Ruka
I got Ruka from a Bernedoodle breeder directly. She is the first dog I've ever personally had. When I decided to get a dog, I was originally going for a Bernese Mountain Dog as I like their aesthetic and personality. They seem like great dogs, but I can't get over their short lifespan. It feels like I'd be setting myself up for too much self harm. Now that I have Ruka, she has already lived past the average life expectancy of a BMD, so I think I made the right choice. Regardless I see time marching by with trepidation.
I searched for a lot of god names and such related to dogs or wolves to come up with Ruka's name. Something like a mythological wolf-god of death or something. I didn't really find any and I think I went to latin words and pulled up lupus meaning wolf, which sounds more like Luka when pronounced. I took that and softened it to Ruka.
Personality-wise she is smart and stubborn, but easy to please with mild enrichment. She doesn't trust strangers, and I should have done a better job introducing her to more people as a puppy. She is not actively aggressive, but takes offense to strangers touching her without consent. With friends and family though, she is super forgiving.
One moment I found interesting, is I decided to train her on making a choice. The idea being I could hold up 2 treats, and she would high-five the one she wants. It only took one attempt to teach her. She seen them both, but pawed at one casually assuming I wanted a high-five. So I gave her the one she touched and put the other away. Her whole body was stiff. She just sat there and stared looking a bit hurt. I told her she could only have one. I don't think she understood the words, but she turned, took a step, and then froze. Maybe it's to personifying, but I swear the gears were whirring in her head. She seemed to come to a conclusion, then hopped on the futon and ate her treat. The next day I did the same thing, and she very deliberately chose the treat that I am fairly sure she was more fond of. Like, not just once, but smacked it a bunch of times, careful not to touch the other. So I gave her the one she had pawed, and after taking it her tail was swinging so fast. Fast than for normally getting a treat. Again, I swear she was sitting there like "I cracked the code!". Using this, I started keeping track of treat rankings you can view here.
When playing with her one day, she fell sideways and was obviously in pain. Not enough to stop playing, but enough to favor the leg. Over the next couple days it got worse. I took her to the vet and it turns out she has a partial CCL tear. She had to undergo TPLO surgery to walk again. Unfortunately this is a permanent injury and while mobile, it does affect her. She is still willing to run and jump, but she often looks like an old lady some days where her knee acts up. There have been some recent studies linking the age of a dog at time of spaying and incidents of torn CCLs and joint issues such as in this study. Unfortunately these studies came out after I got Ruka. I sometimes wonder if she would be in less pain had I waited longer to spay her.
Speaking of spaying, after we got her spayed and she came back home, she had to be put in the cone of shame. She hated it. She hated it with every fiber of her being. The first night we had her back after the surgery, she sat bolt upright all night long. I don't think she slept once that night. Then, her whole attitude changed. She decided she was stuck with the cone, and she was going to make it everyone else's problem. She got into the habit and running between our legs full speed with the cone on. Hard plastic edge *wham* right into the back of the leg. She stopped caring about the cone. Sometimes it would bump into a table, and she would just brute force her way around, taking the table and whatever else happened to be in her way with it. She almost looked sad when we took it off for good.
I clipped her quick once, and she fights me for each nail clipping now. A good thing about having 2 dogs with such differing personalities, I can sometimes play one off the other. In this case, I offer Kheldar a treat to do his nails, and he complies. Then Ruka is offered the same deal. The FOMO after watching Kheldar get his treat makes it possible to clip her nails. Not easy, just now within the realm of possibility.
