Fluffy stuffed dalmatians, dalmatian wallpaper, dalmatian bedding, dalmatian clothes… Since I can remember I was a huge animal lover, and especially dalmatians!:) I was around dalmatians when I was really little, and in second grade I woke up on Christmas morning to a dalmatian puppy under the tree!:) Still holds the spot of best Christmas ever!

Ever since Andrew and I started dating, I was throwing the idea out there of us getting a dog!:) A few years later we were taking the idea a bit more seriously and happened to be playing softball at a sports complex when we ran into a women who had a 6 month old dalmatian with her! Of course, I went running up to her, and asked if I could pet her dog. We had a short convo about how I use to have a dalmatian, her experience with them, and found out that she shows dalmatians all over the US, and occasionally breeds her retired show dogs when she needs a new show puppy.

Andrew and I gave her our contact info, went and visited the 4 dalmatians she has, and fast forward about a year, she contacts us to tell us she will soon be breeding one of her dogs, and wants to know if we want to be put on the puppy list!

Pixel was born on Andrew ‘s birthday (how perfect), and we love this little addition to our family!:) A few fun facts about our crazy fur child:

1. He sleeps all the way through the night! Yahoo! He only cried the first couple of nights. For about two weeks he would wake up around 3am and have to be taken outside for a bathroom break, but for awhile now he sleeps until our alarm clock goes off in the morning! Besides the weekends.. he definitely wakes up before our alarm clocks on the weekends! Good bye sleeping in! But at least I get more done, and I love looking at the clock and saying ‘wow it’s only 9am and I feel like I have gotten quite a bit done!’.
2. He loves ice cubes. Licking them, chasing them across our wood floors, chewing them, etc. Coincidentally, we have a possessed ice dispenser in our fridge, and every once in awhile it goes crazy and spits out like 15 ice cubes when you wanted 5. Now we have a reason to leave 1 or two on the floor!:)
3. He has been in two photo shoots for a magazine published by Meredith, and he did amazing at both of them! Everyone was so impressed with how well behaved he was! More info on those shoots to come later!:)
4. Every morning he use to have a face off with the toilet plunger… we had to put an end to that because I was a little creeped out to see the plunger being drug across our carpet! ha!
5. When he gets tired he loves to go under our bed. Or when he has a sock he DARTS under the bed!:) I have a feeling he is going to be really sad when he can’t fit under there anymore. Which will probably be in a few weeks!:)
6. He is growing by the minute and soon I don’t think he will be able to sit on my lap while I’m at the computer. Pretty bummed about that. He is a cuddler right now, hope he continues to think he is a lap dog!:) I decided a few weeks ago to a take one picture of him a week to help document his growth! Follow me on Instagram to see those weekly post!:) Instagram:Brookepavel
7. Raw-hide bones to the rescue! He loved to go outside, play in the yard, and chew on mulch! We picked up some rawhide bones, and now he loves to chew on those, and he no longer has a fascination for mulch! Plus raw hide bones are much safer!;)
8. We are still basking in the days of no shedding! I think in a few months is when that starts to happen… then bring out the lint rollers and vacuum… that will get used a lot.. A lot a lot.
9. No, he is not crazy hyper, he is not mean, and he is not deaf. I think dalmatians got a bad rap back when there was a mass demand for them, there were bad breeders, and there were irresponsible owners who didn’t properly socialize or exercise their dogs. Any and every breed can have hyper dogs. I have seen extremely high energy golden retrievers, and I have seen lazy teddy bear golden retrievers. Every dog is going to be different even if they are the same breed.
10. 0 shoes destroyed, 0 cords chewed up, no stains on the carpet, no table legs with bite marks. Knock on wood, people! The adolescent stage is coming up, and I’m not for sure how much longer we can hold onto these statistics!;)