Rottie seeing eye dog

[Rene Allegrini]

Rottweiller eye dog

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Mark Enston lost his eyesight to diabetes in the early 90s and since then has had to rely on the help of a seeing eye dog to get around.

But if you are imagining one of those lovely golden labradors harnessed to Mark, think again - his seeing eye dog is a rottweiler.

Bella, who has just graduated from eye dog school, is his second rottweiler eye dog he has had in 15 years, and she is a highly accomplished dog at that – she has just been put through her paces by the Seeing Eye Dog Association from Melbourne and has gained international accreditation.

Now Mark has nothing in particular against labradors, in fact he says “most of them are wonderful featherless quadrupeds,” but he did get attacked by one when he was a kid.

He says “rotties” are beautiful dogs who just get really bad PR.

“They are just the most amazing dogs, I was a single father, blind and I had a two year old daughter and I raised her with my guide dog and she was just like, the best dog, you know, totally trustworthy, no sign of any of the agro that they are reported to have. I couldn’t have asked to have a better dog,” he said.

Mark told the Morning Show that police in several states in Australia uses “rotties” in their dog squads. He said all dogs thrived having a mission in life, his dog was constantly watchful, making sure he was all right. She was also highly intelligent with a keen sense of what’s going on and whether people were friendly or not and how to get out of dangerous situations.

He said he had a friend with a female rottweiler and she even trained her dog to leave the room when she needed to break wind – and actually looked embarrassed when she did not.

Mark, who is an English teacher and now totally without sight, said he didn’t mind if people wanted to pat his dog when he was waiting in a queue. And, in spite of Bella’s appearance, plenty did.

Rottweiler eye dog. 29 May 2007. ABC Perth. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Lynne1010]

Hi Rene,

Thanks for a wonderful news story. It is always nice to see positve Rottweiler news for a change!

Lynne Panno