Ex-Boyfriend Wins Tucker the Goldendoodle in Sealed Bid Auction

A precedent-setting property partition case involving a goldendoodle named Tucker has ended with a private auction between an estranged couple ordered by Delaware’s premier business court, with the ex-boyfriend being the highest bidder.

The amount paid for the dog—whose breed is a mix between a poodle and a golden retriever—wasn’t disclosed in court documents. The terms of the auction required single blind bids from the couple who got the dog while they were dating and have been fighting over his ownership for years. Tucker went home with the highest bidder, while the money went to the party relinquishing their claim to the dog.

An attorney for Karen Callahan, who petitioned the Delaware Chancery Court for partition of Tucker, said she had accepted her loss in the auction and didn’t plan to file any motions to stay the outcome. She “is disappointed that she was not the successful bidder and continues to miss Tucker,” William Larson of Manning Gross & Massenburg LLP said in an email late Thursday. “However, she is pleased that she helped set precedent that will help others in the future resolve dog ownership issues in an orderly fashion that recognizes the rights of both owners, not just the one in possession of the dog.”

Callahan and Joseph Nelson had been unable to agree to joint ownership in litigation that spanned four state courts. As they never married, they couldn’t look to a 2023 Delaware law allowing a family court judge dividing marital property to consider a companion animal’s “well-being” in deciding ownership.

Nelson had kept Tucker after the couple split in 2022. A justice of the peace court initially determined Callahan was the rightful owner, but two other courts found the couple shared joint ownership.

Vice Chancellor Bonnie W. David finalized the auction results earlier this week. In a novel ruling, she applied a “partition” remedy that didn’t involve physically splitting the dog nor requiring Nelson and Callahan to share time with Tucker. The “well-being” factors available for the Delaware Family Court just couldn’t “provide a basis to deviate from the presumption of an auction” in Tucker’s case, David said in a Nov. 14 opinion.

The bids were “not expected to be moored to an objectively measurable ‘true’ monetary value or fair market value of Tucker,” according to a Jan. 6 brief filed by Seth Thompson of Parkowski, Guerke & Swayze PA, the neutral attorney appointed by David to oversee the auction.

Live-bidding auction formats that might work for items whose market value was expected to grow didn’t really apply to Tucker’s case, he said. The dog’s situation might be compared to artwork that may hold a subjective, private value at auction—but those items also could be resold, which isn’t an outcome expected for Tucker.

“Tucker is not an ongoing, theoretically perpetual enterprise where the winning bidder needs a slight discount to ensure the purchase makes fiscal sense and yields a surplus,” he said.

The Chancery Court is Delaware’s venue for civil cases where damages don’t resolve a conflict. While best known for effectively writing the rules for corporate America, it also steps in when asked to resolve conflicts over business entities caught up in divorce proceedings. In another example, its chief judge considered a horse owner’s demand to retrieve his Clydesdale’s remains from a landfill.

Nelson is represented by Connolly Gallagher LLP.

The case is Callahan v. Nelson, Del. Ch., No. 2024-1099, 2/9/26.