Bill, A DogWish Success Story
DogWish Trainer School Transforming Lives!

He had worked with me for a year and a half, and had learned a great deal about the advanced training concepts, philosophies, and over-all applications for training dogs that are taught at DOGWISH.  He was a good trainer, but as is with almost all my students, there was quite a gap between what I produced from a dog, and what Bill was able to produce. 

Over the years I have just grown used to watching other individuals who said they wanted to become a Master Trainer fall by the wayside, and come up with excuses for why they weren’t successful.   That wasn’t Bill, who has always been very grateful for the chance to become a DOGWISH trainer, and has used his skills since the day he met Lorie, to become a Master trainer.

Bill couldn’t understand why someone who was such a developed Master of Behavior, such a skilled artist, sought after, and recognized in his field among the best, would sell his training so cheap to families with disabled kids.  He knew I had a love for them, but it was costing the business good money.  I was spending valuable time training one K9 after another for these families that couldn’t afford to pay me even half what I deserved, and I wouldn’t stop. 

One  fateful day I brought Bill with me to pick up some dogs for training.  We drove to Apple Valley, and found the house where the dogs were.  We met the husband, went into the back yard, and having taken the time to evaluate their dogs, 2 young mixed dogs, of medium temperament, and somewhat severe behavior problems, Bill stopped, turned to me, and looking somewhat disgusted, said, “Oh no Bob, is this another disability give-a-way?”  “You don’t understand Bill,” I said, ”this is very important.  What we are going to do here is beyond what you could imagine.” 

The husband had been in the house, came outside, and said, “would you like to see my daughter?”   “Sure”, I said, and we followed him through the house, down the hall, to the back bedroom where a woman sat in front of the door reading a book.  We came into the room and turned to the right to see his daughter, sitting in her bed, a most beautiful fourteen year old girl, with glowing brown hair, sitting on a mattress in her bed, which was caged with sides and a top so she couldn’t get out.  The site of this “set-up” made you sick inside, to see this beautiful girl caged up like a wild animal. 

“Excuse me,” said Bill.  He left as the mother explained how at a year and a half her daughter received inoculations from the Doctor, and the next day her brain went limp, leaving her, never to develop past that day, in a world all her own.  She had been like this ever since that day, and had the mind of an infant.    We took her out to the living room, and she was so sweet.  She loved men, and wanted all my attention.  After a while I said good-bye and went to the truck.  Bill had put the dogs into crates to transport back to our facility, and sat, looking straight forwards, not saying a word.

At first I thought he was just angry, mad that I was taking on these dumb, problem ridden dogs, to train for this poor disabled girl, hoping to help her.  Bill was totally silent, until finally he started to cry, silently to himself at first, and then he let go and sobbed, putting his hands to his face, holding himself, shaking, completely absorbed in the paid he was feeling.  Finally he started to talk, “Bob…..Bob…Bob,” he choked the words out, barely able to speak…and then he said something I will never forget….”I’m soo sorry.”  It’s all he could say.  He tried, but each time all that came out was, “I’m soo sorry.”  He sat there and shook, and cried, and looked out the window, ashamed to look at me.  “I was soo wrong.  I’m sorry.”

It took a half hour to get home.  It was a tough ride.  We were both emotionally shaken, and unfortunately there was no way to prepare Bill for an experience I had no idea we were going to share.  Having worked with dozens of situation like this I had never encountered a situation quite like this, and it hit Bill hard.

We got to the kennel, and he put the dogs away.  Fifteen minutes later Bill had brought them back out, and was starting them off in Obedience Training.  He was consistent, morning, afternoon, and evening, working those dogs, teaching and helping them.  Within three weeks when the parents came out, the dogs were completely changed in behavior, better, responsive, intelligent, and ready to work with them.  Three weeks later they were ready to go home.  We took them home, worked them with the parents, and then took them to the bedroom.  One of the dogs immediately went over and sat by the daughters bed, then lay down, and watched her.  The other lay down in front of the door to the room and didn’t move.  It was like they were a team, working together, to do a job that nobody else quite understood.

The one dog became a 24 hour companion for the daughter, staying by her, watching her, loving her, watching anyone who came to her room, very intense, and very ready.  Four days later I got a call from her mother, another tearful conversation that I didn’t expect.  “Do you know what it’s like not to sleep through a single night for fourteen years,” she said.   “IF my daughter has a seizure at night she could choke to death.  I haven’t slept for fourteen years, accept during times where she was being watched by a nurse, and then not well.  Last night was the first night I have been able to sleep through for fourteen years.”  She was very moved, and her thoughtful “thank you” meant everything to me. “That dog is so watchful, if my daughter moves he sees it.  He has started barking four times, and each time she was going to have a seizure.” 

Bill started going to their home three times a week and working with the girl, and her dog.  He showed them how to walk together, and got her to make the dog sit and down.  However, it wasn’t training, the dog did it anyway.  He knew exactly what that girl needed, and he did it.

You might think this is an amazing story, but not for DOGWISH.  It would be amazing if our dog didn’t react this way.  What Bill learned during this time was how special our job is, and how important what we do is.  Bill became a DOGWISH Trainer during that period in his life.  He had to leave and go back east shortly after this was finished, and spent a couple of years doing DOGWISH back east.  However, this year Bill got to come back to California, and as my head trainer, he’s a daily blessing.  He understands that our business can mean the very life for our clients.  He is sensitive, focused, and committed to the dogs, and their handlers.  He’s a real DOGWISH man.