Ginger came into rescue on November 24th, 2004. She was found at large and ended up in a shelter around Dodge City, KS. When she arrived I was told that she was in heat, well, she was, sort of. She wasn’t spotting she was leaving a trail of blood. She didn’t leave a little spot where she sat; she left a large pool of blood. Ginger also was very dog aggressive, and it was apparent that she had been taught NOTHING. The first thing I did was contact my local vet, who after seeing her decided that he would have to spay her right away, the day after Thanksgiving, maybe even sooner. Ginger would have to be spayed and then I would have to bring her home and carefully watch her. When the vet did her surgery on Friday, he discovered that she had been bred almost to death, by all of the indicators of age she appeared to be only 3-4 years of age, but from the look of her organs, the tissues appeared to be much older.

Ginger in true Vizsla style handled the surgery better then expected and recovered quickly. The dog aggression disappeared, and as her health improved, we started working on training. We surmised that the dog aggression was due to her horrid health condition, she just felt lousy. Ginger had been taught nothing, she had, by all appearances never been in the house, had never been in a dog house or crate. She was afraid of household noises, afraid to come in or out the door, smelled toys like they were from another planet, had no idea how to play at all and sitting in a lap, well she cowered as if she were waiting for a slap.

Ginger now is house broken, but she doesn’t ask to go out, YOU have to ask her, she still has some trouble with going out and coming in from outside, but with encouragement she will do both. She is crate trained and will even nap in her crate with the door open. She plays ball, will bring the ball back and lay it at your feet. Ginger however still doesn’t quite understand the difference between a toy and a pillow. She is a busy girl and if she gets bored she will chew whatever she can get hold of. She doesn’t counter surf, but she does stand on her hind legs and give the counter a good look, so don’t leave things on the counter. She knows how to get up on laps and also furniture, but she has to be helped, not because she can’t get up on her on power, rather she is afraid of making a mistake and being hit. She is still afraid of some household noises and will go get into her crate.

Ginger is very friendly towards other people, including children, cats and other dogs. Ginger needs a family to help her forget her past, a family that she can trust, love, and will love her back. She will now take food from your hand which she wouldn’t when we first got her here. I could teach her all of the things that she still needs to learn, but that would mean teaching her to trust me completely, but I feel she needs to learn to trust her forever family completely. She has almost 100% recall on her name, the only time she doesn’t is when she is off leash, she does come back just not always as fast as you would like, she tends to stop to smell the grasses on the way back. She rides very well in the car and walks very well on leash, she just needs love, understanding, and I would suggest a training class.

Ginger needs lots of exercise or she gets bored and then she gets destructive, also she will pace if bored, she shows signs of never having very much room for exercise and has no idea how to entertain herself. She has just learned about chew bones and chew toys. She is very smart, but is VERY cautious about new things, so I’ve been going slow with her so she gets used to each new thing before adding another. I believe that in the past she has been beaten for doing many of the things I’m now telling her are okay to do – Polly

Ginger’s Success Story - Ginger was adopted in March by a wonderful couple, Jessica & Dave. She is finally loved the way every dog should be. Here is Ginger’s success story as told by Jessica:

Ginger is a sweet little dog who never knew the good life. We took Ginger in after she was fostered by Polly and traveled by caravan from Kansas to Colorado. Polly gave us a great head start in getting Ginger back to health and happiness. She had some adjusting to do when she came to us but she is well on her way now. My husband calls her Ginger-lee because she does everything gingerly at first. After spending the first month and a half or so taking walks that consisted of basically walking around our house looking in the bushes for any sign of birds or squirrels; we have now graduated to long walks almost anywhere and with a lot bigger birds.

The other day Ginger scared up a pheasant. That really made her day. My greatest hope for Ginger is that we can continue to help her to learn and grow and be our Sweetness - Jessica