Daisy Story
For the past 30 years, as multi-National and World Schutzhund Champions (the Police K9 dog sport for tracking, obedience, and Protection), as a California Superior Court K9 Expert, and as one of America's most prominent Professional Canine Behaviorists, I have focused our primary Academy goals at the disabled community. Because of the quality of our last year dogs we trained were honored at the Nation's top therapy, Assistance, and Search and Rescue K9s, by the Delta Society, the American Red Cross, and the Nation's top Medical Journal. We have become the top producers of K9s for those disabled with Autism, Seizures, and a variety of Neurological Disabilities. Each year we attempt to double the amount of dogs we placed with disabled recipients the last year, and have personally donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over just the past couple of years to this effort. We have created our own non-profit corporation, DOGWISH, so that our recipients can use personal fundraising efforts to solicit donations that go 100% towards helping to pay for their k9S. I personally match each donation sent in with dogs and services, and that way anyone can afford one of our K9s, if they are willing to do the fundraising.
I was working a booth at the American Family Pet Show in Costa Mesa California at approximately 3 pm on Saturday afternoon, when this unusual woman in a wheel chair with bright red, clown like shoes, thick long read hair, up in pig tails, and a bright shirt was wheeled up to me by an older more ivy league dressed woman. The woman looked up at me with her huge Viking like head, and straight into my eyes with her vibrant blue eyes and charismatic smile and asked, "can you help me? I need a trained Assistance dog badly, and nobody wants to help me. Would you give me a dog?"
I have been asked that question everyday for about five years now, and have trained hundreds of such dogs for people that have little ability to pay for the dog, or the work, and, out of necessity, want and need it all. So far I haven't turned a single person down. However, I was out of dogs, and really wanted to say, "no!", but I couldn't. At the same time I remembered a beautiful German Shepherd dog I had raised and trained that was perfect for Daisy. As I looked down at her piercing blue eyes and her needing smile that horrible word that has gotten me in so much trouble slipped out of my mouth, and I said "YES, I have just the dog for you, and he's already been in training for over a year." I wanted to bite my lip off, hit myself in the head, and heard that voice we all hear saying, "Bob, you are an idiot! You'll never get a dime, (not true but somewhat), you're in for a lot of trouble, and it's going to cost you more than you can imagine. Tell her NO and go home. Forget about her, or you'll regret it. Your wife is going to hate you and give you trouble. Everyone is going to think you are stupid. Don't you realize the value of your dogs? What kind of business are you, anyways? You're going down in flames. Knock off this stupid stuff, stick to making money, and be smart!" That voice always says the same thing.
"Thank God," yelled the woman, loud enough for everyone around to hear her. "I just know GOD brought me to you! What's your name? "Wait a minute Daisy" said Elaine, the woman with her, her conscience like friend (kind of her Jiminy Cricket), "we need to find out all the details here before we get excited!" Daisy withdrew into a kind of emotional shell, one that she had lived in for years, her smile stopped, her eyes stopped shining, and her presence withered. It was too much for me to handle, and I responded like the over sensitive, emotional powerhouse that I am. Elaine had hit my button for the first of many times, and when I saw Daisies response I responded. "Daisy, you can get excited because I'm going to give you everything you ever wanted in a dog. He'll be trained right, and you'll be happy. I promise I won't let you down." I'll never forget those words, because I've swallowed them about 50 times since.
We spoke and we both went home, but Daisy went to work. She wouldn't let Elaine alone, and got her to call me, set up a time to come and see the dog, and start trying to make some money to give me for helping her. Elaine set an appointment, came out, and saw Chief, the dog I was training for Daisy. Very impressed, and somewhat happy that I wasn't a flake, and actually was a professional, who did intend to help Daisy, she went home, and sent me a DVD they made to help Daisy. I put the DVD on my desk where it sat for two weeks, while we trained Chief. Finally, at lunch, we decided to watch their DVD so that we would know more about this person we were training Chief for. The DVD started as we were sitting and eating Pizza. I got about three bites down before we all started crying.
The DVD told us the story of a woman who at 12 years of age had been stricken with Polio. Her father was a drunk who regularly abused her, both physically, mentally, and sexually, and she grew up in a horrible home. Daisy has struggled all her life. She sells flowers to stores throughout Laguna Beach where she lives in a small one bedroom cottage on a private street right off the main road. She's lived there for over 25 years now. She delivers the flowers from her arm powered wheel chair, out of a bucket strapped to the front of the chair. For forty five years she has lived like a social outcast. She has some friends, but nobody else has helped her, and everything she has is years old, worn, and very used. She wheels herself up and down 5 miles of hills everyday making very little. Until Elaine came along and decided to help her she basically had nothing, hung out with the homeless crowd, and thought her life would never change. Thank God for Elaine! The DVD had an incredible impact on us, and we went to work and had Chief ready for Daisy in three weeks.
