Meet Jack, the Little Black Puppy

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INTRODUCTION

Meet Jack. He is a little black puppy who is going to be socialized in the next 8 weeks. His picture will be up by the time you see this, I expect.

I'm Beth, his owner and handler. Notice I didn't say, "his mom" because there's a big difference between raising a dog and raising a human. I've done both. And I'm learning that if you raise a puppy like it is a human, it's as dumb as raising a human like it is a puppy.

Jack is a small black poodle. REALLY small. He was born on November 21, 2008, and as of today, he is 8 weeks old.

He's way too small for what I planned to get. At 8 weeks, he only weighs 1.5 pounds, meaning his adult weight could come in under 5 pounds.

This is bad. I didn't want anything to do with a toy poodle. I wanted a miniature, leaning toward large. But through a series of really complicated events, I ended up driving to Winston Salem to just look at this little black puppy.

However, before I went, I did something I have never even thought of doing before: I consulted a professional dog trainer and psychologist. His name is John. He's a Cornell graduate, with 30 years of experience in this field. Unbelievable that I found someone this fantastic living only 90 minutes away.

Over the phone, John told me everything to look for when selecting a puppy. He said if the pup fails any of those tests, walk away. He even said that I should bring someone with me who won't be excited about the puppy, because I might be so swayed by the cuteness of a puppy that I would get it, even if it failed the tests.

More about that in my next post.

But for now, a few more details just for introduction.

Why a poodle? I carefully, thoughtfully, and with MUCH research, chose a poodle for a few reasons.

One, they are rated as the second highest most intelligent dog (after Border Collies), and I thought that would make a more interesting companion, as I enjoy tinkering around with training, teaching tricks.

I have never shown a dog, and I will NEVER show a dog. See the movie "Best in Show" if you want just a taste of why.

Second reason I chose the breed is because I wanted a dog that was interested in me on a deeper level. Poodles provide this. Terriers, for example, are often noticeably less interested in humans as co-beings, and see humans more as simply providers--"Feed me and so forth, but don't look to me for that emotional stuff." That is the way SOME terriers are.

Not all, God knows. My Boston boy Midey (Midas Mulligan) (1.5 years old) is nearly intoxicated with love and adoration for me.

Third reason I chose a poodle is because I've experienced 4 poodles in my life, and each poodle was pretty much mind-blowing in its depth, interactivity, level of consciousness, affection, desire to just plain be good. Really unlike any other dog I've known.

My daughter brought her poodle-yorkie mix (yorkipoo) Raggy to my house for a couple of weeks last summer, and that was IT. I wanted either a poodle or a poodle mix, really badly after that. Raggy has a consciousness like a monkey or a hybrid dog-human. I was truly stunned by spending two weeks with him.

Moreoever, he LOVED my Boston and Midey loved him. All they did was wrestle and play 15 hours a day for two straight weeks--oh, and go for hour-long walks with me on wooded trails.

Midey was desperately in need of such companionship. Our only other dog is a 4 to 6 year old (not sure) Italian Greyhound named Bambi, a rescue girl with an apparently terrible past, and lots of shyness issues, and no interest whatsoever in other dogs.

When Raggy left, I realized what Midey was missing in his life.

Mix it all together, and I began to plot to get a poodle companion for Midey.

In my next post, I'll tell you what the trainer told me, which caused me to pick out an amazing personalitied dog.

Is "personalitied" a word?