09/02/2026
A few days ago I said there would be a new introduction soon.
Before I make it, I want to explain why I’ve decided to share this part. This journey is an incredibly vulnerable place for me.
I am a disabled handler who lost a service dog and now has to begin again. I am also a dual-certified service-dog instructor who spends a great deal of time helping other people make decisions about dogs, training, risk and what gives a team the best reasonable chance of succeeding.
It turns out those are very different seats to sit in.
Knowing a lot, doesn’t make this easier. If anything, sometimes it means knowing exactly how much I cannot know.
There is no puppy test that tells me what a dog will be at three years old. No pedigree without gaps or uncertainty. No breeder, breed, training method or amount of professional experience that can guarantee a successful service dog.
And there definitely isn’t a formula for recreating what I had with Levi. 💔
I didn’t carefully research breeds and select a Great Dane because I thought, “Obviously. Ideal service dog.” 😂. Life got weird. Levi happened.
And then somehow, over time, all of these tiny pieces of two lives fit together in a way I never could have planned.
It was magical.
I can’t select that from a litter again, but what I can do is use what I know to stack the deck responsibly, be honest about what I don’t know, and make thoughtful choices while leaving room for the fact that the disabled human living at the other end of the leash matters, too.
And that’s the part I’ve decided to share.
And not because I think my choices should become anyone else’s choices.
Because somewhere, someday, another disabled person may be sitting where I am now—trying to balance professional recommendations, evidence, risk, their own needs, and the very human hope that the next partnership might become something extraordinary too.
So I’m going to let you watch me do it in real time, including the parts where I’m uncertain. Including the things I can’t verify. Including the preferences that are simply mine.
And, if necessary, including the places where I discover I was wrong, because I’m a science nerd to my core.
I think that’s considerably more useful than telling you afterward that I did everything perfectly. Because I won’t, and it won’t. And because beauty and magic can’t be planned, but risk can. And it’s all about finding what that balance means for you as an individual.
And very soon, you get to meet Emmett. ❤️
