by Char Nash
This story is about Breslyn, my Irish Spotted Newfoundland, who was one of my best therapy dogs. She was my soulmate, my heart dog and my love! When I looked into her brown eyes it was like she knew what I was feeling. Before she was three years old we had many good walks and talks as I told her everything I was feeling! While doing our therapy work together, she was amazing. She would tell me if a situation was not a good place to be in.
Bres loved kids. She made them giggle and laugh. Their smiles were all I needed to see! She absolutely loved the special needs kids. When we visited them in the classroom, they read to her. At the end of the year, we all could see an improvement in their reading!
Following her sister Lily's paw steps, we did a "Reading to Breslyn" program at the Loutit District Library. We did this once a month throughout the year! We even went to the library in the evening during exam week to help destress the kids who were studying.
Our journey to Bres becoming an awesome therapy dog was not an easy trip. At the age of three years, she had been harassed and abused by the neighborhood kids. I never witnessed it, but my neighbor did and tried to stop it. Some of the kids in the neighborhood would charge at the fence, throw sticks and rocks at her, and then ride up and down the driveway and back and forth past her in the street on their skateboards! As a result of this abuse, Bres reacted violently whenever she saw skateboarders. During the next few years, we went to three different behaviorists to help her tackle this fear.
In 2018, Breslyn contacted some kind of respiratory virus or bacterial infection that really damaged her lungs. This caused her to have breathing issues whenever she got overexcited or too warm. I had to be very careful with making plans to make sure the weather wasn't too warm for Breslyn.
Following her illness, when Bres felt better, I continued to look for an another behaviorist for her. In 2020 my veterinarian suggested Dr. Marie Hopfensperger (Dr. Hop). She worked at Michigan State University. Dr. Hop told me that Breslyn had been hurt emotionally and her response to skateboarders was like someone with PTSD.
We went through a series of training sessions, and when we were near a reactive issue, I could see that the training had helped. Skateboards were still a trigger for her. She was fine when I pushed one by her or if she knew the person. A stranger on the skateboard still triggered her reactiveness and I was not able to hold on to her end of the leash. I was told not to walk her due to my safety, which I found extremely sad.
We had been working with Dr. Hop for about three years and Breslyn was doing quite well except for the skateboarders. I can't say how much I appreciated what Dr. Hop did for me and for Bres. It was so hard not being able to take her for a walk downtown or even around my own neighborhood. My poor girl was in rough shape in the summer due to her breathing, so I had a special cooling vest made for her. Between not walking her and with her having respiratory issues Bres didn't have a lot of fun times except for our therapy dog visits. I limited those so she didn't have to walk far, and we always took breaks.
When we were in a classroom, all the kids were very kind and watchful over her which was something to see! Since I was a tester/observer for Alliance of Therapy Dogs, Bres and I were also busy testing new teams who wanted to become a therapy dog team. If Bres was not up to the task, I would use another "neutral dog:' We still did our every Tuesday visit at Holland Hospital in the afternoon but limited that to the lobby area and to our unit. The staff would come and visit us, and the visitors would stop and say hi. If I ever felt that this was too much for Bres, we would cut our visit short and our unit understood. In December of 2021 Breslyn retired from being a therapy dog as it was getting to be too much for her. She hung up her Heart Tag to relax.
In January of 2022, Breslyn became a big sister to Clara, a Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix, who was keeping her young! On June 27, 2022, I had to say my final good bye to my sweet Breslyn. I miss this girl so very much. She was a beautiful soul.
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