Rescuers Save Dogs
Rescuers say two emaciated dogs taken from a Des Moines home on Thursday likely had weeks or less to live.
According to a release, when Duke (brown) and Mariah (black) were removed from the home by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa (ARL), Animal Service Officers said they were “literally skin and bones.”
Rescuers say Duke weighed 37.5 pounds (half of what this normal weight should have been).
Once the dogs were removed from the home, an ARL Emergency Care Team was able to begin caring for the dogs immediately, giving them fluids for dehydration, giving the dogs their “first food they’d had in who knows how long,” and implementing a re-feeding program to help the dogs safely regain weight.
Duke and Mariah will continue to be monitored by a medical team.
According to ARL, “even in their frail state, they could not stop wagging their tails” the group said of the dogs after being rescued, adding that “Duke and Mariah didn’t get this way overnight…their journey to recovery is expected to be long…We’re taking things one day at a time right now.”
Hero Dog Awards
Celebrated dog trainer Sara Carson and her sidekick Hero are excited to be on the brink of another prestigious honour.
The former North Bay resident and finalist on America’s Got Talent says she’s hoping a seven-year dream may soon come true.
The 25-year-old now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and fellow dog-trainer John Devine.
“I always wanted Hero to go to the American Humane Hero Dog Awards.
“It’s pretty exciting that Hero received enough votes to make it into the semi-finals! It almost feels like we are on America’s Got Talent again!” she said on social media. “If he wins his category we will be attending the gala and be in the running to win the overall Hero Dog Award!
“Thank you so much for all the amazing support!”
The website says “The American Humane Hero Dog Awards is an annual, nationwide competition that searches out and recognizes America’s Hero Dogs – often ordinary dogs who do extraordinary things, whether it’s saving lives on the battlefield, lending sight or hearing to a human companion, or simply providing the tail-wagging welcome a pet owner relishes at the end of a hard day.”
“Hero entered my life when I was 17 years old,” says Carson. “I was anti-social, had family issues, and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I was not planning on making him my service dog until I realized how much he could help me. Working through ongoing medical issues and pushing me to overcome some hurdles, he gave me a future I was excited about. Together we have traveled to every state in the USA, performed on the largest stages and most importantly he became the Hero I truly needed.”
“We have been using our platforms to help educate and bring awareness to service dogs. I am so thankful that Hero is such a stable dog and has been able to handle other dogs in public. Hopefully, as we continue to educate we can make a difference.
“Going into his eighth year with me, he is starting to slow down and I am having to make the hard decision to retire him. I am hoping that our last working year together can be as memorable as the past eight amazing years.
“Everyone Needs a Hero & I’m so glad I found mine.”
Voting closes July 16.
Winners in each of seven categories are honored on Hallmark Channel’s nationwide broadcast of the American Humane Hero Dog Awards this October.
Dingo Caught On Camera
“I have never seen a more photogenic animal,” he said.
Mr Summers spotted the dingo on Ranch Avenue, which is close to the national park. It’s only the second time he’s seen a dingo in the area, having lived there for more than a decade.
In January, Mr Summers passed another dingo on the street in the mid-afternoon heat as he headed to Glenbrook swimming pool to cool off.
Hailing from Scotland, he said he found all Australian wildlife fascinating, and was there to observe and document what he saw.
It follows letterboxing by the National Parks and Wildlife Service warning about wild dogs in the area and advising residents not to approach or feed the animals.
Cameron Chaffey, the acting director of Blue Mountains NPWS, said the wild dogs were not encroaching in other Blue Mountains villages and had been dispersed at Glenbrook in the past week.
He said while the Euroka Clearing campground at Glenbrook had been closed due to coronavirus restrictions, the wild dogs had been coming through the national park. With this campground open again and more people about, the dogs had dispersed.
Meanwhile, the NPWS has been conducting aerial 1080 baiting to control wild dogs and foxes at nine locations in the Upper Mountains.
“It’s post-fire conservation recovery in areas burnt by fire that get wild dogs encroaching and foxes, which puts pressure on the native wildlife,” Mr Chaffey said.
With great swathes of understorey wiped out by last season’s bushfires, wild dogs and foxes have been able to access more bushland, preying on small mammals that have little ground cover in which to hide, he said.
Mr Chaffey said the aerial baiting would continue several times a year over the next several years throughout the wider Blue Mountains area.
The baiting is currently occurring at: Andersons trail, Dunphys Campground, Evans Lookout, Grand Canyon track, Ingar Campground, Mount Banks Summit walk, Mount Hay Road in Leura, Mount Hay Summit walking track and Narrow Neck trail in Katoomba.
