Ken’s Comments:
When I started the group, I was adament about making the group open to everybody regardless of their training background, and regardless if they were clients of mine. I wanted to make the walks and the group an environment in which all could participate. I am happy to report years later that some of my best friends and most active group members never started as clients of mine but heard about the walks, took the chance and joined up.
Lacey and Koby were one of these dog owner teams.
Koby had a rough start to life. Lacey has done some great work with him and helped him avoid a lot of the typical pitfalls that go along with a dog being dumped (in Koby’s case, he was literally dumped at a dump as a puppy) and separated from his mom and siblings too early in life. He is a regular on the walk, is a therapy dog and has many many friends in the group.
I am always amused how certain dogs react after being on the walk for a while. Koby always enjoyed the walk. I remember showing up to the walks one day and noticing Koby was really really excited to see me. I gave him the normal scratches that I give to every dog on every walk. When I took my dogs out of the truck and yelled “Let’s go”, I heard Lacey yelling to Koby…”Koby, wait, hang on…ok ok…” He was determined to get up to my side and was lunging and pulling Lacey past everybody to get there. He got to my side and decided that is where he would stay. That is pretty much where you can find Koby on every walk since…somewhere up around the front of the group or directly at the front helping me and mine lead the walks. He is none too pleased when his mom has to miss the walks but fortunately for him, Susan and Mace step up and usually get him there anyway. He and Mace are best buds.
From dump dog to therapy dog…Koby has had an interesting life thus far.
Here is his story from Lacey:
Mr. Koby came into our lives quite unexpectedly. A friend of mine texted me a picture of the sweetest, most innocent looking puppy and asked if I was or knew anyone who was interested in taking him. A few days earlier her boyfriend had found him on a dirt road near the dump in Bay Bulls. My heart sank when I heard his story and I immediately fell in love with the little guy. Living in my Dad’s retirement home, he had initially said no pets but I was going through a rough patch in my life at that time so when I asked he said whatever makes you happy. He agreed to let us get a puppy <3. The only issue we faced was that we had booked a ticket to Labrador for Christmas vacation and Koby was nowhere near old enough to stay in the kennel. That’s when a coworker at the time (being the dog lover that she was) said that she would take him. Koby spent Christmas with them and tortured her two dogs but they came to be best buddies as we started walking with them on Saturday mornings. Who would have thought that because of her kind gesture we would become such close friends! Koby absolutely adores her, she now has a new dog who he is best friends with- they walk almost every night together and he even stays there when we go out of town and we stay at his house to take care of him. ☺
Koby’s first vet visit we found out that he was only about 4-5 weeks old, he didn’t even have all of his puppy teeth. They guessed that he was part Lab, part Border Collie and he’d be around 40 pounds. He quickly outgrew that and now is about 75 pounds at 4 years old. We participated in some training when he was about 6 months old- I wanted to start him off on the right path, for him and myself. We came to find the For the Love of Dogs group through a post I seen on Facebook for a lost dog, I was following the posts and realized how great it was that there were so many nice people out there who were willing to help find this lost dog. The following weekend we joined the walks and have since been regulars.
Koby developed major allergies at about a year and a half old and it took us about 2 years to finally get them under control. He is allergic to almost everything you can think of food wise so it’s been quite the journey with him. We are able to control his outbreaks through a daily dose of medication and a very limited diet. It can become quite costly but I wouldn’t trade him for the world!
After about a year of coming on the walks I mentioned to Ken that I was thinking about signing Koby up to be a Therapy Dog with the St. John Ambulance because of his calm and relaxed personality, he said go for it- a few months later we did the testing and he was officially a Therapy Dog- we visit Agnes Pratt Nursing Home the most but also some group visits at other sites. It’s such a great experience to see the reactions of the seniors when he walks in the room.
Koby had a rough start to life but he couldn’t have it any better than he has now, he has a cat sister who he loves, he enjoys daily walks with his best buddy Mace, and he absolutely loves coming on the group walks (especially when he’s up front with Ken who he loves dearly). It’s almost like he is smiling the whole walk! Although he has his moments he’s the most loving, caring, goofy creature around and I can’t imagine our lives without him