One of a Kind

Doesn’t Nellie the Labradoodle have star quality? I noticed it right off the bat when I met her as a pup, and wound up casting her in my puppy training DVD, “New Puppy! Now What?” She appears in a few scenes, but her marquee moment is in the “greeting guests” segment, where I teach new puppy owners how to prevent jumpy greeting behavior. She was quite the method actor – we didn’t have to work very hard to get her to jump up on me when we shot the scene! She was such a quick study, though, that her perfectly timed sits make her like a ringer in the follow-up scene. Nellie is a first-generation Labradoodle (most are second generation), which accounts for her unique look. Her coloring and wiry coat make her hard to place, and only one person has correctly identified her breed in the past 3 years. Most people think she’s a young Irish Wolfhound, or a terrier mix. I can understand the confusion – she doesn’t look like any other Labradoodle I know. Nellie is adored by her family, so much so that when her 8-year old person sat down to write his Christmas list for Santa, he asked for presents for Nellie before he added any for himself!