Signs advising of the baiting have been installed in these areas. Fresh meat, containing 1080 (sodium fluroacetate) poison is used for the bait.
NPWS advises that pets and working dogs must be restrained or muzzled in the vicinity and must not enter the baiting location, as 1080 is lethal to cats and dogs. Domestic pets are not permitted in NSW national parks and reserves.
Apple The Comfort Dog
She doesn’t catch criminals, but she does help their victims. Meet Apple, the facility comfort dog, who recently joined the Montrose Police Department to calm victims, officers, and City of Montrose staffers.
“What a facility dog will do is create a calming environment, kind of reduce anxiety of victims and make it easier for them to tell their story,” said MPD victim advocate Chantelle Bainbridge, who trained with the black Labrador retriever at Canine Companions for Independence in San Diego, Calif., and brought her home in February.
The dog also helps law enforcement’s peer support groups and city staff.
“This is the new best practice for victim advocate response,” Montrose Police Chief Blaine Hall said.
“Many people in our community respond better, sometimes, to animals, in particular, dogs.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has curtailed some of Apple’s availability for outreach, she has already gone to work.
Hall pointed to a past call involving a young child who had witnessed domestic violence.
“The amount of comfort that Apple provided this little boy on two occasions was tremendous. We actually received compliments from the little boy’s family about how important Apple was in calming his fear, giving him someone to stand next to,” Hall said.
“I know it’s working.”
Bainbridge has used Apple to help with about five child victims so far, with good results.
“The younger kiddos, they really like her,” she said.
Apple can soothe people who are traumatized by crime and also help out within the police department as a morale booster, or even for an officer who may be receiving peer support services.
What Apple does not do is the work of a police K-9. Those dogs are trained to perform such tasks as searching for suspects or lost people; to detect narcotics, or to take down suspects (bite dogs) when necessary. The Montrose County Sheriff’s Office has two police K-9s; MPD has none.
Just having Apple around helps with morale at the police department, said Bainbridge, who added the dog does not interfere with productivity.
Hall said that he hopes to one day see Apple admitted to court proceedings to help comfort witnesses, as has been done elsewhere.
“It’s just kind of cool, because we have a dog around the police department now, and it’s great to just be able to take a moment to pet Apple. She’s just a really cool dog,” he said.
Bainbridge, who is also Apple’s handler, became interested in a facility dog after attending a victim services meeting, where some fellow attendees had access to facility dogs. Separately, an MPD officer who had been involved in a shooting learned about the positive effect such animals can have on officers with experiences similar to his.
“He did mention to me about the benefits,” Bainbridge said. “I approached Blaine and told him what the officer had said, that there were a couple of advocates on the Front Range that had dogs. That’s how the ball got rolling.”
But it wasn’t a simple matter of making a call to someone with just any dog.
Bainbridge began researching other organizations that had facility dogs and the organizations that provide them. Some were closer than CCI, but too pricey. Others required two handlers. Canine Companions for Independence only needed one handler — and the nonprofit is able to donate the dogs to those who clear its selection process.
“It’s quite a process, actually, to receive one of these dogs,” Hall said. “We weren’t 100% sure we would be selected to receive one when we applied, but we were fortunate to.”
In February, Bainbridge attended a two-week training in San Diego, during which CCI’s trainers fully assessed how their dogs interacted with applicants, and weighed which dog was best suited to which person, and which purpose. Apple and Bainbridge graduated the program on Valentine’s Day, and the Lab headed back to Montrose with her.
Bainbridge’s only expenses were travel and food; there was no fee for Apple herself and Bainbridge was able to stay for free in a CCI dorm. The two must return yearly to re-certify.
Black Canyon Veterinary Clinic and Chow Down Pet Supply are contributing in-kind services for Apple’s ongoing needs and Walmart awarded the MPD a community grant that paid for Bainbridge’s travel costs.
Therapy Dog Received Award In Style
If you need more proof on this absolute fact, please let us introduce you to Boomer Woof Brown. The rescue pooch is a qualified therapy dog at East Anglia University, where we works alongside his human handler, Dave Brown. The pair have been helping the campus security team by providing emotional support to students and de-escalating stressful situations since 2019. Boomer, or BWB, if you prefer, even has his own campus ID card and email address so that students and staff can book a session with him. The dream team have recently been recognised for their fantastic work, having won the award for Security Innovation Initiative of The Year. There was a ceremony planned in their honour, but due to the pandemic the event was cancelled. Nevertheless, Dave and Boomer didn’t let this stop them from enjoying their moment in the spotlight. The pair dressed up in their finest tuxedos for a smaller, socially distanced celebration.
