Finally - a Rottie happy-ending story!!

[Guest1]

This warmed my heart!!
My daughter was attacked by a Rot & it's just nice to see this usually vicious breed actually saving a life!



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137066,00.html



Dog Calls 911, Opens Door for Police
Friday, October 29, 2004


RICHLAND, Wash. — Faith the service dog phoned 911 when her owner fell out of her wheelchair and barked urgently into the receiver until a dispatcher sent help.

Then the 4-year-old Rottweiler (search) unlocked the front door so the responding police officer could come in.

"I sensed there was a problem on the other end of the 911 call," said dispatcher Jenny Buchanan, who answered the call from Faith.

"The dog was too persistent in barking directly into the phone receiver," Buchanan said at Benton County's Southeast Communications Center (search). "I knew she was trying to tell me something."

Faith is trained to summon help by pushing a speed-dial button on the phone with her nose after taking the receiver off the hook, said her owner Leana Beasley, 45, who suffers grand mal seizures.

Guided by experts at the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound (search), Beasley helped train Faith herself.

"She's a real trooper," Beasley said Thursday.

The day of the fall, Faith "had been acting very clingy, wanting to be touching me all day long," Beasley said.


The dog, whose sensitive nose can detect changes in Beasley's body chemistry, is trained to alert her owner to impending seizures before they happen.

But that wasn't what was happening on Sept. 7, and Faith apparently wasn't sure how to communicate the problem. During Beasley's subsequent three-week hospital stay, doctors determined her liver was not properly processing her medication for the seizures.

"So my whole system was not working right," she said.

Faith "was just very concerned," Beasley recalled. "She wouldn't let me out of her sight. She wanted to be touchy-feely."

After her adult son left for the graveyard shift, Beasley tried to go to sleep. But Faith kept jumping up on the bed, which is off limits.

"It's kind of hard to sleep when you've got an 80-pound dog running around in circles on your bed," she said.

So Beasley got up and checked to make sure all the doors were locked and that there was no one outside. She made another attempt at sleep, but Faith would have none of it. "Within five minutes she was doing the same thing all over again."

So Beasley got up again and decided to make some hot chocolate.

The last thing she remembers is reaching for the tea kettle.

"I didn't feel anything," she said. "I just went unconscious."

After the call from Faith, Buchanan dispatched Richland police Cpl. Scott Morrell. He arrived to see Faith and her predecessor, now-retired service dog Bronson, peering at him from Beasley's front window.

Morrell knocked, and then realized the door was unlocked.

"Faith had already opened the door for him," Beasley said. The dog has been trained to recognize police officers, firefighters and medical personnel as "special friends with cookies."

Inside, Morrell found Beasley on the kitchen floor — unconscious after striking her head in the fall and suffering a seizure — and called for medical assistance.

Faith watched intently while a paramedic tended Beasley and at one point tried to tell him that another seizure was imminent. He didn't recognize the signal, but minutes later, "Boom, I went into another seizure," Beasley said.

She woke up in the hospital several days later. Faith joined her after her transfer to the Veterans Administration hospital in Walla Walla.

Authorities learned about Faith's intervention when Beasley stopped by to thank Buchanan and Morrell after her release from the hospital.

A Benton County Emergency Services news conference Thursday put Faith and her owner in the limelight.

[Missy]

i think service dogs are great, but it's true you rarely hear much positive about Rots. Faith deserves some extra cookies!!

[forestdale]

awww nice dog. We have rottweillers next door and I was really scared of them when I first came here to live, but when I saw how badly the neighbours treated both their dogs, I grew to love them. The girl dog next door died a few months ago and the boy dog is crying a lot because of it. I often go over there when the neighbours are at work and I talk to the dog and give him treats and hugs. Now I don't see their size anymore, I just feel so sorry for my neighbours dog.

[KKCondrey]

Deb, I saw that this morning on CNN's website. I almost posted it as well (Great minds do think alike don't they).

This truly is a very special dog.

[voodidit]

This is a wonderful story!

[Lori Biever-Launder]

MOST Rotties are very gentle, easy going dogs. Well bred ones are a joy to be around. I have seen huge males with little dogs and babies sleeping ON them at dog shows. Unfortunately, it only takes a couple to give an entire breed a bad name. If I were looking for a larger dog, Rotties are definitely one breed I would seriously consider.

These poor dogs get a bad rap, just like most of the bull breeds (like the one I own). One rarely hears about the good dogs, only the abused and starved ones who come from backyard breeders. I always want to do the same thing to the so-called "men" who own the poor dogs that the "men" are doing to the dogs!

[Ellise]

What a very special dog she is! I'm afraid of Rotties, because of their size, I know alot of people that have them and they are just the sweetest things you'll ever know. But I'll stick to my Dobies. I agree that most of the larger breed Bulls have gotten a bad rap. but then there are those that just cahnge the world one sloppy lick at a time.

[Missy]

I had a Dobie for awhile, on a temporary...like foster ing a pet program. She was the dopiest thing ever. she tried to cuddle in our laps, she "belly crawled" around the cats, real low...like she didn't want to be taller than them maybe? And she tripped over her slim legs all the time. She was so sweet. I miss her alot. i wish we could have had her on a longer term basis. she was so great. Long time ago.

[kimmee]

It' s true rotties always get a bad rap - I love german sheps but I know that a rottie would be a better choice with children!!

 

I have a more private instance - one of my clients a little 14 year old boy I dearly loved was trying to commit suicide - his rottie wouldn't even let his mom and brother near him but he let me come to Scotty and we all came away from this ok. That Rottie , Sabie , was Scotty's best friend in the world and evidentally new what her boy needed!

[Nada.Leona]

I lived next door to two big Rotties. I was afraid of them when I was little -- they were so big and black -- I always thought of them as being as big as horses. But they never harmed anyone. They just barked loud enough to sound like thunder.

It is sad that the bad news is always heard louder than the good. My grandfather brought home one day a beautiful brown Doberman female. She was a stunning animal, and very very friendly. She was very obedient and loved to play. But if my grandparents weren't home, you'd better not try to get into that house!! She knew who lived in her home and wasn't about to let anyone else by that door without her master at home to approve of them.

You hear more often of these "mean" dogs, but German Shepards and smaller dogs like Dashunds can be just as nasty and mean. lol Heck, I've even heard of attack cats!! lol

Bright Blessings!
Rawiya