How Sparky Rescued His Owner

Mike Baron stumbled upon Sparky, a 6-month-old border collie, at a yard sale. Only problem was, he wasn’t in the market for a dog. But, he quickly fell in love with the sweet and energetic pooch — and seven years later, Baron couldn’t imagine his life without his furry best friend.

“He’s the best dog. I love having him around and we do everything together,” he says.

While many dogs don’t have a business card, Sparky does. Baron originally got the card for kids that enjoy playing with Sparky, so they could keep a picture of him. He loves playing ball and he’ll roll it down a hill to any passerby in hopes they’ll throw it back. His favorite spot to do that is Artivity on the Green. He’s even claimed a hill there, according to Baron.

“Sparky will run right to that hill every time we go to this park,” he says.

Some of Sparky’s other favorite places in Winston-Salem include Mast General Store and Tate’s Craft Cocktails.

“The staff and customers at Mast General Store love Sparky. He’s such a friendly dog, and always well behaved,” Baron says. “At Tate’s, he loves sitting up on the bench and greeting customers.”

Sparky has also always been by Baron’s side during his cancer treatments and checkups. Since he’s a service dog, he even accompanies Baron to the Forsyth Cancer Center. He sits at the edge of the bench and provides a little bit of cheer to all the patients on their way in and out.

“Sparky has been such a blessing and boost to me through all the hard times,” he says.

While at home, Sparky has some unique favorite pastimes. His first is watching “Heartland” with Baron. For those not familiar with the Canadian drama, it’s filmed on a horse ranch.

“He loves watching each episode from start to finish,” Baron says. “Any time an animal shows on the TV, he runs over to his basket of stuffed animals, picks out the right one, picks it up in his mouth, and paces back and forth with it.”

The second activity is chasing a laser light up and down the hill outside their house. While most people think this is something only cats love, Sparky proves otherwise.

“I’ll stand at the bottom of the hill when it gets dark out and he’ll all out run after the laser light,” Baron says. “I only allow him to play about 10 minutes or he’ll overheat himself.”

If Sparky could talk, Baron thinks he’d ask people to throw him the ball. Otherwise, he seems like he’s pretty happy. So who saved who?

“I’m so blessed to have Sparky in my life,” Baron says. “He’s not only just a great dog, but a great friend.”

Service Dogs During Pandemic

Three Grand Rapids nonprofit organizations are collaborating to train assistance dogs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paws With A Cause, YWCA of West Central Michigan and Community Food Club have teamed up to provide necessary training for assistance dogs who cater to people with disabilities. The arrangement has allowed for the dog training during the current stay-at-home order in Michigan.

Due to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, PAWS trainers have not been able to train assistance dogs in public places since March 13.

In order to restart the dogs’ training, the YWCA is sharing space in its Sheldon building, at 25 Sheldon Blvd. SE, where dogs learn practical skills to assist Paws With A Cause clients.

“We are pleased to partner with Paws With A Cause, who shares our commitment to accessibility for all,” YWCA CEO Charisse Mitchell said in the press release. “Service animals can be a wonderful resource for individuals with disabilities, including clients we work with at the YWCA.” PAWS assistance dogs help those with mental and physical disabilities complete daily tasks and increase their independence.

AWS trainers use facilities at YWCA to teach assistance dogs to open doors and pick up dropped items, as well as navigate stairs, elevators and ramps.

Access to diverse training environments has been key to the assistance dogs’ training, said Barb Kozminski, senior staff trainer.

“Having different environments to work in is really important,” said Kozminski, trainer of 29 years. “This allows (the assistance dogs) to be exposed to different distractions, too.” As YWCA staff work in the area, the dogs can practice their skills with other people nearby to simulate a likely scenario for their clients.

Each PAWS trainer typically works with five to seven dogs daily. The dogs may be at different stages in their training, Kozminski said.

There are approximately 50 assistance dogs currently being trained. Some have already been matched to clients and are well on their way to their future home.

