The Blissful Dog of the Day - Ryder

RYDER Has A Story of Love for Her Mentor, Snow

Today's Blissful Dog of the Day has a very unique story. She is one of those who is able to see/know what needs to be done...and just does it. Keep reading and be ready for the last two questions....

The Blissful Dog: Your dog’s name. Full name, if applicable registered name and any nicknames.

LN: “Ryder” Wayeh SummerIce Sleigh Ride, Baby Girl and RyRy and she is an Alaskan Malamute. 

The Blissful Dog: Tell us the meet-cute story? Were you running errands and happened to pass a rescue group hosting an adoption day? Your eyes met and it was love at first sight? Even if your son moved to Australia and couldn’t take his dog and that’s how you ended up with your buddy, we want to know!

LN:  When we went to her “Grandma Sidney’s” to pick up our new pup, we had trouble deciding between two females.  But then Ryder came over and laid on Daddy’s feet.  She left her littermates to do this. He picked her up, she fell asleep in his shoulder and that was it.  Ryder decided on her own that she was going home with us.

The Blissful Dog: OK, that was goosebump time. One of my fave puppy picking stories. I can see her cuddled up sleeping on her newly selected dad's shoulder.

The Blissful Dog: We are so not age-ist here, so can you share how old your dog is? If you know your dog’s birthday, let us know.

LN: Ryder’s birthdate is October 17, 2005 which makes her 13 years and 3 months young.

Ryder is a Libra and a complex one with her birthday on the 17th.  She is very insightful, with great determination and very strong opinions. She can be a bit stubborn, but expresses her opinions very well. NO hidden agendas here!  She is very comfortable in her own skin and enjoys being Ryder. 

The Blissful Dog: Is Ryder your only dog or pet? If not fill us in on your dog’s housemates. Do they get along? Who is Top Dog?

LN: We also have Ski—who is 2 ¾ old.  Birthdate May 1, 2016.  They get along just fine, but Ryder is Top Dog and she keeps him in his place.                                                                                          

The Blissful Dog: Does Ryder watch dogs on TV? Is there a fave show or channel?

LN: Not usually, but Ryder was fascinated with “Eight Below”.  Maybe because one of the Alaskan Malamutes was a rescue from my breeder’s kennel and she knew it. 

 The Blissful Dog: Of course she knew it!

The Blissful Dog: What is your dog’s favorite splurge for a snack? A bit of steak, a bully stick, stolen cat litter box truffles?

LN: Oranges, especially Clementines, if I can get them.  I would bring them into the house and Ryder would have her nose pressed against the counter waiting for me to give her one.

The Blissful Dog: Keeping her Vitamin C levels up! 

The Blissful Dog: What is the funniest thing your dog ever did? Did they paper the house with an entire 12-pack of Charmin’s finest? Or did they drag out the contents of your clothes hamper to show your dinner party guests? Or maybe you have a Houdini hound? 

LN: I collected snowmen of all sorts—ornaments, figurines, salt and pepper shakers and stuffed/plush snowmen because my dog when we got Ryder was a pup was named Snowman. At Christmas time I would bring out all my snowmen and several of them sat on top of the bookcase. 

This was Ryder’s second Christmas.  So, this one morning, I was in the bathroom getting ready for work and I heard this crash!  I went running out to see her scrambling to get back up into the chair that was in front of the bookcase. I asked her “what did you do”!  What she did was try to climb up the bookcase to get to the stuffed snowmen on the top shelf.  In the process she ended up falling back down and broke one of the shelves. To this day it is a constant reminder since that shelf if propped up with books on the shelf below.

The Blissful Dog: Has your dog ever taken an obedience class? Class clown or class star?

LN: As soon as Ryder came home with us, she was enrolled in Puppy Class. She advance to higher level classes because she competed in Performance Competition. She has achieved many titles in Obedience and Rally Obedience in three different venues/Registries and she has titles in Scent Work and Nosework in two different Registries. She is now retired, but when I working with Ski, she gets to do the same things.

The Blissful Dog: WOW! We are very impressed with her, and your, achievements! She must be one of the few Alaskan Malamutes to achieve so many titles in Obedience, plus Scent and Nosework. Very impressed!

The Blissful Dog: If you could tell your Ryder one thing and know they 100% understood, what would it be?

LN: I can tell Ryder many things and she knows exactly what I am talking about or I can tell her to go find something and she will go right to it.  

The Blissful Dog: Does Ryder have any silly habits or idiosyncrasies? Do they spin in circles before pooping? Do they always (every. single. time.) bark when the microwave beeps? What is that funny little thing your dog does that always makes you smile?

LN: Ryder will stand just outside of our TV room doorway and sort of peek around the corner.  Her Dad and I call this “transmitting” and usually she is telling us “it’s time to eat”—she can tell time, because sometimes I lose track of time but she will remind me.  

The Blissful Dog: Here’s your chance - Share anything you care to about your dog. 

LN: Ryder grew up in the shadow of Snowman and she just followed his lead—he was top dog.  After Snow went to the Bridge, I notice Ryder had trouble understand some things that I thought were very obvious.  Because she always followed Snow’s lead, she now had to think for herself. 

Both of them always got their Kong when I was making a salad for dinner—cut up carrots and celery.  Snow would always bring me his, but I would have to pick up Ryder’s Kong.  Several months after losing Snow (his crate and Kong was still in his crate because Ryder would use his crate so I left it up) I was making a salad again and just talking out loud, I said I wish you would bring me your Kong like Snow did.  She looked at me, turned around, went to his crate and brought me HIS Kong!  Well, if that didn’t bring tears….. 

And of course anytime Ryder got into trouble, I blamed it on her father, since she picked him.  Although she was a pretty good pup, I “kept her bags packed” for the first three years of her life and threatened to send her back—like yeah, right!   When I finally decided to unpack her bags—I'll be darned if she didn’t do something—but too late now—bags unpacked!  When Snow got older, thunder bothered him.  This one night, just at bedtime, the thunder started and Ryder decided she was going to play with Snow.  I said nope—bedtime.  I put her in her crate and then changed my mind. The two of them played quietly, but I didn’t realize until the next time it thundered and Ryder did the same thing and on several more occasions—she played with Snow to take his mind off of the noise and as soon as the storms would pass, they both went to bed.

The Blissful Dog: The Kong story had me sniffing and face fanning and then the thunder story of her just knowing what Snow needed, well, I am an ugly cry mess now. What a loving and wonderful soul Ryder has, she just knew what he needed (and what YOU needed) and quietly did what needed to be done.

You husband did a VERY good job of allowing himself to be picked by Ryder. We are honored to have her as our Blissful Dog of the Day.