Cocky Pyle

CH Claddagh’s Eye Of The Wind CGC CGCA THD TKN TKI went over the Rainbow Bridge on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Cocky was a Champion in the show ring and titled in everything I ever asked him to do with me. He was the recipient of the first annual Colliers International Service Award for Public Service in Columbia, SC. He was also the recipient of the AKC Humane Fund Awards for Canine Excellence in recognition of dogs in the service of mankind 2016. This lovely boy had a sense of humor and was always entertaining us with his smiles. He was an extremely affectionate dog and wouldn’t go to bed at night until he received pats from his dad and face kisses from me. If he didn’t think he had received enough he would circle back for another round before he would settle down to sleep. My golden alarm would wake me each morning with a cold wet nose and a sneeze.

Cocky was part of a Delta/Pet Partners Therapy team and a HOPE Animal Assisted Crisis Response team. When he became a HOPE dog he was written up in the State and Aiken Standard and was photographed with Governor Nikki Hayley for HOPE. He had more empathy than any dog I have ever bred and spent 10 years of his life bringing comfort, love, joy and smiles to PTSD, long term care and hospice patients at the Dorn Veterans Hospital, helping college students through stressful finals, giving comfort and putting on trick performances for families Red Cross shelters after disasters and losses and bringing comfort to citizens and visitors in Charleston after the Emmanuel Church disaster and after college shootings in Columbia and Augusta.

Cocky had so much patience working with those who needed comfort. He would sit for hours patiently next to someone with PTSD quietly, he would lay down in the middle of a ring of children in a shelter and let them love and hug him and cry into his fur, patiently waiting for them to feel better. His Chessie smiles would make people laugh. His favorite toy was a ball and he never passed one without snatching it and hiding it under our bed.

When Chuck and I became ill he was our guardian and companion. He will be missed and our hearts will be permanently broken with his loss.