich and delicious. Well, it's too rich for Doodle. He gets ear infections from it.

Christmas 2012

2012

2012

Christmas 2013

Doodle sleeps with us every night. At some point he usually moves to the floor, but then in the morning he moves back up to the bed again. I've tried to explain to Justin that we should start training Doodle to sleep on the floor, or in a different room, for when the baby comes. But Justin can't stand the idea of it.

Doodle loves to play in the snow.

Doodle knows many tricks including sit, stay, down, fetch, high five, roll over, play dead, and around.

When he plays fetch he hates to run on the cement. If the ball goes into the road or on to any hard surface, he will run as long as he can in the grass before he darts over to get the ball, then back into the grass again.

I honestly could keep going for awhile. But you all probably get the idea. We love our little Poodle head. And hopefully his life doesn't have to change too much when his little brother gets here! =)