Meghan Sweers, a PAWS staff trainer for the past year, finds the diverse learning environments especially helpful for dogs in training.

“Getting the dogs out helps the trainers decide which career path to put them on and get more information about how they can serve clients,” Sweers said.

Community Food Club,  a nonprofit member-based grocery store, exposes the assistance dogs to a grocery story setting. The nonprofit also provides an opportunity for PAWS trainers to teach the dogs to avoid food temptations. “We really believe in the mission at PAWS,” said AJ Fossel, executive director of Community Food Club. “It’s brought a lot of joy for my team during a tough time. We love the work they are doing and hope more of our members can benefit from their services in the future.”

The assistance dogs will only access parts of the YWCA and Community Food Club buildings currently closed to the public. COVID-19 safety guidelines, such as wearing masks and social distancing, are in place.

Services currently offered by the local nonprofits will not be negatively affected during this collaboration, officials said.

Pups Enjoy Lounging

If you’re a regular at any local brewery, you might have noticed that dogs and breweries seem to go hand in hand — sort of like hops and yeast.

And downtown Winston-Salem’s Fiddlin’ Fish Brewing Company is no exception.

“Dogs and Fiddlin’ Fish Brewing Company are a perfect match because of the laid back taproom environment we have cultivated,” says David Ashe, one of the owners. “We want customers to feel as comfortable in our taproom as they do in their own living room, so why not bring your best friend along with you?”

Blonde lookalikes Harper and Banks are certainly at home in the taproom. They love to go to the brewery with their dad, co-owner Stuart Barnhart, who says he could never go without them in tow.

“They are part of our brewery family,” he says.

Harper, a labradoodle, and Banks, a goldendoodle, are as recognizable there as any of the human staff. Harper’s job is to look for any food that may have fallen to the floor. At 105 pounds, she’s also known as “Big Momma” and has the personality to match her size. She loves to play and retrieve things.

“When she isn’t looking for food or chasing something, you can find her sleeping,” Barnhart says.

Her favorite napping spot is under his desk.

Banks, on the other hand, is more laid back. He prefers to nap outside in the sun, while waiting for passersby to pet him.

“He is more of a sweetheart and very affectionate,” Barnhart says. “To sum it up, Harper likes food and Banks likes pets.”

When he’s not at Fiddlin’ Fish, Banks has a side gig as a certified therapy dog. He visits local hospitals with his dog mom and brewery co-owner, Lindsay Barnhart.

While the two pups are not biologically related, it’s hard to tell them apart. The Barnharts got Harper in college 10 years ago and then added Banks to the family two years later to be her companion. They’ve been inseparable since, Stuart Barnhart says.

“They are always together, both at home and at the brewery,” he says. “They hate being apart.”

Other breweries in the city that welcome dogs include Joymongers Barrel Hall, Wise Man Brewing, Hoots Beer Co., and Incendiary Brewing Company.

Top Dog

Missy, a 4-year-old Shetland Sheepdog,is owned, trained and shown exclusively by Wallingford resident, Linda Houle, who has groomed, trained and showed Shelties for 45 years. Missy is her 10th. Her dogs have traeled around the US. and Canada, provided pet therapy at nursing homes, won many photo contests, and have been featured in a TV commercial and newspapers and magazines. One was filmed in a pet therapy video. And her dogs have earned AKC and CKC titles. Missy began her training “on day one” with Houle, and is the fourth Shetland in the U.S. to earn the RACH title, and the RACH 2 title six months later. The titles indicate the dog has achieved a minimum of 300 championship points from the Advanced B, Excellent B and Master classes, with a minimum of 150 points from the Master class; and 20 triple qualifying scores obtained from the Advanced B, Excellent B and Master classes. Missy has earned the most prestigious achievements of being the number one Top Dog in the U.S., the number one Top Shetland Sheepdog in the U.S., and the number one Top Herding Dog in the U.S.

