Niffler's Story

Okay, so I figured we'd start with kind of zooming out similar to what we did for Skipper's story when I did that episode a little while ago, which is kind of setting the scene for where I was when I started thinking about getting the dog that became Niffler.

So if we think back, we are in spring of 2020.

So the pandemic has hit.

We're in lockdown.

I'm living in Montana at the time.

And at the time, I was still employed at Working Dogs for Conservation.

And basically, I was kind of looking at Barley, and he was seven.

And I was looking at some of the other working dogs at Working Dogs for Conservation at the ages at which they retired.

And I was thinking, hmm, I probably should have another dog coming up if I want to have a personal working dog.

And while I was at WD4C, I didn't necessarily need to have my own personal working dog because I had so many dogs owned by the organization that you would be kind of paired with.

But I liked having a dog that, you know, I was in complete control of the training and was also my dog.

So I started thinking that, okay, it's probably time for me to start looking for another dog.

And one of the things, and I don't know if you remember this about 2020, but it felt like everybody and their grandma got a shelter dog that year.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yeah.

And there was, you know, some pluses and downsides to that.

One of the downsides that I ran into is that it felt like every time I saw a dog that I was interested in being posted somewhere, by the time I reached out, even if it was like three hours after the post went up, the dog was already pending.

Like they were just like flying off the shelves, particularly because I think similar to with Skipper, I was looking for a dog who I felt confident could kind of be a go everywhere, do everything sort of dog.

I wasn't really willing to take a lot of risks with separation, anxiety, noise, phobia, sketchy histories, scared of men, whatever it is, figure poison.

I didn't really want to deal with it at the time.

So

after having, I don't know, five or six dogs that I got excited about kind of get adopted out from under me, I started looking at breeders.

And I ended up getting connected with Niffler's Breeder through the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy.

They had like an available dogs or upcoming litters group at the time.

Okay, so I figured we'd start with kind of zooming out similar to what we did for Skipper's story when I did that episode a little while ago, which is kind of setting the scene for where I was when I started thinking about getting the dog that became Niffler.

So if we think back, we are in spring of 2020.

So the pandemic has hit.

We're in lockdown.

I'm living in Montana at the time.

And at the time, I was still employed at Working Dogs for Conservation.

And basically, I was kind of looking at Barley, and he was seven.

And I was looking at some of the other working dogs at Working Dogs for Conservation at the ages at which they retired.

And I was thinking, hmm, I probably should have another dog coming up if I want to have a personal working dog.

And while I was at WD4C, I didn't necessarily need to have my own personal working dog because I had so many dogs owned by the organization that you would be kind of paired with.

But I liked having a dog that, you know, I was in complete control of the training and was also my dog.

So I started thinking that, okay, it's probably time for me to start looking for another dog.

And one of the things, and I don't know if you remember this about 2020, but it felt like everybody and their grandma got a shelter dog that year.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yeah.

And there was, you know, some pluses and downsides to that.

One of the downsides that I ran into is that it felt like every time I saw a dog that I was interested in being posted somewhere, by the time I reached out, even if it was like three hours after the post went up, the dog was already pending.

Like they were just like flying off the shelves, particularly because I think similar to with Skipper, I was looking for a dog who I felt confident could kind of be a go everywhere, do everything sort of dog.

I wasn't really willing to take a lot of risks with separation, anxiety, noise, phobia, sketchy histories, scared of men, whatever it is, figure poison.

I didn't really want to deal with it at the time.

So

after having, I don't know, five or six dogs that I got excited about kind of get adopted out from under me, I started looking at breeders.

And I ended up getting connected with Niffler's Breeder through the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy.

They had like an available dogs or upcoming litters group at the time.