A Complicated Labradoodle And Proud Of It!
What I wouldn’t add to a Dog Tinder Profile!
Woof! My name is Duke, and I am a seven-year-old Labradoodle. This is my first time writing an article about myself. Honestly, it could be a book but I will just stay with an article for now.
If there was a dog tinder out there, I probably would’t mention half the things I am going to dig into here. Any female dog would read this and be like “Way tooo much baggage!”
There is no woofing about it!!
I am one complicated Labradoodle! I’m going to unpack seven years of my life for you all. I will explore that history of my genetic history, from rolling around my GI troubles to barking into my anxiety and allergy troubles.
As you read into my history, from a worried little puppy to a confident doggie, one thing is for sure: I love my family. Mommy and Dad are the best doggie parents a dog could have. My human brother and sister, too, have been super supportive and always there for me. Now let’s get digging into my past.
The Beginning
It was my blend of chocolate curls with patches of white that captured the heart of my mommy. The whole family laughs when my mommy tells the story of the day she was scrolling through Facebook and saw a picture of me being held up by my breeder. My eyes are what hooked my mom. She said they were soulful, with light brown eyes. They were saying to her,I am yours. She was right.
When I was ten weeks old, Mommy, Daddy, and my human brother, Tony, drove out to pick me up in Rhode Island. They pulled into a dirt road, and I was there. Shaking like a leaf in my breeder’s arms. It was mid-December, and I was cold from the chill in the air and my nerves. My mommy scooped me up and held me close. I could feel her warmth from her jacket, melting my nerves away. I was safe.
My Genetic History
I am a 37 pound multi-generational Australian Labradoodle. Doesn’t that sound cool? I thought so, and so did my parents, and when they got me, we did a DNA test to go even further into my history because, when you have a multi-generational background, it would be kind of fun to find out what my family tree is genetically.
I am a Poodle, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a hint of a Cockerspaniel, and an English Springer Spaniel. Mixing a variety of genes is like playing roulette; you never know what to expect. Newsflash: when the genes don’t match up alright, you get a mess.
My Puppyhood
I was a very nervous puppy. It felt like everything was too overwhelming for me. The noises, the wind, and the movement of cars, people, and trees — everything scared me! My parents held me close all the time. I wasn’t sure how to handle my trees — everything, so I would snap, be grueling, and get aggressive even with my parents, who I love to the ends of the earth.
I also had so much energy that I was like a bull in a china shop. Crashing into the other dogs in the house, I ripped dog toys, took my nose, and banged it on the crate until it bled. It was a lot for my new family. They saw that it was going to take time and extra training for me to learn that everything could be about me. The biggest challenge was learning to play nice with the other dogs in the house.
The Cavaliers
When I came into their lives, they had a lot of stuff going on with the other dogs in the house. My older doggy sister, Sadie, who is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, just had knee surgery and had her leg in a cast. Then there was an older Cavalier King Charles named Maximus, and he had a sad situation; he was going paralyzed. He had this crazy disease called degenerative myelopathy. It’s a disease that happens in the Spinal Cord. Within two years the dog slowly losses strength and goes paralysized.
I think mommy was sad and made an emotional purchase with me because she knew that Maximus was passing away soon and she wanted to make sure Sadie had a friend. I was definitely not the friend she thought I would be to start with. Don’t worry, though; Sadie and I will become the best of friends later on.
My G.I. Troubles
From the very beginning, I would vomit all the time. At first, my parents thought it was new puppy nerves. They could see that I got very nervous quickly. I shook at every leaf, every sound, and every quick or little motion the humans around me were making. The only thing that calmed me down was when I was lying in my mom’s or dad’s arms. So it was natural to assume it was me being afraid of my new surroundings.
As it turned out, though, I would vomit pretty much 3 to 6 times every day. At first, my parents, who have had many Cavalier King Charles Spaniels in the past, wondered: was this the breed, the multi-generational Labradoodle coming out of me, was it stress, was it a food allergy? With everything they did, we could not get my stomach to stop being so wobbly.
Month after month, we were at vet appointments, trying different foods, and eventually I had to go through something called the endoscope by the time I was 4 months old. Boy, was I scared during that? That was a lot for me. But as long as my mommy and daddy were there to pick me up and take me home, I always felt better. The results showed that I had inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and was allergic to all dairy and chicken. No wonder it was hard to feed me. Let me tell you, this was a serious process. I had to go on Prednisone to find the right dose for me. We had gone from homemade vegetarian meals to different dry foods.
No matter what, my parents never gave up, and they continue to try everything they can to find the right thing for me. Now, years later, I take a low dose of prednisone every other day. I have a great dog food that’s called Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Ultamino Dry Dog Food. It’s made from hydrolyzed proteins; the proteins are broken down into smaller components to reduce the risk of triggering allergic reactions in me. It even smells good! My mommy always says how wonderful it smells; it reminds her of “Chicken In The Biskit” crackers!
When I do something very cool, like sit or lay down and put my head on my paw, I get to have raw carrots and apples for treats! They don’t bother my stomach.
My Anxiety
Even though they were able to figure out my GI problems, we were still having more problems with me. I was just nervous about everything; see, in my head, I had to pay attention to everything — the leaves kicking up in the air, the loud sound coming from the road, seeing a stranger that I didn’t know well — I had to go into full protection mode all the time. and when I had to focus on absolutely everything, it would make me either go from having a full-blown panic attack to getting very aggressive because I just did not know how to like focus and be sure that I and my parents were not being threatened.
