Story of the Newfoundland Bella

Recieving the First Lady Award at the Governers Manion. Pictured is Leslie Nord, Jennifer Cave, and Cathy Ames.

I rescued Bella, my Newfie, with the hope of learning to train her to do therapy work and teach me how to train service dog work. I was fully aware that selecting a dog by myself had a high possibility of becoming a well trained pet and I was willing to take that chance since I did want a Newfie. When I met Bella, I was amazed by her willingness to please me, her quickness to learn, and her pedigree (she was one of four breeder dumps). I had actually wanted a newf from the stud. The stars aligned and I took an 18 month old Newfie home with me.

I worked daily with her on socializing her and doing obedience. We had lots of available distractions in the neighborhood, dogs, wild animals, walkers, bicycles, and cars to help while we trained. As we perfected basic obedience and behaviors based on the CGC and PAT, I began to look for a reputable company that did Service Dog and Therapy dog work. I found Pawsibilities Unleashed and was impressed by their reviews and work.

There were two problems. I had to drive to get there. And from the website information, I had to attend a group class. Both things terrorized me. I contacted Liz Norris and we spoke on the phone for quite some time. She assured me that she would be there for me during class and would help me with my anxiety. She convinced me (and did in fact) insure that I was not overwhelmed during a single class at Pawsibilities, an amazing feat.

While in class at Pawsibilities Unleashed, Bella passed her temperament test to be a therapy dog. She demonstrated her stellar obedience skills and her willingness to try new things like going down the slide of the Little Tykes playset. But she did seem to be a bit “naughty”. Occasionally, she would stand up and put both front paws on my shoulders. I was very embarrassed by this and could not explain it. But Liz figured out the signal Bella was sending and interpreted it for me. It occurred every time my blood sugar was low. Bella was naturally alerting! Her career as a dual trained dog was beginning. Liz took the time to teach me how to shape her alerts and list the other behaviors she needed to learn to become a service dog. In December of 2011, after passing a public access type test and completing her supervised therapy hours, Bella became both a service and therapy dog.

Bella making sure her hypoglycemia alert doesn't get ignored.

During our training, I had been scouting places for Bella and me and to do therapy work. While doing this, I had been working on a proposal to present to a school to volunteer at their school. We entered into an agreement with Noe Middle School, where we worked four days a week doing therapy work in a variety of ways with students.

Bella was well loved at Noe Middle School. She worked there five and half years helping hundreds of children. During that time, she was recognized for a Gheens Foundation Grant, was featured on KET, and was my partner in the First Lady Award at the Governor’s Mansion for our program at Noe Middle School. She also became certified as a crisis comfort dog Hope Animal Assisted Crisis Response. None of this would have been possible without Liz Norris and Pawsibilities Unleashed. Bella has retired and her place at Noe has been taken by Sam, a beagle rescue, also certified by Pawsibilities Unleashed.

Watch Bella Marie Nord on the news and see what school therapy dogs do HERE.