The Mannerly Dog’s unobtrusive logo seems like just a black outline of a dog but it has quite a backstory! The dog’s name is Chester.
I started professionally training dogs and their owners a long time ago, just using my own name. In time, my husband suggested “The Mannerly Dog” because it describes my highest goal: great relationships between people and the dogs they live with, dogs that are welcome wherever they go.
Where Did This Dog Come From?
On a Sunday afternoon in 2009, a 6-month-old red dog came bouncing over to me as I stood in my driveway. He was so friendly and playful that I had to introduce myself! I brought him in, thinking I’d find his owner or get him to a shelter or rescue the next day. Once inside, we discovered that his left rear leg was shorter than the right. He was very, very thin and began having very bloody diarrhea. (Sorry if TMI!) He ate and drank a little, but we saw his energy level deteriorate over his first night with us. Of course, we had him in quarantine because of our own dogs. We were thinking Chester might have Parvo.
Time to Meet Dr. Wilson
By morning, we knew he had to go to Dr. Wilson’s clinic. Dr. Charles F. Wilson (1930 – 2014) was my primary veterinarian for decades. Because he “loved the least lovable” as a life value, Dr. Wilson and I worked together for years to get many pets re-homed. You see, cats and sometimes dogs ended up at his animal hospital, where he fixed them up and found homes for them. He was an “animal rescue pioneer.” Dr. Wilson was also a genius-level problem solver when it came to veterinary medicine. But our logo is about Chester, not Dr. Wilson!
Chester Made It!
Chester stayed with Dr. Wilson for most of a week. I knew that Dr. Wilson and I could find a great home for him once he was healthy. We were worried about Parvo, but Chester didn’t have it. When I got him back home, he was eating, playful, and having solid poops! At that point, we didn’t know what the problem had been, but it seemed to be over. (Later, after recurrences and many diagnostic rule-outs, we seem to have discovered that Chester had a bad case of whipworms. It is very hard to get medication to where whipworms lodge in a dog’s caecum. We scheduled treatments specifically according to the life cycle of the whipworms and treated Chester periodically for about a year and the symptoms never showed up again.)
Chester’s Namesake
Chester received his name from Dr. Wilson. Chester Goode was a character on the old TV show, Gunsmoke, played by Dennis Weaver. Like our Chester, Chester Goode famously had a bum leg. Dr. Wilson hung the moniker “Chester” on our “Goode” little red dog, and it suited him.
Chester’s Leg Repair
Chester was seen by several veterinarians over the next 2 years, during which his training occurred. His “short leg” was due to an old femoral break that had healed with the two halves of his femur in a side-by-side arrangement for about an inch. This boy had been through a lot in his short life.
He had a series of surgeries to repair his leg, and the limp almost went away over time due to physical therapy, chiropractic care, and acupuncture. Even his impressive scar faded. Chester was able to run and play and do the job he was born for – he was meant to be Jack Droge’s service dog.
A Dog Meant for Greatness
From the first moment I met Chester, his delightful personality and happiness while learning were undeniable – even when he wasn’t in the best health! I am always training animals and I know that, so I do it deliberately. (You are also always training your animals! Everything you do that gets your pet to do something in response is teaching them. If you’ve read my blog before, you already know this.)
As soon as I got Chester back from Dr. Wilson’s hospital, I began teaching him the basic foundation behaviors all dogs should know, with my eye on getting him into a rescue or re-homing him myself. He learned so quickly! It appeared to me that he must have had a great socialization experience as a pup. He was confident and friendly and nothing startled him. I imagined him being born into a litter raised by a family with children who handled the puppies a lot, but in a very safe and friendly manner. Chester was an unspoiled gem of a dog.
Chester “Wanted” to be a Service Dog
By the time Chester was a full-blown adolescent, at about 9 – 10 months of age, he was learning tricks and service dog behaviors along with his foundational work. I could see that he was a service dog prospect and I trained him as such. Training exercises of all kinds gave him the mental stimulation he needed to help him through recovery following his surgeries.
Chester was a non-stop learner. Every morning, he was more than ready to go to the training room. He would begin offering me some of the behaviors he remembered until I got everything ready for the one I planned to work on. He learned so fast! I will admit this said something about my training skills, but it’s also important to recognize that he appeared to have no baggage from his past standing in his way. Chester illustrated what a well-reared and psychologically stable dog looks like.
Learning Never Stops
Dogs are learning all the time. Bad experiences constitute learning, just as good ones do. Bad experiences can teach dogs that humans are scary, veterinary hospitals are dangerous, or other dogs should be feared. This learning leads to dogs incorporating avoidance techniques into their lives, because they’re not sure when a scary thing might pop up. They don’t know what might happen next so they’re hyper-alert, ready to run away or defend.
Optimism vs. Pessimism in Dogs
Some researchers are beginning to call this approach to life “pessimism” and Chester’s approach “optimism.” I like these terms because they describe Chester to a T. He was very optimistic, willing to try anything!
Service Dog Training
I had trained a few service dogs at this point in my career, but few had made it to the finish line. Both dogs and humans wash out of training for various reasons. I didn’t yet have a partner to specifically train Chester for, so I taught him a variety of useful service dog behaviors in preparation for what I hoped was his future. We would be able to build on these skills to meet the needs of his partner, once we found them. Serendipity provided me with a power wheelchair for training, so I taught Chester to heel with the power chair, a manual chair and also with a walking handler.
