The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 9

Monday, August 10. 1992 THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Collection Pupils Leave Lasting Mark With Lawton Dog Trainer ian Art Showplace Log Cabin Houses Teacher's Legacy asking me if I could train their dogs," Zehfuss said. He spent three months at the West Virginia Canine College honing his skills, then returned and divorced his wife. Having no money, he sold his electric razor and hocked his ex-wife's leather coat, pocketing $47.50. With a business degree from a German university but a limited English vocabulary, Zehfuss knew he needed to be self-employed.

Ads were placed in the local newspaper, and soon he had his first customer the owner of a Rottweiler puppy. Business bloomed as satisfied clients 80 percent of whom are military spread the word after they'd transferred from Oklahoma. Zehfuss eventually was named Lawton Businessman of the Month. He's received phone calls from as far away as Germany from dog owners seeking instruction. "When I was struggling, my father and friends in Germany kept calling and telling me to come home," he said.

"I told them I had to make it on my own." He returned to the West Virginia college in 1990 and taught a year before coming back to Lawton with a new wife, Tonja, and three daughters. Today, he trains 50 dogs a week in obedience, conformation, protection, drug-sniffing, search and rescue, and man trailing. Lessons range from $50 for an eight-week puppy kindergarten course, to a one-year Schutzhund program, which Zehfuss says is the "most highly advanced training in the world." It combines the knowledge of tracking, on and off-leash obedience and protection. By Mark A. Hutchison Lawton Bureau LAWTON Matthias Zeh-fuss traces fingers over arm scars received during 10 years of training some of the world's most vicious and intelligent canines to protect their masters, sniff out drugs and track criminals.

He fondly recalls a 70-pound brute named Bronson, an English bull terrier that was leery of men, adored women and somewhat resembled Spuds Mackenzie. "I had company one day and I was putting him out. He jumped right up and latched on," Zehfuss said, referring to prominent bite marks on his right wrist. "I even had a coat on. His teeth went right through the sleeves.

Blood everywhere." On another occasion, he was training a German shepherd to attack the gun hand of a would-be assailant. The dog was a bit too aggressive. "I stopped counting at 16 the number of times I've been bitten," Zehfuss said. "I imagine I've trained well over 1,000 animals." In handling dogs ranging from scruffy mixed breeds to purebreds, Zehfuss claims to be one of few trainers who can teach any dog young or old a variety of functions. After working with canines in Germany, he's settled in Lawton and offers services to dog enthusiasts who know his reputation and don't mind paying for it.

Born in the city of Pirmasens in what was West Germany, he developed his passion for dog training by reading books. With his newfound knowledge and $1,300, he purchased Bron- Staff Photo by Mark A. Hutchison As a struggling young dog trainer, Matthias Zehfuss barked out commands to his Doberman, Champ, to attract attention from neighbors. son and rubbed elbows with members of the Schutzhund, an exclusive club of dog trainers. He learned the mechanics of his profession and formed a partnership with Joachim Frombach, a policeman who moonlighted as a trainer.

After leading Bronson to the 1986 world champion title, Zehfuss married a U.S. Army soldier who was transferred to Fort Sill. Two days before they departed Germany, he sold his prize terrier. Wanting another pupil, he purchased a Doberman pinsch-er in Calera, and drew attention from curious dog owners as he issued orders in German to Champ outside the family trailer. "I couldn't speak a lot of English, but I knew they were Staff Photo by Jim Argo few buildings on a hill outside Muskogee, she arranged for the construction of a log cabin that provided a loft apartment for herself and rooms to teach home economics to Indian girls.

Eventually, the cabin housed classrooms where English, history and arts and crafts were studied by the young people who arrived from around the nation and from the diverse nations of the American Indians. On the campus, it was called the Art Lodge. Between 1932 and her death in 1957, Ataloa began to gather the items that would become this collection of art and artifacts. As McKinney stands in the center of the main room, nothing in his sight was, to his knowledge, purchased with museum funds. Every item was donated by alumni, faculty, trustees or friends of the college.

There is a land grant signed by Abraham Lincoln, given by a former member of the board of trustees. There is a document signed by John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokees during their relocation to Oklahoma. There is a pipe bag from Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and a water jug from Geronimo of the Chiricahua Apaches, both purchased from the owners by a college administrator when those warriors were prisoners of war in Oklahoma. There are 17 pieces of pottery by the renowned Maria Martinez of San Every item in the museum at Ataloa Lodge in Muskogee was donated by alumni, faculty, friends or trustees of Bacone College, museum coordinator Tom McKinney says. By Ann DeFrange I', Staff Writer MUSKOGEE In a little log cabin on the BJacone College campus is arranged a unique collection that illustrates the history and the future of Indian culture.

It has come here oyer 60 years because donors who -herished these items, and also cherished an education and life experience at Bacone, wanted to place them together. Around a fireplace made of stones collected from all over thp United States, the exhibits at Ataloa Lodge are informally arranged so they may be viewed at eye level, touched for texture, examined with wonder. That, museum coordinator Tom McKinney said, is what the founder wanted. "She wanted a hands-on approach to the artifacts, to be able to; touch the rug and see- how it's put together. We've tried to; carry that on." Only very rare or fragile items are behind glass.

