Head over heals in love with Maggie Mae, our Soft-Coated Wheaten!

We have rescued a lot of dogs over the course of our marriage. I love them all. Many of them were older dogs and we didn’t get to spend very many years with them. We haven’t been without a dog since 1988. During the last month, we lost our last two dogs within weeks of each other. We had decided we were ready to get a puppy for a change, but now the big decision, what kind. We wanted one that didn’t shed or that didn’t shed much. We needed a dog to like other dogs because we go on hikes with our friends and their dogs here in Colorado. I have always loved Terriers since growing up with a Wire Haired Fox Terrier. However, many of the Terrier breeds said that the males might not get along with other males. Then I came across the Soft Coated Wheaten and it sounded like the perfect fit. I also did a lot of reading about the Irish coat vs the American coat and my husband and I both agreed we wanted the Irish. When I found Barb’s site I was a little skeptical that it could be a puppy mill. So, I continued doing research and found her A+ rating with the BBB and no complaints. The only BLOGs I found were discussions where people just speculated Heartland Classics was a puppy mill, but, no one presented any proof. When I talked to Barb on the phone, I immediately felt very comfortable and promptly put a deposit on a female with the Irish coat. We told her we could drive from Colorado that weekend and pick our new puppy up. When we arrived at her wonderful farm and saw our baby for the first time, it was instant love! Barb gave us fantastic information about her and her Irish coat, which is a rarity in the U.S. She let us know to carefully screen for groomers because many of them do not know how to properly take care of the Irish coat. Our baby, who we named Maggie Mae, is such a well-adjusted puppy! We were unsure how our 11 hour drive home the next day would be since she had never been in a car. Wow, she was incredible! We put a doggie bed on the back seat and we left Nebraska at 1:30AM. She peacefully slept almost half the trip. The other half, I put her in my lap and if she got a little squirmy, I gave her a toy to chew on. She never got car sick and the next day after we got home, we took her on a short ride to town to make sure she knew not all car trips would be so long. She never had a problem with getting back in the car. She has met our neighbor’s Golden Doodle, Harley and they have already become great friends. We have walked around our quiet neighborhood with her off the leash and she just runs circles around us, never straying too far and always looking back to see where we are. I cannot express enough how impressed we are with her and with Heartland Classics. It was definitely worth the drive from Colorado to Nebraska to get this beautiful and loving puppy!

- Linda McMillin