The Elusive Coton

We were dog people who'd never had a dog - and we wanted to change that.

Neither of us have ever had a dog of our own, but we've always loved them. Like, enough to go to dog meetup groups just to meet certain breeds and learn more about them. Enough to follow tens of dogs on social media and message each other pictures of them constantly. Enough to have name and face recognition of them, without ever having met them. And enough to drive 2 hours to go to a dog's (whom only one of us had ever met, once) birthday party.

The birthday boy, Pollo.

Originally, we had planned to get a Corgi (Pollo is one), but after lots of research and having met many of them, we ultimately decided against the breed. We have adored the ones we have met (my birthday present to my wife was once a meetup with a celebrity corgi named Duke), but they have some common health issues (like DM and various cancers, which we have watched take some of the social media dogs we follow) and can sometimes have behavioral issues, too. Plus, my mother-in-law has a ton of allergies, and all the hair and dander in the house would likely be a big issue for her.

So, we started looking for breeds that had the following characteristics:

1. Friendly to people and dogs

2. Loves to snuggle (the wife has needs)

3. Hypoallergenic

4. Low incidence/severity of heritable diseases

5. Small and light on maintenance (just a practicality/cost thing)

We searched for a while, and had phone calls with a bunch of breeders to learn more about the basics of how to choose, plan for, and raise a puppy. In addition, we read and listened to books (this, that, and the other, to be exact) and read up a lot online.

To make a long story short, we settled on the Coton de Tulear because they fit all of the above criteria. Now, conventional wisdom is to meet a few of the breed before committing, but there were two problems: 1. They're pretty rare, and 2. There was an ongoing pandemic. In the end, we settled for watching videos and consulting breeders to make the decision. Not a perfect solution, but a well-researched one at least.

One of our favorite photos of the breed from the internet, a particularly floofy specimen.

Returning to some points from above, Cotons are actually pretty hard to find. There's only a few thousand in the US from what I can tell, and there are maybe 10 reputable breeders in reasonable (less than 6 hours) driving distance. Pairing that with the issues that some had stopped breeding during the pandemic and that - because they are rare and because everyone was trying to get new dogs while working at home - waitlists could be over a year long, we were not sure when it would happen. Given that we were both working at home until at least Summer 2021, we really wanted to get one before that would end so that we could give a pup the best attention and care that it needed as a baby.

To find one, we would need to travel far and wide...

The next blog post will discuss finding a breeder, missing out multiple times, and (just maybe) finding "the one".