The museum is named after an instructor who left a legacy with Bacone. The remarkable Mary Stone McLendon was a Chickasaw native of the Kiamichi Mountains region. She did social work for a time in New York City tenements. She made European tours as Ataloa, "Chickasaw princess," to promote Indian culture through performances of storytelling and dance. Around 1930, when the campus was a mere "She wanted a hands-on approach to the artifacts, to be able to touch the rug and see how it's put together.

Tom McKinney, museum coordinator Tribal School Taking Applications Eskimo beadwork from a member of the Daughters of Confederacy, indicate the giving feeling: McKinney said they frequently hear, "We've got something we thought you'd like to have." He said, "It's a collection of things people loved personally and don't want to see hidden away. They are gifts back to the college for what the college gave to their kids while they were here." Also, he said, when an older family member dies, leaving a cherished collection relatives don't want, "they want to put it somewhere they know people will appreciate it." There is a bonnet and a war club from the Battle of Little Big Horn, brought to Bacone by the Sioux people. There is a set of 88 kachina dolls, given by a college trustee from Hugo. There are works left by artists who, over the decades, came to Bacone, painted their heritage on canvas, then left to be part of a bigger art world: Woody Crumbo, Janet Smith, Virginia Stroud. There is a sword used by a Cherokee officer during the Civil War.

McKinney says, "His granddaughter decided she wanted something from her family left here." That, and the recent acquisition of rare All About Us begin with registration at 8 a.m. at the Holiday Inn East. Workshop activities will end at 5 p.m. Activities are sched-. uled for children of all.

ages, but reservations for child care must be made by today. Reservations and more information are available by calling the federation at (918) 663-0384. From Staff and Wire Reports medial instruction, individualized instruction and competitive sports. Enrollment information is available by calling (918) 456-0631. A free workshop for parents of blind children will be conducted Saturday in Tulsa.

Sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind of Oklahoma, the workshop will Enrollment applications are being accepted for the Cherokee Nation's Sequoyah High School, which is five miles south of Tahlequah. Classes begin Tuesday at the fully accredited high school with grades nine through 12, tribal spokeswoman Lynn Howard said. Enrollment is available for students with a certificate degree of Idelfonso pueblo in New Mexico. Today, her work is prized and expensive; in the 1940s, when two of her children spent all their school years at Bacone, they brought the pots to school with price tags for the tourist trade stuck on the bottoms 50 cents, they still show. Indian blood card or a statement from their tribal agencies verifying Indian heritage.

Students are housed in dormitories with a 24-hour staff. The school offers a vocational program, computer training, special education, re Homes Group Requests Landfill's Permit Be Struck Down Proposed Requirements Listed least eight hours of orientation course work. Nursing aides who work in such units would be required to attend at least 20 hours of training covering subjects such as management of the dementia patient, identifying and alleviating the safety risks to the patient and providing assistance in the activities of daily living for dementia patients. Specialized units that are part of a general care nursing home would be required to provide a dining facility within the unit, ending the practice of feeding dementia patients in the same place where nondementia residents are served. Locks on doors leading into or out of the unit would be acceptable to prevent wandering by dementia patients, but the locks would have to be released in the event of a lire alarm, power failure or other emergency.

Access to outdoor areas would be required, but the exterior space must meet safety requirements and include walls or fences that prevent climbing. Call lights, water pitchers, trash cans and other items generally required by law in nursing homes may be removed from a dementia patient's room if the patient's physician determines that such items constitute a hazard. Floors must be maintained with "low gloss products" so that no shiny floors exist in a specialized unit. By J.E. McReynolds Staff Writer Here are some requirements included in a proposal to regulate nursing home units that specialize in the care of Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients: Employment by each specialized facility of a "qualified Alzheimer'sdementia professional" who would devote at least 20 hours per week to the direct supervision of the Alzheimer's and dementia unit.

This professional would be subject to minimum education requirements, as well as a mandate to attend 16 hours of continuing education each year. Specialized facilities also would be required to have a person on staff who devotes at least 20 hours per week to the supervision of activities in the unit. Residents of specialized facilities would be provided direct care services peculiar to their needs. Specialized units also would have to provide special safety and security measures and create a family support group which meets at least quarterly to help the families of dementia victims deal with the stress of caring for their loved ones. All staff members assigned to the unit would be required to have documented training in the care and handling of residents with Alzheimer's and other dementias, including at this area," he said.

Moore said the regulations would only apply to nursing homes that specifically claim to offer specialized care. "We're not saying that any nursing home cannot take a dementia patient unless they comply with these regulations," she said. "We're saying if you hold yourselves out as an Alzheimer's or dementia facility, you will be held to a higher standard." Botli Moore and Rawlings said that higher standard may well lead to higher rates for the care of dementia patients. "Specialized rates are coming," Rawlings said. "Intensive staffing carries with it higher costs." Currently, Oklahoma's Medicaid rate for nursing home care does not differentiate between dementia patients and nonde-mentia patients.

