Highland Dawns DuskyHaze, my first Service Dog who worked strictly in the house. Died at the age of 15+ years in 2003.DuskyHaze was a wonderful black brindle Cairn Terrier, who looked like Toto from the Wizard of Oz, born July 18, 1988. I found her at a pet store a very sick matted puppy and I wanted to save her...I also needed a dog right away (see In Memoriam). I was told that if she was still alive in 3 days I could buy her. 3 days later she came home to her forever home still alive but still very ill. With TLC, visits to the vet and good food DuskyHaze recovered. DuskyHaze had luxating petellas and I had them surgically repaired shortly after she came to live with me.
1989 I took DuskyHaze on a 100 mile pack trip in Montana. We had a most wonderful time. Typically the pack mules hated dogs but they each let DuskyHaze come up and sniff muzzles, we had no mule issues on the trip. When we got home though she had to have her knees redone, this time by a veterinarian who specialized in orthopedics.
This was one smart little dog and became my first home service dog before I ever knew what one was. I broke my back in a mule accident in 1992 and DuskyHaze really showed me her retrieving skills which help me immensely while I was laid up. She went on to teach CallaLily, a 6# yellow chihuahua those retrieving skills.
DuskyHaze truly amazed me with her problem solving skills. For example: one day I was tossing her "baby" around in a game of retrieve while recovering from my back injury and the "baby" landed behind a TV rolling cart landing on the floor. DuskyHaze had seen where her "baby" had landed and immediately ran to the TV cart lying on her side at the end of the cart closest to the "baby" and reaching underneath in an attempt to get her "baby"...her little arm wasn't long enough. So she got up and lay down on the other side using the other leg to see if she could reach her "baby", no luck. So she stood up, walked to the front of the cart and stood on her hind legs to see if she could see the "baby" over the videos which were standing on end like a row of soldiers, no luck. I lay on the couch watching DuskyHaze problem solving this dilemma. DuskyHaze then walked up the the TV cart and with her little front teeth pulled one of the videos off the shelf and onto the floor. Using her paw she then knocked the whole stack of videos over, which fell like a line of dominos. The DuskyHaze jumped up and over the fallen videos to the back of the shelf and reaching down between the cart and the wall grabbed her "baby" with her teeth. She then turned around, jumped back over the fallen videos onto the floor and with such a look of proud accomplishment DuskyHaze brought her "baby" to me and placed it in my open hand. I was truly amazed at this little dog.
1992 my asthma was out of control and I went to the emergency room 12 times that year 6 of which resulted in 2 week long hospitalizations each. It was during this that I was awakened one night by DuskyHaze's frantic sharp barking. She was standing on the floor along side my bed looking right at me barking. I woke enough to notice that my breathing was awful and called 911, DuskyHaze continue to bark until the ambulance took me away to the hospital. I am sure that that little dog saved my life as I think that I may have stopped breathing and her barking roused me enough to inhale and finally to wake.
DuskyHaze crossed the Rainbow Bridge on February 5, 2003. She had been diagnosed with liver and kidney disease about 5 months earlier and I had to begin giving her subcutaneous IVs twice a day to keep her hydrated. At the end her death was welcomed as she was so sick and uncomfortable that I owed it to her for being my dear watchful, helpful little friend.
CallaLily - my second Service Dog
Cally in her custom made Circle E harness which she wears when she is a working Service Dog out of the house. The handle on the back is so that I can lift her up or set her down from my wheelchair. Cally will soon be 9 years old and weighs 6#s.
Part of DuskyHaze lives on in the skills she taught CallaLily who has gone on to become my Service Dog working primarily in the house and she in turn trained my Mobility Service Dog Rain the finer points of retrieving. What a wonderful legacy and tribute to DuskyHaze.
CallaLily - my second Service Dog
CallaLily, a fawn and white Chihuahua was born April 5, 1998. She was so tiny when I brought her home that when she was running full tilt she could run under the rungs of the dining room chairs without having to duck her head...I nicked named her Lo-Cal. She is unlike any Chihuahua I have ever had, very independent, doesn't admit to pain, tough, smart and very much more terrier like than the usual Chihuahua. Cally was a very busy puppy and broke her femur jumping off the back wooded step catching the inside of her upper leg on the edge of a lower step...she didn't cry out (I had witnessed the accident) but a half hour later her leg had ballooned to 3 times its normal size and I rushed her to the vet. Her leg was cast but she never slowed down, she just held her cast leg up and out to the side when jumping on the couch.
