Rebel was my second Leader Dog. He was a lab/shepard cross, and looked more like a black shepard than anything else. He was also a little hyper, especially compared to Otto. I got Rebel in May of 1985, the first semester I was in grad school. At first, I was not certain that Rebel and I were going to get along. He was very attached to his trainer, and even at Leader Dog he was high strung. I spent a number of nights at Leader Dog scratching his ears and rubbing his tummy so he'd go to sleep. We did manage to work things out, and become good friends. He wasn't the "chick magnet" that Otto was, but he was very handsome. Rebel made the trip to Alaska with me after grad school, and he liked it there, except for the cold feet when it was REALLY COLD! If I stopped somewhere to talk to someone outside, he would start lifting his feet off the ground so that they wouldn't be exposed to the cold sidewalks. It looked pretty funny, and kind of pitiful, and I tried not to let that happen very often. I was thinking one day what it would look like if he tried to lift all four feet at once. Rebel also came to Western New York with us, and I think he liked the weather better there. We spent lots of time letting him run and play outside when he wasn't working. He especially enjoyed playing Frisbee, and he even managed to bring the disk back to me after he retrieved it.
Rebel retired to Sharon and Ted's ranch in February of 1990, when Shiner arrived.
Rebel had a number of nicknames. "Rebelface" was most often used. He was also known for his very hard tail. He wagged it so
hard against the wall in our apartment in Fairbanks that it started to bleed. (the tail, not the wall)
The phrase "waggawaggawagga" also started with Rebel, since he was always wagging his tail, without any restraint. (Note: The above should be said fairly quickly, as if you were watching a dog wag his/her tail vigorously.)
Rebel passed away in December, 1996.