Sapphire Is Adopted!
Ian and Riikka applied to the rescue to adopt a young dog to play with their 9 year old dog, Kaya, who was also adopted from California GSP Rescue. Ian and Riikka have the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to have a young GSP in the house and it isn't always strawberries and pie. Rhona (Sapphire) took some real work in order to create a successful household. Here's what they had to say….
”We are all doing great. Rhona is half way through her off leash training program and she is excelling in it as she does in everything that she does.
She is being absolutely the best girl and has lots of friends around home and at dog park. Kaya (our GSP/lab mix) and Rhona have bonded really well and loving the life of luxury.
With Rhona we decided to seek professional dog training help after having her for 2 weeks.
We had big problems with leash walking and pretty much everything from simple commands to be able to handle her outside of the house. This does not mean that she was bad! ABSOLUTELY NOT!
This was our problem for not able to speak the same language with her. Her hunting instinct is very strong which means that we really needed to keep her mind challenged more than ‘“The normal amount”.
We got amazing help from K9 Inception / Brandon who was Master Dog Trainer in US Military. He taught us how to talk her language and read Rhona’s body language, and the more we learned to understand Rhona, the more our lives became simple and enjoyable.
We can not wait to take her to the beach and canyons soon and not be worried that she will not come back after she has seen a bird!! Tee hee
She definitely needs to have a very strong and steady daily routine. We are very lucky to have Kaya who is very calm, patient and well trained by us (we have never needed a dog trainer in our lives before). As when Rhona came to us she really needed our 100% attention, and as we did not need to worry about Kaya in/ out of the house, it was very easy to give Rhona all the attention that she needed.
She definitely needs the play time with an equal energy level friend and off leash hunting time in a large fenced dog park. We do on leash training with her every morning that keeps her mind occupied and she loves her on leash running as well just for the love of running.
Daily she needs 50% mental exercise an 50% physical exercise.
A friend said to me about 2 months ago that Rhona is a bit like ADHD kid with extra energy problem! I totally understood what she meant!
Rhona is the smartest, kind, playful, beautiful cuddle bunny we could have ever wished to have in our family.
We are so grateful for you all for giving us the joy and love that Rhona (Sapphire) gives us everyday.
Thank you,
Ian, Riikka, Kaya and Rhona Roo”
