Before Ryan and I ever started dating we each got a dog. I had Denver, our Yellow Lab; and he had Ecko, our Siberian Husky. By the time we met Denver was 3 and Ecko was 2. Luckily for us they got along great! Denver has always been more of a submissive type and Ecko is 100% a dominant personality. That made things easier for us since it didn’t take long for them to get comfortable enough around each other to actually play and even sleep in the same bed. Life was great with our two dogs! We took them on walks, they napped most of the day and both of them were house-trained so leaving them alone for a night out was no problem. Both of our parents’ love them and so do our friends so finding someone to dog-sit for a weekend was easy enough.
But, for me, it was a life-long dream to own a Golden Retriever. I’d wanted one since I was a little girl. In fact, when I was younger, every year at the top of my Christmas Wish List was “golden retriever puppy”. Growing up we never owned a dog, but I knew one day I would finally get my golden puppy! After Ryan and I got engaged we decided that we would get a puppy after the wedding. Trying to train and raise a puppy amongst wedding planning would have been crazy, and then it wasn’t really fair to stick someone with and un-trained puppy while we were on our honeymoon haha.
Once we got back from our honeymoon I immediately wanted to start looking at puppies! We looked at a bunch of breeders in the area and unsurprisingly, most of the golden retriever puppies were claimed before they were even born. However eventually we had a breeder recommend a friend who had some golden puppies available and jackpot! We went and visited them to look at a female and male. We were pretty sure we wanted a female puppy for a little change of pace, but after playing around with them we noticed that the female was much more interested in digging at the fence to try and get out haha. She didn’t want to be held and just wanted to run around and escape. Then they brought over the male puppy and he was just the sweetest thing. He played with the toys, didn’t mind us holding him, and seemed much more our speed. So it was settled! We were getting a third boy dog lol. Since our dogs in age-order are named D and E names, we decided our puppy should have an F name that way it goes D, E, F in order from oldest to youngest. Thus, we settled on the name Finn!
Having three dogs has been a bit of a challenge since Denver and Ecko are so much older than him. At first they didn’t want to play with him at all and Ecko didn’t even want to be near him. Eventually Denver warmed up and started playing with Finn fairly regularly, which was SO nice. At one point I was worried they would never come to like him. I had entirely forgotten how hard training a puppy can be: letting them out after every meal and at regular intervals throughout the day; having to watch them to make sure they don’t chew anything they’re not supposed to; giving them lots of attention and cleaning up their messes; and listening to all the crying while they are learning to like their crate. But we got through it! And now he is almost 6 months old, and loves his brothers.
They all have such different personalities, which always makes things interesting. Denver is the oldest, most skittish and so lovable. He loves playing fetch above anything else, HATES the sound of anything sizzling or frying, would swim in the ocean all day, and is the only dog who regularly sleeps in the bed with us. Ecko is the middle dog and he is our resident grumpy old man. He is too smart for his own good and oh so stubborn. His favorite thing to do is sleep under the bed or lay out in the yard by himself. He is extra picky when it comes to treats and will turn away most food, but will ALWAYS stick around for ice cream. If he wants attention you’ll know it because he will literally come and sit on you to get you to pet him haha. And then there’s Finn boy. The baby floof. He is extra goofy and is always eating something he shouldn’t. Since he was a tiny puppy he has loved rocks. He digs them up, carries them around and always tries to sneak them inside. Among the craziest things he’s eaten are an entire stuffed animal, a bandage wrapping he ripped off his own foot, and Ecko’s hair (yes, he loves to eat Denver and Ecko’s hair). But he is the only one who always loves cuddles and lets us hold him whenever we want. At the end of the day, we love being surrounded by our crazy boys.
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