I have never had a dog. I had siblings instead, I mean hello six girls and two boys. Nathan has always had dogs, at times multiples so I would consider him a pro. When we met, we had talked back and forth about getting one of our own but hadn’t landed on when, mostly due to the fact that Nathan is incredibly allergic to them. I mean minor details, right? In college, we were at a friends house and they had a dog, that for the first time didn’t make N have an allergy attack. Once we found out It was a Maltipoo we pretty much knew that was the one, not like we had a choice but STILL we were pumped! Luckily I wanted a small dog and this one was perfect. I looked for THREE years trying to find a breeder. And trust me when I say you’ll get some really interesting leads when you google that kind of thing. I finally went to social media and found a Facebook page with the cutest freakin puppies I had ever seen and what was better than pictures were videos. Videos of the breeder talking to the dogs, showing It was in fact a real person. A lot of consistencies lined up when I reached out to Darrell and Vicki and they were the NICEST people. They are based out of Florida as well which meant we could drive to get him. I sent him my color preference and gender preference Here are a few of their rules that after looking at so many breeders, I was impressed with.

• You put a $200 deposit down to hold your puppy. If you’re not happy with the way he turns out (sounds horrible, you should love this thing no matter what) then you can wait for the next litter.
• They send pictures and videos of your dog every single week leading up to when you get him and my FAVORITE part about them is how they talk to these dogs. They use the ultimate baby voices and its hysterical but also goes to show that they’ll love them as much you will.
• While they are raising the puppy, they will start the potty training AND crate training process for you. This was a GAME CHANGER! I remember picking up Banks and I asked how often we needed to stop to let him out and Darrell said ONCE. For a six hour car ride…ONCE! He said, “He won’t go to the bathroom on you, ever.” He was right! From day one he has always been totally fine in his crate and has never had an accident in It either. That’s all thanks to how they raised him before we even got him.
• When It was time for us to get him, we planned a place to meet (they will drive 50 miles for free) and we got him! We could’ve paid a certain amount for him to meet us further and hindsight we definitely would’ve done that. He was $1200 total but that included the deposit in the beginning. We waited six months for him and It was well worth the wait.

When we got Banks he was 2 pounds and now he is close to 10 (which feels HUGE) but this is the biggest he will be. He is perfect for the small apartment that we live in and I might be (for sure am) biased but he is so smart and the absolute sweetest. His potty training was a breeze and he has always slept like an angel. Something that helped his training was the fact that I’m able to take him with me to work every day. Without that I don’t think everything would’ve been AS easy. I never wanted to get a dog if he was going to be in a crate all day, in my opinion It doesn’t seem fair.

I couldn’t recommend this breed enough and if you want him to look like a teddy bear his entire life, go to Darrell and Vicki.

Cheers,

AP