During the first year of Cally's life because she was so terribly active I began to see changes in the way she moved her back legs and took her in to the vet. She, like DuskyHaze, had luxating petellas. That first year Cally had one knee operated on and was supposed to be crated for 4 months...yah, right! I put her in her crate after her surgery and she promptly tore off her bandage. Three times that week we went in to the vet to have her leg rebandaged. I relented and let her out of the crate. Like when she had her cast she didn't slow down. She would wince when she bumped her newly fixed knee on the edge of the couch but she never cried. I had placed her doggie bed along side the couch so she could lie quietly... she would have none of it.
The following year I had the other knee repaired and this time Cally being a year older and much wiser played me for all it was worth. As with her first knee surgery, I placed her doggie bed along side the couch and that first day home from her surgery I placed her in it. She settled right in. I fixed her something to eat and got a dish of water and placed it near her doggie bed. Cally looked very interested lifting her head to watch me, stretched her neck out as if trying to get a drink and as it was too far for her to reach while lying down she dropped her head as if giving up. I pushed the two dishes a little closer. Cally again stretched her neck but like before dropped her head down when she couldn't reach the dishes. So I picked up the dishes and placed them in her doggie bed. Cally slowly pulled herself into a sitting position and slowly began to eat and drink often looking up at me with those pitiful brown watery eyes. Cally "milked" this for about 6 weeks when I had finally had enough of waiting on the 'little princess' and one day put her food and water out in the kitchen with the others food dishes and told Cally to get out of the bed and eat her breakfast, that I wasn't serving her any more. With a big very audible sigh Cally got out of bed, trotted into the kitchen and ate her meal. That DOG!
Now that Cally was healed she was once again very busy and I had to find her something to do...a "job" of some kind. I called around to the different dog training centers hoping to get her into agility or flyball but all the classes were full. I enrolled her in a clicker class thru Community Ed, buying time until the agility or flyball classes had space for us. Cally hated the class. We met in a hallway of the high school, sitting on chairs. My mobility at this point was becoming much more limited and I was having great difficulty with stairs and walking in general. I was thankful that we sat on chairs for the classes. Cally refused to participate in the classes and when I set her on the floor she would grab my ankle with her front paws and hang on for dear life. At home she hated the echoing sound of the loud clicker but once I taped it to tone it down she loved clicker training. We played "101 things to do with a cardboard box". My next door neighbor had her packages delivered to my house and there was always a pile of boxes awaiting her return, so Cally learned this game on my neighbor's boxes. This game taught Cally what clicker training was all about but mostly she gained a lot of self confidence. Now she is fearless and will climb on just about anything she get her feet on, she scales the rock terracing in the back yard like a tiny yellow mountain goat.
I began really working on Cally's retrieving. DuskyHaze had started her retrieving and thru treats and working one on one with me Cally just blossomed. She loves to learn and loves to retrieve. Cally as a tiny pup had been riding with me when ever I left home and she has wonderful riding manners, waits to be seat belted in and enjoys our time together.
As my mobility continued to decrease I finally needed to get a big service dog to help me with my mobility and that is how Rain came into our lives. Cally showed Rain how to ride in the truck, quietly seat belted in. Cally showed Rain how to retrieve. Cally was soon left at home as I began taking Rain out and about with me. Her nose was bent out of shape and I then told her as Rain and I were leaving the house that Cally was "in charge of the house", that gave her a job which she liked. All the in house retrieving that Cally can do, she does. She would sit on the couch and watch me working with Rain on retrieving. When I would ask Rain to get something that was new, let's say a metal table knife, and Rain hesitated I would ask Cally to get it. That was what Cally wanted to hear and she would literally fly off the couch to get the knife for me. Rain now retrieves anything I tell her to get and now I leave only the things that are too big for Cally to get for Rain. Cally likes being the primary Service Dog in the house. Recently I taught Cally to turn on the "touch" light above my bed. Now before bed Cally loves to run into my dark bedroom, leap on the bed and turn the light on for me. She is a most wonderful helpful little dog.
At the beginning of 2006 I applied for Cally's certification from the same program thru which Rain and I are certified and Cally now has full public access rights to work as Rain's "replacement" with me should Rain be ill or hurt ...Cally certainly doesn't have time to go to agility or flyball classes now.
Rain - my third Service Dog
Rain - my third Service Dog and first mobility Service Dog
By now you are well aware that Rain is in fact my third Service Dog but my first mobility Service Dog.
Whisp - My Newest Service Dog In Training
6 January 2007 WhisperLily "Whisp" is now officially a Service Dog In Training. Cally and Rain are both teaching her some of the things she will need to know to work as a Service Dog. Eventually Cally will be able to let Whisp do all the in house Service Dog work and work only when she feels like it. See Whisp's blog for more on her training.
