This is a story about a dog. It is not an extraordinary story, at least in as far as extraordinary stories go. This dog did not heroically save a school bus full of children. She did not rescue Timmy after he fell through the well. But, it is still a special story none the less. It is one I feel worth sharing. This is Rigger’s Story.
In 2010 I was working out of Topsailstar Pet Center. For the last year, a pit bull named Rigger had been living there. She had been dumped there by her previous owner. We had received many reports regarding Rigger. The reports stated that she had been used for dog fighting, that she had been used as a bait dog, that she had been severely mistreated by her original owner and that she had been used for breeding purposes…we did not know nor were we able to confirm any of that. What we did know is that she was very aggressive with other dogs, was next to impossible to walk on leash, she was not spayed, had very severe allergies and nobody was ready to take her home.
She remained at Topsailstar for a year and a half. Due to her aggression, she had to be kept segregated from the other dogs. Now, when I say she was aggressive, I do not mean that she growled at other dogs, or that she was a little uncomfortable around them. When I say, “Rigger was aggressive”, I mean she would attack and attack to kill.
She had limited contact with humans outside of being fed and a random scratch from the staff. Rigger had also developed all kinds of eccentricities from chewing on herself to mindless spinning. She was not adoptable but the owners of Topsailstar wanted to give her a chance. At the time, I was looking for the next challenge so I agreed to start working with her.
For those of you that know Rigger now, it is hard to imagine her being anything but the loving goofy dog she is. For those that knew her at the time though, you will remember…she was a time bomb. Everybody who knew her advised against me working with her. Everybody said she could never be trusted.
“You will never be able to have her around other dogs”
“the kindest thing to do with Rigger is just put her down”
“…you can’t save them all”
were common statements.
I started working with Rigger in January of 2010. It was a rough go for the next few months. She was very difficult to walk. She would lunge at cars, bikes, whatever passed us. Forget about walking her in the vicinity of other dogs…she would go on red alert.
I quickly discovered a secret to walking her though. At the time, I had just finished competing in some of the major races. I had run my first marathon and it was a boston qualifier. On a whim, I showed up with my running gear on one night and decided to run instead of walk her. She took to this like a duck to water. Gone was the lunging, gone was the alert status. After a run of a couple of miles, she was settled.
I cannot count how many miles we ran together…it was the best way to get her walking nicely on leash. When we walked, cars, trucks, other dogs, people…were all targets. When we ran, she could not focus on any one thing in particular and soon she started to relax. When this happened, the true work occurred. Gradually I started her on the group walks and introduced her to Tanner and Morgan.
one of the first walks I took all three out together
Yes there were set backs. She attacked both numerous times and had to be pulled away but gradually she relaxed around them and we taught her to trust. She had no owners and was in need of a spaying so our For the Love of Dogs group stepped up to the plate and paid to have her spayed. Getting her spayed was one of the keys to her behaviour modification.
our first time on the group dog walk….if you could have seen the group, you would see everybody giving us a wide berth…big difference between then and today where we are surrounded by all kinds of dogs
My original goal was to bring her to a point where a bully rescue would agree to take her on. As the work progressed, and progress it did, I started to think that maybe one of the local rescues would accept her.
I wanted to set her up for success so before that could occur, I needed to ensure she was good in a home environment. Soooo…off we went to my house.
Again this brought with it some challenges. By this time, she was fairly trustworthy with Morgan and Tanner. I never left them alone unsupervised but she had accepted them as her own.
In the third week I had her home, she attacked my cat. This incident shook me and I really questioned if this was something I should be doing.
At times I was frustrated and ready to toss in the towel but one look in her eyes and I realized I just could not do so. Giving up was not an option. So, the work and progress continued.
Rigger, Diesel, Morgan, Tanner, Jake, Elwood and the Kitty after a year into her coming home
A couple of families approached me in the next year to adopt her. They all fell in love with her but the the adoptions never worked out. Admittedly, she was a lot to take on.
