On March 21, 2019, Jon and I brought home an eight-week-old black lab puppy. Since then we’ve enjoyed sharing bits of her life on social media. Over the next few weeks I thought I’d share a little more about Mamie here on the pages of my blog.

People ask all kinds of things about Mamie. Here are a few questions that come up a lot:

Are you out of your minds? A puppy, at your age?  See my previous post.

What’s her name? Her name is Mamie, as in Eisenhower. It’s very on-brand for us. Jon is a history junkie and I write about the Midwest, so the First Lady from Kansas was a natural choice. If we were to get another dog in a few years, we would name her Bess. Because Missouri, y’all.

What did you say her name was? Mammy?  Uh, no. 

Is she a rescue? No. Mamie is a purebred Labrador retriever. We rescued three dogs prior to this one. All three (well, okay, two out of three) were fabulous dogs, but they came with problems we did not create. This time we want to make all our own mistakes. We also wanted the traits that are typical of a Lab.

Where did you get her? From a breeder in KCK. We saw an ad for Mamie and her sister online, called the number, and went to see her a week later. Yes, we know about puppy mills. This was not one. We could not have asked for a better experience. The breeder even gave us a blanket with Mamie’s mama’s scent on it so she would be reassured.

Have you given in and let her sleep on your bed yet? Nope. Mamie’s crate training is our biggest success story. She likes her kennel and goes in without a fuss, even if we have guests in the house.

Will you take her to obedience training classes? Yes. She’s already in Puppy Socialization Class. It’s cute, and has helped her learn to interact with dogs her own size. We want this dog to be well-behaved so we can have friends over without worrying about her.

Next time: Lessons from Mamie