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Hi, this is Levi my service dog!
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Hi, everyone! My name is Bridget. I have a 2 year old Weimaraner that is also my mobility assistance service dog. I absolutely love the breed. He’s my first Weimaraner, but I’m not sure I can ever go back. Levi is absolutely my favorite thing to talk about. I can’t wait to talk to other owners that are just as
obsessedattached to their dogs!Welcome from Indiana. I just love the fact that your service dog is a weim :).
Hello Bridget–welcome, from coastal NC!
That is very cool to have a Weim service dog;
love the name Levi.
Can you share with us some of what Levi
does for you?
Hi Bridget! I messaged you on Facebook. I’m so glad you made it over. That’s a very cool harness he has too.
Could you tell us a bit more about Levi? Did you get him when he was already trained, or did he go through training with you?
Forever Weimanamanama
Hi Bridget! Welcome to the forum! Levi is gorgeous! I am obsessed with my pups and proud of it 😉 They are an amazing breed!
Hey everyone! So a little more information on Levi…
I was stationed in San Diego and moved in with a friend of mine from my ship. He adopted Levi (from a backyard breeder) at 2 months old. But since I was injured (and on my way to being discharged) I only worked 4 hour days. Therefore I was home a lot and we bonded pretty quickly. Even though my friend owned him I often bought him toys, paid emergency expenses, and took him to the dog beach weekly. Well fast forward a year later, I’m much worse, and my roommate is discharging. He realized he just couldn’t take Levi and gave him to me (YAY!)
Well, one day I was volunteering at a adoption event and met a woman roughly my age. We got to talking and she told me that she too was disabled. I was surprised because she looked super healthy. She started to tell me how much her dog helped her and of this trainer that had helped train her service dog. I got the name and number of the trainer, and then never saw her again. To be clear, since my pain began I started having severe panic attacks. Levi always sensed something was wrong and comforted me. When I was in a large amount of pain, he would cuddle when on normally days he’d be running around. I’m not sure when I thought he might make a good service dog or when I thought I could use one. I think it was before this run in though. I just didn’t know how to do it.
I met with Frank and I could instantly feel he was the right trainer for us. At first it was very difficult. We met once a week, but I had to practice my “homework” everyday for a few hours. Which is hard on someone that can barely walk a block. But I knew that I needed to do it. I put in months and months of work (not to mention thousands of dollars…), knowing that my medical discharge was looming. (You only get 60 days notice of a medical discharge date so you have to be prepared.) Shortly after we completed training, I moved back to Chicago and he’s been with me every step of the way.
So now that I’ve written a book. This is what Levi does:
Panic attacks – Levi will sit on my lap and often kissing me until I calm down. The idea of him sitting on my lap is something called deep pressure therapy. The general idea is that putting pressure on certain points has a calming effect. It sounds iffy, but it’s actually quite helpful
Mobility – This is his main focus. My right hip and lower back pain causes me to be unsteady, to fall, and to have trouble moving. Levi helps me stand/sit and if I fall he positions himself to help me get up. Levi helps me up curbs, pulls me up stairs, his handle helps me balance, he pushes the button for handicap doors, and he can lay on my muscle spasms to calm or stop them. I’m currently teaching him how to behave around my wheelchair and maybe eventually how to pull it. I use my wheelchair occasionally, but as I get worse I want to be ready. That is all I can think of at the moment.
Medical response – As of last September, I have started passing out. On top of that I have episodes where I will be walking and lose control of my legs. They will start stomping or twitching and I can’t stop it. In this case, Levi helps me get to the ground in a safe place, and usually looks for a family member to help. The passing out is tougher because I can’t give him commands. Often before then I can’t talk or have slurred or stuttered speech. Since this doesn’t seem to be going away, we’re working on it. Mostly I’m trying to teach Levi to lay next to me until I come around again. But it’s very much a work in progress. Mobility work is very different than medical response so we’re both learning together.
Moving home has been a huge change for us and he was pretty stressed in the beginning. We’ve found out that he hates cats. Particularly my parent’s cat…And recently (off duty) he has taken to bringing me “presents” (a bird, squirrel, and bunny so far.) And he also sometimes think that because he is bigger than my parent’s lab that he should be Alpha. Diesel quickly corrects that. We’ve also learned that Levi is really, really, really not happy when the paramedics take me away. Oh! And we discovered the joy of antlers!
I wrote a lot, but hopefully I answered all your questions thoroughly. And I’ll be quite happy to answer any follow up questions!
That is a very interesting story. I can imagine him dragging you face first across the pavement chasing a rabbit can be counter productive for his field of operations haha. I am taking my dogs to hunting classes this summer. Not because I hunt, but because one of the first things they teach is to point at the prey instead of giving chase.
Forever Weimanamanama
That is so great! More and more dogs are being used for different kinds of assistance. They are so smart and have great senses. More than we can imagine!
Levi has never actually chased anything while he was working. Ever. He knows better. He is very one track mind while his vest is on. It’s a very different version of him.
And he’s actually never gone after an animal while I was around.There have been situations where they have been around and maybe sparked his attention a little. But that was it. That’s why my mom doesn’t think it’s him since nobody has ever seen him attack kill anything.
EDIT: I think part of it might also be that Levi has a very different mindset than most dogs. He knows that I’m injured. He would never drag me. He was trained, yes, but I don’t always think that’s it. He’s not a robot and dogs get distracted. But he is very careful with me because he doesn’t want to hurt me. But with his previous owner, he would play very rough and pull on his leash because he could. It’s almost like when you see a dog play tug with a small child. They pull a little, but not enough to knock the kid down. That’s how Levi acts around me.
And thanks everyone! It’s really cool to see people interested in what we’re doing. It’s great to compare notes with other weim owners too as I really haven’t met any before. Since Levi is my first Weimaraner it’s hard to know what is and isn’t normal behavior for the breed.
Hello Bridget and welcome from Nebraska. Thank you for sharing your story.
"My windows aren't dirty...that's my dog's Nose Art."
I agree with you totally that they can judge context. In the literature it is actually said that this is what separates levels of intelligence across different breeds (Small dog, small brain, etc)
Forever Weimanamanama
It sounds like Levi was born for his job. So glad you found each other and happy to have you both join us here on the forum!
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