Gilbert, the Hortmans’ golden retriever, was ‘too happy-go-lucky’ to be a service dog

Gilbert, the four-year-old golden retriever trained by Rep. Melissa Hortman to be a service dog, was too friendly for a working dog’s life. So, he became the family pet, much to Hortman’s delight.

“A lot of dogs just want to be around people — all people” — a wonderful trait that Gilbert shared, but a less-desirable attribute in service dogs, who need to focus on one person, said Alyssa Golob, executive director of the nonprofit Helping Paws, which trains and places service animals with the help of volunteers like the Hortmans.

Gilbert was humanely euthanized by the Hortmans’ adult children after he was gravely injured in the early Saturday shooting that killed his owners, according to Rep. Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park.

During a safety meeting after the shooting, the House sergeant-at-arms told members that Gilbert had to be put down. Gilbert formerly made appearances in legislative Zoom meetings, barking or jumping up on Hortman, Koegel said.

“When I heard that Gilbert had passed, too, I just knew it was because Melissa needed him. She needed him with her,” Koegel said.

In a statement released Monday night, Hortman’s children Sophie and Colin said one way to keep their parents’ memory alive would be to “pet a dog...a golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.”

The Hortmans became involved with Helping Paws, which helps find service animals for people with disabilities, veterans and first responders, as part of their daughter Sophie’s service project during her senior year in high school, Golob said.

Rep. Hortman’s husband, Mark, took over training their first recruit, Minnie, when Sophie went to college, Golob said.

Gilbert, their second trainee, came in 2021, a time when Rep. Hortman was concerned for her safety following the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol, colleagues said. It had also been a difficult time for Hortman amid the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder.

Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, called the decision “classic Melissa,”

“When she wanted a dog, because she was having a hard time, she didn’t just get a dog — she got a dog that she had to give away because it was a service animal," Stephenson said.

Hortman was dedicated to Gilbert’s lessons, moving caucus meetings to attend Gilbert’s weekly training, said Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis.

Gilbert excelled at one thing — friendliness — limiting his career prospects.

“This was that one day when Gilbert was really well-behaved in class,” Hortman joked on a Facebook post of her and the dog in 2022.

When Gilbert left the Hortman home for a last-ditch training effort, Hortman missed him deeply. Stephenson said her friends at the Legislature came up with schemes to get him back to Hortman.

They had an amendment drafted to the tax bill requiring the revenue commissioner to seize Gilbert and return him to the House speaker. Another idea: When the sergeant-at-arms called in absentee legislators at the beginning of a floor session, they wanted to provide further instruction to bring in the pup.

Ultimately, it did not take any legislative jests to keep Gilbert with the Hortmans.

Service dogs in training fail to graduate for many reasons, including allergies, lack of focus or not being interested in the work. Gilbert “was just too happy-go-lucky,” Golob said.

“When he dropped out, I think that was probably her happiest moment of the whole training,” Long said.

He noted Hortman once quipped to him that, “She loved Mark Hortman, but the true love of her life was Gilbert.”

Golob said it takes special people to volunteer for training a service dog — a 2.5-year process — knowing the animal is meant to eventually live with someone else.

“Everyone gets through with their own mantra,” she said. “Some will say, ‘I want the dog, but they need the dog.’”

The Hortmans previously trained Minnie, a black Lab now 11½ years old.

Aric Elsner, who received Minnie, said the Lab came to him at the hardest time in his life. In the last couple of years of a nearly 26-year military career, he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and a muscle-skeleton condition.

“After a few months of having the dog, though, I started to reconnect, getting out into the community, going to my kids’ stuff,” he said.

He’s since gone back to school and started a new career.

“She’s a life-changer for me and my family, and I’m just so thankful for Sophie and Mark and for Melissa,” he said.

Helping Paws announced on Facebook it will establish a fund honoring the Hortmans and Gilbert. It will support placing service dogs with veterans and first responders who have PTSD.

Jessie Van Berkel of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.