Meet the McSquares

When Matthew and I tell people the name of our blog, we frequently get quizzical stares.

We get it. The name is… unusual… and difficult to spell out loud when you’re giving out your email address.

Some readers have asked where the name came from, so here’s the full scoop.

McSquare? What’s that name about?

I’m Irene McHugh, full-time dog mom and blogger behind this site. My husband is Matthew McVay.

Back in the spring of 2016 before we got married, we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first Australian Labradoodle puppy.

I was teaching middle school English and social studies.

One of my 7th grade social studies classes had several accelerated math and gifted students.

You know how teachers say they don’t have favorites? That’s kind of a lie. We totally have favorites and this class was one of my all-time favorites.

So how do these students play into the name McSquare?

During one class with these mostly engrossed learners, a student asked a decidedly middle school question. Out of nowhere, he pondered, “Are you and Mr. McVay ever going to get married?”

A few gasps shot across the room.

Another student exclaimed, “You don’t ask people that question!” which was met by several nodding heads.

I thought diffusing the situation with humor would be best, so I joked that if Mr. McVay and I got married, our hyphenated last name would be a mouthful: McHugh-McVay or McVay-McHugh. Then somewhere my nerdy brain kicked in and I added, “Maybe we should change our last names to McSquare.”

That line got several laughs, and learning returned to normal.

I forgot about my solution until weeks later.

I was eating lunch in my classroom with the usual eclectic group of students who preferred a quiet environment for their lunch. One of the students asked me what names Mr. McVay and I were considering for our puppy.

I shared with them how I nixed the name “Nikon” that Mr. McVay was strongly lobbying for, and that we thought we had compromised with the name Bernie.

Another student declared, “Bernie McSquare! That works,” and all the kids wholeheartedly agreed. And thus, Bernie became Bernie McSquare.

Why Doodles?

When Matthew and I were living in San Francisco, one of our neighbors adopted an apricot Goldendoodle named Whiskey. Whiskey is Instagram famous with lots of followers and beautiful posts, but we didn’t know that at the time.

We just knew that the kind younger couple down the hall had this adorable teddy bear dog who was the softest and friendliest little guy.

When they originally brought him home, they posted an introduction note to every neighbor’s door letting us know that they would be crate training him. Concerned that he might get loud, they shared their contact information. If his barking became a nuisance, they asked people to call them, so they could come home.

Sometimes we could hear Whiskey barking, but we never called or complained. The barking was short-lived, but our Doodle obsession was not.

Matthew had been wanting a puppy for years. From time-to-time, he’d ask me if I wanted a sweet Lab, and my response was always, “They shed.”

I had two cats years ago, so I knew all about shedding. And I knew who would be doing the vacuuming.

Matthew would counter with, “What about a Golden Retriever?” and I was like, “They’re even worse!”

I was not a dog person.

But Whiskey changed me.

We’d run into Whiskey in the elevator or in the hall, and he brightened our day, every time! It wasn’t long before we started pretending that Whiskey was a regular visitor enjoying pup pizza and movie night with us.

Matthew saw an opportunity.

He did a little research about Goldendoodles and learned that most are either no shed or low-shed. He slipped that fun fact into a discussion, which did pique my interest.

After all, Whiskey was such a love bug!

When we moved back to Tucson, we researched different types of Doodles. The various sizes. The different coats. And of course, I found several breeders whose social media I started stalking for cute puppy pictures and videos.

We visited Crawford Doodles in the Phoenix area and met their dogs and a litter of their Australian Labradoodle puppies. I was hooked. We put a deposit down and several months later in the summer of 2016 we brought Bernie McSquare home.

But your blog started in the summer of 2017?

Yes. During that first year with Bernie McSquare, Matthew and I were both learning a lot about dogs.

I read a few dog health and training books, and watched some of Zak George’s training videos. We attended an 8-week puppy obedience class and a tricks class. Our trainer and groomer shared various resources with us. And Bernie was diagnosed with atypical Addison’s Disease, so we started learning how to manage his stress levels.

One idea for helping Bernie live a more stress-free life was getting another dog, a playmate. We decided that we wanted him to have a sister from the same parents, so in the summer of 2017, we brought Lizzie McSquare home.

I have another blog that focuses on minimalism and digital organization, but by the summer of 2017, my passion for writing about those topics had waned.

And I was definitely into our Doodles. We’d go for walks and people would ask, “What kind of dog is that?” and I’d enthusiastically answer every one of their questions.

That’s when I realized that I should write about training our dogs to be therapy dogs instead.

While I create most of the content on this site, Matthew is my visual consultant. He takes some photos of the pups himself, post-processes all of our photos, and provides valuable input on typography and design. Plus he’s my go-to idea guy.

We didn’t spend much time thinking about our blog name. Even though you’re supposed to choose a blog name that includes a key word for your niche, we both knew our site would be McSquare Doodles.

If you want to learn more about our pack, please visit our About the Pack page.