Meet Raya! (“Ray of Sunshine”)
“Lavender Girl” from THE Boodles-Jax 10/22 LITTER finally landed AT her furever home WITH US IN MARYLAND oN JANUARY 4th, 2023.
Raya’s 6-week puppy portrait from River Falls Goldendoodles.
We adopted Raya (“Ray of Sunshine”), a 10 week old petite-mini Goldendoodle, on January 4th, 2023 with less than 48 hours notice. She was “lavender” girl” from the Boodles/Jax litter born 10/22/22 at River Falls Goldendoodles in South Carolina. We adopted her by way of Fox Creek Farm Goldendoodles, in Berkeley Springs, WV, where we got our 5 year old mini-Goldendoodle, Puffles, from.
Confused yet? Read on…
But first…
Wait! What? The Pake’s Got Another Dog???
Yes we did! Truth be told, I had always kinda wanted another dog, just because I know dogs are really better off if they have another canine buddy to go through life with, but had never really been pushing for it, and didn’t expect it to ever happen. As much as dogs love their humans and vice versa, their humans often aren’t around or are busy, and it gets really lonely for them once kids are out of the house, which will be in the blink of an eye for us with two teenagers.
The week before Christmas, I happened to show my wife a picture of an available puppy from Fox Creek Farm Goldendoodles, not really being serious and not expecting much of a reaction. From that point forward, the entire family wouldn’t stop talking about getting another puppy, with my wife having the biggest crocodile tears of them all. Everybody wanted another puppy for their own reasons, and we spent half of our winter break road trip to Orlando and back talking about another dog and arguing about names for another dog, that I myself hadn’t truly commit to getting yet, because you know who will ultimately be responsible for another dog! ME!!!
We rolled back into town from Orlando on Monday, January 2nd, weary from our travels, with all of us having reached agreement to get another puppy. I had already touched base with Fox Creek Farm the week before Christmas about future mini litters for the spring and was ready to put a deposit down, and that’s when I saw her.
Oh dear God in heaven, a little princess needed rescuing!
I emailed Kelsey because she was absolutely adorable and the perfect size for us, and in less than 48 hours we picked her up in West Virginia.
So… not exactly unplanned, but definitely spur of the moment with only a single full day to prepare for her arrival before we brought her home.
Cue some of that “ToXiC mAsCuLiNTy”, madly tearing through the basement looking for gates, fences, crates, dividers, ramps, and other puppy items, while cleaning up the house and rearranging some furniture (and cleaning my guns), and then making a bee-line to the local pet store, road raging around idiot drivers who just needed to get out of my way. I’M COMING FOR YOU, BABY PRINCESS!!!!
Raya’s Whirlwind First Few Weeks Out In The World
I didn’t know much about her prior to agreeing to come pick her up, where she came from or who her doggy parents were, or why she was 10 weeks old and not 8, but at this level of fully professional genetically tested blue ribbon GANA bred puppies typically costing $3500-4500, you need not worry about the dog! It wasn’t until the day before we picked her up that I learned that she had already been adopted by a family that just wasn’t going to work out for some reason, and that we were actually re-homing her. Oh no… the poor baby!!!
As it turned out, Raya was Fox Creek Farm’s litter pick from River Falls Goldendoodle’s Boodles-Jax 10/22/22 litter, to use as a potential dam (mommy) for future puppy litters to be bred. So she’s actually Fox Creek Farm’s dog and we’ve become her Guardian family, as is common practice for GANA breeders. So Raya had travelled by car from South Carolina with a puppy travel nanny up to West Virginia, was placed with an area family presumably around Christmas time that just didn’t work out, was returned to West Virginia and Fox Creek Farm, and then finally went home with us to her furever home in Maryland on January 4th.
The plan for Raya is for her to deliver 4 litters of puppies over the next 4-5 years for future Fox Creek Farm dog owners, after which time she’ll officially be “retired” and signed over to us with full ownership. While she’s FREE to us, we cover all normal dog expenses including vet visits, Fox Creek Farm will cover everything relating to pregnancies, we especially need to learn about and watch out for “girl dog stuff”, and we have to get her back to West Virginia two dozen or so times over the next few years. It’s above and beyond normal dog ownership, but Raya is a very special dog and we’re very much looking forward to it! The best part of the whole deal is that we get to play with all of her puppies when we come to pick her up after she delivers a litter! How cool is that!?!?
Raya is a “petite-mini” and is expected to top out at around 20 lbs like Boodles and Jax, so she’ll be a little bit smaller than Puffles. We think the name Raya was given to her by her originally adoptive family. We had numerous other ideas in mind for a name, but ended up liking the name so much that we decided to keep it for her, and to at least give her a little bit of continuity. It was going to be on her paperwork either way, so why not?
