Often the novelty of having a puppy can wear off with kids once the dog gets older.
If you spend time with the Steer family and their pooch Molly, however, you’d be forgiven for mistaking her as quite a young dog, given she’s still showered in oodles of affection and treated like a baby.
But Molly is not new to the family of five, which includes dad Rob, mum Amy and boys Lachlan, 13, Felix, 11, and Isaac, 7 (and a half).
At five years old, Molly is equivalent in age to a 35-year-old human, so they say, who would be old enough to be even the oldest Steer boy’s mum, definitely not young enough to be his baby sister.
Molly is a moodle, a purposely mixed breed of Maltese terrier and poodle.
She is the family’s first dog.
The kids had been ganging up on their dad for a while to get a dog, hopeful they would wear him down.
Eventually, it worked, but Amy and Rob didn’t let on that Rob had finally given in.
Rob had wanted a rescue dog, but unfortunately for the family (yet fortunately for the breed), Amy’s severe allergies required her to have a hypo-allergenic poodle or poodle-cross, and none were up for adoption.
So they purchased Molly and arranged her pick-up out of the kids’ earshot and behind closed doors.
When the day came to bring her home, the couple collected their sons from after-school care and drove straight to the breeder’s place in Tallangatta, surprising them into barely containable delight.
Felix said all his memories of Molly were his favourites, but he particularly remembered how exciting that first day was.
The family spent a year bonding and getting to know their girl before throwing her a lavish first birthday party that might have been the envy of all the dogs in the neighbourhood.
They invited three other family dogs over for the occasion, having made pupcakes for Molly to share with her doggo friends and other sweets to share with her human friends, including dog bone-shaped pasties.
“Everyone brought presents and we played pass-the-parcel with the dogs,” Amy said with a laugh.
Molly loves unwrapping presents, so she was in her element that day; a day the family members all agree was one of their favourite moments with Molly so far.
Molly shared her space for that first year with Charlie, a cat who’d lived in the Steer household for many years prior to Molly’s arrival before Charlie sadly crossed over the rainbow bridge.
The family also had a rabbit named Thumper and a new cat named Lexi, whom Molly, at times, likes to wrestle, even though they are friends.
The family describes Molly as sweet and cuddly, despite having a big dog attitude in a little body.
“She thinks she’s the biggest dog in the park,” Amy said.
Tough fronts aside, the Steers say Molly can be a bit of a ‘mummy’s girl’ and cries in Amy’s absence.
She also trembles when she hears water running in the laundry, indicating it’s her loathed bath time.
As far as unique quirks go, Molly is known for greeting visitors at the door with a toy, either to show it off or invite them to play.
When she’s excited, she curls her body into a doughnut shape with her rear end bent so far it touches her head.
While the pampered pooch chooses to spend most of her time indoors, other than when she needs the loo, she will be enticed to venture into the great outdoors if her family is there.
“She likes playing backyard soccer,” Amy said.
“It’s Molly’s rules when she joins in.
“If Molly gets a goal, it counts; if Molly knocks it out, it counts.
“Molly’s on everyone’s teams.”
The Steers would like to introduce another dog to their family in future, but maybe a different poodle mix rather than a second moodle.
While she’s the only dog in the house for now, she’s every human’s favourite, but with five for Molly to choose from, who is her favourite human?
“Mum; no questions asked,” Lachlan said.
“She’s the first one she runs to.”
Like most dogs, Molly loves to go on walks — and the kids enjoy taking her.
Amy said Molly was a great motivator for getting them out of the house for fresh air and exercise, and Molly was so conditioned to the pastime she listened out for keywords to signal a stroll was imminent.
Lachlan said she could “practically speak human now”, with Molly recognising many variations of walk-related speech.
“She knows ‘walk’, ‘lake’, ‘walky’, ‘W-word’,” Lachlan said.
“I’ve taken to saying, ‘We’re going to go for a small repetition of steps around a large body of water’ so she doesn’t understand.”
And that might just be the trick to saving her spine any damage from contorting herself into a fur-covered doughnut in her premature over-excitement.
Because once the lead is clipped onto her harness, there’s no circle work, it’s full-steam ahead.
More like a churro.