Dotty the Dalmatian

Details have been changed to preserve anonymity.

This story is about a Dalmation dog. An interesting and little known fact is that dalmatians are born pure white and the spots appear approximately two weeks after birth.

Mr Carlisle had been a little vague on the phone as to his requirements but had indicated that the problem was unusual and having made inquires he had come to the conclusion that I was the man to assist.

The gentleman sat in my office with his dog Dotty who was a very likeable but rather excitable Dalmatian and started by asking if I would reassure him regarding the matter of confidentiality. Having assured him that whatever he told me would stay between us he proceeded to inform me of the reason for his visit.

“I will be in a wheelchair in a few months and I want to teach Dotty to walk properly by the side of the chair. I have an incurable illness and the inevitable consequence will be semi paralysis. My family know but that’s it and I want to keep it that way. I wish to keep my independence as long as possible.”

Mr Carlisle was calm and very matter of fact and made it quite clear that he didn’t wish to discuss his prognosis, didn’t want sympathy or pity and just wanted to get on with the job.

With this in mind, I felt it was only fair to point out that Dotty was not the ideal breed of dog for this task.

Before we continue this is a good time to explain why I had reservations concerning Dotty.

The Dalmatian breed

First of all the arrival of a Dalmatian in my day was met with mild trepidation by most trainers. Quite simply they were not considered to be the easiest dog to train, in fact, we used to call them damnations. Nice enough family pets but not the most intelligent breed. This prejudice was probably driven by the breed’s history. Although a guarding dog in its country of origin Croatia, its background in the UK was that of a carriage dog. In Regency times it was used by the gentry to run alongside their carriages defining the passengers as people of distinction who were wealthy enough to be able to afford such luxury. The difficulty was that for generations the dalmatian was bred deliberately for their owner’s vanity.  Unlike gun dogs, sheepdogs or guard dogs they weren’t being bred for a specific task so the result was that generations of Dalmations left a legacy of a large powerful dog, bred for a purpose that required no level of intelligence. To make matters worse the breed suffered extensively from becoming popular through books and movies which led to irresponsible breeders cashing in on the demand from people who were totally unsuitable to be owners of this type of dog.   Looking back I guess this attitude of ours was a little unreasonable but was a sign of those times.

Anyway back to Mr Carlisle and I raised the obvious problem, in order to train Dotty for the task we would need a wheelchair. The client gave me a withering glance and informed me that he had one in the car.

This was not a good start, I had cast doubts on Dottys ability to do the job and now Mr Carlisle obviously thought I had cast doubt on his ability to realise that he needed to acquire a wheelchair.

This was not the first time that I had been involved in issues regarding wheelchairs and dogs and in the corner of my office was a length of plastic tube kept there for this particular purpose.  The problem with instructing a dog to walk by the side of a wheelchair is ensuring that dog keeps at least a distance of at least 12inches away from the wheels. This was done by threading the lead through the pipe, the client sitting in the chair holding the lead with me pushing. When the dog has accepted the system we would then attach the lead to the wheelchair so that the client could propel themselves.

So to return to Dotty, having got the chair out of his car and with Mr Carlisle seated and Dotty attached we set off.

What occurred stunned me and left Mr Carlisle speechless. Incredible as seems Dotty adapted immediately, she matched her pace to the chair, made no attempt to pull or jump about and behaved like a well-trained assistance dog.

We just looked at each other but what followed was embarrassing for me. Mr Carlisle shook my hand and was unstinting in his praise.

” Incredible, miraculous, genius, I thought it would take weeks and you have done it in just a few minutes. Bloody marvellous! ”

Without any help from me, Dotty became the perfect wheelchair dog instantly. At other times she reverted to type, very excitable and sometimes disobedient but as soon as the chair was produced she was angelic.

I only saw Mr Carlisle once more as Dotty just didn’t need training. She was a natural.

So do I have an explanation? No.

Did Dotty realise that her master was ill? I have no idea.

What I do know is that Mr Carlisle and Dotty spent many years together until the gentleman’s eventual demise.

Today when I reminisce, there are times when I have no explanation for some events that took place during my career and this is one of them, but as a retired shepherd who had spent his life working with dogs once told me.

“You can’t always explain how; just be satisfied with the achievement.”