Border Collie Service Dogs

[Madeline]

I am currently working with my second Border Collie Service Dog. Her name is Madeline (aka Munchkin) and she is trained as a mobility impairment service dog. I used to breed Siberian Huskies so to me handling a Border Collie is a breeze. I know other people have been adopted by Border Collie Service dogs and i would love to hear from you. I will post pictures of my first BC Service Dog "Puppy" (now retired) and Madeline if someone tells me how to.

[MollyATL]

Welcome! We would love to see pictures of Puppy and Madeline. This topic explains how to upload photos - you can chose which works best for you based on whether you can resize them small enough to upload, or can link to them in a photo album (such as Photobucket): viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9557

[Madeline]

Madeline 10 weeks old FV 12-29-10.jpg (64.1 KB) Viewed 1639 times

Puppy 2 years old FV 12-29-10.jpg (117.05 KB) Viewed 1640 times

I am going to upload first a photo of Puppy when he was 2 years old, then a photo of Madeline when she was 10 weeks old, and finally a photo of Madeline taken in November when she was 18 months old and had just been certified.

[Madeline]

I did it! Here is some background info on my 2nd and 3rd service dogs. Puppy adopted me when he was 4 months old and I was working on an Indian reservation on the Idaho-Nevada border as a Director of Pharmacy at Owyhee Community Health Facility. The last time I ever worked as a pharmacist reminded me of the beginning sentence in Charles Dickens book Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times...". I did everything that my professors at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA prophesied that a pharmacist in the future would do. I shadowed an incompetent physician; I prescribed medications, lab work, X-rays; I diagnosed illnesses; I was the Director of a Pain Management Program and so much more.

Unfortunately the cards were stacked against me. I was all alone because my husband Darrin and my first service dog, Chipper, were unable to join me to due inclement weather. It took me a long time to understand and speak the Shoshone-Paiute language. I had trouble breathing and was in tremendous pain the entire six months I worked there (in retrospect it was because I was 7,200 feet above sea level!). The winds routinely howled and moaned at 70 miles per hour. The temperature did not rise above 0 degrees F until March.

Yet looking back it was my Fate and Destiny to be there. I learned so much about Indian ways and culture. Theresa, Angie, and Dennis (patients in my Pain Management Program) call me every few weeks to this day. And God let me exit the profession I was so passionate about for 30 years when I peaked in my knowledge and understanding of pharmaceutical care.

Today I live in a tiny farming community in West TX. I had to abruptly retire Puppy in September of 2010 when he was diagnosed with debilitating arthritis: this is when my 3rd service dog Madeline adopted me. She was 10 weeks old, the runt of the litter, and weighed 2.2 lbs. This was the first time I custom trained a service dog through an owner training program. I would moan every week at her 2 hour long lesson "Munchkin will never be another Puppy!" Of course not - she was Madeline.

Madeline takes care of me in ways I never envisioned. Yes, she was a handful when she was a puppy - I had to put everything 5 feet above where she stood because she is a leaper. She chewed my cell phone charger cord, my calculator cord, and tried to chew the cord to the air conditioner. To this day she does not like it if I am reading or watching TV. I have been blessed with three wonderful service dogs!

[MollyATL]

They are both beautiful, but what a strikingly handsome smoothie Puppy is! Thank you for sharing them and your story ~