Showcasing -Levi

Joan Zatorski's Service Labradoodle in Arizona USA 

(Direct desendant in the working bloodlines of Rutlands Magnum, Rutlands Gabrielle, Rutlands Heritage and Rutlands Angel)

First Anniversary with Levi

 Levi and I have recently celebrated our first year anniversary together as a certified Service Dog Team.  Walking beside one another for the past twelve months, we move in smooth synchronicity. Often before I even utter a command or make a hand signal directing him, Levi senses my need or intention. 

As my primary source of support for physical balance and item-retrieval, this 70-pound, wavy-haired, chocolate-colored ‘doodle helps me move through life with a grace and confidence I thought I’d lost forever.  Levi is so fully a part of my every motion, it’s hard to believe we haven’t always been together. 

Has it really only been twelve months? How did I even live before that? If truth be told, life before Levi was not much of a life.  In the weeks before we met face-to-face, I believed I could no longer cope with the all-over body pain and un-ending exhaustion that comes with having fibromyalgia (which is now known to be a neuro-muscular disorder).  I not only wanted to "give up" by hiding under my blankets in bed, but truly wanted my life to be over. I believed my chronic illness had been rendered "purpose-less". 

As I was, literally, researching the “best" way to end my life, I was notified by Canine Crossroads Foundation that Levi was ready for me and I should get myself to Texas for two solid weeks of service dog training with him ASAP.  It’s my firm belief that an angel named Beverley, or her agent-at-arms, helped to facilitate the timing of that announcement.  What a blessing it has been!

Levi has enabled me to go out into the world no longer fearing that folks will whisper, "Look at her loopy walk!  She's drunk!  What a shame!" or that I might fall and have no one to help me get up.  On the days when I'm well, I'm half-way decent.  But before Levi came into my life, a flare up of symptoms would land me in a kind of hell. 

Levi has certainly changed that! Now, if I'm too ill to do errands walking with him beside me, Levi seems content to lie next to me on my bed or sofa.  He's ever ready to accompany me to the bathroom, offering the balance and support I need during those times, and even brings me my slippers one by one.  He places his head across my lap so I can prop a book atop it for reading.  And kindest of all, he never complains about my eclectic taste in music, which runs from American Country to Mozart to Sixties Folk!

This handsome, kind, insightful, and skilled dog has enabled me to re-enter the world and function in a way I thought had been taken from me forever.  He has been the source of my personal renaissance and for that, I owe him my loyalty, love, and care even beyond the time when we may no longer be able to walk together, side by side.

Joan Zatorski

FASCINATING UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2008

Thank you Joan for the following interesting update.  I think it demonstrates something important about the intuitive difference in this breed and how they can sometimes be misunderstood by even the best trainers if they've not had anything to do with the ASD Australian Labradoodle before.

Your description of Levi's behavior clearly illustrates that the ASD Australian Labradoodle is not a brainy 'trick dog'  but has an inbuilt intuitive nature and innate desire to 'serve' and what is often misunderstood as  wilfullness  is usually the dog brilliantly perceiving a sense of need or lack of.   Beverley

Oh Beverly, Levi is growing so well as a service dog!   His intuition is  amazing as is his devotion. I've had many problems with serious flares this summer and have been bed-bound for a week or so each time.

Do you know that my boy would NOT leave my bedside, not even to go potty?  He held it from the time my son, Alex, left for school at 8:00 a.m. until he came home at 3:45 p.m!! His water bowl was moved next to the bed,  but he didn't want to drink, either, just to stay by my side and when I rose to go to the bathroom, he'd jump up and go into a heel in case I fell.