Mystery Puppy

As I mentioned in my first post, I sometimes struggle to keep my mouth shut and not greet my co-workers with “Guess what my dog ate last night?” instead of the more casual “Good morning.” I should have clarified that this battle of willpower only occurs if I’m the one initiating the conversation. If you ask how Forest is doing, comment on the picture of him posted on my iPhone, or start talking about dogs, pets or anything furry that poops a lot, be prepared to hear all about my new little puppy.

Fortunately, I have plenty of opportunities to talk about Forest when he’s physically with me. One look at that furry face and most people comment on how cute he is (which I still love hearing), ask how old he is or if they can pet him. I’ve been so excited to talk about Forest that I usually don’t even let the interested party finish asking a question before I’m answering it. Recently, I took a moment to actually think about these conversations and realized that I’m responding to the same question over and over again, “What kind of dog is he?” So far, no one has even ventured a guess.

I’m going to admit this upfront; I’m ignorant when it comes to dog breeds. When I meet someone’s dog for the first time, I usually don’t even ask what type of dog it is because the answer will most likely mean nothing to me. When Nick and I decided we wanted to get a dog, I had to start at square one.

In case you didn’t know, Nick is severely allergic to cats and can be strongly allergic to dogs (depending on the breed). We had to do a lot of research to find a dog that wouldn’t affect his allergies. Poodles are the least likely to affect people with dog allergies, but neither of us are very fond of that breed. Luckily poodles are often used to create hybrid dogs, or designer dogs as some people call them, with cute sounding names like Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix), Pugapoo (Pug/Poodle mix), Newfypoo (Newfoundland/Poodle mix), Jack-A-Poo (Jack Russell Terrier/Poodle mix) and so on. Labradors and Golden Retrievers are great pets but are not allergy friendly, so they can be bred with Poodles to create Labradoodles and Goldendoodles.

There are also different types of hybrid dogs. An F1 Poodle hybrid has two purebred parents, one of them being a Poodle. Unfortunately, an F1 Poodle hybrid can still cause allergy problems since only half of the dog is a Poodle. An F1B Poodle hybrid has one purebred Poodle parent and one F1 Poodle hybrid parent.

Forest’s dad was a miniature Poodle and his mom was a F1 miniature Goldendoodle - half Poodle and half Golden Retriever. So, drum roll please.... the official answer is “Forest is a F1B Mini Goldendoodle”, which is a long name for such a little puppy. However, I also would have accepted “Forest is a Adorable/Fuzzy mix” or “Poopy/Rambunctious mix,” because really, they’re all correct.

Mystery Puppy