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.

Cavoodle Family Reunion

In the park today Butterscotch met up with his brother, half brother and cousin!

The dog in the top left photo is Pixie, Buddy's cousin (we are pretty sure their mums are sisters). On the bottom left is Cody, who is now 1 year old. Cody is a full brother to Buddy and they are very similar in colouring.

The black dog next to Cody is Pablo who is nearly 1 year old and a half brother to Buddy and Cody. Pablo, Cody and Buddy have the same dad and Pablo and Pixie have the same mum. (Which makes Pablo a cousin and a half brother to Buddy?)

The photo on the right has Buddy in front, Cody is standing behind and Ollie is the dog on the right. Ollie is a cavoodle too but no relation!

Is having a dog hard work?

Our kids have wanted a dog for years. We finally gave in, but only after extracting promises that they would all help us take care of the new puppy.

In our realistic moments we knew that it would be mainly the parents looking after the dog.

Two months later and it hasn't been so bad, the kids do help with some dog chores and Buddy is a pretty low maintenance dog. It hasn't been anywhere near as much work as we thought it would be.

There is a good article on the Pookinuk website about why pets are great for kids too.

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.

First day at home (part 1)

Butterscotch was sent to us by plane and Annie had packed a cloth in the crate with him. This was so he could have something with his mum's scent on it. We put the cloth in his bed so that he could be surrounded by familiar smells.

When I brought Butterscotch home the kids were all at school and it was good to bring him home to a quiet house, as he was a bit stunned and confused by the new environment (you can see in the photo he looks a little sad).

The pick of the litter

Butterscotch is one month old in this photo. He has that look on his face like he is just about to speak ...

You can see he is a really robust and healthy little guy. He is slightly bigger than his siblings, but Annie told us that they usually all grow to about the same size as adult, around 8 kg although Buddy might be slightly bigger.

The cavoodles are a great sized dog for our family. They aren't so small that they would get trampled on by our very active kids, and they aren't too big either.

Big dogs make bigger messes, I remember the Labrador and the Alsatians that our family had when I was a kid, they were much harder work to take care of.

Choosing the right dog for us (part 2)

We did a few on-line surveys, including the one on Pet Net, to help us decide which kind of dog would be best for our family. The select a pet questionnaires kept telling us that a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel would be a good dog for us. And this lead us to consider getting a cavoodle.

In this photo you can see Butterscotch with his mum, Peggy, who is a cavalier. We think Buddy is the one closest to his mum's head in this picture. You can already see he is a beauty!