Hello Ladies!!
I can’t believe it has been a month already. Some days it seems like she has been here forever and others it seems like yesterday we got her! Ryder has been doing amazingly! I have to say we have all fallen head over heels for her. She is a great dog, Very smart, polite and learning our house rules very well. We have had a personal dog trainer come to the house twice so far and she is very impressed with her. It is hard to keep up on the training with the kids, life and running the photography business, but we are doing it and she is thriving. We have a travel crate for the car for her and she runs around with me all day and seems to love being my companion. She is not yet crate trained in the house but we are slowly transitioning to that.
She did have one mishap last Sat the 2/4, she ran away on us for 5 hours. We were in NYC working and had a sitter over watching her and the boys. She is not too sure about this sitter yet, he is 13 dark haired with long bangs into his face, for some reason, she just doesn’t like him. My oldest son Alex was coming in from playing outside and she pushed her way out the door past him and was gone. Would not let all the people I sent to get her anywhere near her and she continued to run around our neighborhood for 5 hours. We came home a few hours in and drove and walked around for 2 hours in the dark looking for her and calling for her. Finally Sean was frozen and walked home. No sooner did he come in the door than he heard the kitchen door knob. He looked out and there she was. She came in tail between her legs and literally scooted on her bottom 5 feet across the floor to Sean. We had been told by the trainer not to yell at her but to pet her and praise her for coming home. Needless to say to us it was a miracle. The trainer was scheduled for the following day and we covered door training with her the entire session. She has since been very good about the door, but we will be crating her when we are not home in the future.
She has been very good about playing and Shredding her own toys vs anything else in the house. She is a shredder, and tore up a rope bone in a day. The poor stuffing free squirrel never had a chance. J
I have included a few photos for you to enjoy. I’ve told her on numerous occasions that if she loves us she needs to stick around. She seems to have really found her place. Thank you for all that you do!
The Sohl Family
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Hello Forever home of Ryder,
Well you succeeded in making me bawl my eyes out from pure happiness over how well Ryder adjusted to her forever home. She was such a sweet girl from the moment I got her. I only know that she was picked up as a stray and dumped at our high kill shelter. Mary Ellen Tidwell recognized her for a wonderful dog to place with a loving family and saved her in time and brought her to me (one of her foster homes). I am terrible at just free feeding my babies because so many, including Ryder are underweight and have had terrible nutrition when we get them. So every evening, I would just fill up their big pan and they ate on it as needed through out the day. It was usually empty by the next evening. She always got Science Diet Adult and looked wonderful by the time she left. She did get a final dose of Heartgard on Jan 7th, the day she left but since I am still healing from my surgery, I am positive my son forgot to write it on her medical sheet. She will not need another dose until Feb. 7th.
I laughed when you were writing about how she didn't want to go back outside. I don't blame her. She has been outside in the cold, the hot, the snow and the rain and from the looks of her snoozing on her warm comfy bed, I wouldn't ever go outside again :)
It because of people like you, taking that leap of faith to adopt a dog without having met them first, that we can continue to save wonderful dogs from certain death down in the south. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart that you saved Ryder. You not only saved Ryder, but you have saved another dog who will be taking her place in my kennel.
The feedback we receive really keeps all of the volunteers who make up the rescue groups you came in contact with have the strength to keep on doing what we do. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Word of mouth is the best thing you can do, let people know about your good experience and encourage them to give a rescue dog a chance.
Please send me pics and updates anytime you want. I love them and save them to go back and read when things get tough on us down here.
Give Ryder a kiss and hug from me,
Love Always,
Robin Solitro