Chester Excelled at Training
Chester became a lovely retriever of both large and delicate items. He learned to turn lights on and off with wall switches and pull strings. He pushed and pulled all kinds of doors and drawers open and closed. He could target things with his nose, head, cheeks, front paws, shoulders, and hips. And he could work in a variety of environments.
A Partner for Chester
I met Jack in an online forum, through an acquaintance. She needed a new service dog after hers passed away at an advanced age after a long career. She used a power chair just like the one we were training with. Coincidence? Or was this partnership meant to be?
Jack’s Office Door
Jack needed her service dog to close a specific door at her office. At the university where she worked in an out-building, they had made many improvements to comply with ADA and help their students and employees with disabilities, but some of the adjustments were not quite up to par yet.
Jack had to wheel up the long ramp to her office door and approach it with very little room to maneuver her power chair. She could push the heavy door to throw it open, and easily close it after rolling over the high threshold to enter. When she was ready to leave the office, she could pull the door open on her own. But when she got out to the porch and spun around to face the door, she couldn’t reach the door to pull it closed. The door’s width and weight and the big threshold made it nearly impossible for her to close it when she left her office.
Service Dogs Mitigate Obstacles
Jack had a series of two previous service dogs. Both were immensely helpful to her throughout their lives and each had passed away at a ripe old age. They each performed retrieving and other tasks, but neither of them had learned to close Jack’s office door. She had to have a human close it every time.
Jack not only had to constantly ask for help, but she could only leave the office when someone else was around, because she didn’t want to leave her door open. This required altering her daily schedule around meetings on campus, lunch, and even leaving to go home. It’s challenging enough to live life with a disability, without having yet another obstacle to work around every day. Because of the limited space on the porch for Jack’s chair, Chester needed to learn to approach the door from a specific angle to successfully pull it closed while avoiding running into the power chair or falling off the porch.
Chester’s Door Closing Success
I set up our training room door with new hardware to match Jack’s door, and we did the training. When I delivered Chester to Jack in 2011, we made an error on our first try with her office door and almost smashed his toes! But we recovered and he pulled that door closed a few times every day for many years, along with retrieving items Jack dropped and performing other helpful tasks.
Chester attended many meetings at the university, hung out politely in the busy cafeteria while Jack ate, and entertained her office mates with his joyful antics. Jack’s husband and adult son loved him dearly and our boy had a beautiful life. Chester passed away from effects of cancer at the age of 10, after nearly 8 years of service. A few years later, Jack joined him at the Rainbow Bridge so they could cross together.
What About the Logo??
I took lots of photos and videos of Chester during his training. Not nearly enough, of course, as I wasn’t yet into the social media scene. The videos, not all of the highest quality but all containing great training moments, are on The Mannerly Dog’s YouTube channel.
One photo in particular so beautifully illustrated Chester’s happiness while training that my husband did an outline of it and I used it for The Mannerly Dog’s logo. Because he was such a remarkable dog, my logo will remain the same forever, even as marketing approaches develop. It means everything to me to present this amazing dog from whom I learned so much as a symbol of my training business.
What Made Chester Such a Remarkable Dog?
All of my dogs have loved training. The thing about Chester was that his love for training was unencumbered by any needs to deal with fears, territoriality, or other emotional or behavioral issues that many dogs express at different levels. Like any dog, when Chester had not had enough exercise or free play or rest, or any other physical need was not met, he did not learn as quickly. But he would choose training over pretty much anything otherwise. Why?
Nature and Nurture
I believe, as stated above, that Chester’s socialization as a young pup must have been pretty much perfect. He learned that humans were fantastic beings to interact with. He learned that problem-solving was a joy.
Of course, genetics played a role, but we could never repeat those genetics because Chester was a classic Heinz 57. He had clear characteristics of a Shar-pei or Chow Chow in body style. He had ears and some behaviors that indicated a retriever background. His thinking sometimes seemed like that of a working terrier. He was red, medium-sized, with a tail that curled over his back. There is no way to build another Chester!
Chester’s Training
Chester had excellent training and was protected from mishaps that could have taught him behaviors I didn’t want him to learn. I am not just praising myself. I used the techniques I learned from Dr. Bob Bailey, Ken Ramirez, Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, Alexandra Kurland, Sue Ailsby, and many other highly educated trainers who focus on the science of animal behavior and training.
I didn’t make up the methods I used. I had been practicing and getting better at my training skills for many years at the point where I got Chester. I wrote training protocols, tracked data, and was consistent about my training sessions with him.
Chester’s Impact on the World
Some might say “the stars aligned” in this dog, and maybe they did. I made lifelong friends in Jack and her family and got to witness Chester’s life and his family’s love for him. I learned that I could discipline myself to train a dog to a goal that took nearly 2 years to achieve. I learned what it takes to train a reliable service dog and why so many people fail. As a result of training Chester, I trained more service dogs and handlers and wrote a Service Dog Training Manual for other trainers to use. Chester was a little dog who had a big impact on the world and will live on forever in The Mannerly Dog’s logo.
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