The Never Ending Doddle Saga – Here’s to Hoping Jinx’s Aren’t Real
I thought today I’d write about Doodle MPB.
I still say she is without a doubt the biggest mistake of my life, but thankfully my biggest mistake is a puppy, not a crack-cocaine addiction. So clearly it could be a lot worse.
I’m almost worried to write this, because if jinx’s are a real thing, I may be in trouble….but, I want to share that things are better then they have ever been with her. She’s now just over 14 months old, and we are starting to hit a groove as a family.
- She’s completely off Clomicalm, and has been for a few months now.
- She goes to doggy daycare 2 times per week. Honestly, at this point we know she needs another dog at home, as another dog seems to keep her anxiety in check and gives her a playmate. But, there is absolutely no way we can bring another animal into our lives right now, so it’s just not an option.
- She continues to be great with Little MPB, and we are working to increase their duration of time together (when they get really playing with each other, both of their energy escalates and we usually separate them to keep both the human toddler and the dog toddler safe – for the record, often the human is the instigator as he starts to play too rough).
- Her barking is no longer extreme as we starting using a vibration collar after she turned one when the research and our vet said it would be okay. She is still talkative and vocal, but it’s no longer 24.7. (I honestly never thought I’d be willing to use such a collar, but it worked within 2 days as she’s very smart and learned very quickly to only bark when she needs to go outside or come inside or when someone is approaching the house).
- She hasn’t randomly hurt herself or been sick in a few months, so that’s a bonus.
- Whenever we are at home, she has free reign of a large portion of the house. We still crate her when we leave, but I suspect in a few more months she’ll no longer need the crate. She is even starting to just chill out in the living room in the evenings, which is a huge success in my books.
Honestly, my biggest mistake was getting a puppy with a 2 year old. I did my research to get a super kid friendly breed (labradoodle), and thankfully she lives up to her breed reputation as a kid friendly. She truly has a heart of gold. But, by pure bad luck, we got a high anxiety and high need puppy, which resulted in some pretty unbearable moments as my priority was Little MPB, not Doodle MPB. Which of course wasn’t fair to Doodle MPB, but was/is a fact of our lives right now.
I guess what I’m saying is everyone was right, don’t get a puppy with a 2 year old. But, thankfully, at this point, I truly believe we have made it through the worst of the puppy stuff. I suspect she will always be anxious, neurotic and high needs dog. But, at this point, I am also optimistic that she will be a great family dog for years to come.
Now here’s to hoping that sharing this didn’t just put a jynx on our delicate situation!
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My Perfect Breakdown 
Sheesh. I am really glad you decided to stick with her. Sorry it’s been so difficult but glad she’s improving. One thing I would say is in my very limited experience, the hyper puppy stage does pass! Our dog was very puppy / hyper excitable until a certain time and then he was just a bit calmer over time and now he’s almost horizontal! I don’t know if this is the B effect (a toddler who takes up a lot of time and excitement) or just that he got older. We joked he would always be a puppy but now he is fairly chilled. So there is hope!!
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Thank you my friend. I agree, crazy hyper puppies do age out of it. And with rage she will learn to be more calm. But I do have to say, she’s not a normal puppy because of her anxiety which will probably always be part of who she is. That said, I’ve convinced myself that an anxious dog will be so much more relaxed then an anxious puppy.
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This is really awesome news!! I’m so glad things are looking better for you guys and you were able to get her off the med. I will say with all the anxiety Rocky had, sometimes he would get stuck in a barking pattern and it wouldn’t let up… At all. The vibrating collar seemed to actually calm him down. I wanted him to know he could still vocalise and that it was ok. He just couldn’t go into an hours long tirade of non stop barking.
I wish we could have had a success story like you’ve got with doodle. I hope rocky is happy in his new home now. I think about him a lot and he shows up in my dreams sometimes. I’m glad we’ve been the right fit for Buddy as we all seem to need eachother equally and he’s loved every day of his life by his little boys. I know it was the right choice in our case but I’d really hoped we could make it work with Rocky.
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I can honestly say I understand what you mean about hours of barking. It was horrible for everyone in our house, including Doodle MPB. There is no way she was happy when she was barking uncontrollably.
As for wishing you had this type of a success distort with rocky, I now firmly understand that not all dogs are meant for a specific family. I respect that you chose to rehome Rocky and search for Buddy, your more ideal family dog. (This said, before our experiences with Doodle MPB I had no appreciation or understanding for these types of situations). I’ll also add, the three main reasons of why we refused to and continue to refuse to give up on Doodle MPB is (1) we’ve spent an absolute fortune on her from training to medical bills to an entire floor replacement. (2) I’m stubborn. Especially given the amount of money we’ve spent so far. (3 and most importantly) she has a heart of gold and I don’t think she could ever hurt Little MPB or any person.
If I recall Rocky wasn’t always nice, and a not nice dog with children isn’t an option. In my opinion all bets would be off if a child’s safety was at risk.
I too hope Rocky has found his forever family. ❤️
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Lol.. let me do some ptu ptu ptu and ward the jinx off.
A colleague at work has a newborn and a puppy and one day he told me, I wish I could just get rid off the puppy! Awful to hear someone say it, but it was what they needed.. And some perspective because newborn is hard without adding a canine in the mix!
Anyway, I am glad things are settling down and the doggy butt is more on the floor than up in air!
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I’m really glad that things have gotten better for you guys! Hopefully she continues to chill out a little more every day. 🤞
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Yay! I like a bit of positive progress for you guys in general right now. This is good!
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Your crack cocaine reference cracks me up. Yes, thank goodness your biggest mistake is a puppy. Glad things are going better. For what it’s worth I don’t believe in jinx’s.
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Lol – don’t worry about the jinx. Your challenges aren’t over BUT she’s through the worst of her adolescence and is starting to mature. Sometimes all a dog needs is time to grow up! I’m glad you’re taking her to daycare – the stimulation is SO good for her – and hope you’re managing to do training so that she can share in your camping and hiking adventures as the weather improves.
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Miss your musings!
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Thinking about you, Mr. MPB, Doodle MPB & little MPB. Hope you are well.
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Where you at MPB?!
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