It took me a long time to decide for sure that I wanted to get a dog. I initially started thinking about it last year when I moved to Kansas because I was alone and lived in an apartment located in a not so great part of town; I thought getting a dog would give me some company along with some protection. However, at that point in time, I was in no shape to get a dog because I needed to get over my own anxiety about being on my own for the first time and away from my family. I could have gotten a cat but I have really bad allergies towards them when I’m around them for long periods of time and I really wanted a dog.

I went back and forth from the initial thought about getting a dog; what dog I wanted, when I could/should get one, if this is what I really wanted and I always came back to yes I wanted one and it was what I wanted to do. I forget exactly how I came to the decision of wanting a Pembroke Welsh Corgi because initially I wanted a Chihuahua mainly because of the size since I live in an apartment but then decided on a PWC. They are suppose to be really intelligent good dogs. They only get between 25-30lbs and about 10″ tall, so they are still fairly small dogs. Only down side that I’ve read about them is that they have a double coat which is shed twice a year and shed regularly through out the year; every dog sheds but not all dogs blow full coats!

So after making the final decision that this is what I was going to do and wanted to do, I started searching. First, I started with Google and searched for Pembroke Welsh Corgi breeders in Kansas which lead me to multiple websites of a few breeders close to Kansas, mostly in Missouri and Oklahoma etc. and to some sites of breeders all over the US that would ship their pups. I wasn’t really sure about shipping pups so I tried my best to find a breeder around the area. I ended up going to Craigslist and searched Corgi which lead me to an ad for a 12 week old Red & White PWC that had 3 rounds of shots and a dewormer. She was located in Bendena, KS which is 1.5 hours form where I live. I immediately emailed the poster and asked questions about her; was she raised around children, is she crate trained, is she trained in other areas, does she live on a farm or house (so I would know what kind of environment she’s in), etc, along with how much they were asking for her.

The breeder responded with the answers to my questions and told me they were asking $300 for her as she was registered with the AKC and had already had most of her puppy shots. The price isn’t what was holding me back, I had the $300 but it was the apartment fee of $200 nonrefundable that I would also have to pay in order to have her. At first, I told her I was interested but wasn’t sure if I would be able to get her and she told me that she would drop the fee to $250. This helped a little but I still wasn’t sure. I had the money but at the same time I didn’t at least not for the puppy and the apartment fee. I then talked to my dad who owned me half of my furniture payment which was $500; this is something he told me he would do when I bought my furniture in August and something I hadn’t brought up because I just started getting bills for it. I emailed him and gave him a proposal: paying for the puppy + apartment fee in leu of giving me money for the furniture since it’d equal out to the same and it would be an early Christmas present.

He told me he would love to do it but couldn’t get me money until November 6th when he got paid. When he told me this I made sure it was a sure thing and immediately emailed the breeder back and told her I would LOVE to have her puppy but would need to wait until November 6th to come get her, if she’d be willing to hold her. I could have gotten her the end of October and just used the money I had in my bank account and replaced it when my dad gave me money but I had two tests I had to study for that weekend so I figured waiting would be the best thing that way I could focus on the tests.

And so, two weeks later Bella has arrived. The breeder brought her to me since she had to come to my town for some work anyways which saved me a 1.5 hour trip. She got here around 10:30am yesterday morning and gave me her shot records, her AKC paper and a paper that had her bloodline on it. I was so excited. Bella (who was nicknamed Savannah by the breeder) has been doing well; I’ve been working on potty training her and she’s only had a few accidents which I know is going to happen. I’ve stressed myself out today though because of the potty training thing and cried a few times but it’s just getting use to having her around and her getting use to me. She’s doing well with crate training and doesn’t whine or cry or bark unless I leave the room and she can still hear me. Tomorrow will be the first real test as I have work and class so we’ll see how things go from there. When I get pictures posted on my flickr I’ll be sure to post the link.