Our Wonderful Wheaten

My husband and I got married in August 2015 and with money that we got for the wedding we decided that we were going to extend our family by four paws. We did a lot of research and decided that a Wheaten terrier was the perfect fit for our family. I had grown up with small dogs (a bichon and a shih tzu-bichon mix) and my husband had a black lab. It was important to me to have a dog that didn't shed fur all over the house and it was important for him to have a mid-large size dog. Once we had picked our breed we found Heartland Classics online. We read through a lot of reviews and decided that this was where we needed to go to get our new puppy. Our transition into "parenthood" went about as smoothly as we could have imagined. We live in the Minneapolis area, we decided that we were going to drive to Nebraska to get pick up Winston. We had arranged a time to meet and the transaction and paperwork took less than an hour. One thing I need to express here aside from gushing about how much I love Winston and how great he is (as I will do below) is something that our vet told us at the initial wellness visit. She said that in the many years that she has been treating animals she has never seen such detailed vaccination papers and documentation. It is also worth noticing that dogs are not ready to separated from their mother and siblings until 9-10 weeks of age. Even that extra week can make a difference. She said that that speaks volumes about the credibility of the breeder. It shows that the breeder is in this not for the money but for the love of animals and to give people the love that only a dog can give them. Life after picking up Winston has been great, although a little crazy at times. He is fiercely loyal and loving. He is energetic and playful and loves to play catch in the backyard. He is quick to learn new things (potty training done in less than a week!) and as hard as it is to believe, going to the vet and the groomers are among his favorite places to go. He does wonderful in the car and is well socialized. He does well with small dogs and bigger children and will run and play as much as you let him. When we first got him, he was very adventurous and independent. I was so sad that he was not a cuddler but he's getting better, especially since we cut his fur short for the summer. He loves his kiddie pool out int he backyard and is ready for lake season. As I'm sure many have read, a Wheaten is not perfect and there are things that we personally are working on. We have not been able to break Winston of his "Wheaten greeting" quite yet. It is getting better. He does wonderful with babies, but toddlers and smaller children require our constant attention. He gets excited and jumps on kids to say hello and doesn't realize that he is bigger and stronger than they are. When going for walks he jumps at dogs and people on bikes to try to get their attention and to play. He is also submissive towards men and will pee on the floor when they come into our house. This is less of a problem with women and we are hoping that he grows out of this. He leaves large puddles of water and trails to the next room after getting a drink and he loves gardening especially along the fence. Most of these are small annoyances that we are working on. We love him all the same. Talk about a big personality.

- Shea Abrahamson