‘Boomer’s been a fantastic addition to the team,’ said Dawn Daniels, who works as an access and security controller. ‘Using him as an opening for a conversation, I have seen an increase of willingness of students to approach me. ‘This has then started a discussion which has led on to emotive topics such as their mental health and wellbeing, and allowed me to signpost them to the necessary support functions available.’
Demand Therapy Dogs
Demand for therapy dogs has doubled since the coronavirus lockdown ended.
Therapy dogs are specially trained to support people with a range of medical conditions and disabilities, including severe- sometimes crippling- anxiety.
About 30 people are currently on Therapy Dogs New Zealand’s waiting list and the organisation is receiving eight to 10 applications per day, compared to an average of four or five per day before lockdown.
Therapy Dogs New Zealand director Wendy Isaacs put the rise in enquiries down to the fact that the Covid-19 pamdemic had exacerbated many people’s pre-existing conditions. Calls to mental health and addictions helpiness increased during the lockdown, with many callers seeking help for stress and anxiety linked to the pandemic.
Parents of children with anxiety also expressed concerns about how they’d cope as they returned to school.
Isaacs said in the two years she’d been running Therapy Dogs New Zealand several schools had expressed interest in getting therapy dogs, after noticing high levels of anxiety among their students.
As well as providing their humans with a sense of comfort, therapy dogs can be trained to detect changes in their owners’ behaviours and respond accordingly.
For example, if an autistic child is about to have a meltdown the dog may climb into their lap, which can have a calming effect similar to a weighted blanket.
They can also learn to “alert” when their owner is in danger.
Tauranga-based Isaacs said therapy dogs have a “profound” impact on the lives of families who adopt them.
But they don’t come cheap. The labradoodles, which are specially bred for their calm and intelligent personalities, are trained for four months at a cost of $13,000.
Many families have to raise money to purchase them and Isaacs hopes to set up a fund to help those who need a therapy dog but can’t afford one.
She also plans to petition Parliament to allow therapy dogs into the same spaces as service dogs.
Hamilton woman Briana Scanlon hopes adopting a therapy dog in July will give her more independence and the confidence to work part-time and complete tertiary study in either cheffing or veterinary nursing.
The 19-year-old was born with the rare genetic condition Kabuki Syndrome, of which one of the physical effects is hypotonia – poor muscle tone, which means that everyday activities, like sitting up standing, walking, take much more effort for her than for most people.
“Because of that, [Briana] has become a bit anxious about going out and about because she worries that she’ll get tired and not cope,” her mum Jenny Murphy-Scanlon said.
The family recently received a $4500 grant from the Mazda Foundation towards the cost of the dog, which Jenny said was a “relief”: “We just don’t have that kind of money sitting around”.
In total, the Mazda Foundation has awarded young people across the country $16,000 for therapy dogs in its latest funding round.
In the year since Manawatū-Wanganui teenager Abigail Pratt received her therapy dog Rosie, her life has dramatically changed.
Her mother Rochelle said her daughter used to struggle to leave her bedroom by herself, but now goes shopping at the mall and recently attended a youth ball.
“Abigail used to have episodes where she would harm herself, but these have lessened by 90 per cent since we got Rosie.
“With all the uncertainty in the world at the moment, Rosie’s support has been invaluable for Abigail, calming her down and stopping her hurting herself in moments of stress.”
Guide Dog Group
With Chariho schools closed and social-distancing requirements still in place, 14-year-old Gabrielle Macaruso found a constructive way to occupy her spare time: a small, yellow puppy named Citron.
Citron (the French word for lemon) is a yellow Labrador retriever who, if she makes it through the tests and training, will eventually become a guide dog for the New York-based nonprofit group Guiding Eyes for the Blind.
Regional Manager Maureen Hollis said only about half the puppies who start the training end up as guide dogs. The others are trained for other work or adopted as companion animals by families.
Citron arrived at the Macaruso home on May 28. Gabrielle, who has never had a dog, has gone through a five-hour orientation and attends weekly virtual training sessions with Hollis. She has volunteered to raise Citron for 6 weeks, after which the puppy will move to the next stage of her training.
“We had to take a training class about how to train a puppy,” she said. “I took it in April and it was a Google Meets video call and they took us through all the steps of how to train a puppy to be a guide dog.”
Citron’s training currently consists of basic obedience, house manners and house training, and socialization. Macaruso brings the puppy to as many different types of environments as possible so she can be confident in any situation — an essential quality in a guide dog.
