The Wallace household is no longer a pet-free-zone!

I have been remiss in not sharing this wonderful news with you earlier.  But I have to admit that 'earlier' I actually doubted my sanity in allowing this to happen.  But now, now we wouldnt have it any other way.

What am I talking about?

In July, the Wallace's became proud owners of two gorgeous Doberman puppies - Zeus and Ebony.  They are brother and sister, out of a litter of 11.  And we are all besotted!  This week, they had their de-sexing operations, and they are still feeling a little sorry for themselves - Ebony especially since it is a much bigger operation for a girl (I know, I know, the boys dont agree, but they cannot argue with the size of the scar or the number of stitches!!)

It has been 18 years since we last had a dog and it has been a really steep learning curve for me and the rest of the family.

The kids are old enough that they all take an active part in the caring/feeding/walking and playing with the puppies.  We all took it in turns to do Puppy Preschool (we separated the dogs, so we were going two nights a week, which meant we could split the family as well so we didn't fill the class all by ourselves!)

People ask us - why did you change your mind?  What made you get a dog now?  And why TWO dogs??  The answer to the last question is the easiest - we never do things by halves!!  And we thought that two would be great company for each other. 

Why now?  That really is a hard question to answer.  We don't really know - we just started talking about getting a dog one night at the dinner table, and it went from there.  We always talked about if we ever got a dog - one day - that it would be a Dobey - so the breed was never a question (even though others have questioned our decision...)

But once we decided that it might be about time to get a dog, we did some research - talked to the Dobermann club, and thought about getting a rescue dog that was past the puppy stage and needed a good home.  We came THIS close to getting a pair of rescue Dobeys from Sydney - their owners were moving from acreage to a town house and were seeking the perfect home for their pair - and we were at the stage of pricing air freight to get them here when the owners decided they couldn't part with them after all.

That was when we realised that two dogs would be our ideal.  Rescue Dobeys come up rarely and there are a lot of people on the list when one does.  There were no guarantees we'd get one in the forseeable future.  We looked at the shelters, but most of them go through the clubs for pure-breeds, or even half-breeds anyway. 

Given that we were total novices at dog training, after much family dinner-table discussion, we decided to go for puppies and picked our two out of a local litter when they were 9 weeks old.  Well, actually, they picked us.  Ebony went straight to Gorgeous Girl the minute she got out of the car, and Zeus picked G - just came and sat in front of him, and looked way up at him, with those huge paws and big brown eyes.  G picked him up, and that was that.  He'd been picked!

The top photo is Ebony at 10 weeks; the second Zeus at the same age; and the last photo was taken at 5 months - they have grown so much!

We have learned so, so much from them - it's a constant learning experience of the most positive type.  I guess the biggest lesson for us is the unconditional love and affection they give to us all - they are always excited to see us, and cannot get enough pats and tummy rubs.  I think I have learned as much as the kids, not just about caring and training a dog - but also subtle things - like rewarding positive behaviour and ignoring (wherever possible) bad behaviour.  It's a lesson every parent should be reminded of, often!!!