A Faithful Friend

If police had not arrived at Leana Beasley’s Washington state home in time to help her when she had a toxic reaction to her medication, she might not be here today.

But she wasn’t the one who called them. It was her dog, Faith.

On Sept. 7, 2004, Beasley started having a reaction to the seizure medication she had been prescribed — only she didn’t realize it at the time.

“I thought I had the flu, and Faith wouldn’t let me go to sleep that night,” Beasley remembers. “She kept jumping on the bed and running in circles.”

Faith, a 5-year-old Rottweiler, is trained to alert Beasley to impending seizures or heart irregularities by detecting chemical changes in her owner’s body. In addition to being an epileptic, Beasley has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and degenerative bone disease.

Faith is capable of performing a variety of tasks to help Beasley each day, from prompting her to take nitroglycerin to retrieving her asthma inhaler when she is short of breath. Faith also helps Beasley balance when she walks and assists her with transfers from her wheelchair.

That night, since Faith wouldn’t let her go to sleep, Beasley got up to sit with her. Then she started feeling nauseous.

“I went in to make some hot chocolate, and that’s when I passed out and struck my head,” Beasley says. “Striking my head is what threw me into grand mal seizures.”

In Faith’s world, people don’t ever belong on the floor. Seeing her owner there triggered Faith to execute a series of tasks she has been trained to perform.

First, Faith retrieved the phone. When Beasley wasn’t physically able to take the receiver, Faith went back to the base and pushed a specially recognizable speed dial button programmed to dial 911. When she heard a voice, she barked into the phone. Then she went back to Beasley and rolled her into a recovery position.

“She’s trained not only to do the seizure alerting but, as response training after each grand mal seizure, to get under my body with her head and shoulders and roll me onto my side so that fluid can run out of my mouth,” Beasley explains. “Then she’s trained to take her nose and lift my chin up to open the airway, just like you would with CPR.”

When the police arrived, Faith opened the door by tugging a leash attached to a special latch. Trained to recognize the uniforms of emergency personnel, she led the police to Beasley.

Beasley says there is nothing miraculous about Faith’s response — it was all really a matter of training. After Faith completed each step in the sequence, she expected a treat. When she didn’t receive one, she went on to the next successive step.

“What is amazing about what she did is that she did it without being given a single command,” Beasley says.

And Beasley should know — she trained Faith herself.

The wait for service dogs can take as long as five years, Beasley says, and programs charge as much as $15,000, which she couldn’t afford. So with professionals at the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound to back her up, Beasley opted to do the work herself.

In addition to seizure, respiratory, cardiac alert and response and mobility assistance, Faith is trained in emergency water rescue and cart-pulling. She understands more than 150 commands.

Faith has received a lot of media attention for her achievement that night, including coverage in numerous newspapers and appearances on CNN and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She also has received several commendations, including the American Red Cross Real Hero Award in the 911 Rescue category.

“That’s the first time that it’s ever been given to a non-human,” Beasley says, “and she was competing against people for that award.”

Faith also was the first Rottweiler to win an American Kennel Club Award for Canine Excellence, Beasley says.

Working with Faith, Beasley serves as a volunteer advocate for the Epilepsy Foundation and also helps the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound educate the public about service dogs and the legal rights of the disabled.