All my favourite relatives were there

Here is the whole gang, Cody with Pixie in the front and Buddy with Pablo in the back. All of these pups came from Annie, and you can see that they somehow realize that they are related.

Buddy can be a bit quiet around other dogs, but he took to these guys right away. It is like they recognise that they are a family . ..

All of these pups are good natured, affectionate and lovable. They are very good with people, including children and also socialize well with other dogs.

Loose Lead Walking

We are trying to teach Buddy how to walk on a loose lead, so that he doesn't pull at the lead as he walks. He is pretty good at it and a quick learner.

One of the best thing about walking the dog is that he gets to socialize with other dogs and people. He is a friendly puppy, especially with people. He is getting much more confident with other dogs too.

Dog Toys

Making sure that Buddy had his own toys was a good idea. He has a little collection of about 6 things and we rotate which ones we leave out for him. Usually on any given day 5 toys will be lost under the couch. We also gave him a decoy shoe, an old sandal that belonged to the kids. But he prefers recently worn shoes, and can often be found asleep with his head inside an ugg boot.

We are encouraging the kids to play with toys with the dog, rather than play wrestling games, which can give dogs the wrong idea about acceptable ways of interacting with humans.

Buddy loves playing fetch, and will fetch a ball, his toy fire hydrant or his toy shoe. He is a very intelligent dog and learned to fetch and return in about 5 minutes! He also loves Mr Squeaky, and will sleep on his or play tug-of-war with him.

Getting along with humans

What is Buddy's temperament like? Well as you can see, he is quite a placid and tolerant pet. He is easy going and puts up with a lot, including the children carrying him around like a teddy bear at times and then ignoring him at other times.

Our Vet's website has some good articles that you can read about introducing a dog into your family.

Buddy's personality so far is lovely, he is cheeky and playful and fits right in with in our family. When there is a lot of activity in the house he is always happy to get involved and when no body is home or the house is quiet he is happy to chill out and sleep.

Why get a "designer" or hybrid dog?

There was a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald recently about designer dogs, A Bit of Ruff , which says "Cute pet or unwelcome mongrel? The rise of the hybrid pooch has rocked the dog world."

A great article which debunks some of the arguments that have been put forward against designer dogs, also known as hybrid dogs or purpose-bred dogs. So yes, we do understand that a cavoodle isn't a real breed of dog, really it is just a glorified mutt.

However, in choosing a hybrid dog we were hoping for a pet that had the best qualities of two dog breeds, without some of the hereditary problems of a pure breed dog.

PS - 6 months later we are very happy to report that Buddy seems to be the ideal cross-breed, he has the gentle, loving nature of the cavalier, he is smart and he doesn't shed at all!

Choosing the right dog for us (part 1)

It took us a long time to decide we were ready for a dog. And while we were thinking it over we spent a lot of time researching what kind of dog would be best for our family.

We wanted a dog that was going to be good with children but that would happy inside most of the time and didn't need a lot of exercise. My hubby was also pretty keen on a low-shedding kind of dog, so we were attracted to the idea of a poodle-cross.

This photo is Peppy the poodle, he is Butterscotch's dad. We liked the idea of a poodle because they are so smart and the new poodle crosses (hybrid dogs) are supposed to be great with kids.

See Burke's Backyard website for his road test of various dog types:
Top Ten Dogs (both cavaliers and poodles get a mention)
Cavoodles (a dog that combines the best of two breeds ... we think so!)