Abandoned Dog Gets Trained

The Hokkien Therapy Dog describes the story of an abandoned dog, Button, who was adopted and subsequently trained as a therapy pet who understands fluent Hokkien. Button spent her days visiting Hokkien hospice patients and bringing joy to them, before passing away in 2018.

The author, Fiona Foo, founded Hope Dog Rescue in July 2011, and had a terrible fear of dogs while growing up. Her first dog, Popsicle, helped her overcome that fear, and she now spends her time saving stray and abandoned dogs, fostering them and working to find forever homes for them.

Button’s journey with Hokkien started soon after she joined the family in 2016.

In her first few months at home, Button had no language. She behaved as if she were deaf. It was apparent that no one had ever talked to her.

When we spoke to her, she stared blankly at us and seemed to have no inkling of what was expected of her. Her saving grace was that she wagged her tail every time we called her. It was akin to me smiling at work whenever my boss called me, regardless of whether I knew what to do!

I tried speaking to her in English and Mandarin, to check if she perhaps understood. Still, she stared dumbly at me. That was when I decided I would speak Hokkien to her.

I thought that since she didn’t understand any language, we might as well start with a brand new one! Although I did not grow up speaking Hokkien, I was pretty familiar with it.

My mom is Hokkien, though we spoke English at home. My grandma used to speak to me in the dialect while I was growing up. I was also surrounded by it—at hawker centres, coffee shops etc.

Hokkien is rather widely used, so it became the chosen language for Button.

After a few weeks, I also saw how calm and laid back she was, and thought maybe there was a chance that she could be an animal-assisted therapy dog.

I had long been fascinated with service dogs and having an animal-assisted therapy dog would be a dream come true. I could nurture her, if she was willing to grow.

And so that’s when I made a concerted effort to speak to Button entirely in Hokkien. I thought that because most senior folks spoke or understood Hokkien, Button would get along with them if she were to work in an old folks’ home or a hospice.

Youngsters these days seem to have lost their cultural roots and can’t speak a dialect even if their lives depended on it, so I thought it would be cool if my dog’s Hokkien was better than yours.

And so my mom and I spoke to her in full Hokkien during and outside of her basic obedience classes, and she picked it up with ease.

Within months, her Hokkien was impressive and my friends were coming over “to learn Hokkien from a dog”.

When we went out, more often than not, people would come up to us, coo at Button’s eyelashes and attempt to tell her to “sit”.

When I said that she only understood Hokkien, they stared at me as though I were pulling their leg.

They’d continue to say “sit” and Button continued to just stare at them. Finally they would give up and ask me, “How do you say ‘sit’ in Hokkien?”

As soon as I answer, “Zay”, Button sat promptly, looking cute and pleased with herself.

Sometimes I encouraged the unbelieving strangers to go ahead and give a command in Hokkien. Then they too would ask her to zay or lai. When they said zay, Button immediately sat and their reaction was either amazement or amusement.

Button politely remained seated till I asked her to kee lai (get up). I would also tell them to say hwa chiu (hold hands), the Hokkien version of another common command for dog owners, “paw”, and when she offered her paw, they were shocked! It was a good ice-breaker.

When I was in school eons ago, I spent my days daydreaming and staring out the window until one fine day, a piece of chalk flew at me from the front, jolting me back to reality.

During my time, it was perfectly fine for the teachers to throw things at children. If a teacher did that now, she’d have a lot to answer for!

During Button’s basic obedience class, she was exactly like how I used to be in school and it made me wonder if she knew I was lazy at heart.

Her class was conducted at Bishan Park and she spent every lesson either staring at other dogs strolling with their owners, or watching kids scoot past us. Sometimes she just stared blankly at a faraway grass patch.

Basically she looked at everything except where she was supposed to and she did everything that she wasn’t supposed to.

