This week, doggies.com is featuring the winners of the 20th AKC Humane Annual ACE Awards.
Part one: Uniformed Service K-9 Summer
Today’s post features Polly, a Labrador Retriever who lives with Rachel Husband in Sparks, Nevada. “Polly,” officially known as Candylabs’ Pocket Queen CD PCDX RM2 RAE2 CGCA CGCU, is a five-year-old Labrador Retriever owned by Rachel Husband of Sparks, Nevada. Rachel has a rare health condition called Dysautonomia, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system which causes fainting, leaving her wheelchair-bound.
When Rachel got Polly as a 9-month-old puppy, she already knew how to stack for the Conformation ring, but she wasn’t quite tall enough to keep showing. Polly and Rachel have ventured across the dog sport world, competing in various AKC Sports including: Rally, Obedience, Fast CAT, Barn Hunt, and some Hunt Test training, but her most important role is being Rachel’s service dog.
As a service dog, Polly picks up dropped objects, retrieves items, helps pull Rachel’s wheelchair and is even able to use a K-9 button to call 911 in an emergency. The duo has achieved so many things that Rachel never imagined she’d be able to accomplish before Polly. They’ve snowmobiled in Alaska, road-tripped from Virginia to California, and competed in Rally in 18 states so far. The pair is working to achieve their goal of competing in Rally in all 50 states. Polly enables Rachel to be able to work full-time and helped Rachel regain her independence. She has transformed Rachel’s life for the better and is a fine example of how service dogs improve the lives of their people.
Congrats to Polly and Rachel!
Tomorrow: Search and Rescue Dog JoePete.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!