If you are a dog lover, or have a friend or two who are dog lovers, then treat yourself, and them, to my book about Ray!
Unlike so many books about dogs, not only is he still alive at the end … but he is still alive at the time of writing this Post!
Ray is now “Mr. Sociable” and will invite attention from most people he meets, but he was not always like that. Whatever happened in his early years made him fearful of people and other dogs, and his way of dealing with it was to lunge and bark to make “the problem” go away. He also displayed startle response (as I found out the hard way), and his first medical examination determined a Stage 2 Heart-Worm condition. He jumped off a viewing platform which overlooked a river around 100ft below us and …..! Let me just say that he was a challenging addition to our home.
All the details, and how they were addressed, are in the book. Ray had to wear a muzzle for quite a while when out but it had little to do with him biting! The reasoning (so logical when someone explains it to you) is in the book!
All profits from book sales will go to the Oakville & Milton Humane Society, being the organization that rescued him, and put much time and effort into making him a potential adoption candidate.
There are many book reviews on amazon.com, and the book is available from any on-line book retailers in eBook, paperback and hard cover formats.
So … If you are a dog lover, or have a friend or two who are dog lovers, then treat yourself, and them, to my book about Ray!
Smiles for a dog who chose to risk adopting a human when some had been let him down so badly – and for the human who realize he was getting more than he ever expected – and both are so grateful for the other. Sometimes creatures find themselves right where they should be and with those destined.
Great story
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Thank you. It was (still is) a life changing set of circumstances. 🙂
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A feel good book if there ever was one. 😍
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Thank you Monika. I still don’t totally understand how Ray did it … but he was the total reason, and motivation, for the book. 🙂
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The joint effort on everyone’s part created a best seller and a best dog!
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🙂
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He may have been quite the challenge, but I know you don’t regret the decision of adopting him for even one minute. How could you not adopt him, after all, he chose you! He let you know with his nose. 🙂
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Yes he certainly did but, just like having children, once you take on that kind of responsibility, it would be pretty irresponsible to walk away from it. As for regrets … yes, just one. I should have had a dog in my life much earlier! 🙂
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Very true about the responsibility part!
Awh on your one regret! I was fortunate to have dogs in my life since I was very little. There was one period in my life of not having a dog and thats when I shared an apartment with Sherry. Dogs weren’t allowed, so I bought a parakeet. 🙂
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Actually, I do have a dog in my distant past … a neighbour’s white female German Shepherd named Sabre that decided to bite the top of my left leg! It was not an endearing experience.
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Thsts right, you shared that in the book. I can imagine that wasn’t pleasant! Jason can sympathize. He was bit when he was 5 years old by a neighbor’s dog. Fortunately for you and him, it didn’t keep either of you from loving dogs.
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It did for me. I had no time for dogs for over 50 years, and then I started to meet a few friendly ones … and then Ray came along! 🙂
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Oops, yes I guess it did, and I can understand why, but at least it didn’t keep you from dogs forever! Ray said, “I gotta show this man how special dogs are”,and he worked his charm. 🙂
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🙂
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Hi Colin, I just bought your book for Kindle now. I like real books, but I will soon have my next move and I have more than enough to move with.
I hope to be able to learn new and get some ideas for my Odin too, as they look very alike of races.
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Ray was assessed as probably Shepherd/Lab mix. We had his DNA checked and his primary breed is Shepherd, with a secondary breed of Rottweiler, and nothing else! We are guessing that he was bred for a purpose which didn’t quite work out as expected, so they abandoned him. As for ideas for Odin? Ray had so many issues for which we involved trainers and a canine psychologist. They were all well worth the expense given the insights that were given to us, and much of that is in the book. It also made me realize that, contrary to what so many people seem to think, training a dog is absolutely not intuitive.
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Odin’s mother is pure breed German Shepherd and the father, the people told me, was a Labrador. I have never seen a black Labrador with white feet and some white other places too, which I told them. I got Odin as only 6 weeks old, as they said, the mother didn’t have more interesting in the puppies that time. I sat and asked the dogs, if they agreed, that I could choose one of their puppies and I was allowed without problems.
I think, they might have been breed for other things, but I don’t know. Odin looks more like a mix of German Shepherd and Rottweiler. Tall as his father, the mother was little, and big of front body. The behind not so much, which I found out about two years ago why. He has Dysplasia and receive supplements and medications for that daily together with good healthy food. He will be 7 years old this month and marked of his illness.
I have had and do still have challenges with his training by many reasons.
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I have no doubt he is well worth the trouble and time to take care of him. Does he have the “dropped” hips that breeders seem to encourage in GSDs?
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Yes, I think so with the hips. I have had several GSD in my life and they are much more easy to raise and do training with.
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Adopted dogs can be wonderful indeed.
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There are so many benefits, not the least of which is that when you adopt a dog, you free up a space at the shelter for another rescue. In our case we also received incredible support and guidance from the general staff and the dog trainers at the shelter. Ray was my first dog … so I really appreciated their involvement.
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Good karma too.
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🙂
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Egad. Well at least you can say that Ray is not afraid of heights. Perhaps you should equip him with a parachute.
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Wouldn’t have helped him TG as there were tree tops to navigate through!
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