I can recall just where I was when I first encountered her. Friend, confidant, and excellent instructor. I had heard that she was homeless after being chained to a food truck just off the A3. According to Jon Garstang, my initial reaction after hearing that was, “Are you sure she wants to rescue from a burger van?”
A Rottweiler/Staffy mix named Winnie has a smile as big as the Thames and a curly tail spins around like a propeller. When we first met, she came charging at me and as I greeted her, she flopped to the ground like a Staffy frog and grinned as if to say, “I found you, you’re my human.”
Four years into working professionally with dogs, Winnie would enter my life just as we both needed her the most. She was homeless, and I was partying a little too much because I had no real obligations.
To her dismay, we became inseparable and slept in billionaire homes one night while house-sitting and in my van the next. Winnie taught me a lot about my levels of patience and empathy, as well as body language and triggers in other dogs as my competence as a trainer increased. I was just starting out in the realm of animal behavior.
We had a great approach to getting new clients. Based in Wimbledon Village, an upscale neighborhood well above my pay grade but full of affluent dog owners and charming old English pubs with roaring fires, I would sit at the end of the bar in any number of these establishments with Winnie at my feet, and every time someone walked by Winnie would start the propeller/smile combo, and the conversation would often start this way.
I wish my dog was as well-behaved as this one—what a beautiful dog. I would describe my company and appear with a business card as if by magic. Thanks to my girl’s charm and love, I could bring in five or more clients on a good night.
I was given the opportunity to work as a trainer and advisor in a dog shelter in Zambia, southern Africa, throughout the course of the following year as my business expanded. The shelter was severely overcrowded and lacked a strategy for escaping the predicament. Since dog trainers had never visited the shelter in the country’s capital, Lusaka, they truly required my assistance.
I departed for Zambia for four months, leaving Winnie with relatives and friends, all the while thinking about Winnie and the opportunity she had given me to learn and grow.
It goes without saying that since that trip, my work with shelters has only become better, leading to opportunities to work as an advisor and train handlers abroad. No matter what our credentials are, we’re really improvising through life, just like adopting Winnie and becoming a father for the first time. Since these encounters are never the same, being adaptable becomes a virtue before becoming a superpower!
I moved to the Greek island of Rhodes just over three years ago, bringing Winnie and her daughter Rhubarb with me. She is retiring in the Mediterranean, enjoying daily swims, and switching from following squirrels to chasing lizards, like many elderly English women. She no longer possesses the same strength or speed, yet her charm has not diminished. She observes and inspires me every day.
My community outreach work in education involves interacting with police, governmental agencies, veterans, and everyone in between. As much as the animals themselves, the issues I deal with are related to the structure of the environments in which I operate.
I provide free training to new adopters here in Greece. In the coming months, I’m hoping to travel to Mexico to work with a shelter there on new protocol development, handler training, and community projects aimed at enhancing living circumstances and educating the next generation on animal care and responsible dog ownership.
I thank Winnie every day for everything she taught me because it was because of her that I found my way.