Tell her to kiah (walk) and she would zay. Tell her to tway and she also zay. We were getting worried that she was not going to pass the test at the end and fail the class miserably.

The trainer was very understanding. She understood that some dogs weren’t comfortable in public or just shy by nature, so she told us to film Button doing all her basic commands at our void deck and show her the videos later to prove that Button could do it.

So every night we trained, we filmed, we laughed and we pleaded with Button to cooperate. Button made us look like fools. Fortunately, being the kind, compassionate dog that she was, after twenty attempts, she would give us face and do it correctly once.

Having a dog that understood Hokkien was an amazing achievement in my life.

I know of elderly dog owners who speak Hokkien or Cantonese to their dogs and their dogs could comprehend what they say. But I felt Button was one level up; she could understand fluent Hokkien in full sentences and I could converse with her, exactly as if I were talking to my mom.

Like I would say, “Jip pang keng koon”, and she would go straight into the room to sleep, or “Button, jip tian twee”, and she would enter the lift.

There were days when my friends visited and heard me grumbling in Hokkien in the kitchen and they thought I was talking to my mom. Upon entering the kitchen, they never failed to be amused to see Button just sitting placidly and listening to my nagging.

Button was my pride and joy; not only did she understand fluent Hokkien but she was also a rescued dog, proving to everyone that you do not need to buy a dog to have it well trained.

She wasn’t young either, driving home the point that it is possible to teach a not-so-young dog new tricks.

But most of all, she was Singapore’s first Hokkien gao (dog) to be certified in Hokkien in basic obedience and the first to be assessed in Hokkien for her temperament to be an animal-assisted therapy dog.

Pawsitive Therapy Program

 

Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center’s Dog Therapy Program – “Pawsitive Therapy” – are spreading PAWSitivity in the community!

Since visiting is limited at hospitals, the Pawsitive Therapy Program members came out to give support and encouragement to the hospital workers during their shift change.

Therapy dog teams are screened, educated, trained and must show they are well-mannered, well-behaved and enjoy meeting people before they are certified by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs (ATD).

All dogs must have proof of vaccines and participate in a three-visit tester to monitor and instruct the teams as part of the qualification process.

The handler-dog teams are entirely made up of volunteers.

Training Therapy Dogs

 The coronavirus pandemic has the Roxy dogs of Doylestown missing school just as much as the kids.

Sharon Fleck, the president of Roxy Therapy Dogs, trains and certifies her furry friends for every circumstance. She brings them to schools, hospitals, groups homes for medically fragile children, and even courthouses before child abuse cases.

“Kids are very resilient, but my worry is that some of them may struggle,” said Fleck.

The entire program houses 80 dogs and their owners. Through various specialized support programs, they visit thousands of children a week.

Diane Smith, founder, is very worried about how kids are coping without seeing the dogs.

“I worry about the kids that are in trouble, kids that are victims of abuse and neglect, children in group homes that we visit that are in ventilator. It’s very hard for me personally,” said Smith.

A 9-year-old student commented on how she misses her four-legged friend “Theo”, who used to visit her classroom.

“He comes after math, and I’m usually stressed after math,” she said.

To try and alleviate some of the anxiety during the pandemic, Roxy Therapy Dogs is creating a series of online videos and giving volunteer readings to the kids (even if their dog is napping).

“Anything I can do [is] just try to keep that connection going,” Fleck said.

Therapy Dog Charlotte

 

The Charlotte Fire Department’s newest member, a purebred English cream golden retriever, has a special job. Lady Katherine, or “Cat” for short, will assist the department with its public education programs and help her fellow firefighters reduce stress. Earlier this month, the department established a self-funded K-9 Program, and Cat is its first therapy canine. The pup was chosen for and donated to the Charlotte Fire Department by a member of K-9 Caring Angels Therapy Dogs in Manassas, Virginia. The organization has successfully placed more than a dozen therapy canines in fire departments throughout the country.

