Kellie Hanson

Getting My Dog Blue

One night during the summer, my dad said that he wanted to show my sisters and me a picture, so he pulls out his phone and there’s a picture of a litter of fluffy, golden puppies. At first, I was like aw that is so cute, but then I got really excited because my dad said “which one of these puppies do you like? Because one of them is going to be ours.” My dad said that we were going to pick out the dog on July fourth weekend and then we would take it home later in July when it was eight weeks old. After weeks of waiting patiently, it was finally the weekend to pick out our puppy. We had to drive an hour and a half to get to Staunton and the whole time we were in the car all I could think about was the puppy, what if he didn’t like me? What if my family didn’t find a dog that we would get along with? As we pulled up to the breeder’s house, all you could hear were puppies barking and that made me even more excited. When the breeder took us to see the puppies, which were all so cute! There were seven golden doodles and they looked like little stuffed animals, all furry and still. I went over and picked up the one I thought looked the sweetest and when I picked him up and he nuzzled into the crook of my elbow, I knew he was the one.

I told my dad, “we have to get this one, he’s the cutest and the sweetest!” and after the rest of my family held him it was confirmed, this was our puppy. Even though we had to leave without our puppy, I was still excited that we had picked one out. On the way home, we thought of dog names and finally decided on Blue, after the North Carolina tar heels. After a long two weeks of waiting, it was time to finally go get Blue. It felt like an eternity since we had last seen him. After what felt like an eternity, we finally pulled up to the breeder’s house. When we got out of the car, all of the dogs were barking so loud and high pitched it sounded like a million fire alarms going off in my head. After a little while, the dogs quieted down and we went into the house to get Blue.

When I saw Blue, I couldn’t believe my eyes! He had gotten so big since the last time I had seen him. My dad carried him out to the yard, so that we could play with him and at first he was so afraid, that he hid under a bush, but then we coaxed him to come out. After he sniffed us all, he got really excited and was climbing on all of our laps. When he came to sit on mine, I started petting him and he was so fluffy, it felt like I was feeling a fleece blanket. After a couple minutes of playing with him, my dad carried him down to our car and put him in his crate in between my sister and me. I thought that Blue would want to be out of his crate and play with Kacie and me, but instead he slept the whole time. When we got back to our house, we put Blue on his leash and tried to walk him up our driveway, but he didn’t like the leash. When we tried to get him to walk with it on, he would stop and jump up like a bull. Finally we just had to stop and instead played the “name game” with him inside. All of us sat in a circle in the front hallway of our house with treats and we would call Blue’s name and make kissy noises, since apparently puppies like that sound. When it got to me, I held the treat in my hand and said “Blue, come here Blue” and I held the treat up in my hand and he ran towards me and ate the treat.

Blue was really tired after that and frankly, so was I. Having a puppy is hard work, but I’ve also learned a lot about responsibility from it. I’ve always had cats as pets, but never a dog, and cats and dogs are completely different. With a cat, you just give it food and water and clean its litterbox, but with a dog you have to give it food and water periodically, take it on walks, train it, take it out to use the bathroom a lot, and you have to give it baths. Having a dog is hard, but it’s also rewarding in many ways. Once you call your dog and he come right to you without you having to give him any treats means that your training has paid off, and now Blue goes on walks without ferociously attacking his leash. Also, when we first got him, Blue wouldn’t go outside to use the bathroom without someone having to put his leash on and take him out, but now we just open the door and he goes right out. Having a dog is hard work, but this I’ve learned a lot from this experience about responsibility and many other things.