Raya is as cute as can be with her wavy brown abstract coat, with four super cute and adorable white mitten paws, and then white fur on her chest, above and below her nose and on her neck, a little bit on top of her head, and then a white tail tip. She’s completely adorable and clearly princess grade, so yes, the world absolutely needs more dogs like her, and hopefully she’ll be able to provide some! :)
Why Did Baby Raya Need To Be Re-Homed?
I honestly have no idea, and it’s actually confidential. The impression I got was that our breeder might might have had some reservations about the family she was being placed with, but hoped it would work out and didn’t. I have no reason to believe the family was anything but loving and well-intentioned. I suspect they might have been first time dog owners and just had no idea what they were getting themselves into, or maybe they just weren’t going to be able to meet the obligations of the Guardian program. I really don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. Either way, I’m glad the decision was made to return her from whatever the less than ideal situation was, and that she’s found a great home with us now.
Adjusting to Another New Place
Raya was beyond happy to be with her new family, and played with us for 30-40 minutes at Fox Creek Farm before we departed for home. She was definitely on the anxious side being in yet another new place, and especially about being fenced into a contained area for the first time. The poor baby princess panicked, but it had to be done to keep her safe during the day while we all go to work and school.
I took some time sitting with her inside the fence, holding her and talking to her before putting her inside, giving her some treats rewarding her for being there, and then sitting on the couch working just outside of her fenced area for her to be comfortable. The same with crate training, and her new Snuggle Puppy has been working great for puppies suffering separation anxiety. Dogs have absolutely amazing internal clocks, so a few days of getting to know our routine, and that we’ll be back to let her out and give her all of the attention she needs, has really helped her to feel a lot more comfortable.
She was also quite an aggressive nipper when we got her, but a few days of solid family-wide puppy biting inhibition countermeasures, and I’d say the issue is 75-80% better, and probably no different than any other puppy around 10-12 weeks of age at this point. All puppies nip as it’s all they know to do, and it takes time for them to learn that human beings don’t like to be nipped and to reprogram themselves, so long as they’re getting the proper responses to nipping from their humans. Hint: screaming “no!” isn’t it, and is likely to actually make things worse, which is what I suspect might have been happening.
Puffles and Raya
Our biggest concern about getting another dog was how well Puffles would do with another dog in the house, when he’s always been very dog shy, and never really wanted much if anything to do with other dogs! Even at his puppy training class when he was Raya’s age, he never really wanted to socialize with the other dogs, and just hid under our chairs or between our legs, and the same at dog parks. I was reassured by Amy Lane at Fox Creek Farm that it would be a huge benefit for him, and I can already see that. Plus, never in my life had I ever heard of doodles living together not getting along!
The first few days were definitely awkward, but the suggestions on the Fox Creek Farm Owners Group were great, to let them first meet in neutral territory in our yard before bringing her inside, and then so long as nobody was getting hurt to just let them work it out! There was definitely some angry barking by Puffles and chasing her into corners the first two days, and he’s semi-tackled her a few times also without hurting her, but after that they were fine! By Day 3-4 they were playing with each other in our yard, and I’ll let some of the photos do the talking on that.
Walking them together has helped a lot, along with treating them together while they sit inside, going to play outside, and a puppy ice cream social might have helped too. They’re still not exactly buddy-buddy inside, but they’re getting used to having the other around.
Welcome Home, Raya!
Overall we’re completely exhausted at this point, but couldn’t be happier after having her for a week. I still can’t believe that I went from making an initial inquiry with our breeder about another mini goldendoodle the week before Christmas, to bringing this sweet little angel home with less than 48 hours notice, all within a 2 week period. We had only made the final decision to get another dog the day it was announced she was available, and in less than 48 hours we had her.
I sense the hand of God at work, and that we were meant to have her for a reason! This is going to be quite an amazing journey being her Guardian family, and we’re all very much looking forward to it.
Other Boodles/Jax Litter Dog Owners?
Per my understanding, Boodles and Jax were quite busy in 2022 and actually had two litters together that year! If you have another Boodles/Jax dog, I would love to hear from you.
Raya Gotcha Week Photo Albums
Click on the album link below, or enjoy the slide show further down.
Raya’s and Puffles’ Pages
At one point I had a doggy Instagram for Puffles, but I just didn’t have the time for it and deleted it. Social media platforms are becoming more de-centralized, and with so many people on one platform or another, or not on any at all, I’ve gone back to good old-fashioned web-central doggy photo sharing.
Check out these pages below!
