My daughter needs a companion or something beyond what we can do for her as parents and playmates on a daily basis. And the logical thing to do was to get her a dog. Only we didn’t want a dog. We were quite happy without a dog. My husband and I would talk about how it would be such a good thing for my daughter to have a dog to love and hug and spend time with. We’d say, “I think we’re going to have to get a dog.” But we didn’t really want a dog.
We had a dog and while I love dogs, things with young children are so much easier without a dog added into the mix. But we agreed it would be a positive thing for my daughter—and my son too, but mostly this was about her and a need we felt a dog could fulfill for her in her sensory reduced world of vision.
My son’s integrative therapist called me about six weeks ago asking if she could bring her four-month-old puppy to the therapy session that day because she was acclimating Theo to become a therapy dog in the future. I went to the session and was impressed by the temperament of this fluffy brown and black dog. At the end of the session I asked Liz what kind of dog Theo was. She said he was a Wheaten Terrier.
Terriers haven’t been a category of dogs I was interested in for a personal pet before, but I liked how Theo was with my son. I’d never heard of Wheaten Terriers before so I looked up some pictures and read a bit about the breed, which was unknown to my husband too.
A month later Theo was back in session and I was taken with him, how easy going, calm and friendly he was. And particularly that he wanted attention in a passive, non-demanding way. He came over and sat in my lap on the floor and watched my son and Liz.
Liz said she’d give me the name of her breeder if I was interested and we agreed, a dog would probably be a good thing for my daughter. My husband and I had a few more of the, “we probably should get a dog, only we don’t want one” conversations and then yesterday morning.I decided on a whim to do a questionnaire online on, “what breed of dog is best for my family?”
The survey ended and I stared at the screen and almost laughed in disbelief. Wheaten Terrier, it said, was a 98% match for our family. I texted Liz and asked about her breeder, a few hours away. I contacted the breeder and found out they had some dogs available just this weekend that had come of age to take home. I told her about our needs and my daughter and that Liz had suggested asking them if they thought there would be a dog that would be a good fit for us.
And that fit was specific. We needed a dog that would want to spend a lot of time with us, that would be on the more calm side and that would have the temperament to be trained possibly as a service dog—which requires extensive training in some cases.
She said she and her friend who was also a breeder would watch the puppies that night and pick out the best one for us. She said she’d been wanting to help get more dogs in the hands of families like ours. They were both very sincere in wanting to help us. If there wasn’t a good match with this litter, we would wait.
This morning the breeder called me and said they had a female dog for us. My husband rolled with the whole thing, protesting that he didn’t realize we were moving this fast and me explaining now was just as good as any time and I was ready to do this thing because we kept agreeing it needed to be done.
So off in the car we went with no one aside from our two children, whom we let know five minutes before we left, know we were getting a dog. My children were ecstatic. I was pretty excited too. We arrived and the breeder had another family there. We met her friend who told us about the puppy as they brought her out. My daughter had her sit on her lap and the puppy was happy, very happy to just sit there and be held. My daughter was perhaps the most happy.
The breeder said they had other dogs if we wanted to look at them but we said we would take their recommendation because they were the experts with twenty-five years of experience with the breed between them. There is more to the story with all we talked about and the advice they gave us but in the end we were back in the car with the dog on my daughter’s lap for the ride home.
We used the dog car seat for most of the ride so she could sleep (she was tired they’d said). And now we’re home. She was a little overwhelmed by all of us and then my best friend and her four daughters coming over to hold the puppy and deliver dog toys.
She didn’t eat or drink but after a while sleeping in her kennel she was awake and both ate and drank and then went to the bathroom outside. She was playful for a bit but is now back to sleep beside me:
We discussed names for a good while and decided on Matisse. Although we reserve the right to change our mind if her personality doesn’t fit the name in the next few days. There were some creative names suggested. My daughter lobbied for ‘Lego' and my husband wanted to name her ‘Pinball'.
The Big Boy Update: My son is so excited about the new puppy. He said, “this is the best day of my life!” But he doesn’t want to hold the puppy that much. He will be really interested in playing with her when she perks up after the transition in a few days. On a sad but sweet note, he also said, “the worst day of my life was when Lucy died."
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: We haven’t told my daughter this is “her” dog. But she has already decided that on her own.
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