“A really important quality is the confidence,” Hollis said. “Resilience, obviously, is a huge one, so if the dog is in situations that are stressful, just like us, can they come back from a stressful day and go to work the next day?”
Gabrielle’s mother, Lisa, is the assistant director of disability services for students at the University of Rhode Island and a member of the Chariho School Committee. She is also familiar with the URI Puppy Raisers’ Club, one of whose members will take over Citron’s training when she leaves the Macaruso home.
“Because these students at the University of Rhode Island formulated a puppy raisers’ club with Guiding Eyes for the Blind, I’ve had exposure to the program from work,” she said.
The puppy’s training regimen, she explained, is highly structured.
“There’s a protocol for everything for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, so she has a schedule,” she said, referring to the puppy. “She has a cue word that Brie [Gabrielle] has to train her to respond to, because ultimately, the individual who is visually impaired will need the animal to eliminate on a very tight schedule and on command. And so, part of the work that Brie is doing is teaching her to “get busy,” which is to eliminate on demand, but of course, she’s just a few weeks old. That’s one of the end goals for the summer.”
Gabrielle said the training has been going well so far.
“For the most part, she’s been doing really well,” she said. “She’s a really smart dog, so she picks it up quickly. We walk her maybe twice a day and then she loves to play outside and roll around in the grass.”
When Citron has completed her training with Gabrielle, she will live with a member of the Puppy Raisers’ Club, where she will receive more advanced training. Gabrielle will still be able to visit Citron, however, because she will be occasionally asked to puppy-sit.
Guiding Eyes for the Blind selects puppies from lines of dogs bred as guide dogs at its Canine Development Center in Patterson, N.Y.
Lisa said, “These dogs, they’re bred to have characteristic traits that make them ideal service animals, and it’s so evident with this puppy. She’s so attentive to Gabrielle.”
She may be just a few weeks old, but Citron has made a big difference to Gabrielle during a stressful and uncertain time.
“Citron gives me someone to be with and she also gives me something to do all day, because school is very easy now that it’s virtual learning,” she said. “She’s a project that I can work on and that will reward me … I miss school and I miss my friends, and raising this puppy while also helping the organization also provides me with some companionship and purpose.”
Asked if she and the puppy had bonded, Brie replied, “Yes, I really love her.”
The next stage of the relationship may be the most difficult, because it will require Gabrielle to let go.
“It will be difficult to give Citron up, but I know she’s going to go on to do important work,” she said.
Service Dog University
Bonnie Bergin recalls taking family trips as a child from her home in Willits to the Bay Area and stopping at the Green Mill Inn restaurant in Penngrove for dinner.
Now decades later, she is poised to open a new campus for her service dog training institution on the 10-acre property that she and her husband Jim purchased three years ago.
“I remember going to that restaurant as a kid,” said Bergin, 75. “It’s kind of like deja vu.”
Bergin, who is credited with inventing the service dog for people with disabilities, founded Canine Companions for Independence, the first nonprofit to train and place service dogs. After leaving the nonprofit in 1991, she founded the Assistance Dog Institute, which was designated a university in early 2004 and became Bergin University of Canine Studies.
In 2017, Bergin purchased the iconic Green Mill Inn with the hope of opening a campus for her university within a year. But permitting issues and now the coronavirus pandemic have complicated those efforts.
“I thought it would only take a year to get it open,” said Bergin, who has a doctoral degree in education. “It’s been amazingly difficult.”
Bergin said she expects to have a county occupancy certificate within a week for the campus of modular classrooms and administrative buildings. However the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted education for the 50 students pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in programs such as canine studies and human-canine life sciences.
“As soon as shelter in place came down, we moved to online teaching,” she said. “All the students left.”
The summer and fall programs have moved online, she said. Each student receives a service dog to work with during the semester, and Bergin hopes to host a three-week course with students and their dogs on the campus in mid-July depending on the pandemic. That would be the first class at the new site that operated as a restaurant for 80 years and was a local landmark featuring a green windmill along Old Redwood Highway.
Bergin pioneered the concept of the service dog at Sonoma State University in the 1970s, when a professor challenged her class to identify solutions to help people with disabilities.
She was reminded of the perseverance she’d seen in the disabled community while traveling and teaching with her husband in places like India, Turkey and Pakistan. A dog lover since she had Sport, a Labrador mix, as a child, she began to think about ways to use canines to make a difference.
“I thought about what can be done to help people with disabilities, and I came up with dogs,” she said. “That has been my life ever since.”
