It’s a tail as old as time: the foster fail. You say “I’m just gonna try out having a dog,” and then the little floof steals your heart and stays forever. (Unless you’re Puppy Bowl ref Dan Schachner and foster for 10 years before taking the plunge.) So it went for Amanda McCloskey when she relocated to Texas. She was living on her own and wanted a dog for companionship and for medical reasons. Amanda has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which means she is prone to fainting. She was advised that a dog could be specifically trained to help her recover from falls, so she started fostering five-month-old Ryder from a pet rescue last November. After about one day she knew she had to adopt him. A few days after that, Ryder convinced Amanda that he was also meant to be her medical alert dog:
About POTS: POTS is a condition that causes the heart to beat faster than usual when a person transitions from sitting or lying down to standing up, which can lead to lightheadedness, fainting, brain fog, and falls. “If I am having an episode, it’s very common for me to trip. I’ve tripped and fallen quite a bit. I’ve ended up in the emergency room because of that,” McCloskey tells PEOPLE of the effect POTS has had on her. With a medical alert dog trained to assist a person with POTS, McCloskey could have a companion to warn her of oncoming episodes and retrieve objects for her, like a phone or cane, when she falls.
Foster fail: Before committing to a medical alert dog, McCloskey wanted to spend time with a dog at her place, so she fostered five-month-old Ryder. “It was supposed to be just a short-term foster. I picked up Ryder, brought him home, and about a day later, I fell in love with him. I was like, ‘Okay, there’s something about you. We have this connection, now,’” McCloskey says. Shocked by how quickly she fell in love with Ryder, McCloskey accepted her “foster fail” and decided to adopt the young dog. A few days later, Ryder surprised her again.
Ryder was already on alert: “We’re just watching TV, and he just starts barking at me,” McCloskey recalls. At first, the pet parent thought Ryder wanted to go outside, so she stood up to get the dog ready. “I stood up to let him out, and that’s when my watch started going off, letting me know that my heart rate was over 130. I got super dizzy and sort of blacked out,” McCloskey says. “That was a POTS episode, and that’s when I realized. I was like, ‘Oh, you were trying to tell me something was wrong with me,’” she says of Ryder’s unusual barking. “I was like, ‘I think you’re going to be great for a medical alert dog.’”
The perfect choice: Ryder’s readiness to step in and speak up when he sensed something was off — likely through smelling a shift in McCloskey’s body chemistry — encouraged McCloskey to look into making the former foster dog her medical alert canine. “I was like, ‘Oh, I guess this is a sign that he’s the perfect choice,’” she says of Ryder’s adoption. As part of the process, McCloskey did an Embark dog DNA test and discovered that Ryder, a slim, short-haired, black-and-brown dog with perky-yet-floppy ears, was 30 percent golden retriever, a dog breed renowned for their trainability as service animals.
Training has begun: “We just started the scent training last week, and he’s learning retrieval. He knows fetch, but it’s not always, ‘Give it back to me right now,’ it’s ‘Let me go play with it.’ That’s what we’re working on,” she adds. Once Ryder completes training, which is still months away, he should be able to help alert McCloskey to oncoming POTS episodes — allowing her to find a safe place to rest until they pass — and be able to retrieve items for her to prevent POTS episodes — because bending over to grab something can trigger an episode.
We don’t deserve these glorious creatures, I swear. All they want to do is help, whether it’s on the farm, in government, volunteering at children’s hospitals, or just being attuned to their person’s health. And all they ask for in return is every ounce of food in the pantry, your permanent & undivided attention, and half of the bed to sleep in (the same half you’re occupying). Amanda has said that she already feels more comfortable going out and about knowing that Ryder is looking after her. Of course it also helps that she’s stepping out with the most dashing of all companions, with his signature red-checked bow tie, and those ears that are indeed “perky-yet-floppy.” Congrats to Amanda and Ryder on the journey they’re starting together. It truly was meant to be. And you know what another word for that is? Kismet! (Yes I went there, branding is everything.)
