12/11/2016
On Saturday 18th of January 2003, a Labrador named Matilda gave birth to a litter of puppies sired by her mate Clancy in Wulguru, Townsville. On Saturday 8th of February, Keith and I saw a sign on the side of the road announcing their sale and decided to follow it just to see their cuteness. I went and sat in amongst the litter of puppies and one came and sat in my lap and played with my shoelaces the entire time we were there. He was the breeders’ favourite in the litter and they had named him “Golden Boy”.
On Sunday 9th of February, I was on the lounge too lazy to grab the remote and caught a show about dogs in America being used as Seizure Response Dogs. The doco was fascinating and it made me realise how much smarter dogs could be than humans. They could be trained to rouse and alarm, go and get help, help their human focus after a seizure and in many cases had developed the natural instinct to alert to seizures. I thought about all the times I’d been left in horrible situations where humans had left me without medical assistance during and after a seizure when it was clearly needed, and about all the times I had woken very disoriented and how having a little buddy may have helped and how amazing it would be if that little buddy also developed the instinct to alert to seizures before they happened. Then of course, I started thinking about the little Golden Boy I had met the day before. I went back to the house in Wulguru with the bundle of little puppies and again a little puppy sat in my lap. Again, it was Golden Boy. Originally the breeder had planned to keep Golden Boy for her young daughter, but as I told them about the idea in my head, Golden Boy became my puppy and he was marked with pink nail polish on his left ear. Over the next few weeks, I visited the little Labrador with the pink nail polish on his left ear and before he was 8 weeks old, he already had the name Adonis.
On Saturday 15th of March, Adonis left his parents and came to live with Keith and I and our other two dogs Loki and Thor. Thor was relatively unimpressed and would dig holes, pick the annoying little puppy up by the scruff of the neck and drop him in the hole, then try to fill in the hole while the little puppy tried to dig out. Adonis began sleeping in our room and being babysat by Keith’s mum while I was at work and sometimes he would be babysat by his own biological parents.
Over the next few weeks, I made several phone calls to various training facilities in America and in Australia and eventually found two that were happy to work together to help me to train Adonis to become Australia’s first Seizure Response Dog. The first step was a road trip to Mareeba to ASDOGS (NQ) Inc for Adonis to be temperament tested and secretly I think Keith and I were temperament tested as well to make sure we would be able to be owner/trainers.
Once he was approved to begin his training, the next step was to change my world to ensure Adonis could be with me 24/7 to have the best chance at bonding and learn any early warning signs I may show before having a seizure. The biggest chuck of time I spent away from home was of course work, so the first task was to convince my boss to let me bring my puppy to work with me every day. That was a much easier task than I had imagined. My manager agreed straight away and took the idea to head office who also agreed. Then we had to convince the Brigadier of 3rd Brigade to allow a non military animal onto a defence base. Again, also easier than I imagined and Adonis had his own military ID within the week. The hardest part of the process was getting him to sit still for the photo.
Within 6 months, Adonis was starting to alert to seizures, however his alerts were noisy and boisterous, so the next step was to shape this behaviour and teach him a subtle alert. We sought assistance from a local trainer who trains and tests Delta Dogs in Townsville. She worked with Adonis twice and week and soon he was alerting with a simple pawing at my leg 15 minutes before a seizure and if that went ignored, he would bark a minute or two before the seizure as a final warning. He would then stay by my side as I lay down and there he would stay until the seizure was over. If he stayed there when I woke, I knew another seizure was coming. If he got up and started drowning me in kisses, I knew it was all over for now and it was safe to get up. He became Australia’s first ever Seizure Alert Dog.
During this training with the Delta trainer, Adonis was also accredited as a Delta Dog and began visiting aged care facilities and also the Townsville Hospital secure mental health, rehab and children’s wards. The kids ward was also last as he was exhausted by then and would often pick a kid and lay on their bed and fall asleep. During his time as a Delta Dog, we had some heart-warming moments, but also some heart- breaking ones. One young girl once punched Adonis and when her father asked why, she replied that god only takes the best and nicest children and she did not want to be taken yet, so she punched the dog. A few weeks later we had a phone call asking us to come to the hospital. That same young girl wanted to hold Adonis’ hand as she was taken. Adonis stayed lying with her for a few hours. He was so calm and still and gentle with her and helped her on her journey to whatever lies beyond.
One day on the way home from work, I was first on the scene at a car accident on Stuart Drive. I would the window down for Adonis and rushed to see what I could do, if anything, to help. So did Adonis! Straight out the window and over to a man lying in the road and lay next to him and did not move until paramedics arrived. Adonis came home covered in blood. Months later, when visiting the rehab ward, Adonis started pulling at him lead and dragging me to a room. Before I knew what was happening, he had jumped on a bed and was snuggled into a man. I apologised and was thinking we would get kicked out of the program. The man said it was ok and said he loved dogs, and started telling me about a dream he had after his accident that while he was bleeding out and feeling so so so cold, a dog came and snuggled into him and kept him warm. Over the next few months, Adonis would always pull to his room and together they would go through his rehab activities. He learnt to use his arms again by brushing Adonis and throwing a ball and he strengthened his legs by walking towards a wagging Adonis.
