Alzheimer's Patient's Incredible Rescue Dog Guiding Her Home | Full Episode S1 E26

I got a call a few months ago from a man who tracked me down all the way from Sarasota, Florida. He had only one request, but man, was it a big one. He asked me if I can train a dog to help his wife find her way home. You see, his wife has Alzheimer's. June is the light of my life. We've been married for 43 years. Every day is as exciting as it was the day before. June is a very active person. She loves to go out on walks. She has done a lot of running. She's been in marathons. June wants to maintain her independence. What happens is that she knows that she is not the same person that she once was, and she becomes very frustrated with that. One of her favorite things to do is to take long walks around her own neighborhood. Sadly, her memory is beginning to fade, and she's having a little trouble finding her way home. When June walks by herself, there's always a bit of concern on my part. So it is important for me to feel that June is safe, and it's also important for her to be independent and safe. If something happens to her, I would have a hard time recovering from that. After hearing his story, I had to help. The thing is, you know, this is probably the first time in my life that I really have no idea if this can even be done. But I'm going to do everything I can to make this happen. Before Brandon could even consider the training process, he needed to find a dog who was capable of such a feat. I spent months looking for the perfect dog. I needed to find a dog that was very calm, yet very energetic when called upon, and most importantly, a dog that likes to work. And finally, I found that in Sadie. Sadie's a German Shepherd mix. German Shepherds, they're very fast learners. They're very hard workers. And even at their breaking point, they never quit. As with all dogs, Brandon first finds out if Sadie's had any training. Today is the first step in the training process. So I'm going to test Sadie's personality and intelligence by working her on the seven common commands, sit, stay, down, come, off, heel, and no. Come on. You want to work? Let me see what you know. Do you know a sit? Oh, there you go. Good, good. Off to a good start. Do you go down? No? You don't go down? How about a stay? No? No? That will be a no on the stay. Hold on, hold on. Off, off. I see you don't know that either. Hold on. After Brandon finds out what Sadie knows, or in this case, doesn't know, he tests her intelligence, how quickly she can learn. Whenever I pull a dog from the shelter that I'm going to use for service, I need to profile the dog physically and psychologically. Sit. Good. Good. Down. Good. Good. He's also looking to see how well she focuses, how alert she is, and if she can take direction. Good. Stay. Good. Good. The more you watch me, the easier it gets. Good. Good. Good. No, watch me. Good. Good. Within hours, Sadie picks up all seven common commands. Good girl. Something that takes most dogs a few days. Sadie's off to a great start. I'm really liking what I see. So tomorrow, we're going to jump right into urban tracking training. Sit. Good. Sit. Brandon is training Sadie a rescued German Shepherd mix. Good. That's a stay. She's a very fast learner, having already mastered the seven common commands. Down. Now, Sadie is ready to begin the advanced training she'll need in order to become a service dog for June. This means getting away from the ranch and hitting the pavement in the big city. Since June and Bruce live in a metropolitan area, I'm not going to train Sadie at my ranch, but I'm going to train her in L.A., which is a much more urban environment. The more I can train Sadie in the type of environment that she'll eventually be living in, the better. Brandon begins by simply walking Sadie around the neighborhood, getting her acclimated to the typical distractions of city streets. Good. Good. Good. Okay. Okay. As I take Sadie for a walk around the neighborhood, I'm doing nothing more than showing her the terrain. This is where she'll learn the techniques to become a tracking dog. Good. Once Sadie is familiar with the neighborhood, Brandon starts training her the basic tracking skills. Urban tracking is a very simple process to a dog. Dogs explore the world through their noses, so if you were to walk a dog down the sidewalk, what it does, it sniffs different areas. Those are called reference points. Now, if it wants to find its way back home, it simply remembers those reference points one at a time until it ends up where it started. Okay. Okay. We're back home. Now, Sadie is ready to begin learning the command, take me home. So I walked her down the sidewalk no more than about 10 feet, and I said the words, take me home. All right, here we go. You ready? Take me home. Take me home. Good. And right there, I did a