Kheldar
I got Kheldar less deliberately than Ruka. I wanted another dog to keep Ruka company while I was at work. We ended up stopping by a pet shop on whim. I did not intend on getting a dog, but I seen a goldendoodle and I was already leaning towards that breed. Poor guy already had his price dropped 3 times. The shop had a play/meet area so I figured I would play with him a little. Still not seriously considering buying him. When they brought him out, he exploded with excitement. He ran to a toy, picked it up, dropped it ran to the couch, jumped on it, missed, ran to another toy. It's clear the poor boy was sitting in that cage for a long while. My heart broke. I got him that same day, and never went back into that pet store again. Like seriously, we walked him out of the store on a leash, and he was afraid of the grass. I had to carry him to the car. He didn't take any time to warm up. His disposition is skittish but friendly. He and Ruka hit it off without issue.
My mother ultimately named him. I wanted to go with Sora from Kingdom Hearts as it seems to fit his personality. He's bright, excitable, and prone to running around. Mom kept calling him Kheldar and that name won out though. The name comes from a character in David Edding's Garion books. The character is smooth, a spy, an assassin who slinks in the dark. An all around rogue and all around mismatch for Kheldar the dog's personality.
Kheldar is eager to please, but very excitable. The excitement leads to distractions, which leads to harder training. He's fairly smart, don't get me wrong, but that does not come across when he is excited. He isn't that much hard to train than Ruka likely as she helps out indirectly. She follows a command, and it clicks pretty quickly for Kheldar afterwards.
He was more destructive as a puppy though. He chilled out a bit as he got older, but as a puppy he wanted non-stop enrichment, and would chew on things when bored. Things like, rope, sticks, fiber optic cables (oof), shoes and headsets. He even chewed on a live wire once! The only damage he suffered was some surface level tooth damage. The vet said the damage was minor and the tooth never got worse, doesn't cause him pain or anything. Lucky dog. He did stop chewing on wires after that though.
Kheldar is also fairly easy to keep exercised. He seems to need more of it than Ruka, but he also loves fetch. He loves it so much, we are moving towards rubber balls as the felt tennis balls are wearing at his teeth. He will go a half hour straight of just running back and forth playing fetch. I'm not sure how he doesn't notice, but he will only stop playing once he gets to the point of feeling physically ill. We usually have to stop the game for his own sake.
