A Dude’s Journey
In the animal rescue world, each dog has a unique story. This is The Dude’s story.
In February 2021, I was hired to train The Dude, a 2-year-old shepherd/rottweiler/hound mix. The new owners, Nick and his partner, had two cats and needed The Dude to co-exist with them. In addition, The Dude was very reactive to other dogs, would become fearful in certain situations when meeting new people, and was uncomfortable when his owners would reach with their hands above his head. At the initial training session it was clear that one of the first things I had to do when working with The Dude was to make sure he was comfortable with new people and had good house manners.
Although The Dude had some nervous energy, we quickly became good friends. I took a strong liking to The Dude. According to his adopters, The Dude was in a shelter in Tennessee for over 6 months and was close to being euthanized. His adopters were enthusiastic about training and providing him with a stable home. At the end of our training program, The Dude made great strides in being comfortable with people, allowing his owners to handle him in almost all situations, and walking nicely on a leash. The Dude's relationship with the cats was always a struggle, especially given the small home they were sharing. However, everyone appeared to be managing The Dude's relationship with the cats as best as possible. Because I felt a kinship with The Dude, I kept in touch with Nick, occasionally checking in to see how The Dude was doing.
Ten months later, The Dude’s owner contacted me asking for help. Nick knew I founded Sedona Shepherd and hoped we could help find The Dude a new home. Nick and his partner were breaking up, and since The Dude could not safely live with the cats, he couldn’t stay with Nick's ex. Nick had to move out of state to live with his brother and couldn’t bring The Dude. The Dude's original rescue group was no longer in business. No other rescue group was willing to take The Dude into their program, and we were The Dude's only hope.
The Dude had two significant impediments to finding a suitable rescue group. The first was how full every rescue group was in the winter of 2021. Secondly, being a 3-year-old mixed breed, there are few rescue groups that focus on such a mixed breed dog. At the time, Sedona did not have room to have The Dude surrendered to us. Still, we offered to list The Dude on our website and assist Nick in screening potential adopters.
Nick stayed in New Jersey for an additional 3 months until The Dude was safely adopted. Eventually, The Dude was adopted in February 2022. Nick passed along our name to the new adopter, just in case.
Nick kept in touch with The Dude’s new owner and updated us on how the adoption was progressing. Sadly, from the reports Nick was receiving, The Dude was unhappy with his new owner, who by April was having The Dude wear a muzzle almost all day. We reached out to The Dude’s new owner to provide training advice. One week later, we received a call from New York Animal Care and Control (NYACC) informing us that The Dude was surrendered to the shelter. Before we could return a phone call to the NYACC, The Dude was reclaimed by the owner. Before we could arrange to provide in-home training advice, we received a second call from NYACC saying The Dude was yet again surrendered. The Dude was in serious trouble.
According to the report from NYACC, The Dude was surrendered to the shelter for a bite to the owner. Given that The Dude now had a bite history on him, combined with the mixture of his breeding, The Dude's options were extremely bleak. He would be euthanized if a rescue group did not take The Dude in. Although The Dude’s story and circumstances were outside our normal parameters, I could not leave him to that fate. The reports we received did not seem to match up with the dog I knew. Whatever the case, The Dude’s adopter clearly, at a minimum, mishandled The Dude. With Nick, the original owner on the west coast, Sedona Shepherd was The Dude’s last hope.
We agreed to meet The Dude and take him directly into our program. If he were indeed a danger to humans, we would at least give him a respite with us before choosing a humane solution. I didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at the shelter. The staff seemed reluctant to take him out of his run and wanted us to go in and get him. Since it had been a while since I met him personally, I felt it was safer for the staff to bring him to us. With all the upcoming drama, The Dude came out with a wiggly butt, all smiles, happy to see me, acting like life was just a sunny day. He let me clip him on a leash, and off we went for a good walk around the east side of Manhattan to burn off some energy and a potty break.
Once we got our car out of the parking lot, The Dude hopped right into the back of the 4 Runner and chilled the whole way to one of our boarding facilities. We reached out to Nick to update him on The Dude, and he was, as expected, extremely thankful.
The Dude - “I’m outta there!”
After a few weeks, The Dude settled into a nice routine. The Dude’s personality had significantly changed since we met him for training. On the positive side, The Dude was much more engaging, happy-go-lucky, and less dog reactive. Although he couldn’t be trusted to be in an enclosed environment with another dog, he could go for pack walks with most of the dogs in our program. On the negative side, The Dude had a few quirks that could trigger a quick snap. He absolutely hated towels of any kind, would understandably not tolerate a muzzle, and was not thrilled with being hovered over. Nonetheless, he was one of the happiest dogs in our program.