A year after I brought her home, tragedy struck.
On a hike above Quidi Vidi Rigger started breathing hard. She lay down on the path to rest and when she tried to get up, she staggered around. She could not hold her head up, her gums turned white and she began vomiting. I was scared and carried her a couple of miles through the hills until I could get her to the side of the trail, run to my truck and pick her up. I was thinking heat exhaustion or a allergic reaction. I got her home, monitored the situation and it did not improve. She was either throwing up and/or had explosive diarrhea. She could not move so she lay there with bodily fluids oozing out of her.
I rushed her to the vet where she stayed for three days. A battery of tests were done on her, all of which came back as inconclusive. She was not improving and the talk was to send her to UPEI.
Keep in mind, the vet bills were getting huge and there was nobody to pay them. Nobody owned her. Again, I was faced with “just get her put down…it is the humane thing to do”.
Rigger and the vet getting treated and me not knowing what was wrong with her
I refused and decided that I would pay them. The bill ran up over $2000 with no conclusion drawn so I decided to get a second opinion. I contacted my peeps at Sunrise who discussed the situation with Dr. D. Arrangements were made to have all the x-rays, blood tests and scans sent over, I picked her up and off we went. I met with both Dr. D and Dr. Dogar immediately upon arriving. They took one look at her, examined the files and diagnosed her with pancreatitis. They started her on an IV drip and some pain meds. Within an hour, there was improvement. Dr. Dogar contacted me at 12:30am that Friday night to tell me she was on her feet, had just eaten and was keeping the food down for the first time in a week.
Total vet bill amounted to over $3000. Again the group got together and through donations, an on line auction and the walks, not only was the rest of the bill paid off but almost $1000 went to pay some bills for a couple of the charities. The support she received from both the group and the general public blew me away. Apparently over the year or so that I had her, people had been reading about her and watching her progress. Rigger had a following and it was growing.
It was after this, I started to really examine her not going anywhere. She was doing so well with me. I was using her for demos and talks and she was very much a member of my pack.
The rest is history really. I became a huge advocate for any misunderstood dog but especially the bully breeds. Rigger became a poster child for the advocacy. She was was featured among the various media outlets during the Paradise Pit Bull Ban being rescinded. I still see her cuddling with The Here and Now reporter on the bench as he talked about how great pit bulls are to the people watching. Rigger became a regular at any function I attended. I often used her for demonstrations and training seminars. She became a spokes-dog for pit bulls. The Media section of this site is full with her work
I cannot explain to you the number of people that Rigger won over for the breed. How many people approached me over the years to say they were scared to death of pit bulls. With few kisses from Rigger, their minds changed. She loved kids, the younger the better. When she saw them, her eyes would light up. She was so patient with them offering up kisses and cuddles wherever she went. I remember when I first started working with her, I told my parents what I was doing. They responded in disbelief. I remember my mom saying “no pit bull is ever going to come into this house”.
My first visit to my parents place after having her in my home for 6 months, I brought all of the dogs with me. Mom had agreed to this but stated emphatically that Rigger needed to be kennelled when I was not there. I capitulated and put her into her kennel the following day when I had to help my father with an errand. I remember returning home to Rigger meeting me in the driveway. I looked at mom on the patio and said,
“I thought she needed to stay in the kennel”
To which mom responded:
“That is a sin, she is good…actually she is less a fool than the other two..”
Mom was hooked.
Rigger had that effect on people.
Rigger also had that effect on dogs. Over time, as she grew to trust, her social circle also expanded. She readily accepted dogs into our home and helped work with many difficult dogs. She was a regular on my group walks and readily walked with other people and their dogs. She developed coping mechanisms to deal with situations where she was uncomfortable. Instead of lashing out at another dog, she would tuck herself behind me. If she could not do that, she would put her head under Morgan or Tanner. It was amazing to see this change occur.