But my mommy and daddy figured it out. We went to a dog therapist, and after seeing several dog trainers and several vets, they said dog therapy was the next thing we needed to do. We worked with a wonderful dog behavioral therapist for about 2 years. explain to my parents that I was actually brilliant, and what comes with brilliance is also this need to be hyper-focused on absolutely everything. The therapist taught my parents to play all sorts of games with me; I learned to sit, stay, lay down, roll over, high five, shake hands, touch, and go find things. Giving me directions and playing games with me kind of made me mentally tired, so I stopped stressing out about every little thing that was around me.
As much as I wanted to do all the work that they told me to do with my mommy and daddy, I still felt stressed out. I had to go on sorts of different meds to see if I could calm down a little more. Don’t get me wrong I was improving in a lot of different areas but I still got aggressive when I really didn’t need to get aggressive, for example if we took a walk and someone came up to me thinking I was cute and adorable and wanted to pet me, I would let out a nasty growl. my parents were always apologetic and said “personal space please, he needs his personal space”.
After trying several medications, Paxil finally did the trick. It mellowed me out, and I was able to stop having these freak-out panic attacks every time a truck came by. I was even able to feel good about being away from the house without trying to pull us all back to it. Safe Zone
To this day, seven years later, I only like taking a walk when both my parents are around; we’re the team. I don’t like it when we go separate; it doesn’t feel safe to me, so we’ve all adjusted and we always go together.
My Allergies
So let’s talk about allergies and itchy, hot spots that just drive me bunkers. In the midst of managing my GI issues and working on my training and anxiety problems, I always found that I had to chew my paws. One nail at a time, I can’t help myself, and I swear it’s not anxiety! I would get these really black, red, itchy hot spots under my belly and around my privates, and boy, I just can’t stop licking them.
Once, when I was one year old, I had a rabies vaccine. That did not go over well. I started to throw my body on the ground, trying to scratch every part of my body. I had foam coming out of my mouth, and I couldn’t stop the shaking. My parents took me to the vet, and they told my parents that I was having an anaphylactic shock from the rabies vaccine. So no rabies vaccine for me!
Then, months later, when it was time for the leptospirosis vaccine, my face blew up to the size of a grapefruit. That was it. Between my regular vet and my parents, we all decided it was time for me to see an allergist.
After having a full allergy test and a long talk to see what was going on with my skin and reactions, they discovered that I’m allergic to pretty much everything! Wool, mold, weeds, grass, dust mites, pollen, spring trees, fall trees, cockroaches — you name it, I’m allergic to it!
My parents quickly went home, and started throwing out some of the wool carpets, they got special hypoallergenic vacuum cleaner to clean out my beds, and then we started allergy injections. This is what my Daddy does with me. Mommy can’t bear to see a needle go into my back. And believe me I wasn’t too crazy about it either, what the woof is going on here! We are several years into it now and I totally trust my daddy, I don’t even feel a thing. We do the injections every 14 days so it’s not too bad.
I still get yeast in my fingernails, so I take medication for that. Spa Day is every week, sometimes twice a week. I don’t go anywhere because I’m not comfortable with that, and it’s expensive. So mommy and daddy always give me a bath together because it takes time drying my curly fur.
Mommy
One thing I have to tell you is that I love my mommy so much. She is the center and the light of my universe, and I want to be with her always. I know it makes it really challenging for her to leave me, and I don’t act out as badly as I used to. I do better when my other doggie siblings are with me. I feel less lonely.
When she gets ready for bed every night, I stand next to her when she brushes her teeth, washes her face, and brushes her hair. I refuse to go to our bed unless she is with me.
She always tries to encourage me to go to bed, hang out a little bit by myself, and then she’ll come to me, but no, I wait like a quiet British guard. I make very little movement, just keeping my post next to her. I don’t care if dad takes his time in the bathroom getting ready for bed at night; he could do what he wants. I just want my mommy right there beside me.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZLX7FdyrdcI?si=BNRntx2Rl2rNTDkb
I think Mom and I have a special bond that goes deeper than just dog and parent. I understand her. She gets anxiety and panic attacks too. When she does, I quickly put away my anxiety. I am there for her. If she needs to pace the room, I will quietly pace next to her. She stops, and I stop. When she cries, I am quick to save her from getting a tissue. I will lick her face, and I get a little crazy with that. Sometimes I’ll nip her face too; it stops her from crying immediately because she sees that I don’t like it when she does that.
When she’s feeling a little stressed, I know that she’s going to come over to me and glide her hand through my curly chocolate fur. and both of us are going to be all right. We’re going to stay in the moment and get through whatever we need to get through.
The one thing I totally love is that, because of all my health issues and anxiety, mommy and daddy don’t travel without me. Haha, that works for me!
There is so much more to unpack, but I don’t want to stress you guys out too much. So I know that if there was a doggie Tinder app, dogs would be swiping left. But honestly, if there was a Tinder, I would say that with all of the stuff that you may be reading right now, I am a loyal, charming, very devoted, honest to a fault, and my heart is already taken!
Mic Drop!