As Sedona Shepherd is predominantly focused on German Shepherds, we don’t get a lot of inquiries for Rottweiler/Shepherd/Other mixes like The Dude. Despite getting help with cross-posting from Best Friends Adoption Center, we had little interest. The few applications on The Dude either adopted a dog elsewhere or never followed through. During The Dude’s stay, we continued to keep in touch with Nick, who was hoping there would be a way to reunite the two. Nick continued looking for an affordable apartment complex allowing a large breed dog like The Dude.
Over the months with Sedona, The Dude was a fan favorite. He would go on day trips, long hikes, play in a yard, and just be “A Dude.” We had some interest in him, but nothing ever materialized. In the meantime, Nick had found an apartment unit that would allow a dog like The Dude. We were officially halfway to getting The Dude reunited. Nick was now living in Portland, and our challenge was finding transportation from New Jersey to Oregon.
We contacted several of our rescue friends, and Jeannie from Shepherds Hope put us in touch with Sean Dumas, a dog transporter. Sean’s primary route was starting from his home in central Wisconsin, driving out to northern California on the West Coast, and heading back east to various rescue groups in the Mid-Atlantic States. After discussions with Sean, our plan was for one of our volunteers to drive The Dude to Sean’s home in Wisconsin. After a night at the house, The Dude and Sean would head out and make the side trip to Portland. The Dude would be back home and Sean would be on his way to pick up the dogs waiting for rescue in California. Sounded simple on paper.
Well, at least getting The Dude’s health certificate was easy.
T
he trip with The Dude to Wisconsin would take 12 to 14 hours, one-way. Securing transportation was difficult; however, once we were confident we could get The Dude to Wisconsin, we got a lucky break. Sean was already on his way to California and, at the tail end of his run, would be arriving in Westminster, Maryland, on a Friday morning. Obviously, a much shorter trip for us, and we agreed to meet in Westminster, drop off The Dude, and then Sean would take The Dude on the rest of his run, bring The Dude home to Wisconsin, and after a little R&R, head out to Portland.
Nothing in rescue transportation is straightforward, and mid-drive, the plans changed. Maryland's leg was canceled, and Sean was instead heading down to Tennessee and then up to Animal Care Sanctuary in Milan, PA. Lucky for us, Milan was even closer than Maryland. We agreed to meet up early Saturday morning. It was road trip time for The Dude. We needed to be on time, and given the trip would be about 3.5 hours, we decided to drive out the night before. The Dude was happy about the ride and looked forward to hanging out in the hotel and watching late-night TV.
As the saying goes, “No Plan Survives Contact with Reality,” and we were undoubtedly learning that truth. No sooner were we about to check into our hotel than we got a call from Sean saying his van broke down on the way up from Tennessee. He had reached out to a friend to pick him up with her transport van and hoped to arrive the next day. There wasn’t much we could do other than check-in for the night. We were skeptical that Sean would be able to make such a quick turnaround. In the morning, after discussions, we agreed that the most likely course of events would be a Sunday morning pickup.
Unfortunately, on our phone's TripAdvisor app, the "Things to Do in Milan, PA” list was pretty small. We knew it was unlikely that Sean would make it back to Milan Saturday, and he also had dogs to drop off at Animal Care Sanctuary. Sean let us know he was able to procure his friend’s van and was back on the road early Saturday. After reviewing different meeting locations, Sean agreed to meet us at a new site allowing us to save about an hour round trip. In the meantime, we headed back to New Jersey Saturday morning. Keeping our fingers and paws crossed, we once again headed out to meet Sean, this time on a Sunday morning.
On this Sunday, with light rain falling, Sean pulled up, and The Dude was soon to be more than halfway home. Holding back tears, we watched The Dude hop into the crate in the van and prepare for his trip home with Sean, with a first stop in Wisconsin.
The Dude took the visit to Wisconsin in stride and enjoyed hanging out at Sean’s home for a few days. By Wednesday, it was time to head out to Portland. This time the trip went smoothly. The drive was a straight shot to Portland with no needed stops except for food, potty breaks, and rest. A day and a half after setting out from Wisconsin, a week after leaving New Jersey, and seven months after leaving Nick, The Dude was reunited.
Today, The Dude is living his best life, the life destiny had always meant for him. The Dude is back with Nick, enjoying hiking in the great Northwest, tolerating the towels when getting dried off from the rain, and snuggling up with his best friend.
