Week 9: Introducing Pepper

Aug. 29, 2022

After waiting for many months, we have finally added a new furry baby to our family. After Caelan died, we spent about a week thinking that we could never have another dog again because he was just too great and then realised that we really couldn’t NOT have another dog!

We started researching dog breeders in Europe and were surprised to find how difficult it was to find intentional mixed-breeds like schnoodles. Anyway, we did find a wonderful schnoodle breeder in Germany and had a bit of a whirlwind journey to our new pup. Our breeder speaks no English, we speak little German (but are learning!) and so communication was a bit of a challenge.

We got on a waiting list and thought that we would get our puppy in late fall/ early winter. We were so pleased therefore, to find out that our breeder had an extra puppy from a summer litter and so, we had the option to take her home.

And so, this is our furry baby, Pepper. She was born on 17 June 2022 and just like Mia and Caelan, she is a “schnoodle”, half schnauzer, half poodle. Her Mama weighs 8kg (18lb) and her Papa weighs 4.5kg (10 lb), so we expect that she will weigh somewhere between the two. The benefit is that at this size, we can fly with her so we will be bringing her with us on future US trips.

She’s learning really quickly, already loves us to death and we are so excited for her to meet everyone on our next trip! We hope that you are excited to meet her too.

The first two photos are from the week before she came home with us - playing at her first home in Germany.

We are in Germany and have finally got her! She’s tired after spending an hour getting to know us and running around while we fill out paperwork and have an amusing conversation in German-English with the help of Google translate.

This is our first photo with Pepper.

In the car, on the long ride home from Germany. While normally a nice ride, about 4 hours each way, we had the misfortune of torrential downpour in both directions! (The same rain that caused all of our construction delays this week)

She did really well in the car, took about 15 minutes to settle down and then slept most of the way.

Puppies sleep a lot and Peppa is no exception. At this age, puppies sleep between 18 and 20 hours per day. She can generally stay awake for about 40 minutes before she starts getting overtired and needs a nap.

She has been introduced to our property and future home, and no surprise, she loves to gallop around on her long line in the grass.