The Doodle Has Landed

That's one small step for Dakota...one giant leap for the Lord family!

On Wednesday, our family brought Dakota home from The Greenwood School, where friend and fellow puppy raiser Tracy Schagen has been kind enough to keep him for his first week. Thanks Tracy!!

Dakota will be our 2nd puppy to raise for Guide Dogs of Texas. Willie, our 1st, is now at the GDTX training center in San Antonio, starting on his advanced training. Here's Willie and me at the Capitol.

As you can see from the picture Willie was not a labradoodle! So this will be a big learning curve for us. I'm sure Dakota will be happy to show us the ropes. We're excited about the new experience and have been trying to do a lot of doodle research to get ready.

I'm happy to report that, after wearing poor Tracy and her family to shreds, Dakota seems ready to settle in here. Our first night he slept almost too well -- I kept waking up because it was so quiet, afraid something had happened to him in his sleep! Last night we all had a good night though. Dakota made it from 11 pm to 5 am without a whimper. After a quick trip outside to "go busy" (guide dog code for "potty") I had to break the sad news to him that no, I wasn't feeling playful yet. He resigned himself to another hour or so of shuteye and then I, too, was ready to face the day!

We have been enjoying our first training walks immensely. We're keeping things pretty short and simple at this point. Our main goal right now is to give Dakota a lot of positive experiences in many different surroundings. Guide dogs have to be confident in all sorts of situations...and if there's one thing this guy's got, it's confidence! That, and a cute face. He's winning friends and influencing people everywhere, I'm afraid.

I'll leave you with a picture of Dakota checking out the westerns at the library. We kind of thought that fit with his name. That's all for now folks!