Life with a Golden certainly isn't boring. We've had Tucker home for less than 4 months and as you can see from the photos, boring is definitely not in his vocabulary. I often compare it to having a toddler at home. When it's quiet, I'm worried. What on earth could he have gotten in to this time? We can take him outside to run and play for hours, and he'll come back in and immediately start looking for "trouble" as we like to call it. On a good note, it means I have to keep the main part of our house clutter free and "doggie proofed" because if it's out, he'll get in to it. Typically he just carries things around until he gets our undivided attention, and honestly it's very rarely food related. Our previous family member was a yellow lab that was known to counter surf. Tucker? Yeah - he prefers the dish towels or our pillows or anything that might make us want to chase him throughout the house. Throughout all of the chasing and the repairing and sometimes a few tears (don't even get me started on the time he chewed our 10 year olds favourite bear) - I can't imagine our lives without him. It's so cliche to say "who saved who?" but I truly do feel it's true. We had an empty space in our hearts and boy does he know how to fill it!

Wow.. What a whirlwind few weeks it has been. We had gone so many months without a dog in our home, and it was definitely an adjustment to welcome a new puppy in to our home just before Christmas.

The biggest challenge was learning how to train him (and us.. ) the rules of the house, and stick to our guns even when he was super cute, or super frustrating - realizing that his world has been turned upside down. He didn't trust us fully yet, and why would he? I have learned so much about myself, my family and our new puppy over these last few weeks. I am so happy to report that over the last few weeks Tucker has settled in very well. He seems to really love his new home, and has quickly become an integral part of the family. We've learned that grass was apparently new to him (who would have thought?) and he LOVES the snow. Although weary of new friends at first (both human and canine alike) he warms up quickly and is a lot more trusting now than he was previously. We were worried at first because he seemed to not really like our neighbour's 1.5 year old Chocolate Lab - but over these Christmas holidays he has been playing very well with him, and we even took them on a walk and off leash run together. It is a great way to tire them BOTH out, while also socializing them! It's a win-win.

I am also happy to report that the bond between Tucker and his "sister" has grown even more. He listens to her a lot more - and loves to snuggle her whenever she is on the couch or the bed. She spoils him absolutely rotten, which makes both of them pretty happy!

Christmas was such a fun time with him. We took him to all of our family gatherings and everyone commented on what a good boy he was. It's so great to have a dog that we can take places with us, and we know he definitely prefers travelling with us over that silly crate! Unfortunately he's just too much of a puppy to let him have access to the house while we are gone. I am sure that he would get himself in to trouble if he was left alone!

Welcome to the family, Tucker!

We had talked for months as a family about adding a new dog to our family after losing our beloved Lily in March of 2018. She was an almost 12 year old yellow lab - and we loved her an insane amount, but she was becoming increasingly ill and less mobile and we knew it was time to end her suffering. Within a few months the topic of a puppy or a new dog kept creeping in to our family conversations. It was no secret to anyone that knew us that we are a dog family. We absolutely love dogs. It's a good thing, too - since the neighbour's dog Brody had increasingly started to spend more and more time here. We like to joke that he was our "Not our dog". Brody played a large part in our decision to add a new family member to our family. First off, it wasn't like we didn't already have an insane amount of fur everywhere, and secondly - who wouldn't fall in love with that big red ball of fluff? One chilly November night when Brody was over at our house soaking up the love and attention - we had a little chat and decided that it was time to finally fill out the adoption papers. I jokingly asked Brody some of the questions from Golden Adoption and laughed when he wagged his tail at certain questions (do we want a boy or a girl puppy?). I had spoken to a few people that had been on the adoption list for almost a year, so I certainly did not think that we would be hearing anything within a few weeks. Much to my surprise, I was contacted by one of the amazing volunteers at Golden Rescue not even two weeks later. Turns out they had what they had termed a "Rescue Mission of Love" and were bringing 24 Golden Retrievers from Cairo, Egypt to the Toronto Airport. They asked if we were still interested in rescuing, and when I said yes (although admittedly a little hesitantly - were we really ready for a puppy??) they immediately sent me some photos and information on the 9 month old puppy they had named "Mario.". I immediately forwarded the e-mail to my husband and called to say we had been chosen to adopt a Golden. It was all happening so quickly! Over the next few weeks - I did a lot of panicking and even more shopping - we hadn't had a puppy in 12 years, so we had a lot to buy and get ready for! Plus, we knew virtually nothing about the puppy that we were receiving, which added to my new mom anxiety. Fast forward to a few weeks later and I think we were *almost* ready for our new addition. Sadly, because of work schedules that included my husband being gone for our entire first week with Tucker, we were unable to attend the arrival at the airport. I was able to see videos, however, and am 1000% sure that it was one of the most moving introductions to new families ever. My daughter and I drove to a spot just outside of Toronto to meet up with another volunteer who was able to bring "Mario" home from the airport. We were so excited to meet him. He was a little timid upon first meeting us, but he had also just had a 15 hour flight and a lot of commotion at the airport - so we weren't too surprised he was shy. He slept most of the way home (almost 2 hours) - but was super excited when he finally arrived home. My daughter was absolutely over the moon excited to finally get her wish of a new addition to our family. I have to say I think Tucker was just as happy to have found a loving (and very attentive) home. That's not to say that adopting a dog (especially one from another country) was not difficult. We had many accidents in the house, we had to train a 9 month old puppy an entirely new language and we had to set hard boundaries inside and outside the house (when realistically all we wanted to do was snuggle our new baby). I know they tell you that it isn't the language as much as the tone of voice, but it's really hard to go from a fully trained 12 year old dog to a 9 month old with little to no training. The good news? We saw his potential on his very first day home with us.. which just happened to be a snow day - I'm not sure who was more excited - Tucker or Aubrey! A new sister and a fresh new snow to play in, it was like winning the jackpot - for both of them! Over the next few days he learned to sit and lay down - and although when he first came to us he was not at all food motivated - he quickly learned the art of the treat! His first few days were spent doing a lot of snuggling and getting used to his surroundings. His personality started to come through as each day passed. Insert typical 9 month old puppy behaviours here - the puppy spasms, trying to eat or steal everything in sight. It's safe to say we had to do just as much learning as he did! It was a long few weeks to say the least, but I think we've finally started to get the hang of this training thing (or maybe he has us trained? It's hard to tell).