Farwell my puppy :(

Well it looks as though this will be the end of project puppy raising blog, our year of puppy raising is up and Tandy goes back in two days. All in all the project has accomplished all our goals and much more. The children are no longer afraid of dogs, we all understand animal behaviour better and well we fell in love with a hairy gentle beast named Tandy.

The year has been fun and exciting and at times challenging but i would not change or give it up for a second. We learned the ways of dog behaviour, met a lot of awesome people while out with him and through NSD and had the companionship and love of Tandy through it all. While a year is not long and we have lived all of our lives without the company of a dog it will be a strange and sad adjustment living without a silent and beautiful companion whose only basic requirements from us have been food, love and walks. Which in return have been totally easy to give. So I write this with tears streaming down my face knowing that Tandy will soon be with his forever family who will love and need him far more than we ever will and know that in my heart we as a family have done a great and selfless thing for someone else. ♥ Farewell my puppy!

Happy New Year!

So its a new year and Tandy was supposed to go back to the kennel tomorrow, but it has been delayed a few weeks. So now we have him for a couple more weeks til there is room for him. Nice that we have a few more days with him, but now we don't really know when the day will be. We had a nice new years party and Tandy was well loved by everyone here. Last year we had a party and had only had Tandy for three days! How far we have come!

2 weeks to go

Nothing new around here, we put up our xmas tree and Tandy does not bother with it. Ha, i was a bit worried what he would do but he is great so he does nothing to it. He has been having fun running around the yard like a maniac in the snow. I refuse to go to the dog park anymore since my daughter and i got bit there and since it is slippery and the last thing i need is to get slammed over by a dog.

We have 2weeks and 3days left with this lovely dog, just trying to enjoy every last second♥

A blanket of his own

One thing that we were told would be nice for Tandy to have at the kennel is his own blanket that can be consistant for him when he goes away on weekends during training with his own smells etc, and since Tandy chewed apart his blankets that he had before (he was good til about 9months and he started chewing them!) i thought i would buy one at the thrift store and applique his name on it!

Festive dog!

Last month with Tandy boy!

We are enjoying our last month here with Tandy. Still continuing on with daily training. But mostly loving him and taking him on really long walks, enjoying our last days with a dog in the house.

Last week we took a trip to the kennel at NSD where he will be going back for advanced training. We met all his kennel mates that he will be living with and learned about his new routine there. He got to explore his new sleeping area and play in the run with the others, Tandy is the youngest one to go back, but just as ready as the rest of them. He is still exceptional in training and with real trainers taking him in and helping him he will go even further.

We are not going to get another puppy any time soon, we have a big move coming up and once that is all done we will see how life really is without a dog in it. We may do it again or we may just puppy sit for other NSD dogs, but that is not for a while. No decisions being made now.

I have no idea what the day will be like that we bring him back but will for sure blog about it as part of the project, i want to remember that too. Until then, we are taking lots of photos, hugging him lots and treating him like the king he is!

Some radomness from Tandy's life here with us. His time to go to the kennel is quickly approaching and i am reminicing all the times and things we have done here with him. 1 year ago this time we were gearing up for a new puppy to come occupy our home and getting so excited for it. How can a year go so fast? How can a puppy grow so much in that time? Its amazing what he has accomplished in the last 11 months here, and i can't even imagine the life ahead of him, this is only the beginning of his life. Wow they are going to be a lucky bunch of people, the family who receives Tandy. I hope there is a way to keep in touch when he goes to live with his forever family. What a happy and sad thing this all is. Oh my little Tandy!

(pic #1 the kids love to let him lick their feet over and over! pic #2 Tandy just hanging out amungst the mess of our lives pic #3 "the visit")