Lori Wright is an avid animal lover with over 50 years of experience with mainly dogs, though fish, turtles, frogs and snakes have been known to habitat near her often, as well. Lori can relate to issues and other questions you may ask from training dogs, to dealing with various stages of sickly dogs, as well as moving cross country with dogs. Lori has done and seen most of it with her 9 dogs and 2 kids from Denver to Honolulu…and that what she has not experienced, she will find out for you, as she’s a teacher by trade.
Did you know that golden retrievers pick their owner? After this story, we were told that this was true from the breeder.
We had promised our kids that they could pick out a puppy from a family friend’s litter. The drive was an hour away through the winding roads of coffee fields of Kona, on the Big Island of Hawai’i.
Once to the house, the small secluded neighborhood, with gorgeous views of the ocean, where the kids played with the 4 week-old puppies and we listened to the story of the mom and the dad. Every morning they would walk down the steep path to the ocean, enjoy a swim, and then walk back up to the house – all by themselves – like clockwork. Everyone in this tight knit community knew the mom and dad and their daily journey to the ocean, and everyone wanted a puppy once the mom was pregnant. However, my kids were able to get first choice.
As the kids played, there was one puppy, puppy A, that followed Megan around and, in return, she played mostly with him. But the puppy that followed Josh around, puppy D, was the runt of the litter – and not as fast as his siblings – so Josh would pet him, but play with the other puppies as well.
That’s when we surprised the kids – they each could pick out a puppy! They were so excited that they each could have their own puppy! We thought this would be a great sibling bonding experience for all 4 of them – the kids and the puppies!
Megan quickly chose puppy A and our friend was so happy as she said Megan chose well. But when we asked Josh he was undecided still as he liked puppy C and D. He was torn, he played with both puppies, but ended up choosing puppy C. My friend asked Josh twice if he was sure on his decision and Josh replied that he was, but was quiet.
We said goodbye to the puppies, their parents and our friends as the puppies would not be coming home to our house to several more weeks – but we could visit anytime! As we drove Megan spoke of her puppy A non-stop as Josh just watched the world pass him by out the window. As I was driving I kept wondering what was going on in Josh’s mind…
We stopped for gas and water about 20 minutes out, and while Doug was pumping the gas, Josh asked if we could call our friend. I said sure but questioned why? Josh explained that he made a mistake and that he should have picked puppy D.
I called my friend and related the experience we just had with Josh to her and she revealed that she already saved puppy D for Josh!!!!
She knew that puppy D was the puppy for Josh – just by watching them. Then she explained that the Golden picks their owner. Puppy A picked Megan, and puppy D picked Josh, though Josh had not realized it at the time, my friend knew that Josh would though, and was going to contact me later about puppy D.
It’s amazing how loyal and strong the bond between owners and dogs can be as we witnessed (once again) when our kids and their first puppies were together!!!