Newfoundland ‘Oakley’ A Once-in-a-Lifetime Water Rescue Dog By George Abraham Sponsored by AKC Family Dog
Introduction Into
from the Italian School of Water Rescue Dogs, in Milan, Italy. I knew about the Italian organization because its founder, Italian Naval Commander Ferruccio Pilenga, and his Newf, Reef, had been featured in Superpower Dogs, a movie Kate and I had recently watched. They have trained about 400 working teams over the years. There were 20 dogs at the camp. At the end of the weekend, the trainers from the Italian school approached us and invited us to bring Oakley to Italy to train. “We think your dog is really special,” one of the trainers said. To me, it
Water Rescue
When we brought Oakley home, we knew nothing about water rescue, and
never dreamed where this small ball of black and white fluff would take us. Kate and I had a house on a small private lake in Pennsylvania and thought it would be nice to have a pet dog who enjoyed swimming. We were just normal people.
December 3, 2023 was a typical morning. I was outside in our yard doing some work. Our Landseer Newfoundlands— Oakley, 6 1/2, and Kelby, our year-old puppy— played, ate breakfast, and then Oakley laid down on her cooling mat. It was just before noon. Everything seemed normal. Then I heard Kate, my wife, screaming in a voice I had never heard from her before. I ran inside. Kate was beside Oakley, who was lying on the floor, unresponsive. I did CPR, but it was futile. She was gone. For more than six years this 100-pound black and white beauty was the center of our lives. She led us into a new world, a world in which highly trained canines work side by side with human lifeguards to prevent drownings.
was as if you showed up with your child to a basketball game and Michael Jordan comes over and says, ‘Hey, your kid is fantastic at basketball. You need to pursue this.’ Big Splash COVID delayed our trip to Milan, and at that point,
We picked the Newfoundland breed, one thing led to another, and soon we were at a three-day training camp in Boston run by the The American Academy of Canine Water Rescue with trainers
we realized we could go one of two ways. Either we were going to be done with water rescue training or we were going to make it happen. It was COVID lockdown, not much else to do. We decided, ‘let’s dive
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