Raising Suki-Getting Her
“Raising Suki” is going to be a series of stories, life lessons, and mistakes we make along the way while raising Suki. Kind of like a diary, but hopefully informative enough people will be interested.
Suki is a Beauceron puppy, who at the time of writing this not even 3 months old, and we’ve only had her for about 3 weeks. When we decided we wanted another puppy months ago we had a lot of long discussions about what dog would be right for us, the temperament they would need, activity level, etc. I wanted a dog who was highly trainable, active, and confident. Logan wanted a dog who would actually play fetch with him (we love Loki but he is a Great Pyr and would rather die than play fetch). After a ton of research, joining FaceBook groups and talking with people who own Beaucerons we decided that was going to be the right breed for us.
Finding a breeder was challenging too, I spent days going through FaceBook pages of kennels and breeders trying to find someone who was reputable while also having litters in the time frame we had. I ended up going onto a Beauceron group I’m apart of and posted asking recommended breeders who would be having litters during that time. I got a ton of responses from breeders across the country letting me know they were having litters soon. That’s where I found Oakland Beaucerons, Katelynn commented on my post letting me know they would be having a litter during our time frame and after doing some digging on them I decided they were the breeder for me. You see, I want a Beauceron not for conformation, but to compete with and her dogs fit that bill.
I’ll admit applying was a bit intimidating, there were a ton of questions about our lifestyle, why we want a Beauceron, our housing situation, and also explains the terms that we would have to agree to to be able to buy from her. I loved how thorough her questioning was, because it shows how much she cares about the puppies and that they go to homes that fit them. Suki was picked by Katelynn for us, we did not pick her, but we did have preferences. We wanted a female dog, because we already have Loki and we didn’t want to have another male which can sometimes cause issues. We also wanted a harlequin, and that landed Suki with us!
Once we signed the contract and paid, we were told we could pick our girl up on the 21st of November. No biggie, except we live in Tennessee and she was in New York, but because Logan and I are extra and enjoy the adventure, instead of flying we made a road trip out of it! We got to see so many cool things along the way, including one of the great lakes. Once we finally made it to pick her up we were ecstatic, Katelynn handed her to me and I was instantly in love! We went over some things involving posting her ears, the food she was on, the contract, and so on. She asked that we send updates on Suki and her progress, and to call or text her if we needed anything, she is one of the nicest people I have ever met!
The trip back took a lot longer, we stopped every 2 hours for the whole trip so Suki could go potty and stretch her legs. We also used it as time to help Loki get used to her, he was a bit standoffish with her at first but it faded with time as he got used to her presence. We didn’t get home until after 10 PM, but she still got dinner and we were up with her for the rest of the night. Being in a new kennel in a new place away from her family was scary for her and she found it hard to settle, we also took her out often so she could potty. After that first night though, she was good, slept in her kennel just fine and would cry for us if she needed to go out, but now she is already sleeping through the night which is really nice!
That’s all for now, if you have any questions feel free to ask! Thank you for reading!
Chaos Daze 