Companionship During Pandemic

Pets have the unwavering ability to show loyalty and unconditional love to their people; a paw resting on your arm, a nuzzle against your neck, and the deep, soulful gaze they offer. Anyone with a pet, any type of pet, can probably tell you endless stories about how their animal cheers them up and makes them feel less alone in the world. And these days, that’s saying a lot.

In this era of self-quarantine, our pets have become invaluable companions, especially to people living alone.

Philip Tedeschi, a social worker and executive director at the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at the University of Denver, considers the human-animal bond “some of the most reliable relationships we have, and in this time while we’re required to be distant from one another, (pets are) playing a particularly relevant role in helping us manage isolation and loneliness.”

It’s not surprising that animals offer this comfort. Therapy pets and emotional support pets have been part of our culture for years now. They help us navigate through mental health issues, grief and depression. Researchers have proven that people with pets laugh more, usually in response to the animal’s antics. Stress relievers? Yes, pets earn that title as well. One study of cardiovascular reactivity to stress showed that people with pets had significantly lower resting baseline heart rates and blood pressure.

Even watching our pets sleep is good for us. Seeing another living being that’s able to relax enables us to relax a bit, too. It literally changes our physiology and our emotions. Another bonus is that petting our animals helps fulfill the basic human need for touch. When we’re stressed or saddened, hugging our pets can soothe us instantly.

In the early days of the pandemic, many news stories suggested that people who found themselves at home fulltime should contact their local animal shelter and offer to foster an animal. In no time Dakin’s phones were ringing, our social media sites had lots of messages, and emails were pouring in. So many great people offered to help. We were very grateful for our community’s commitment to the animals, and their desire to experience the joy of pet companionship while remaining at home, but at that time we had more foster caregivers than animals.

COVID-19 hasn’t stopped people from adopting, either. Since March 16 we have only been able to accept pets through emergency surrenders (examples being people who are sick, homeless, or financially challenged and can’t care for their pet). As we continue to focus on emergency surrenders, our animal population is lower than normal, but more than 275 animals have found new homes to brighten during this time period.

For people who have been facing economic hardships and are struggling to feed their pets, Dakin’s Pet Food Aid Program has been there to keep families together while that human-animal bond grows increasingly importantduring these days of isolation. From mid-April to mid-May, we shared over 30,000 pounds of pet food with human health service organizations, other animal shelters, Animal Control Officers, and the general public. Prior to that, at the start of the pandemic, we were averaging 1,000-2,000 pounds of food being picked up daily by people who needed help feeding their pets. Thanks to all of you who show your love of animals by supporting this community program.

Dakin doesn’t exist just to take in surrendered pets, welcome Dixie Dogs (and cats) from southern shelters, or save at-risk kittens. We exist so that people can experience and keep that amazing human-animal bond. Helping animals and people is a value deeply rooted in our mission and is the reason why many of Dakin’s programs and services exist. We envision a world where services that support the human-animal bond are accessible to all, and companion animals are no longer vulnerable.Lee Chambers is media and public relations manager of the Dakin Humane Society. Dakin delivers effective, innovative services to animals in need and the people who care about them.

Fury Hero

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear nothing but fur!

Humans aren’t the only ones who make up the London Police Services. Police service dogs help in a big way as a part of the London Police Service’s Canine Unit.

Just ask Kylo, who was recently featured on the London Police K9’s Twitter page.

Sure, Kylo can’t speak, but if he could he would tell you that he tracked down and found a person in distress with self-inflicted wounds early Friday morning.

Although officers provided life saving measures before transporting the individual to hospital for life saving treatment, it was Kylo who located the person.

According to the LPS, their police dogs, mainly from Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, begin their training between 15 and 18 months of age.

Training involves 16 weeks of tracking, open/building/evidence search, protecting handlers, agility, and of course, obedience.

Some police dogs are trained specifically for finding firearms, drugs, and or/explosives.

Good boy, Kylo!