Movie Thoughts: Rescued by Ruby (2022)

• Released: March 17, 2022
  
• Directed by: Katt Shea
  
• Running time: 1 h 30 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Based on a true story, a cop who wishes to join the K9 forces adopts a shelter dog and trains her in hopes of achieving his dream.

My Thoughts

A pretty good movie. I had a good time watching it. I did really like its message of believing in yourself and your partner. Our main character, Daniel, wants nothing more than to make his dream come true, but he himself is a nervous wreck who has trouble reading and studying, and his dog is almost un-trainable when he first adopts her.

But despite almost giving up, the duo sticks to one another and they slowly work through their issues. Daniel finds out the way to train Ruby is just not the standard dog-training way, and she in return makes him feel more confident in himself. With the help of his wife, he successfully home-trains his dogs for the K9 classes, and eventually is let in.

I really appreciated this movie for actually addressing the modern way of training dogs. A lot of dog movies reference the older training methods with punishments and "being the alpha", which has since been proven to be a bad way of training them. And it'd be so tempting for someone like Daniel to fall into the habit of training this wildcard of a dog like this because she simply refuses to listen. But instead he takes the time to look into modern training methods with positive reinforcement rather than punishments, which I really appreciate. And it does work. Ruby, once she connects more with him and he figures out that she'll do anything for hot dogs, starts to slowly get better. Eventually she even becomes the top K9 dog herself.

The movie itself wasn't perfect and I didn't enjoy all of it, but the bond between Ruby and Daniel was definitely really strong. Also, I did almost cry at the end. A boy goes missing and Ruby is the only K9 dog capable of finding him, despite the dangerous circumstance and weather. So she and Daniel go in and despite the dangers manage to save him. By the time the boy is taken to the hospital, the boy's mother thanks Daniel and Ruby. Who is this woman? The person who works at the shelter she came from and no matter what never gave up on Ruby. It was her persistence that prevented Ruby from being put down before she could get adopted, and now Ruby (without knowing it) paid her back by rescuing the woman's son. That was just...really heartwarming.

Overall a pretty average dog movie, but I do like the bond between trainer and dog, the way it depicts modern dog training and of course the feelgood ending.