Daisy told us she had a cat and the dog needed to be trained to like cats, so we did. What an understatement! She has the biggest, fattest, scariest looking cat I have ever seen. Her teeth were as big as a dogs'. She weighs come thirty five pounds. She actually looks like an Old English Bull Dog with whiskers. She walks on a leash around Daisy's small front yard, or sits in the window over looking the house. I wouldn't break into that house. That cat could kill you. The cat looks like Daisy, with legs!
Because of Daisy's polio problems her body is all out of whack. Her torso is turned sideways. She looks like a bean bag with protrusions. She refuses to let the doctors operate on her, so her diet is very strict and she can only eat certain things, very little at a time.
Taking Chief to meet Daisy was so rewarding and fun. She was an Angel, which she is, and more. However there were problems. Daisy was so kind hearted she really didn't have the ability to handle Chief at all. Of course, Chief recognized her disabilities right away and started using them against her. We went there weekly for a month, bi-weekly for two months, and then monthly for several months. But that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that people went out of their way to not only be rude, but demeaning, and cruel to Daisy. People would pull over in their cars to yell at her, make her walk around them on sidewalks by going down curbs and into busy streets. We found out that Daisy had been sexually harassed, attacked, and abused on the bus, the street, in local markets, on the street, and at her home by several men, and no one was doing anything about it. The first day we were stopped twice by men who singled Daisy out and started harassing and yelling at her. It was hard not to physically punch them out. After about two months the daily attacks stopped for the most part, and Daisy was safer on the street. We were patient, and instead of responding in anger, very nicely informed them that Daisy would no longer be available for them. We finally, against Daisies will, went to the Police and confronted them with the problem. It took a couple calls before they fully reacted with legal protection for Daisy. We brought our own help. Chief was not trained to attack or protect, but was.
From the first week we got comments about Chief not liking some people, and not letting people grab Daisy from behind. Chief commanded respect from people who now moved for Daisy. She didn't have to go around them, they moved for her. With Chief by her side, decked out with a Service Assistance harness and vest, most people began respecting her, accept dog people. People would come up to Daisy with dogs that tried to bite and attack Chief, and they just let them. I had to write and print hand outs for Daisy to give to people, letting them know that their behavior was a Federal Crime, and that we would prosecute them if they didn't stop. However, several businesses in the area wouldn't allow Daisy in, so I had to go with her to each one, present documentation, and help them comply with the Federal, State, and County Laws regarding Assistance K9s. Overall Chief's presence was a great source of comfort, support, and personal enhancement for Daisy. He was a loving companion who stayed by her side and made sure that nobody "messed" with his friend. However, Daisy, because of her past life experiences, allowed many people to get too close to her, and Chief was always on the alert to stop them if they went too far with Daisy. He could sense her need for his involvement, and he became her confident, emotionally.
After 3 months with Daisy, if you weren't a friend, you didn't touch her. I honestly believe that with her socializing him with thousands of people on the street, and by being approached by so many homeless and unusual people that Chief got traumatized. Chief was not vicious, but definitely protective of Daisy. Daisy couldn't correct him and make him behave, so he adapted his own rules. It was usually OK, but once in a while she needed help from someone, and that was a problem.
Elaine would call and give me the daily report. Daisy would become upset about something that happened, or somebody in the city would get upset about Daisy and Chief and call Elaine, who would call me, explain the whole situation, and want me to come down (1 hour and 45 minutes) and straighten the situation out. It seems that everybody with a leash becomes an instant professional dog trainer, and wants to get their opinion out, which happened numerous times. The local Vet had concerns about Daisy, the Police, the owners of stores, shop keepers, friends, etc., etc., and as Daisy's fame grew so did the list. People who could have cared less about Daisy, who knew her for years and never looked twice or offered any help for her, went out of their way now to see if the situation for Daisy would be better if she would only do this, and that. They all had suggestions on how she could handle Chief better, and I went to Daisy's numerous times to meet with them and show them that she was doing the best she could.
Daisy had needed Chief for her own personal safety and independence, and he fit the need like a perfect pair of shoes. I would go down and do demonstrations with Chief, showing how perfectly he performed, and how well he responded to anyone's handling. He was great at working as long as Daisy was handling him, but the problems occurred when she was with masses of people, in stressful traffic situations where she needed both hands to move her chair, and needed him to just work himself.
But now her needs were changing. After speaking with her best friends, Elaine, and others, I finally had to sit down with Daisy and explain that she had to change the way she dressed, the way she spoke with people, the way she took what they said, the way she let them affect her with their rude and now over concerned comments, and it was very hard for Daisy whose very life was now going through a complete change, a metamorphosis, because of Chief. Daisy had become a social catalyst within the community, and stood out like a beacon everywhere she went.