U-turn and pulled her right back where we started. Take me home. At this point, she had no idea what the command means, so I had to physically walk her right back to the driveway. At that point, I praised her. We're back. We're back home. Good girl. And again, I repeated that process. Take me home. Good. Good, good, good. There you go. There you go. Now I walked 15 feet, 20 feet. Take me home. And she started understanding the U-turn. When I said the words, take me home, I didn't have to physically pull her any more. Now she understood when she hears the words, take me home, she will do a U-turn and walk right back to my driveway. Brandon usually teaches dogs not to pull, but when the take me home signal is given, Sadie becomes a guide dog, requiring her to gently pull in the direction back home. I repeat this process over and over. 30 feet turns into 50 feet, turns into 100 feet, turns into two and three blocks. It has to be a very slow process, because simply walking back to the house is not what I'm teaching her here. I'm teaching her reference points. I'm teaching her every time you walk by a tree, by a bush, a fire hydrant, remember what you walked by. Then, as a backup to the take me home command, Brandon teaches Sadie to respond to a unique ringtone he created for June's cell phone. Good. The cell phone alert tone is for Bruce. If June is gone for too long, Bruce can simply call the phone. The cell phone plays the alert tone, and from there, Sadie simply takes June right back home. Good girl. Take me home. Take me home. Good, good, good. There you go. Take me home. Take me home. Good. When I started out with Sadie a week ago, I really didn't know if it would be possible to teach her the take me home command. I'm amazed at the speed that she's catching on. Every day, I'm feeling more optimistic. But we still have a long way to go before she's ready for June and before I can truly call her a service dog. There you go. We're back home. We're back home. You see? Where we started. Just a pattern. Get it in your system. I've been working with Sadie now for the past couple weeks, teaching her the take me home command. Take me home. Take me home. Good. Sadie's doing really well. When I take her a few blocks away, she leads me back home every time. Until now, Brandon has been walking Sadie through the neighborhood in small sections. But June loves to take much longer walks in Sarasota. Probably on a daily basis, she walks 2 to 4 miles. Sadie needs to take her urban tracking to a much higher level. I'm going to walk for several miles and see if she can take me back home. It's a lot to ask of any dog, but Brandon feels that Sadie is ready for the challenge. Once Sadie feels comfortable with a few different routes home, then I throw her a curveball. I take her in a direction that she's never gone before. This will be a test on how her inner compass is working when she finds herself in an unfamiliar territory. Can she problem solve and find her way back home? The journey starts off like any other walk, with Sadie picking up scents along the way. But soon, the long route is finished, and it's time for Sadie to take Brandon home. Take me home. Good. At first, Sadie's on scent, and it looks like she's on the path. Then for the first time, she gets off track and wanders into new territory. She's actually going the wrong way, so I have to let her figure this out herself. Where's home? When this moment happened, I cannot intervene. I can't correct her to the point where I pull her back on track. She's a service dog. She is taking me home. I'm not taking her home. Where's home, Sadie? Up until today, Sadie has been doing great. She's been getting straight A's across the board. In fact, she's been getting 100%. Nope, take me home. Take me home. Nope, you're getting confused. I know. Today was an eye-opener. If Sadie can't learn to solve her own problems and fix the mistake, she's the wrong dog. Brandon is working with Sadie, a service dog in training. Up until today, Sadie's been a straight A student. However, Brandon stretched the boundaries, taking her on a longer, more complicated route. And now she's lost, unable to find her way home. Nope, take me home. Take me home. Nope, you're getting confused. I know. When finally, Sadie finds something familiar. Where's home, Sadie? Take me home. Take me home. There you go. Sadie has found her way back to a street she's familiar with and is confident of the way back home. It's a feat she'll repeat several more times, all from different places she's never been before. And it proves that she has excellent problem-solving skills. Good girl. Where's home? Where's home? There you go. Here we are. Good girl. Good, good, good. There you go. She's starting to understand where one street connects to another, and now she can solve her own problems, how to get back home. Brandon