Overcoming the odds

BY ELISHA VALLADARES-CORMIER

Tiffin man does not let his disabilities hold him back from building a meaningful life.

Standing amid a hectic pack of dogs, Ernie Berry, 40, looks nothing if not at peace. Despite the chaos, all Ernie needs is a simple voice command, gesture or even facial expression to keep the dogs in line. Making it all the more remarkable is that Ernie, legally blind since birth, can’t see more than the general shape of objects, and the cane he’s left reliant on due to a muscular and neurological disease could seemingly be knocked over at any moment by the rambunctious canines. But yet, remarkably, Ernie remains in complete control. His ability to understand dogs led him in in July 2023 to start Good Shepherd Kennels, a dog boarding and training business based out of his Green Springs home. “Training dogs is just like training one’s spiritual life,” Ernie, a parishioner of St. Joseph Parish in Tiffin, said. “It takes a lot of discipline and the ability to control — or harness — our passions. And that’s going to produce a good Catholic and dog every time.”

Ernie’s faced adversity all his life. Doctors believe he suffered severe optic nerve damage in utero, leading to him being born legally blind. And at age 12, he was diagnosed with spastic paraplegic neuropathy, losing all strength and control in his legs, and would spend months rotating from bed to wheelchair.

But through sheer will and determination — and God’s grace, no doubt — Ernie can now walk with a cane and has honed his senses and mental skills sharply, approaching life with new vigor. He’s estimated that he’s read, or rather, listened to about 100,000 books, and he’s become a champion chess player with other savant tendencies.

“When God takes something away, he gives something more,” said Ernie, who grew up in nondenominational churches before becoming Catholic in 2019. “I might never be able to run a marathon, but I can train my brain to recall and retain everything I hear and learn.”

SEARCHING FOR PURPOSE

Ernie graduated from the University of Toledo in 2005 with bachelor’s degrees in political science and history; his appetite for public service led him to run for Toledo City Council that year while pursuing a master’s degree in public administration. Though he didn’t win, he was offered a job in Mayor-elect Carty Finkbeiner’s administration.

But the internal politics of public service didn’t sit well with Ernie, and realizing this wouldn’t fulfill him, he felt a call to enter full-time Christian ministry. “I concluded that true public service isn’t working for the government, but rather preaching the Gospel and calling the public to a Christ-centered life,” he said. In 2012, to prepare for this new chapter, he enrolled in theological classes at Valor Christian College in Columbus, borrowing money from private individuals to pay for his schooling and living costs.

After studying in Columbus for two years, Ernie returned to his parent’s home in Green Springs to minister at a local nursing home. But soon, two creditors asked Ernie for their funds back, much ahead of the agreed-upon repayment timeline. When Ernie was unable to return the amount — about $23,000 — the two pressed charges; in the ensuing legal process, Ernie took a plea deal to avoid a grand jury trial. In addition to paying restitution, he was sentenced to spend six months in the Wood County Justice Center beginning in March 2015.

It was while incarcerated, at his lowest point, that Ernie found himself questioning the Protestant theology and worldview he’d grown up with. While in prison, Ernie listened to hours of Catholic radio and audiobooks. Throughout his life, Ernie’s beliefs had never fully lined up with any one denomination, but the more he learned about Catholicism, “the blinders came off.”

“If you get six months of just Catholic apologetics and you don’t become Catholic, you must just be obstinate, right?” Ernie reflected with a wry chuckle. He entered the Catholic Church in 2019 at the Easter Vigil.

NEW BEGINNINGS

After being released, Ernie began working at Tiffin YMCA, coordinating youth programming and sharing his passion for chess, among other activities, with the youth. When that position was eliminated, however, he entered into a state of employment limbo. But in 2022, Ernie offered to help train a friend’s German Shepherd puppy — a notoriously difficult dog to discipline — with resounding success.

This sparked the idea for Good Shepherd Kennels. Having been accompanied almost everywhere by a guide dog since he was 15, Ernie knew he had what it took to train and care for dogs and renovated a shed on his parent’s property into a kennel, which now houses 6-10 dogs a day. It’s been a satisfying success, he said.

“It’s growing quicker than anyone ever expected, including myself,” Ernie said. “We’ve built a little community out here, and it allows me to minister to the dogs and owners alike, which was the inspiration for the Good Shepherd name.”

Most days now, Ernie, accompanied by a dog from the kennel, rides the paratransit bus into Tiffin to attend morning Mass at St. Mary Church. Afterward, he’ll run errands or work out at the gym, bringing the dog along with him. He’ll then pick up another dog and ride the bus home with both.

There are rarely any behavioral issues from the dogs in large part, Ernie says, because of his philosophy of uptraining the dogs, or exposing them to a wide variety of environments and people for the dogs to stay calm and disciplined no matter where they are, and ensuring they’re properly socialized around other dogs. Many of the dog’s owners, Ernie said, have said the difference in their dog’s behavior and temperament is day and night after working with him.

And as busy as he is, Ernie — with his dogs — continues to give of himself to others. On weekends, he hosts Chess, Cubes, Books & Dogs at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library, where he’ll engage with people of all ages in chess, good conversation or solving a Rubik’s cube. He also helps place dogs in need of a home with veterans looking for a canine companion through a Pets for Vets program. For local parades, he’ll often walk with several of his dogs, including an Alaskan Malamute, Blue, that will pull someone sitting on a sulky carriage throughout the parade.

“I really believe this is the occupational vocation God called me to,” Ernie said. “Every time I work with a new customer or talk with someone on the bus or at the library, I approach them as if I’m ministering directly to Christ.”