[nagdu] Odie's Story

[Criminal Justice Major Extraordinaire]

Hi, all,
I thought I would share on how Odie and I met and became so connected.
I was in the process of retiring my second guide dog, but the first one from Pilot Dogs on March 28, 2005.
Later on that same day around 3:30 PM, mike Tessmer, the trainer of the guide dog training class knocked on my bedroom door and asked me to grab my leash to come out to the lobby.
I did as so and waited for almost ten minutes.
Next thing that happened, here came a happy spirited labrador named Odie.
He was so excited that he actually choked himself, trying to get to me.
Once Mike handed me back the leash, Odie came over and began to rest his head on my lap as to say, I'm here to stay for good.
Although he gave me a run for my money during guide dog training class, I look back and can say I'd never ask for another dog better off than Odie, the wonderful gift from which the father in the skies gave me.
Odie was my faithful, loving and trusting guide dog for five and a half years.
He was the third guide dog I worked with.
Sadly,he developed degenerative disc disease in his lower back end which made it painful for him to pull in guide dog harness.
I had to make a dificult decision of forcing him into retirement medically.
However, Dale and I both began to notice how Odie started becoming very depressed staying at home and longing to be going back out to work.
We decided to see if he would do good as a medical alert service dog and so, that's the next chapter of Odie's life as a working dog.
Despite that he is no longer a full time guide dog, but a medical alert service dog, he still does some guide dog work in a moderate version of a guide dog.
Way back in the early 1900's around 1929, the very first pioneer guide dog school opened up and began to train dogs how to guide a blind person.
During those days, a guide dog harness didn't exist, so the blind individual had to rely on the movement of the dog, feeling it through the leash.
Sometime down the road, the guide dog harness came into existance which consists of a leather harness and a U-shaped like handle covered in leather and having pieces to connect it to the rings on the harness.
The top of the harness has what are called rabbit ear loops so the handle isn't flopping up and down or possibly swinging over the dog's head.
Although Odie doesn't wear a guide dog harness anymore, he now wears a Kong nylon walk harness with a D ring that a leash can be attached to.
I mostly use a retractible leash and have it realed all the way in so I'm able to feel what he is doing.
He also wears an orange vest that has two patches on it: one that says medical alert and another one saying, please do not pet working dog.
Odie didn't go through any training to be a medical alert service dog.
He naturally began to learn on his own around May, 2006.
His willingness to learn about medical trouble continued on when my husband ended up being admitted to the hospital for congenitel heart failure.
In a sense, Odie saved Dale's life as my husband found out he had a silent heart attack in his sleep.
Odie sensed there was a problem and began rolling around, kicking the bottom of the bed railing and then ramming his head on Dale's legs.
In 2007, Odie again began to pick up when my husband had medical trouble and continued on with his unique medical alerting abilities.
a lady that I knew who is wheelchair mobile told me that my partner began to alert her to a possible seizure.
She described how Odie behaved in the same way her former seizure alert dog did.
I wasn't sure what to think or make out of all of it because Odie was never trained to do all of that as he was trained as a guide dog.
The next time I saw the same lady and she was visiting me in my apartment, she told me Odie did the same thing again, alerted to a possible seizure.
Sure enough when she got up to her apartment, the lady went into a complete seizure.
One day on February 1, 20a0 while Odie, Dale and I along with our friend Natalie and her guide dog were on the route38 bus, Odie sensed something was wrong with one of the passengers.
He became agitated and restless.
I was about to give him a leash correction, but didn't do it when I heard the off duty nurse across from me, telling the bus driver that a lady next to her was having a seizure.
After it was all over with, the bus driver was completely shocked on how Odie naturally alerted to the problem and it was the first time he ever had a working guide dog do this.
During the time of Dale and I being married before his untimely death, my husband had a rule of where if I wanted to go out on travel without him, Odie needed to be with me as well.
I have a convulsive grandmal seizure disorder and grandmals can happen at any ungiven minute or time.
They also can be very deadly if not caught right on the spot.
Dale felt that if Odie was with me and one did happen, our partner would be able to get help for me.
Since my husband past on, Odie and I still go out together and we continue to help heal one another over our loss.
While I sleep in bed during the night, Odie lies down on the bed too, but at the bottom left hand side.
He now has the role of being the man of our apartment upon protecting the two of us.
/Although he is a dog, Odie considers himself as a human too because he feels that he can do the same thing us humans do too.
The two of us celebrated our eighth anniversary on March 28, 2013 and my hopes are that Odie will be able to live a long, happy life even when he reaches twelve years old.
I'll have to just see how much longer he'll be around.
When it is his time to leave to go to the spiritual world, yes, it will emotionally hurt me deeply upon ripping me into pieces.
Odie is a very special four-legged furry friend and partner and I know even after he physically leaves, Odie will always be around just like husband/daddy Dale was and now spiritually as well.
Bibi and son Odie