The great Dog search!

Since the whole Belle fiasco I have been reading every book I can get my hands on for training puppies, making the dog part of the family, and how to teach puppies and kids to know how to treat eachother and all that fabulous stuff. I now feel that my head is going to burst from the knowledge. I know there is a very big difference from knowing what to do with a dog and actually doing it but I am excited to actually use what I have learned.

Now I just have to find a puppy! Which you would think would be easy but frankly it isn't. We want a 8 week old puppy that will only get to be about 25 lbs or so but isn't a toy breed. It needs to have no known health issues of course and preferably home raised around children already and working on house training. I know that these things exsist because I have found several breeders that this is the norm for them but the main problem is that most of them have waiting list AND the money of course. So far the cheapest I have found is $600 and frankly my husband works too hard for us to put that much money on a puppy that will need to be spayed in just a few weeks time too. I am not against mutts it would just be a lot easier to have a pure bred so that we know how big the dog will be. We are not really ready for a new puppy at this time anyway so we have plenty of time. I am hoping to find one after we return from the cruise so that my in-laws won't have to worry about a puppy that is being house trained and all that jazz.

The kids also know we are looking and these are Caden's specifications...

1. needs to be little like Daisy (Auntie Heidi's dog)
2. needs to be cute like Daisy
3. preferably yellow or white
4. could we please get Casey her own puppy so she doesn't try to take his (this isn't gonna happen as one is more than enough!)
5. needs to not bite hard like Belle did cause that was just mean (this made me laugh and a little sad)
6. needs to be one we can take with us so that it won't be lonely

Casey just wants

1.  Daisy (yep she just wants Daisy she thinks that anna might miss her but maybe not lol)
2. Lady (you know from Lady and the Tramp she is pretty sure that Lady is real and she should have her)
3 she would prefer the dog to be pink and only pink

So we are praying for our future dog that we don't rush into anything and that we are able to provide the best home for it. My parents dog, Bandit, was amazing he really was like the best behaved dog ever. He passed away this morning we are thinking from a stroke. He was only 11 years old which is a little old but his bred can live up to 13 so my mom was hoping for a few more years. We are hoping that when we find our dog we will be able to train it to be as awesome as Bandit was because that would make our family complete : )