Watch the video below surprising Jake and bringing Oliver home a day early!
Choosing Oliver:
Jake and I have been wanting to get a puppy for months. We both love dogs, and decided to save up and wait until we got our own place. What we thought we wanted starting out turned into something totally different, and we were completely ok with it. We’ve known we wanted an active dog from the beginning. Since we are pretty outdoorsy, we aimed for a medium sized dog to fit comfortably in our tent. We decided on an Australian Shepherd, and the camping aspect is where the mini came in.
Our biggest thing was that we wanted our puppy to have a tail, because traditionally, Aussie tails are docked 1-3 days after birth. It used to be because they we farm dogs and it kept them from getting stuck in equipment or trampled by cattle. Now it’s just cosmetic for the breed standard, which I personally don’t agree with. So I reached out to a local breeder and asked her if for her next litter, if we could keep our puppy’s tail. She was curious why, which I told her we just like how they look and would prefer it that way. She agreed no problem.
Our biggest thing was that we wanted our puppy to have a tail, because traditionally, Aussie tails are docked 1-3 days after birth. It used to be because they we farm dogs and it kept them from getting stuck in equipment or trampled by cattle. Now it’s just cosmetic for the breed standard, which I personally don’t agree with. So I reached out to a local breeder and asked her if for her next litter, if we could keep our puppy’s tail. She was curious why, which I told her we just like how they look and would prefer it that way. She agreed no problem.
Initially, we were set on getting a female, and we wanted her to be red. Most Aussies are either Merle or Tri in color, we weren’t too picky about that. I love merles and have always wanted one, and Jake likes the tris. The litter that Oli was born into only had ONE female and 5 males! And the only female was all black. In fact, that litter had no red pups at all! But we didn’t care, really. Since we couldn’t get a red one, I was set on getting a merle because I love their coats.
Our breeder, Kalyn, gave us first pick as she would have to dock all of the other puppies tails within the next 72 hours. We picked Oli out when he wasn’t even 24 hours old yet! We both knew when we saw him that he was it. Kalyn sent us pictures of all of them a little while after they were born, and as we were scrolling through them, we both gasped when we got to him and said “that one!” at the same time. When we went to see them all, it just re-affirmed what we already knew! He was it.
Our breeder, Kalyn, gave us first pick as she would have to dock all of the other puppies tails within the next 72 hours. We picked Oli out when he wasn’t even 24 hours old yet! We both knew when we saw him that he was it. Kalyn sent us pictures of all of them a little while after they were born, and as we were scrolling through them, we both gasped when we got to him and said “that one!” at the same time. When we went to see them all, it just re-affirmed what we already knew! He was it.
We struggled to think of a name for him for a while. We couldn’t agree on anything, and what one of us liked, the other didn’t. If you know me, then you know that I love Harry Potter. I had planned on naming our girl puppy Lily, after Harry’s mom because she’d be red and Harry’s mom was a redhead. However, that obviously didn’t work for a blue merle boy!
I started to think through all of the boy names, and I came across Oliver Wood. I’m pretty sure every young girl had a crush on him at some point. It’s also a happy coincidence that my favorite characters are Fred and George, George is played by Oliver Phelps. Without telling Jake how exactly I arrived at the name, I said “what do you think of Oliver?” He said, “I like it! We can call him Oli!” And that was it! We finally agreed on something we both liked. I told him later where I got the name, and he just laughed. He’s such a good sport.
I started to think through all of the boy names, and I came across Oliver Wood. I’m pretty sure every young girl had a crush on him at some point. It’s also a happy coincidence that my favorite characters are Fred and George, George is played by Oliver Phelps. Without telling Jake how exactly I arrived at the name, I said “what do you think of Oliver?” He said, “I like it! We can call him Oli!” And that was it! We finally agreed on something we both liked. I told him later where I got the name, and he just laughed. He’s such a good sport.
Today’s Surprise:
Fast forward to today, when we finally got to bring him home! Talking to Kalyn, her and her husband were about to go out of town, so she was bringing the puppies into town a day earlier than expected. I was so excited that we’d be getting him a little sooner, but I decided not to tell Jake and just to surprise him instead. We already had everything ready, so I thought a surprise would be great. He had no idea, and was expecting us to go pick him up the following morning.
I got off work earlier than him, so I hurried home to set everything up. His reaction was great and exactly what I wanted. Watch the surprise below!
Oli was great in the car on the way home, and after a very exciting day, is passed out beside me. If you follow me on Instagram @everythingundertheKSsun or my personal page @danirhaines, get ready for some puppy spam!
