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Rydag The Wolfdog- plus corny life lessons.

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Rydag The Wolfdog- plus corny life lessons. Empty Rydag The Wolfdog- plus corny life lessons.

Post by Lycrisa Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:59 am

I figured I might post this since there was interest.(in the dog not the story)

I don't want to sound like a complainer so I'll try to keep the back ground short but accurate.
I bred show finches from the time I was 8. I had birds around me since birth. I was good at what I did. However my grandmother(the treasurer) got ill and the bird club members held it against her. I was targeted too because I was related and because I was a board member. I called people out if they didn't act right(bullying others) and I guess honesty wasn't something they liked from someone younger than them. I trusted someone I shouldn't have. I took in a group of birds she said she no longer wanted. Turned out she knew they were sick. She knew that what they had. She knew it was almost always fatal. And finally she knew that my quarantine practices were weaker since I had been taking in way too many rescues than I should have. I lost my entire flock. All 24 of my cockatiels. Several endangered species that I had worked very hard to breed. Prize winning birds, many of which cost a fortune and one pretty little quaker parrot that I loved dearly. Every last bird...gone. I was devastated. I had recently lost my cat when someone shot her. I lost a lot that year. I had a baby, and lost a bunch of my friends. So I decided I would never have another bird again. I didn't want to replace my cat. I decided to get a dog. I have never had my own dog and started researching and researching and researching. I really wanted a wolf dog. They had what I was looking for in a companion animal.
I went to obedience classes, I did interviews with vets I talked with various owners.
I searched through hundreds of pictures.
At that time my son developed type one diabetes..
So I waited until things were stable enough to think about it again. A year later.
I gave up on the idea again because the most local breeder was in Iowa.
I decided to settle on a husky and poured over thousands of pictures.
Then one pup in particular...I looked at his picture and it was like being shot in the heart.
I don't know how else to describe it. It was like that pup was some lost part of my soul that I didn't know was lost until I had found it again.
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Then I looked at the website closer. Turns out the pup I fell in love with was a wolf dog. Like I had originally wanted. He was in Iowa. I decided that if I found him the way I had, after so many pups had not impressed me, I might as well. This was my best friend I was choosing right?
So I messaged the breeder. I flew out and she took me through a tour of the kennels. I met his parents and I played with the little wiggler. I paid a deposit and I left. He was to be sent to me at 8 weeks via airline.

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This is the picture I got right before he was loaded up onto the plane.
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Some from when he came home...
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One year old....
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Now that it's winter, I'm going to take some more. When it snows at least.
He has always looked best in the snow before anyone else touches it.
Talking to his breeder reminded me how much I missed the challenges of breeding. I remembered the little noises they made at night and suddenly I knew why it always seemed so quiet. I remembered my rat Algernon that I had before the birds. I remembered how I had asked for a mouse that Christmas, and was enthralled with the rat anyway. So that night I went out and I got two little red pied mice and poof two years later here I am. 21 years old and I've been a breeder of something longer than I've been in school. I love Rydag because even though he is so hard to handle, he is always happy to see me. And he reminded me of why I started breeding to begin with. The people of that club may have been mean but it was about the animals. I forgot that and what happened was my fault as a result. I have never taken on a project I was unsure of since and I've never broken quarantine either. I love my mice, and because of this dog I can honestly say I know my limits. He's more than a wolfdog to me, he is also my friend.
Except that when we fight..he always wins 0.O;
In the first year I know he chewed through 2,000$ worth of computer cords and cell phones.
( I'm a writer and graphics artist in spare time)
I also want to say that even though the mouse fancy has been hard to get into,
The people I've met through the forums are some of the best. That's no lie either.
I'm deadly serious. For a long time I forgot how being in a club or with people who have the same interests can be fun. Not necessary, not obligatory, not something to endure but fun.
Like real fun, not that sort of pie charts are more fun than graphs. ❤
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Post by mouselover01 Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:35 am

:-)

I know rough times. It happens, you live through it, learn from it, and move on. You wind up coming out a better person Happy

I'm glad you found us. Happy And I hope things keep heading in the right direction for you and your family!

And I'm going to steel your pooch! <3
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Post by Rhasputin Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:42 am

I could imagine that wolf dogs are probably very healthy, since they're not too far removed from the wild. Happy
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Post by Lycrisa Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:07 pm

He is amazingly healthy. He has never had a problem with infections, or parasites.
His coat is so dense fleas can't even reach his skin.

The only problem he has had is the typical big dog hip problems.
A quick tightening of the ligaments and a hip brace for a week cured that. He healed wonderfully.
It turned out that the hip problems run in his mom's line.
Mylee was the breeder's newest female and Rydag was out of her first litter.
When she heard about the surgery she offered to take him back and give me a "non-defect"
pup and pay for the vet bill. Of course by then I fell in love, and I had already saved up vet funds so it was okay.

The only thing I can relate him to is one of those house mouse/ fancy mouse hybrids.
He is more shy, less eager to please and I've know people who hit a wolfdog as punishment and then get mauled. I never hit my animals so it's never been a issue for me. He's hard to train but he's also very driven.
I actually use him as a draft animal. We have a special little cart he gets hitched to with a dog harness. It's kind of like a pony cart. Except we lead him with sound commands and not leads.

Should have seen the faces of the neighbors the first time we took him out like that.

I was 13 when I lost all my birds. Previously to that I had never experienced death. It was quite a shock. I think that's why it made such a difference in my life when I found that dog.
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Post by doganddisc Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:29 pm

Wow, quite a story! What is like having a wolfdog? I've heard some aren't as dog-like as we tend to be accustomed to after having our domesticated companions for so long.

Do you run into any problems with having a wolfdog and a child in the same house?
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Post by thistlebrook Wed Feb 22, 2012 6:14 pm

Lycrisa wrote:
The only problem he has had is the typical big dog hip problems.
A quick tightening of the ligaments and a hip brace for a week cured that. He healed wonderfully.
It turned out that the hip problems run in his mom's line.
Mylee was the breeder's newest female and Rydag was out of her first litter.
When she heard about the surgery she offered to take him back and give me a "non-defect"
pup and pay for the vet bill. Of course by then I fell in love, and I had already saved up vet funds so it was okay.

Pretty boy! Happy There's no such thing as "typical" big dog hip problems. Hopefully the breeder does or is going to start getting her animals health tested before breeding. This could save her future puppy buyers money and heartache in the end, as well as save a lot of pups from discomfort. Also, I'm curious as to what "a quick tightening of the ligaments" means. I've worked at numerous vet clinics in the past and can't think of what that could possibly be.
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Post by Rhasputin Wed Feb 22, 2012 6:56 pm

I'm very glad that Rydag survived the fire recently. The story of the neighbors saving him gave me chills.
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