Styx

I never though I would be a dutch shepherd person, but here we are! Styx kind of fell into my lap. I was scrolling through facebook one day and I saw a rescue looking for a foster for her. It crossed my mind but I decided against it. While an hour later I have multiple tags on her post, and I see she’s posted in one of our local husky groups. Long story short I saw someone I’m not too fond of offer to take her, and I stepped in and said She’s coming to me. The rescue Kind of rushed me through the process and 2 days later I picked her up… She was A LOT to deal with, she was very vocal, and pushy with my dogs. Needless to say I wasn’t a fan. I wanted her out of my home ASAP.

Fast forward a couple months later, I nursed her through a subpar spay procedure, I had been working on competion style OB with her, had her assessed for IGP and I get her surprised with an application for her. I was CRUSHED, at this point she was “my” dog, I was very specific about what I wanted in a home for her and these people seemed very wonderful… but they just weren’t it. I knew she needed to stay here, this all happened while I was on my way to St. Louis, MO to watch Maris and Arya trial for their IGP 2. So I didn’t want to bother her with what I should do. So I essentially plead my case to the rescue that she needed to stay with me. After a few hours (or our whole drive) we came to the conclusion that she would stay with me. I reached out to her previous rescue to get some more info and They were soooo wonderful to chat and work with, they love seeing her in a working home with someone that is capable of handling her.

Styx’s story of coming into rescue is not the most common. The wonderful people who got her into rescue came across Styx and a younger man who was selling her for “car parts” for a hundred dollars, he admitted to them that he did steal her and she was allegedly “beat with chains and left outside” and that’s why he did it. I do not think this happened to her personally with how she can handle pressure in IGP and PSA. They tried their best with her for a couple months but with a baby on the way they reached out to a rescue partner here in Minnesota. She came up here and stayed with a foster a couple weeks before she came to me.

Fast forward to now 18 months after welcoming her into our home, we can’t imagine life with out her. She fits right in, she loves dog sledding, doing schutzhund, joining us on hikes, going to events and even just cuddling in bed we love her to the moon and back. She is currently training to hopefully do her BH this fall! At the moment she is my favorite dog to work, I love the drive she has, I love how hard she works with me.

I can’t wait to see how far we go together as a team! She has made me fall so in love with the breed, so well see what happens in the future!

Terrible photo of myself But it is the most genuine photo of Styx and I!