Saying goodbye to a beloved friend

On July 9, 2015, I said goodbye to my beloved former service dog, the unique and wonderful Arthur, better known as Artie. He was 14 years old and had lost the ability to walk, couldn’t go to the bathroom properly, and despite medication, he was in pain. It was still a very difficult choice to make. I’ve lost a few dogs and cats over the years. It’s part of the deal you make when you decide to share your life with a being whose lifespan is so much shorter. We know how it will end, but we give our hearts to them anyway. This one was just more difficult, because all of my other pets had cancer. It was taking over their bodies and when their quality of life started to go downhill, there was nothing else to do. But ultimately for Artie, arthritis was the same. I did everything I could, and kept him going for a long time, but in the end I could see that he was in pain and didn’t want to be anymore. 

 

Although I live very close to the vet’s office, I opted to have a vet come to the house, so that he could pass away in the comfort of home. It was the first time I’ve ever done that, and it was the right choice. I didn’t want to put him through the stress and pain of having to be carried or try to walk in pain into the office. I didn’t want to have to wait in the lobby, or be surrounded by happy people whose animals just need a routine checkup. The vet who came to do the procedure was kind and compassionate. She and her vet tech assistant cried along with me, and hugged me afterwards. Everything was handled with such love and respect. 

 

It’s been very hard to lose him. He was such an important part of my life for so long. When I got him, I was looking for a service dog candidate, and fostering rescue dogs until I found one that seemed right for the job. I saw Artie posted on Petfinder; he was in a very high kill shelter in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was living in LA at the time. I arranged for a wonderful rescuer in Vegas to drive him halfway, and then my best friends Paul and Christine picked him up from her in Barstow. He came home to me on Halloween, 2001, when he was about eight months old. It was a dark and sad time in the world; 9/11 had just happened, and I needed some joy in my life. I adored him from the moment I saw him, and knew I’d be his forever home.

 

Artie was my first attempt at training my own service dog. I only sort of knew what I was doing. I’d had two dogs from one of the major service dog programs,  but disliked their training methods, and wanted to have more choice and flexibility. I wanted to train my dog in the skills that I needed, and rescue a dog from the shelter if possible.  I had begun to learn about clicker training, a wonderful and humane method of teaching dogs to do just about any task. I was determined that my dog would be positively trained, with food rewards and toys, not choke chains, prong collars, or shock collars. That is a rule that I still live by today. 

 

From the beginning, Artie showed a great capacity to learn. He was very intelligent, and picked up new skills quickly. However, it quickly became clear that his early living environment had not been the best. He was never properly socialized with other dogs, or taken out in public settings to get used to sounds, bicycles, etc. I was able to teach him everything I would ever need him to do for me, but he never learned to like other dogs. He was always hostile to them at first meeting, especially large or unneutered males. He was afraid of certain sounds, such as the motor on refrigerated cases in the grocery store. 

 

After about three years of working with Artie, I stopped using him as a service dog in public, except for certain limited situations where I knew he would be comfortable. One of those was my graduate school internship, a center for people with cancer. I helped facilitate support groups, and the clients and family members loved his comforting presence. He could sense when someone was hurting or afraid, and would go to them. I’m glad that he found and chose the kind of work he loved, and was able to have those experiences.