Bergin is also involved in several other programs, including efforts to pair veterans with PTSD to service dogs and working with inmates in dentition facilities to decrease recidivism rates.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bergin University will incur a big financial hit to prepare teachers for distance learning, equip students with laptops and disinfect classrooms when students are allowed to return.
Bergin said she has been told that the university will receive $472,000 in federal emergency aid, although she said that she hasn’t seen the money yet.
Behind The Scenes Of Good Boy
Hulu’s continued partnership with Blumhouse Television for the Into the Dark series has brought us a diverse array of horror entries on any topic under the sun, from the perils of stranded elevator romances (Down) to high concept sci-fi on cloning for serial killers (All That We Destroy) to the creepy potential of purity retreats (Pure) and more. Each feature-length installment is holiday-inspired with a thriller spin, and they’re always a lot of fun.
Premiering tomorrow, June 12, is the newest entry in the series: Good Boy, directed by Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls) from a script written by Aaron Eisenberg and Will Eisenberg (Tales of Arcadia) and starring Judy Greer (Halloween Kills, so many good projects) and McKinley Freeman (End of Watch). The official synopsis:
‘When Maggie gets an emotional support dog to help quell some of her anxiety, she finds him to be even more effective than she imagined…because unbeknownst to her, he kills anyone who adds stress to her life.’
A best friend indeed. Albeit a scary one.
Back before COVID-19 shut down production for months, I was able to visit the ‘Good Boy’ set and spend time with the director, writers, cast and crew. As a fan of the series and Judy Greer and dogs, I jumped at the chance—I mean, I can’t think of many better ways to spend a day than hanging out while they shoot a cool horror film.
One thing that immediately impressed me about the visit was the incredible efficiency of the Blumhouse crew. Everyone we met was amiable and professional, every aspect of production was efficient and organized, and myself and a handful of other film writers were able to watch it all go down.
One of the highlights was meeting so many of the cast and crew. On the crew side, we met Special FX Coordinator Simon White and Stunt Coordinator Tim Mikulecky, as well as Chico the Dog and his trainer Kim. We heard a number of stories about working with animals (including one about a 350 pound python from a prior shoot that became dangerously interested in what the stunt performer had for lunch) and about how they make sure all stunts are safe. Perhaps most importantly, we spent quality time with Chico, the well trained pup whose starring role as “Reuben” is guaranteed to be a memorable one.
An interesting tidbit about the shoot is that, in addition to being played so convincingly by Chico, ‘Reuben’ goes through some frightening changes. We had the pleasure of watching the various bits of movie magic that go into that process (including different types of puppets, a destructible door, and other bits of movie magic) and were able to shoot ‘Reuben’s final kill. Being there to see the attention to detail on the puppets (I’m a huge monster movie nerd, this was the *best day ever* by the way) and the clever ways they were used was incredible fun.
We had the pleasure with sitting down with both the director, Tyler MacIntyre, as well as writers Will and Aaron Eisenberg. MacIntyre spoke about how the script was a great fit for the themes and kinds of films he prefers to direct. He noted that originally he was nervous about working with Chico (to quote, “if this dog doesn’t perform specifically how we want it to, we’re screwed), but these concerns subsided after Chico proved reliable in a pinch. It was also great to talk with the writers about the origin of the idea for the script, and how a chance encounter with the writers and Judy at a coffee shop was how she became attached to the project.
(They actually happened to be writing this script about a woman’s emotional support dog with Judy in mind for the lead when they happened to randomly run into her while she was walking her dog. True story.)
Both McKinley Freeman and Judy Greer were so enthused about the project that it was pretty contagious. Freeman noted that what appealed most to him about the story in particular was the notion that what’s most frightening may be what you least expect to be horrifying. Judy, who absolutely exuded charm, talked about her connection to the material. She spoke of her own dog, a small pup she originally intended as a travel companion (but who ended up being an absolute tiny tyrant—but a well loved one).
At the end of it, Into the Dark’s Good Boy entry will hold a special place for me. It was so clear that everyone involved was thrilled to be there and it was pretty incredible to see them shoot the final scenes and to meet some great and talented folks. The entry drops on Hulu tomorrow: don’t miss it, and if you have a pet be sure to bring them along.
Hi Quality Service & Support Vests
A durable service dog harness that’s comfortable too. Your Harness Jacket is crafted from top-quality, breathable mesh & features reflective stitching and Velcro Hook and Loop patches and chest straps with quick-release locking buckles for added safety and easy on and off. When you’re training a service dog, distractions from dog-loving strangers, or being denied access to businesses with “no pet” policies can cause trouble for both you and your working dog.
