ERVICE BOUVS Rita and Kahn Freedom on Four Paws by Rita Lillico Khan is my seventh Bouvier des Flandres to walk at my side as my service dog. Seizure Alert and Mobility Assist. He walks at my side for medical reasons. He is my continuing doorway to independence and a fairly normal life for me with no seizures. Kazam was the first and we learned by hit and miss – training and re-training until we got things right to help me the way I needed. A voyage over the years of constant discovery. At that time he sort of wore the title of mobility assist dog, as “seizure alert” was not in the service dog vocabulary. Seeing Eye most definitely, Hearing Ear was gaining acceptance rapidly. As time passed and with each new service dog, knowledge in the world grew and the term Seizure Alert finally came into being. What I had been doing for years with my Bouviers at my side was finally gaining acceptance, although the battle is still there for all service dogs, as not all people accept them. So my love affair for these dogs was well established and continues to this day. How I chose my dog to walk at my side is not hard. As I know myself, and for a dog to alert and help me, he needs to be large as I am around the six-foot mark. The dominance and the alpha in them for me is a must. They have to be physically and mentally strong enough to counter me when the medical need is there, so that my commands do not turn them into wimps, as I tend to be strong-minded. This is because I learned, before I had service dogs to help me, that in order to survive in this world I had to appear normal. Although nothing in my life is normal. I tend to push myself until I collapse. Now with these dogs it does not happen as often, and the side effects are less severe. They will stop me, forcing me to rest and watch over me until my system stabilizes when I have rested enough. They do the same for my seizures; they know a half-hour to an hour ahead and warn me so I can take the proper meds. They will not let me cheat on taking my meds; how they know I have no idea just that they do. They sit and watch over me and when they finally relax at my feet, I know that all is well and this medical emergency has passed. The training that goes into my dogs would cover several articles. But first and foremost they are trained to be with me, move with me. Always alert to the tiniest change in the way my body functions. They learn from training with me and by being with my service dog that is due to retire. By constantly being with me they absorb the knowledge of the changes that occur in my body. Am I repeating this? Certainly, for this is the cornerstone of the partnership between us. The ability to know what changes are good and they can relax. To know what changes are bad and something has to be done about it. In the good, my commands are adhered to, when the bad happens, their job is to warn me and make sure I listen. They learn to help balance me, pull me up stairs. Dozens of things that if on my own all the time would leave me flat on my face and likely injured. Can I move on my own? Oh yes. But every time I do this I pay big time, in days and often weeks of recovery. Exhaustion is a constant enemy, for if I had listen to medical opinion years ago, I would have been in a wheelchair for life. But it is “been there, done that”; and as long as my body will cooperate with me even to the smallest degree, I will walk with the aid of my marvelous friends, proudly upright. So with their help I am able, for short periods and sometimes longer, to pretend all is right in my world and as long as no one looks closely I can appear normal. Cross-training is a must in my world for me to live my lifestyle. Herding, carting, tracking. I live in the country and there are no neighbors close. The property I call home is home also to five-plus dogs, five cats and four horses. The horses have eight-plus acres to roam on; so they were trained to accept Khan, then Mystaya and now Cahira; for they are trained to get the horses when I call them and they do not come. The appearance in their pasture of two large and one small Bouvier means they have to come in; be it for oats, to get their hooves trimmed, for training etc. They have learned to live together and my dogs have learned the dangers of herding horses and how to avoid the danger of being kicked. Carting is another must in our lives, as is backpacking, as I cannot carry things any great distance, or lift any amount of weight. How we do it evolves year-by-year; sometimes even from one day to the next. End result – as long as I work slowly and my dogs work at my side, I can garden, as they carry or pull thing to or for the garden for me. I can clear land as they do the heavy work; and the list goes on. Yes, I still have to have people do some things; but neighbors are constantly surprised at what my dogs and I do. They all learn tracking: first and foremost to find me if the need is there. I refuse to be confined to the house; and it is not unusual for me to go down and need help. So if I don’t show up at home, any one of my Bouviers can track and find me. We do not train for search and rescue for others anymore. Yet Khan has proven his ability to track, in finding two children lost in one of our vicious winter storms. Are they working dogs? Yes; most of my dogs have herded cattle and my current ones are no exceptions. All three are well adapted in getting cattle out of the bush or gathering them when the herd scatters over several quarter sections when they are being moved between pastures. All three have helped bring large herds of several hundred head under control. Do they have all the herding commands, no. Yet if cattle are out, my dogs are called upon to help the smaller well-trained cattle dogs. So year-by-year their knowledge grows and their ability more polished. When asked why this breed and how. Kazam came into my life as a rescue. What happened in those first years picked my breed. It started between us in the house and spread to helping care for my children. This grew to going back to trying, with these dogs at my side, the many things I had to give up. A life I thought I would never see again or have a chance to do; a life I thought I would view only from the sidelines. The why is contained in a million memories and so with this the memories flow and they are not in order. I remember getting out in the yard and actually doing things for the first time in years. Driving without fear of a seizure killing me or someone else. . . I remember swimming again for the first time, with a large shaggy beast on each side. . . Bringing in vegetables from our garden with only my Bouviers to help, each with backpacks transporting them back to the house. . . Looking after my flower beds, again they helped, carrying bulbs and plants to the garden. . . Then the weeds to the compost heap. . . Saving my life when I collapsed outside and Khan, Mystaya and Cahira pulled me to the kennel, opened the door and pulled me inside. Then they settled their bodies around me, as I recovered in front of the fire. That night was -27 C with high winds. I would have died in a few short hours. . . Kazam saving Misty who had gone swimming and got tangled in barbed wire someone had thrown in the pond. He held her up while I untangled her. Taking her to shore, then returning for me as my strength was fading fast. . . Kazam, Tig-ger, Nigella, Toklat finding two hyperactive children who had no off button (the boys loved to hide from me in the several hundred acres of bush behind our house, when my system was down). So these great dogs made a mother’s life easy. With the start of each new dog’s service in my life, it is quite often rough. The teaching is constant and sometimes frustrating when you are used to the retiring dog that seemed to know what you where thinking or what you needed before you did. The young dog, although well trained, seems to be a bumbling, clumsy fool. Then time passes and instead of having to call, your hand falls on a huge shaggy head, calmly walking at your side. Gradually they have sensed the change in your body and arrive at your side before you knew that you needed help. So you realize that you are doing all right when they dash, play and leap into the air, and your laughter joins their joy in the sheer joy of living. And the new becomes the old-timer. So it is easy to wake each morning and look down at Khan sleeping at my side. I realize another night has passed and all is safe as he awakes and regards me intently, head bowed as if praying, before he settles again at my side. So before I get up to start my day, I give thanks for this working dog that never asks for a holiday. Who in his mind should never be far from me. Are they a working dog? You better believe it. A person would refuse to do many of the tasks that these dogs do as it is too hard work. So the work of one dog would have to be divided between several people and some jobs would still have no one that wished to do them. As I watch my shaggy guardians, being shag rugs on my floor, my heart swells for they are love giving love; care giving care; a constant never-ending circle of freedom and love. A wonderful reason in my mind to get up each morning and cope with the hardship that fills each day.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 21:02:56 +0000
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