Late in 2003, Keith was deployed to Iraq with SECDET (no number because they were the very first ones). Life pretty much continued as normal back home for Adonis and I. Work, Delta, socialising etc. Until one afternoon when I went to go out to get a nice, healthy dinner of Maccas and Adonis got in front of me, blocking my way to the stairs and growling at me and mouthing at the keys in my hand. It was a weird behaviour for him, so I went back inside and sat down to try and calm him down. He immediately started pawing at my leg, then went to the phone and started barking. Back and forth he went between me and the phone until I finally twigged to what he may have been telling me. I called an ambulance and had a very bizarre conversation trying to explain to them that my dog asked me to call. By the time the paramedics arrived, I was unconscious. While they did their thing, Adonis grabbed his Assistance Dog jacket and put it in one their hands so they knew who and what he was. Then he went and grabbed a backpack and gave it to them as well. When they put me in the ambulance, they also put Adonis in with his jacket and the backpack that they thought was my emergency overnight bag. When they opened it at the hospital, they found it was full of dog treats and puppy toys. Adonis was set for a stay!
When I woke up a day later, I found out I had had emergency surgery overnight to remove a blood clot on the brain. Adonis had literally saved my life! Who knows when I would have been found if I had not made the phone call to the ambulance.
Adonis alerted to several hundred seizures during his lifetime, the only one he ever missed was when he was under general anaesthetic being desexed. He was also a canine blood donor, so saved many doggy lives as well. He improved the life for many people in aged care facilities and brought a little sunshine to kids in hospital, those doing hard work in rehabilitation and a good distraction to patients in the secure mental health facility. He helped pave the way for Assistance Dogs for people with invisible disabilities to be recognised under Australian law. He also helped educate the public about public access laws in regards to Assistance Dogs.
Without Adonis, I would not be here today. Without him, my two beautiful children Sam and Timmy would not be here today. Just from that fact alone, he has touched the lives of so many people who were never lucky enough to meet him.
Adonis passed away at 9:30am on Friday the 11th of November. He was my dog, my doctor, my nurse, my best friend and my hero.
On Saturday 18th of January 2003, a Labrador named Matilda gave birth to a litter of puppies sired by her mate Clancy in Wulguru, Townsville. On Saturday 8th of February, Keith and I saw a sign on the side of the road announcing their sale and decided to follow it just to see their cuteness. I went and sat in amongst the litter of puppies and one came and sat in my lap and played with my shoelaces the entire time we were there. He was the breeders’ favourite in the litter and they had named him “Golden Boy”.
On Sunday 9th of February, I was on the lounge too lazy to grab the remote and caught a show about dogs in America being used as Seizure Response Dogs. The doco was fascinating and it made me realise how much smarter dogs could be than humans. They could be trained to rouse and alarm, go and get help, help their human focus after a seizure and in many cases had developed the natural instinct to alert to seizures. I thought about all the times I’d been left in horrible situations where humans had left me without medical assistance during and after a seizure when it was clearly needed, and about all the times I had woken very disoriented and how having a little buddy may have helped and how amazing it would be if that little buddy also developed the instinct to alert to seizures before they happened. Then of course, I started thinking about the little Golden Boy I had met the day before. I went back to the house in Wulguru with the bundle of little puppies and again a little puppy sat in my lap. Again, it was Golden Boy. Originally the breeder had planned to keep Golden Boy for her young daughter, but as I told them about the idea in my head, Golden Boy became my puppy and he was marked with pink nail polish on his left ear. Over the next few weeks, I visited the little Labrador with the pink nail polish on his left ear and before he was 8 weeks old, he already had the name Adonis.
On Saturday 15th of March, Adonis left his parents and came to live with Keith and I and our other two dogs Loki and Thor. Thor was relatively unimpressed and would dig holes, pick the annoying little puppy up by the scruff of the neck and drop him in the hole, then try to fill in the hole while the little puppy tried to dig out. Adonis began sleeping in our room and being babysat by Keith’s mum while I was at work and sometimes he would be babysat by his own biological parents.
Over the next few weeks, I made several phone calls to various training facilities in America and in Australia and eventually found two that were happy to work together to help me to train Adonis to become Australia’s first Seizure Response Dog. The first step was a road trip to Mareeba to ASDOGS (NQ) Inc for Adonis to be temperament tested and secretly I think Keith and I were temperament tested as well to make sure we would be able to be owner/trainers.