The Police started to watch Daisy, and Elaine's efforts to fund raise had brought Daisy to the community's attention. People who had heard and read about her began to stop and say "hello" to Daisy, who now was famous, in the News Paper, on television, and daily all over town with Chief. They would now stop their cars, run over, and hand her $10.00 or $20.00 dollars. People began to bring her things, and care about her. So Chief began to get in her way. We finally decided that, with the new changes, it was time for another dog. It wasn't enough that I had trained and given her a $20,000.00 dog, now she needed another dog. So I took Chief home, started to look.
My wife has friends at work that told her about a family that was moving, and taking their dog to the pound. I said I would drive out to their home see the dog. It was a female lab about a year old that they had "gotten" as a puppy, put in the back yard, and gave food to. It was a mess. She acted like a wild coyote, running loose in the back yard, barking, jumping, unabashed. The neighbors all felt sorry for her and fed her over the fence. She had never had a bath, been walked, petted, or loved. She jumped in my car, rode for a mile, and threw up. She couldn't sit still, wouldn't love trying to lick you, and wanted to be on top of you. She was great.
We took her home, cleaned her up, kenneled, and started training her. For the first couple of weeks I let my staff train and handle her. Finally Daisy called to see if I had made any progress for her. I made a mistake, and told Daisy the truth. I told her I didn't know if the dog would do the job because she seemed too out of control and hypertensive. I then went out and worked the dog and to my surprise she was great! The dog had calmed down, listened, responded, and loved my attention. She really tried to work with me, and to obey me. I was shocked. By the time I returned to my house to call Daisy the word had already gone out. Elaine was on vacation, Daisy had called her, and she had called and left me message. Everybody was hysterical. I had to call and calm them all down. "Rosie", the name my trainers gave the new dog, was doing fine. The next 2 months we worked Rosie constantly, took her everywhere, groomed her behavior immaculately, and prepared her to work like a real K9. Now Elaine was nervous beyond expression. The whole community was calling and asking where Daisy's new K9 was. Everybody was concerned, upset, nervous, and waiting to see what the new dog would be like. Even though I called and explained to them that Rosie had natural qualities that made her special in many ways, that she was naturally what we all wanted and had hoped for, they hadn't seen, and couldn't imagine how good of a dog she had become.
Finally, the day came when everybody was available to be there and help Daisy receive her new dog. They were there, waiting with baited breath for Rosie to come to Daisy. We got out of the SUV and brought Rosie out meet them. She was beaming, tail wagging at 80 mph as usual, and looked like one of the overly hyper labs you see all the time. One command and she snapped to attention, stopped, focused, relaxed, and we gave her to Daisy. At first she was torn between the bond she had for my trainers, and Daisy. However, Daisy took her leash, and wheeled her down the street as the neighbors all came out to "check out" the town's new addition. You could see them relax, smile, and warm up to Rosie like a wave of refreshment. Within 10 minutes we had our own parade following and around Daisy, as she showed off her new K9. What was most important is that to Rosie there was only one person there, Daisy, and she began to bond with her instantly. After a while we had to leave Daisy and her friends, neighbors, etc., to give a talk at the Orange County Western Medical Center about the new Alzheimer's and Parkinson's K9s we are training. I called Daisy about three times that day but she was on the town, introducing Rosie to all the interested, concerned, and nosy people that had to see Rosie. She called me the next day, exhausted. Rosie didn't want to sleep in bed with her, but laid next to the bed, and she was worried Rosie would be lonely. She wanted to know all the details on in-house living with Rosie. She called me the next day to let me know Rosie was doing great. Daisy has been going to College, taking special art courses, and getting an "A". She is starting a craft and arts business where she will be selling special art to businesses. She made me a poster about the special things dog do for people that is an eye stopper and brought tears to my eyes. Daisy is wonderful.
Rosie and Daisy are so much alike that seeing one is like seeing the other. Their spirits have melded together and they work together like a real team. Rosie is picking up on all the special things she needs to do for Daisy like they were always together.
So, what happened to Chief? Shortly after receiving him back from Daisy I placed him as a Service Assistance K9 with a 22 year old woman diagnosed with Autistic. She rides and trains horses, and lives in another small town up north. She needed a dog that would love her and make her feel special, give her confidence, help her calm down communicate better, and enhance her life. Chief goes with her everywhere and provides her the confidence she has needed for her independence. But that's another story.
Dear Bob:
I love you. You have changed my life. Thank you so very much for my dogs. They mean everything to me. God Bless you. You will always be my special friend.
Daisy
|
|