Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer

February 5th, 2015 by Anonymous

We asked our agents how, where and why they do volunteer work in the community. Our Roscoe agent Barbara Fry has shared the story of her journey in becoming a Leader Dog trainer to share with you! Below are 2 entries in her story first posted here: Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="160"] Barbara Fry, Broker - Dickerson & Nieman Roscoe[/caption]

Tragedy Strikes

Our other dog, Tanner, is a golden retriever who has been doing therapy visits at nursing homes and in-home visits for 3 years. He has one special "Grandma" he has been visiting for these 3 years. On Sunday December 7th I decided to introduce our puppy to Tanner's Grandma. I didn't want Oci to stay for the entire visit since he has too much energy and the housebreaking is only so-so at this point. So my husband, Ken, followed me and Tanner in his truck, with Oci in tow. After a couple minutes of puppy-time, Ken took Oci and headed home. Tanner and I stayed with Grandma for our visit. 20 minutes later I received a desperate phone call from Ken. He said the puppy had been attacked by a neighbor dog and I needed to get home right away. This was the only information I had as I drove the 5 or 6 miles home. I cried and prayed as I drove as fast as I could without breaking any laws or crashing my car. I had no idea what I was going to see when I got home. Was Oci still alive? and if so..... in what condition? I pulled into the driveway to see Ken on the garage floor with Oci wrapped in a blanket. The puppy was whimpering and a neighbor was pacing. There was blood on the garage floor and the back steps. I could see that Oci had made an attempt to get into the house but didn't make it, as Ken was holding him down with the blanket. I put Tanner in the house and told Ken to pick Oci up and let's get to the vet hospital. At this time the county animal control pulled up along with the police. Animal control was trying to find out what happened, I was trying to get the puppy into the truck. Picking Oci up caused him to howl in pain. Ken wanted me to hold him while we drove to the hospital, but I was afraid of causing more harm to him by passing him to me, so I grabbed the keys to the truck and told Ken to get in. That is when I saw Ken's arms. He had dog bites on both of his forearms. I still did not know what had happened or how badly everyone was hurt. The animal control man wanted to know if we were willing to press charges. While I thought that was one of the most stupid questions of the day, I grabbed his paperwork and signed on the necessary line, and we headed to the only vet hospital in our area that is open on Sundays. This was one of the most miserable drives of my life. Each bump caused the puppy to cry out in pain, as I tried to get around traffic. After we arrived, Ken handed Oci to an aide who was standing in the doorway. I had called while we were driving to let them know we were coming. They whisked Oci away and I finally had time to find out what happened. Ken told me he arrived home and Oci was sleeping in the back of the truck. Rather than try to wake him up, he picked him up to carry him into the house. Before he went inside, he realized he had not gotten the newspaper out of the mailbox. Ken walked to the end of our driveway. He saw the neighbor's dog charging toward him at full speed. Ken lifted the puppy as far up and out of the way of the charging dog as he could, but the dog's final steps were a leap into the air, connecting with Ken's arms and Oci rear end. Ken was pulled to the ground, where he grabbed the dog by the throat in an attempt to get the dog to drop the puppy. The dog owner then arrived and grabbed his dog by the collar. The dog dropped the puppy, who ran towards the back door, through the garage trying to run from the dog. The neighbor dropped his dog, and it took off a second time. This time the dog grabbed Oci again on the hind legs and rump. Ken had pulled his knife at this point and thrust the knife at the dog. He missed. Again the owner grabbed the dog and he let go of the puppy. Ken dropped down on the garage floor and put his body around the puppy in case the dog came back for a 3rd time. He grabbed the dog blanket out of the truck and wrapped the puppy to prevent him from moving. That is how I found them when I got home. Once Oci was stabilized, and we had talked to the county animal control, I took Ken to the hospital where we spent 2 hours getting his arms cleaned up. Oci had multiple bites on his hips, hind legs and rump, but he was going to be OK. He spent the night at the emergency hospital while they kept him on IVs and pain meds. The following morning he was transferred to our vet's office. They kept him on the IVs for the day and then let us bring him home. I found out dog bites do not get stitches anymore. I was told it is better to leave the wound open and let it drain to prevent further infection, so neither Ken or Oci received any stitches. Oci was tired and sore. He slept most of the first day but the next day he was feeling better. I had to notify Leader Dogs of this incident. I had no idea what they would do. I called my counselor and told her. She instructed me to write the whole story in an email and send it to Deb at Leader Dogs. Deb called me the next day. She was very sympathetic. Of course she wanted copies of all the veterinarians records and updates as soon as I got anything. She said this incident would not automatically take Oci out of the program, but we would have to wait till he heals to see if there would be any permanent damage, or if Oci became fearful of other dogs. This would eliminate him from the program. So we cleaned his wounds daily and gave him his antibiotics, and waited.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="160"] Barbara Fry, Broker - Dickerson & Nieman Roscoe[/caption]

Healing & Growing...

After a week of rest and meds, Oci is ready to get back into training! He is growing very fast and gaining weight quickly. Each night he goes to bed in his crate, and the next morning we get him out and he is bigger! He is gaining a half a pound a day. Oci is learning the basics everyday. He can sit on command. When we place his food on the floor, he has to sit on the rug and wait until he is told he can come eat. He will do anything for food, so this one was easy to teach! Learning is a constant thing while we are home. He lays in my lap at night when his is ready to cuddle. I clip his claws and play with his feet and his ears and his teeth. He is learning to allow this without fighting. He has an issue with biting, or "mouthing". We have to stop petting and wait for him to stop mouthing before he can get any attention. Each week Leader Dogs sends me an email. This email is an encouragement of the things they expect Oci to be working on. The expectations are very high. It surprises me that they expect him to be doing things I did not think a puppy of this age could even understand. But when I work on it with him, he does understand! He is a little sponge and Leader Dogs continues to push him. I follow their guidelines and I'm surprised at how fast he learns.

Results of the attack:

As far as his future, Leader Dogs wants me to continue working with him. As long as there is no permanent damage, and he is not afraid of other dogs, they said to continue. I am socializing him as best I can. I plan puppy play dates with anyone I know who has a puppy, (thanks Nancy) or an adult dog who wont hurt him or show aggression towards him. He is timid at times, but we will continue. He can be eliminated from the program if he is afraid of dogs. The bites were so deep, they took x-rays to be sure there was no damage to the bones. He will be scarred on his hind legs but the muscles are healing and he is not limping. I'm thankful he is OK and we are moving forward. Read Barabara's Blog from the beginning here: Volunteers Among Us - Becoming a Seeing Eye Dog Trainer

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