SSD Trout

Susan and SSD Trout

SSD Brook Trout was put in my arms as an 8 week old bundle of black fur to take home as my first puppy to raise as a service dog for Susquehanna Service Dogs. Trout was a lively, inquisitive, and intelligent pup. She at once began bringing in the paper and we laughed on Sunday when it was bigger than she was. Kathy Sdao joked that her name should have been Piranha since she was so mouthy and active! All went well until she was six months old, when the results from her X-rays showed severe arthritis in her elbows and she was discharged from SSD as a pet. Here she was a failure at 6 months, without a job! I adopted her, kept up with her training, and completed the Therapy Dog International Test soon after her first birthday. Soon the calls started coming from SSD: anyone want to do some demonstrations telling the SSD story? Thus Trout jumped right into her new occupation. Then came requests for a dog to do some therapy work with children with autism, and then to a request for a bi-weekly visit to the psychiatric unit of Polyclinic Hospital, and then for an extra dog to use in SSD interviews. Soon Trout had a busy calendar running around central PA and beyond. Her busy schedule continued for 5 years until her sudden death in February 2010. Trout caught on to the difference between being a working service dog and a carefree therapy dog: she was able to change hats and harnesses in a moment's notice. Going into a room for either a demo or therapy, she transformed into a smiling, tail-wagging ambassador for SSD. She grinned! She worked the crowd, going from person to person, giving them each a personal welcome to her world. She brought smiles to the elderly, to those caught in the world of a psychiatric silence, calm to a child with the anxiousness of autism, wows from those first learning how a service dog can change a person's life and give them independence, belly laughs at her antics and tricks (looking to see that all were paying attention and then getting me my Kleenex when I sneezed; "reading" her picture books; "talking" with me; retrieving objects; and her all-time favorite of finding the lost phone). SSD Trout changed lives wherever she went. And just as importantly she changed mine. Dogs have always been an integral part of my entire life. They were all wonderful, good dogs. But Trout changed my definition of "good dog" and opened my world to the concept of working as a team. There was the added bonus of being introduced to the hard-working people of Susquehanna Service Dogs. In the end, though, SSD Trout will always shine brightly in my memory as one very special dog.