continues to work with Sadie for another month, and her tracking skills become almost flawless. Now Brandon is convinced that she's ready to make the trip to Florida. My plans for day one are basically restart all the training from scratch. California was the training ground. This is the proving ground. Sadie must prove that she can learn the take-me-home command again in a completely new environment before she can meet June and Bruce. Sadie, take me home. It's imperative for her status as a service dog, and if she doesn't pull it off, all of the time, effort, and sweat will be for nothing. So I started her off here the exact same way as I did in California. I did very short runs. First I did 20 feet, then 50 feet, then 100 feet. And within 20, 30 minutes, she was getting it. Good girl. Sadie was showing to me that she was eager to learn. She wanted to do this. So I went ahead and took her the entire route where June goes to the park. The next leg of the journey is a new experience for Sadie, crossing a bridge. With traffic on one side and water on the other, it's a whole new set of distractions for her to overcome. We got to the area where the bridge, where June gets a little fuzzy, and I said, take me home, and instantly Sadie does a U-turn. Sadie, take me home. Good. Good. Good. Take me home. There you go. She starts hustling over the bridge. Let's find home. Everything was going fine, and then around halfway over, she looks at me and she starts slowing down. What was happening is she was getting confused. She was frustrated. Come on. You can do it. Look, we're almost here. Though Sadie appears to be shutting down, it's an important part of the process for her to learn from her mistakes. I had to remind Sadie that this is a fun job we're doing to give her motivation. I couldn't do the work for her, but I can coach her into doing it right. And after a few minutes of this, something clicked inside of her head, and she was back on her old track. We're almost there. Take me home. Good girl. There you go. Training continues, and after a week, Brandon is certain that Sadie is ready to be taken home for good. There you go. Good girl. Good. High five. Give me a sit. Good. Two months ago, Brandon rescued a German Shepherd mix named Sadie. He's been training her to be a service dog unlike any he's ever trained before. June Anderson struggles with Alzheimer's disease. Her husband, Bruce, hopes that Sadie will be a good companion for June and help her find her way back when she goes for walks in the neighborhood. Now that Sadie has proved that she knows the way home, she finally gets to go there and meet her new family. June has been very excited about Sadie coming. I would venture guess that probably in the last five days, there's not been more than 10 minutes, aside when she's been sleeping, that she hasn't asked, is today the day Sadie's coming? When are we going to see Sadie? She's been so anticipating her arriving. And the most important test of all will be seeing how Sadie and June get along. Is Sadie right for June? Is June right for Sadie? Will they have good chemistry? Will they bond? These all play an important role when it comes to a service animal. There's somebody coming. There's somebody coming. There's somebody coming. Yeah, look at this. Hey, you. Hey, you. Come here. Come here. What a beautiful doggy. So pretty. When Sadie came into the house and saw June, the two of them just bonded. I mean, it was instantaneous. I mean, it didn't take but a few moments. They're kind of almost rolling around on the floor together. They were just becoming the closest and the best friends possible. And I was so happy to see that she and June bonded so quickly. You like her, June? Sometimes the bonding period could take days, if not weeks, sometimes months. But the bonding period with Sadie and June has already begun. It's already well on its way. I think you won her heart there, Sadie. Well, you did mine, too. Brandon spends a couple of weeks going on walks with June and Sadie, making sure that both of them understand me home command works. Take me home. And indeed, the months of hard work have really paid off. She's got it down. She's got it. Now that it's clear that Sadie and June are a perfect match, it's time for a very special graduation ceremony. See this? See this? Put that on. Put that on. Yeah. But Sadie has earned even more than her green graduation collar. This is your vest for life. It's a uniform that few dogs have earned the right to wear. And Sadie is a very special dog. Sadie will change our lives and change our lives dramatically. And I really believe that's going to be a tremendous asset to June, that June can maintain her independence, that I also can feel comfortable that she is safe. It's wonderful. Good girl, Sadie. From hopeless to a home, that's my mission. One dog at a time.