Stevie and Shaggy
The Heart and Soul of Arizona Goldendoodles!
In 2003, my son Stevie was born with severe epilepsy and autism. His Autism caused him to be nonverbal for the first half of his life. His inability to speak created created a dangerous environment where he would seize with out warning, causing him to break teeth, fracturing his skull, and sustain other injuries. We determined a seizure alert dog would enable us to have a warning that he was about to have a seizure and would protect him when he fell.
Unfortunately we were not able to find an efficiently trained dog that would be a suitable companion for such a young child – let alone one with autism. After discussing the situation, we decided to breed our own dog and have him trained alongside Stevie. We consulted with numerous vets and fellow associates from my years in the show rings and determined that a Goldendoodle was the perfect blend of gentleness, fun loving, intelligence, and loyalty that we needed.
We pulled two puppies out of a well planned litter, and Scooby and Shaggy were born! After working with a certified service dog trainer we discovered that Shaggy had a higher ability to detect seizures so we donated Scooby to a pediatric oncologist at PCH and continued service dog training over the next 18 months with Stevie and Shaggy.
Shaggy and Stevie have been best friends for over 13 years. Shaggy is dually trained for seizure alert and as an autism dog. He alerts Stevie, and those around him, to the onset of a seizure, breaks any falls and protects Stevie from injuries. He also provides comfort and support for Stevie when needed by applying a calm pressure and gentle reassurance.
Shaggy loves to travel and has accompanied Stevie to Disneyland, Disneyworld, and a Naval boot camp graduation. He comes to football games, church and countless other activities, allowing Stevie to enjoy the things he loves.
Today we give back to the community through our dogs. We have placed puppies in many local police departs including our original victims advocate officer, Oliver with Glendale P.D., Annie with Chandler P.D.,
Hope with Surprise P.D., and countless others.
