Our Story
We started out breeding goats, chickens, and pigs. It was a little unique for this city girl living out in the Arizona desert. Being comfortable with a bit of animal husbandry, we decided to try breeding our bird dog, Buster. He was great and we had a lot of fun starting that breeding program. The bird dogs weren’t exactly easy, but they were easy keepers; I loved that they were so easy to manage with the shorthair.
I had hired an Afghanistan Veteran to help when we were running our Gun Shop. He had that crazy Irish hair and I knew there had to be a firey temperament in there somewhere. He was joy and fell in love with one of Buster’s granddaughters and I gave her to him. He named her Stella and I don’t think any girlfriend could ever quite hold the place in his heart that she did.
This Marine had been to Afghanistan when he was 19 and lost a dear friend in the middle of combat. While he physically had returned from Afghanistan, in his dreams he was still there, reliving that terror every night.
As Stella got a little older, she would wake him up during his night terrors, pawing his chest to wake him up. While she had never been trained to do this, it was something she intuitively knew to do. She read his emotions and anticipated them, knowing when it was too much.
Stella seemed to give him something to live for on those dark days when he was struggling to take on the world. He loved her with his whole heart and she was always with him. She rode in the car, came to work, and slept with him. She provided him an emotional consistency that he so desperately craved and relied on. I believe he is alive today because of Stella.
As an Army Veteran myself, I know so many men and women plagued with the war in their mind, a war that lasts despite being “home.” After seeing the success with Stella for my dear friend, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could place my dogs in homes where they could support veterans, helping them have a friend for those tough moments?”
It sounded great, until I realized that very few veterans struggling with this type of PTSD would have a great job and enough money to have a home with a yard that would be adequate for my crazy bird dogs.
In Search of the Perfect Dog
I began to build this idea in my mind. What if I could breed a cross of two dogs, something that would retain the things I loved about the German Shorthair bird dogs, but would be smaller, a little smarter and easier to train, but would also have that wonderful temperament and easy-to-manage coat. My hope was that with this combination, I could make an ideal service dog for veterans with PTSD, something that could thrive in an apartment, and assist with their emotional needs.
I searched for months, evaluating breeds, their traits, health, temperament. Nothing beat the rat terrier, they had it all: the look, the coat, the size, the brains, and, oh! did they come in all the colors. They were the perfect fit to breed with my bird dogs.
I searched dozens of rat terrier breeding programs, but didn’t like the look of their dogs, there are so many rat terriers that are disproportionate. Sometimes their legs are too straight, missing angulation, sometimes they don’t have proper muscling, while others have too much muscling and don’t look as graceful. I was looking for a balanced, healthy, athletic dog, and that’s when I found Kathy Willis of Sundance Rat Terriers. She had been very careful to breed healthy dogs, with great temperaments, having a few winning dogs in the show world. I didn’t care much about show, but I thought it was great she had bred such a nice balance. She helped me get my start into rat terriers.
Perfect Family Companions
Everyone will say their dog is perfect, but, as a breeder, I am looking at so much more than a dog with a fun personality; I’m looking for health, temperament, drive, structure, and maintenance. I was blown away with the rat terriers. Even as puppies they seemed to just fit seamlessly into our family. My kids took them everywhere, in the car, to work, they slept with them, and the kids were little, only 4 & 5. I was amazed at how they were so good with the kids, they were cuddly, but also tolerant of being on a leash with such a young child. They were there for my kids during the divorce, a very emotionally stressful time for us. I really think the little ratties, Rosie & Kyle helped my kids get through, they were a constant positive emotional relationship when everything else felt upside down.
It wasn’t just what the kids experienced, I felt it, too! They seemed to look at you and I just felt like they knew me, like these dogs could feel my emotions and witness me. I loved it. I found myself bonding with these rat terriers in a way I didn’t get with my bird dogs. They were more in tune and didn’t require a lot of “work” in managing them, they just fit in so well with our family, happy to be home with us or go wherever we went.
What’s the difference between a Service Animal and an Emotional Support Animal (ESA)?
With a service animal, a dog is trained to perform a specific task. In diabetic alert dogs, for example, the dog will alert you when you blood sugar is off and needs management. Emotional Support Animals are there for emotional support and stability, but they are not trained to do a specific task.
There are no regulatory body for service animals, if you say they are, then they are, but you may be asked to explain the task they are trained to do. ESAs, are not trained for a specific task and don’t always get the same acceptance of service animals.
The Truth About Service & Emotional Support Animals
In pursuing avenues to advertise my eventual cross of the rat terriers and German Shorthairs, I met a few veterans that shared a different side to things. They shared that there can be a darker side to emotional support animals, where there is so much responsibility placed on the dog that it isn’t always fair. The dogs give it everything they have, but it’s arguably too much to ask. Dogs aren’t meant to be our every piece of emotional support, we are supposed to spread that out to a handful of people, not a little dog. I think about my lovely husband, Bill, and how he is incredible, but that poor guy couldn’t be responsible for receiving all my emotions and putting them all on him, it’s too much for a human, it certainly is too much for a dog.
I also met some people who were looking for emotional support animals and I found that many were looking for a magic pill to make them feel better. They weren’t prepared to put the work into a service animal, all the training and socialization that a dog needs to be able to perform in nearly all environments. To be honest, the puppy phase can be stressful, you need to have a lot of patience and understanding and I didn’t feel a lot of people I was talking to did.
The truth is that dogs have different needs than humans. They love you unconditionally, they want to spend time with you, to be there with you every day, but they have different needs because they’re dogs. They need to have their nose engaged sniffing things, they want to lick new tastes and textures, they want to chase butterflies and lizards. In my mind, the best owners understand and embrace that the dog is a dog, not a human. They work to make a relationship that honors the dog’s needs and how a human plays into that. In exchange, the dog will give you his whole heart. It’s a beautiful thing, but it takes emotional maturity and that’s what so many of these people looking for a support animal seemed to be missing, the emotional maturity and I no longer felt comfortable putting my eventual pups into a situation like that. I wanted them to be respected more, catered to a little, so their needs were met.
Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you place your dog above all other things in your life, dogs can’t come before children or spouses, but they should be a valued member of the family, whose needs are recognized and accommodated. They don’t ask for a lot, but the owner needs to understand and appreciate the dog for these things.
The Pivot
I decided to focus on shifting my focus to ideal companion dogs and I stopped worrying about breeding for service and emotional support animals. My goal now is to help you have the perfect companion for you. A dog who is there with you to enjoy life together, whether that’s morning coffee together on the porch, going to work with you out in the yard, a simple walk in the evening, sharing some popcorn on the couch, or riding shotgun while you run your errands, that’s what I want. A dog who enhances your life and in exchange you love them and accommodate their needs. I’m always here to help you, I’ll answer questions, help you sort through decisions on care and training, and I’m always available should something happen and you can no longer care for your dog.
Ready to Get a Pup?
The best way to get started is to fill out our puppy application, this helps kick off the conversation! (PS. There are no right or wrong answers!)
Want to see available puppies?
See our available puppies and upcoming litters on our Available Puppies page. What if your new family member has already been born?!
Meet the Family
Want to meet the people behind Bear Paw? Meet our family and learn about how we all work together to raise our pups.