Once he was approved to begin his training, the next step was to change my world to ensure Adonis could be with me 24/7 to have the best chance at bonding and learn any early warning signs I may show before having a seizure. The biggest chuck of time I spent away from home was of course work, so the first task was to convince my boss to let me bring my puppy to work with me every day. That was a much easier task than I had imagined. My manager agreed straight away and took the idea to head office who also agreed. Then we had to convince the Brigadier of 3rd Brigade to allow a non military animal onto a defence base. Again, also easier than I imagined and Adonis had his own military ID within the week. The hardest part of the process was getting him to sit still for the photo.
Within 6 months, Adonis was starting to alert to seizures, however his alerts were noisy and boisterous, so the next step was to shape this behaviour and teach him a subtle alert. We sought assistance from a local trainer who trains and tests Delta Dogs in Townsville. She worked with Adonis twice and week and soon he was alerting with a simple pawing at my leg 15 minutes before a seizure and if that went ignored, he would bark a minute or two before the seizure as a final warning. He would then stay by my side as I lay down and there he would stay until the seizure was over. If he stayed there when I woke, I knew another seizure was coming. If he got up and started drowning me in kisses, I knew it was all over for now and it was safe to get up. He became Australia’s first ever Seizure Alert Dog.
During this training with the Delta trainer, Adonis was also accredited as a Delta Dog and began visiting aged care facilities and also the Townsville Hospital secure mental health, rehab and children’s wards. The kids ward was also last as he was exhausted by then and would often pick a kid and lay on their bed and fall asleep. During his time as a Delta Dog, we had some heart-warming moments, but also some heart- breaking ones. One young girl once punched Adonis and when her father asked why, she replied that god only takes the best and nicest children and she did not want to be taken yet, so she punched the dog. A few weeks later we had a phone call asking us to come to the hospital. That same young girl wanted to hold Adonis’ hand as she was taken. Adonis stayed lying with her for a few hours. He was so calm and still and gentle with her and helped her on her journey to whatever lies beyond.
One day on the way home from work, I was first on the scene at a car accident on Stuart Drive. I would the window down for Adonis and rushed to see what I could do, if anything, to help. So did Adonis! Straight out the window and over to a man lying in the road and lay next to him and did not move until paramedics arrived. Adonis came home covered in blood. Months later, when visiting the rehab ward, Adonis started pulling at him lead and dragging me to a room. Before I knew what was happening, he had jumped on a bed and was snuggled into a man. I apologised and was thinking we would get kicked out of the program. The man said it was ok and said he loved dogs, and started telling me about a dream he had after his accident that while he was bleeding out and feeling so so so cold, a dog came and snuggled into him and kept him warm. Over the next few months, Adonis would always pull to his room and together they would go through his rehab activities. He learnt to use his arms again by brushing Adonis and throwing a ball and he strengthened his legs by walking towards a wagging Adonis.
Late in 2003, Keith was deployed to Iraq with SECDET (no number because they were the very first ones). Life pretty much continued as normal back home for Adonis and I. Work, Delta, socialising etc. Until one afternoon when I went to go out to get a nice, healthy dinner of Maccas and Adonis got in front of me, blocking my way to the stairs and growling at me and mouthing at the keys in my hand. It was a weird behaviour for him, so I went back inside and sat down to try and calm him down. He immediately started pawing at my leg, then went to the phone and started barking. Back and forth he went between me and the phone until I finally twigged to what he may have been telling me. I called an ambulance and had a very bizarre conversation trying to explain to them that my dog asked me to call. By the time the paramedics arrived, I was unconscious. While they did their thing, Adonis grabbed his Assistance Dog jacket and put it in one their hands so they knew who and what he was. Then he went and grabbed a backpack and gave it to them as well. When they put me in the ambulance, they also put Adonis in with his jacket and the backpack that they thought was my emergency overnight bag. When they opened it at the hospital, they found it was full of dog treats and puppy toys. Adonis was set for a stay!
When I woke up a day later, I found out I had had emergency surgery overnight to remove a blood clot on the brain. Adonis had literally saved my life! Who knows when I would have been found if I had not made the phone call to the ambulance.
Adonis alerted to several hundred seizures during his lifetime, the only one he ever missed was when he was under general anaesthetic being desexed. He was also a canine blood donor, so saved many doggy lives as well. He improved the life for many people in aged care facilities and brought a little sunshine to kids in hospital, those doing hard work in rehabilitation and a good distraction to patients in the secure mental health facility. He helped pave the way for Assistance Dogs for people with invisible disabilities to be recognised under Australian law. He also helped educate the public about public access laws in regards to Assistance Dogs.
Without Adonis, I would not be here today. Without him, my two beautiful children Sam and Timmy would not be here today. Just from that fact alone, he has touched the lives of so many people who were never lucky enough to meet him.
Adonis passed away at 9:30am on Friday the 11th of November. He was my dog, my doctor, my nurse, my best friend and my hero.
