Mulvaneys in the Mitten: Our Journey to Find the Perfect Pooch

Our first photo of Rick

Kevin and I have wanted a dog for as long as we can remember. We knew we always wanted a large-breed dog, and thought it wouldn't be fair to have such a big dog cooped up in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in DC, so the first thing on our list after finding a house in Michigan was to start our dog/puppy search.

We have been researching dog breeds for over a year. We knew we wanted a large dog who was great with children and other dogs, who was friendly and outgoing and who was also "less allergenic." Yes, we know there is no such thing as a "hypoallergenic" dog, but due to Kevin's allergies we needed to find a breed that would be less allergenic for him to be around.

While researching breeds one day we came across the Samoyed. We were in love with them from day one! Their puppies look like tiny polar bears and the full-sized dogs look like white, fluffy wolves. (Click here for some photos!) . We spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos of these adorable guys and learning all about their behavior and other traits.

The big test would be to meet a Samoyed in person so that we could see if Kevin would be allergic to their dander and/or saliva. So, after a little research I found out that there was a Potomac Valley Samoyed Club in the greater Washington, D.C. area. I contacted the president to see if we'd be able to attend an event and meet some of the dogs. Kevin seemed to be totally fine around them, so we really started to feel that a Samoyed could be the breed for us!

As soon as we got to Michigan I looked into clubs around here, and found the Samoyed Association of Metro Detroit. I contacted the president for some more information about possible breeders in the area and she sent me about five breeder's contact information in Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Canada. We contacted everyone and found out that there were no available puppies anywhere. Either they were spoken for, or already had been placed in new homes. The breeder in Canada said that she had already found homes for her recent litter, but that she had a 16 month old "teenager" named Rick that they'd be willing to place in a new home.

At first we were a little bummed out that there were no available pups, but when we started to think about it we thought that Rick would be the perfect dog-- he's already house trained, kennel trained, and is a retired show dog. We asked the breeder for some more information about him, and through our phone calls and emails, we began to fall in love with Rick. We were ready to take the next step and bring him home!

We set a date to meet in London, Ontario to pick up Rick. Here's some photos from our trip!