(Ottawa Dog of the Week for October 19th/09)

“My partner and I started looking for a medium size dog about one year ago. We saw an ad on Kijiji that said they were looking for good families for these adorable Cocker Spaniel mix puppies. They were giving them away for free! Luckily, we were the first people to call and arrive in Diego’s parent’s home. Diego was the only male of the bunch and, surprisingly enough, he was also the calmest, smallest, and most timid. The owners were particularly attached to him since they had to encourage the small fellow to eat, drink, and play with his sisters. We instantly fell in love with the little pooch and decided to take him home just a few days later.

Although he was born in Canada, his parents came from Cuba so we thought that it would be fair to give him a Spanish name.

Our new family member started out as very shy, so we took him absolutely everywhere to make sure he would grow out of it. We took him camping, to our rock climbing gym, to work, to friend’s home’s, parks, the market, on long trips, etc.

Although it took him a little while before growing out of his shyness, he had no difficulties learning commands and tricks. After just two weeks, our fluffy Diego was potty trained, learned how to sit, lay down, give his paw, and stay. Despite the fact that those two weeks were amongst the most difficult I’ve ever had, I felt like I had filled a big hole in my life. For once, I had to care for someone more than I did for myself, and it felt great.

Diego is now 9 months old and is doing absolutely outstanding. In many ways, he is a lot like an English Cocker Spaniel: same size, colour, intelligence, crazy hair-do, and long ears, but he does have something very unique, his tail! His tail is absolutely beautiful. It makes me wonder why breeders ever started to cut this breeds tail in the first place. He has a long coat with a beard and a mustache that is getting longer every day and big paws that don’t match his size (yet) but do match his big heart. He LOVES to play with other dogs (even thought some of them are three times his size) and cuttle with us on the couch at night. He also adores to play fetch and go roller-blading.

If I had four words to describe this little critter they would be: adorable, smart, soft (in every sens of the word), and happy. ” – Diego’s Mom, Julie-Anne