Rigger cudded into Morgan on the couch..I am buried underneath
In 2014 I been playing around with the idea of designing a proper logo for both my business and for my group “For the Love of Dogs”. After having many logos designed and rejected, it occurred to me that I already had a fitting representative to the work I do.
Rigger had a checkered past, was dumped and given up, most people wrote her off as untrustworthy. She had to battle her own demons both mental and physical. It was a long road with setbacks but gradually, step by step, she did it. The group played a huge part in this process. It was with the financial support of the group that she got her vet care. It was through every pat, every kiss, every treat she received from the group members that she learned to trust again. It was through every interaction with every dog member that she learned she could be around and trust other dogs. She was my poster child. She has appeared on NTV and CBC, has licked the face off many a child and adult in schools and community groups. She has been discussed in the Herald, and the Telegram and was front and centre in the whole Paradise Pit Bull Ban debate. What better representative for my work and for the group. Rigger became the official logo for both. Every time I see her face on a t-shirt, a mug, a hoodie, a bandana..I smile.
Unfortunately in August tragedy struck again. I was laying in bed one night when I heard Rigger throwing herself onto the floor. I jumped out of bed to find her having a seizure. The seizure was short lived and she came out of it just fine. I called the vet who told me to keep an eye on her and if it happened again, to bring her in.
She did fine and actually travelled to my parents place the next day with me for a fun day in the woods. That evening she began rubbing herself off the ground. She swelled up in hives and passed out. I quickly rushed her to the vet, she was given some meds to an allergic reaction and quickly came around again.
That week was rough, the seizures did not disappear. She had 6 in one night. Off to the vet we went the next day where she was prescribed Phenobarbital. Anybody who has ever had a dog on phenobarb knows that this medication knocks your dog for a loop. Her balance was shot. She began walking into walls, she was tired all of the time. Her appetite had always been healthy but upon getting phenobarb, she was like a dog that had never been fed. She would inhale everything in sight. Bowel control was severely hindered and I had to clean up pee and poop on a daily basis. I was told that all this was normal symptoms for a dog starting phenobarb and that things would improve with time.
There were some slight improvements. She did regain some of her balance and at times she was in the moment. However, those times were short-lived. Her pacing continued, she began walking into walls and doing a lot of head pressing. A month and a half into the phenobarb treatment, I decided to try her on Keppra. It is an anti seizure medication that does not have the same effects as phenobarb. Again, there seemed to be some slight improvement but I realize now that was probably a figment of my mind, a defence mechanism that was holding out hope.
These last two weeks Rigger really went downhill. Periods of lucidity were rare and very short lived. The pacing and head pressing were constant. Even when she slept she was shivering and shaking. I consulted with vets and finally made the decision to put her to sleep.
Yesterday we spent the day visiting with friends and family and bringing Rigger to her favorite spots. We hung out at Bowring Park where she got to eat a hamburger. We sat and watched the ducks for a while. We headed to St. Thomas Beach where she wandered the beach, got into the water and ate timbits. She came with me to class last night. She came into the building after the class and got cuddles from the girls there. She slept with me last night in my bed with me waking up with her to quiet her down again. I got lots of pictures of yesterday but I am not going to post them. She was so far gone, that is not how I want her remembered.
It is with great sadness that I say at 11 am this morning, Rigger passed onto the Rainbow Bridge. She feel asleep in my lap with me hugging her and telling her what a great girl she was, how loved she was and how much she is going to be missed. As I type this, tears are running down my face for my beautiful girl.
Rigger leaves with her quite the legacy. She went from a dog that few wanted, sleeping on a blanket on a concrete floor to living in luxury, sleeping on couches, getting daily walks and attending demos and training seminars. She was taken way too early unfortunately but she will be remembered by everybody that she touched. My house already feels more empty because she is not in it.
Run free sweet girl. We miss you. You were a great dog. I learned so much from you and feel so fortunate to have had you in my life. You were the dog I never intended to have, but the one I definitely needed. I love you!!!!!!
