We are  in a hotel room somewhere in Yorkshire.  In two hours time, we’re turning our lives upside down as we take charge of the new addition to our family, an 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy who we have decided to name Montgomery a.k.a Monty.

Monty brings order to our chaos.  There is some system and routine to our daily lives but not enough so that we feel constrained or tied.  We love our flexibility, the opportunity to decide on the spur of the moment, the toss of a coin, the text or call making a suggestion to meet.  We are not the family that books our holiday a year in advance, rather the one that pays exorbitant money to go somewhere decided at the last moment.

This kind of life is not for all.  It’s a rollercoaster of thrills and excitement, of  seize the day adventure and life stomping. Of living in the moment, being in the present.   But it also brings stress and disappointment and expense.  It takes being sick for a while to create the awareness that living this way makes me ill and unsettled and to realise it’s time to make a change.

So after a mound of reading and research into how to train and manage what’s  going to be a 65lbs animal which doesn’t talk, sheds hair daily with great abandon, which slobbers and slurps, demands food every hour,  brings in mud and dirt from every outside excursion and swims at every opportunity, I’m ready.  On the basis that I’ve already got  a tweenager demonstrating all of these characteristics, adding a dog to the mix hardly seems daunting.

The change Monthy brings is to our behaviour.  We can’t just jump on the train or get in the car on a whim.  A 4 hour feeding regime combined with the resulting expulsion, regulates our day.  Added to which we’re unable to spend hours on social media or in Roscoe’s case his beloved weekend treat, his X box,  as the ‘wee’ dog needs our attention, our time and love. Monty dog forces us to think ahead, to structure and plan our time.  He makes us form habitual patterns to our lives rather than the chaotic whiff of panic, last minuteness and resulting lateness which has emanated from our four walls these past years.

And I don’t think this is going to be easy.  For Craig and I this type of stress has become habitual DNA.  For Roscoe, living this way is all he’s really known.  But for this bouncy, blonde bundle to turn into a well behaved, obedient animal, we are going to have to grit our teeth and get into a consistent routine.

In return we’re going to have oodles of love and adoration and what I’m sure will be many insights to share on this blog.