About 66 percent of the state's 28,000 nursing home residents are on Medicaid, according to industry estimates. More than 50 percent of nursing home admissions involve patients with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, Melinda Man-oles, communications director for the Oklahoma Nursing Home Association, said. As of last year, Manoles said, more than 10 percent of the state's nursing homes offered some form of specialized care for dementia victims. Most charged more for the services, An estimated 70,000 Oklaho-mans have some form of irreversible dementia, with Alzheimer's as the leading suspected cause, Gail Deaton, executive director of the Oklahoma City chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, said. The disease, which is not a mental illness and can only be confirmed by an autopsy, attacks the brain and results in impaired thinking and bohavior, "Without the regulations," Deaton said, "thero are nursing homos out there that advertise (that they provide specialized care), and they may even charge From Page 1 plain when abused or neglected, and they are less likely to be believed when they do complain, she said.

Also, dementia patients generally aren't good witnesses in court or administrative proceedings. Rawlings also is concerned that regulations pertaining to security, designed to curtail the common problem of wandering by dementia victims, could go too far if the doors won't open in an emergency. "We've got to watch that we don't protect ourselves to death," he said. Now in its seventh draft, the proposed regulations for nursing homes claiming to offer specialized dementia services would establish a standard of care for residents with severe forms of dementia. Once the task force finishes its work, the proposal must still go through a long-term care advisory board at the health department, then go before the state Board of Health.

Rebecca Moore, administrator af the health department's special health services division and a task force member, said she hopes the proposal will be ready for the health board's November meeting, If approved with an emergency clause, the regulations would be jffective immediately unless lixed by Gov. David Walters, Rawlings said the regulations vbuld end the problem of nurs-ng homes advertising that they jffer specialized care for victims without providing mything different than what is jffered all nursing home resi-iehts, "There is a difference between saying you have a specialized and providing it," he said, Still, he said the proposal is not arimarily designed to punish lursing homos that may have nade unsubstantiated claims in past, "It's just time to move ahead in 1 much of the testing is co-owner of the land and stands to profit from the landfill. The group also contends a state law passed during the last legislative session prohibits landfills in areas within five miles of the epicenter of a known earthquake measuring more than 4.0 on the Richter scale. They say the Hallco site is within the boundary of a June 17, 1959, earthquake that measured 4.8 on the Richter scale. "We just want to sit around the table with them (health department officials) and tell them what we know," -Tommy Hawthorne, a Tri-Creek member, said.

Ellen Bussert, environmental advocate with the health depart- 1 ment, said a meeting is possible. "If new or alarming issues are brought up, certainly we'd do more gating," she said. The health depart- ment has asked Hallco for information con- cerning the oarth- quake zone. Robert Hall said Thursday the information will show that according to 1988 studies by the U.S." Geological Survey, proposed landfill is 34' miles from the epicon-: tor of the 1959 earth- quake. By Mark A.

Hutchison Lawton Bureau LAWTON State health department officials may meet with an environmental group here to discuss additional evidence concerning a proposed nonhazardous waste landfill. The Tri-Creek Preservation Association has submitted a letter to health commissioner Joan Leavitt and lawmakers listing four reasons why a permit for the Hallco Environmental Inc. facility should be revoked. Since 1990, the Oklahoma City company has tried to establish a landfill on 80 acres southwest of Lawton. A permit was granted by the health department in October, but attorneys for Tri-Creek blocked the landfill opening by getting a temporary injunction in Comanche County District Court.

Hallco is challenging that injunction in the state Supreme Court. In its letter, Tri-Creek claims the health department has not recognized potable water found in a test well drilled near the site; that health department onginoers in August 1991 recommended additional testing for groundwater; and that an engineer who supervised thing we have to do is establish that a patient has a dementia and not a depression masquerading as a dementia." As awareness and Medicaid funding increase for dementia care, Rawlings hopes fewer people will be misdiagnosed. "A lot of time, people (with dementia) are sent to a psychiatric facility because thoro's no placo olso to go," ho said, "It's like sending someone with a broken arm to a tuberculosis unit, They don't do broken arms," With the new regulations for specialized units, state officials hope to fix what's broken with the current system, more, but do they actually provide specialized care? "At least with the regulations, they would have to do what they say," Deaton said only about six states have regulations for specialized units, and not all of them are mandatory. Another five states, including Oklahoma, are in the process of adopting regulations, she said. "These regulations would establish standards for basic care," Deaton said, "If you wanted to be an exemplary facility you would go beyond these standards," Indeed, a new handbook from the national Alzheimer's Associ ation urges advocates to press for higher standards.

"It is our hope that any legislation which defines a minimal standard will not become the maximum standard of performance," says the handbook, "Guidelines for Dignity: Goals of Specialized AlzheimerDementia Care in Residential Settings," The handbook includos recommendations that go far beyond those contained in Oklahoma's proposed regulations, Still, Rawlings said, the proposal is a giant step in the right diroction, "Look, everybody is groping with this," he said, "The first.