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Animal Success Stories
We would love to highlight successful, happy adoptions on our website. If you have adopted a dog from SSR and would like to share your story and some pictures, please email the Webmaster at webmaster@shenandoahrescue.org. Please visit our Success Stories page to read all of our stories!
 Why wait , when you know you know right?......
That’s the case with Barron's adoption story. Meet Wendy and her family. Wendy found Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue through her kids hockey program. One of the other hockey moms is a foster for SSR and had brought her foster dog to the hockey rink and Wendy fell in love with the idea of helping to save these amazing dogs.
Wendy began her research and after seeing the great dogs Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue is helping and the support system that SSR has in place she decided she wanted to do what she could in making a difference for these beautiful dogs. Wendy’s husband works around Malinois working dogs and they had always talked about how rewarding it would be to have a high drive dog so when she came across Barron and the emergency call for a foster....She KNEW she had to step in!
Now, Barron’s adoption story is very uncommon and unique. Fosters are usually not permitted to adopt the dogs they are fostering for many different reasons. The idea of committing to be a foster is to help the rescue dogs find their forever homes. Of course it would be easy to fall in the love with your foster dog but fosters understand they are there to help the dog transition to the forever home while caring for their immediate needs.
In Barron’s case he had been with the rescue for a while and there was zero interest from approved adopters. Wendy was able to adopt Barron and she pledged to continue to foster other rescue dogs. Wendy fulfilled that pledge and since adopting Barron she has helped two rescues find their forever homes. Way to go Wendy!
As with any new endeavors there are usually some challenges to be expected. When Wendy was asked to explain some of the challenges since bringing Barron home she explained some of the obstacles and the positive outcomes:
1. Crate training, major fail! They think a crate might have been used as a punishment for him in the past and he was very upset if put in the crate (as in made himself bloody trying to get out). They now put him in the laundry room with TWO gates (hahaha mom, you’ve seen how high I jump, right?!) and Barron is doing well with this.
2. High drive dog- if Barron isn’t physically exercised well he will find something to do and it’s usually not good! (Pictured in the beginning of the story)
3. Barron was heartworm positive coming from Texas. Wendy explained that it was hard for her and her husband to put him through the treatment but they knew it had to be done. They could tell Barron trusted them and came to them for comfort when he didn’t feel well. When Wendy was asked to explain the positives that Barron has brought to her home she stated “Can I just say love 5 times? This guy loves us all but he is seriously attached to my husband. My husband likes dogs, but Barron, He LOVES Barron. Those two are inseparable. Like seriously, mommy who? Barron still had some more surprises for his new family! The previous foster had not discovered any of Barron’s training that he already knew. The first night home, Wendy told him to lay down in German and down he went! Barron knew German! With some further exploration they also figured out he was trained in protection and have enjoyed doing bite work with him. They use a bite sleeve, give the correct command, and watch out....Incoming fur missile!!!! P.S. Wendy’s family decided they love the breed so much they added a five month old malinois puppy from Shenandoah Shepherd Rescue to. The more the merrier right!
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