Ruby is a stinkin' adorable, super silly, short legged, 1 year old, 12 pound Dachshund / Chihuahua mix. She was rescued from a severe hoarding situation in New Mexico where more than 30 dogs were living together with little structure, care, or individual attention. Until now, Ruby had never been treated as someone’s loved pet. Never given the consistent love, guidance, and stability every dog deserves. Each year, we’re able to rescue a few dogs from this property. The New Mexico rescue partner we work with continues to advocate tirelessly for the homeowners to relinquish more of the dogs. It’s an incredibly heartbreaking situation...the dogs are left without love, training, socialization, or the one on one affection that helps them thrive, and many of them in this home continue to breed with each other. We are deeply grateful for every life that is able to leave that environment, and over the years we’ve welcomed several of these deserving dogs into our rescue. Every single one is a reminder of why this work matters. Because Ruby came from a home where the only connection she had ever had was with other dogs, we are requiring that she go to a home with at least one other confident dog. Ruby is much more confident and happy with doggy friends around her and we want to do what is in Ruby's best interest when finding her a forever home. All of the info you need to know about Ruby will come from her foster, who has had her just over a month. From Ruby's foster: * * * * "Ruby is an incredibly sweet girl and once her personality comes out, you'll see that she really is just a sweet, young puppy!!! She has made a complete 180 since the day she came home with me. When she first came home to foster, she was straight from the hoarding home to the shelter, to me... so life was scary back then. But now Ruby is a complete puppy! She is so silly, playful, and friendly!!! She loves me and my husband, follows me around the house, kisses us on our faces, sits on our laps, and snuggles us at night. She just took some patience in the beginning, and had to learn that she could trust us. I think no humans had ever treated her right until now. But I do think that her transition into an adoptive home will be much faster / easier since she isn't in such a scary place in life anymore. She has totally blossomed into an amazing, silly, happy dog! Assuming there will still be a slight adjustment period in a new home, I will let you know how her integration into our home went so potential adopters can know sort of what to expect (though again, I think she will warm up a lot faster now that she is a happy, puppy dog). When Ruby first came home with us, she was very shy and a bit fearful when it came to human touch (i.e. she would run from us if we tried to pet or touch her) but other than around being touched, she’s actually been quite confident from the beginning. From the second day home, she was already playing with toys, relaxing on the couch, playing with my dogs, jumping into bed at night, getting the zoomies around the living room, and would even crawl all over us if we’re eating in front of her (she has no shame there, haha - she LOVES food!) Just for the first about 1 and a half, maybe 2 weeks, Ruby was very hesitant of being touched by us. She would touch us no problem (like crawl onto us when we were eating), but did not want us to touch her. For the first maybe week and a half, she would run and hide under our couch when we would reach towards her. So we basically ignored her besides feeding her and giving her treats for the first week and let her come around to us on her own terms. You cannot gain trust when you do not respect their boundaries! We let her come around to us on her own terms, and boy did she ever come around! I'm telling you, seeing the dog she is now, you would never believe she was so timid at first!! When Ruby came home with me, she wasn't crate trained or potty trained, but she is SO stinking smart that she picked up on both of these SO fast! She is super food motivated so that helped a lot. She's been with us for a month now. For the first 2 weeks, since she was still decompressing from her old, scary life, I didn't take her outside to the yard (I didn't trust that she would follow me back inside so didn't want to risk her getting stuck in our yard!) so we used potty pads for the first 2 weeks but she knew already to potty on those which was great. After 2 weeks home with me, as she started to be comfortable around me, I started letting her come out in the yard with me and my dogs, and in literally 4 days she picked up potty training. Now we are days without an accident, and she goes outside every time! We leave a bag of treats outside and right when she potties I say "yes!!" and give her a treat. She also gets a treat when she goes into her crate, and when I open the door to the room with our dog crates, she runs right into her crate. She stays in a crate when we leave the house. I have had her loose (the first 2 weeks she was home) when I left the house, and she did fine loose, but our house is very dog-proof so there's nothing she could get in to. But she never chewed on anything. Ruby is definitely a young dog with puppy energy. She needs some basic training, but is SO smart and trainable. She still needs to learn how to walk on a leash. She clearly has never been on a leash in her life. Because she doesn't know how to walk on a leash yet, she needs to go to a home with a yard, otherwise she may regress with her potty training. But again, she is so smart and trainable. She will learn fast! Just prepare for an adjustment period for the first week or so, and be patient at first. Ruby is SUCH a good, sweet, smart little dog and that will show once she feels comfortable and safe." * * * * We'd like to place Ruby in a home where she'll get the training and stability that she needs. Positive reinforcement training promotes great behavior, bonding and confidence for a young girl whose self-esteem will fly high while she masters her skills. Training is so important in the future behaviors of every dog. It's for this reason that we're unwilling to adopt to a family that doesn't make this loving choice. Farfel's is happy to provide a list of both in-person and virtual positive reinforcement / force- free trainers in your area. Ruby has been fully vetted, and she is in great health and up to date on her vaccines. She is spayed as well. Farfel's Rescue is a fully foster based rescue, and offers a one week trial with every adoption. We feel that this is much more beneficial to not only the dog, but the adopter too. We believe that only getting 20-30 minutes with a dog before deciding on a lifetime commitment is not a fair amount of time to the adopter, or the dog. Therefore we give adopters one week with the dog to assure it is the right fit, and offer a full refund of their adoption fee should it not workout within the week trial. Farfel's Rescue has been doing adoptions this way since 2005 and is thrilled to adopt out ~400 dogs each year. If you are interested in adopting from us, please be sure to fill out our adoption application at http://farfels.com/farfels-rescue/adoption-form/ .