Service Dog Sponsored

It’s been a few years since the Grosse Pointe Board of Realtors was introduced to Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, but their partnership continues to grow.

The GPBR recently began sponsoring its fourth service dog with the organization, which provides specially trained dogs to veterans and first responders who have post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, seizure disorders, glucose imbalance, mobility issues and more.

The local realtor board began its longterm commitment to Guardian Angels by first sponsoring GP, named for Grosse Pointe, along with The War Memorial and private community donors. Since then, the GPBR has sponsored Mack, named for Macomb County, and Sterling, named for Sterling Heights.

Sponsorship of its fourth dog, Harper, named for Harper Woods, began late 2019.

While admittedly the outbreak of COVID-19 has put a damper on sponsorship efforts, GPBR members regularly provide funds for Guardian Angels, CEO Bob Taylor said.

“Additionally, one of our members held a Halloween party last year, which kicked off our fundraising for Harper,” he added. “The proceeds were $10,000. This year, if willing, we will raise the balance to complete the funding for Harper.”

It takes approximately $25,000 to train a dog qualified to be a Guardian Angels service dog. Expenses include 24/7 care, food, shelter, specialized training and the cost to bring the identified recipient to meet the dog and train, Taylor said. “These dogs are provided at no cost to the recipient,” he added.

Harper still is in the training stages at Guardian Angels, based in Williston, Fla. As Taylor explained, “From birth until about 18 months, puppies go through general training. Over that time, trainers access the skills of the dog, allowing them to create a ‘best fit’ when it comes to placement. Harper’s training will only be complete after a recipient has been identified and they train together. On average, this whole process takes 24 months.”

“We would love to have Harper paired with a veteran or first responder from Harper Woods, but this cannot be promised,” said Mary Lamparter, Guardian Angels’ regional coordinator for Michigan. “However, if anyone knows of a veteran or first responder living in Harper Woods that would benefit from a service dog, please encourage them to contact Guardian Angels at medicalservicedogs.org.”

With three matches already made through GPBR efforts and another in the works, this is a commitment membership does not take lightly.

“Only after you start on this journey to support our veterans and first responders do you start to appreciate the unique sacrifice they make on behalf of the rest of us,” Taylor said. “Only after you hear the stories of how what they do or have done has made living far more difficult than any of us can imagine. Death by suicide, divorce or homelessness are all common outcomes of those impacted by post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Additionally, in a time when so much of our charitable giving goes toward causes, a search for a cure, etc., all of which may get ‘fixed’ someday, the placement of the Guardian Angels Medical Service Dog with a recipient provides an almost instantaneous result,” he continued. “We had one member so moved by the story told by a recipient’s wife, he wrote a check out for $5,000 and he is usually most skeptical. When we — all of us — contribute to a pairing, we give a significant other back a loved one, a father or mother back to children, a son or daughter back to parents and a neighbor back to a community. There is little we can do anywhere that accomplishes this and for no more than a few dollars per person. We owe our way of life to these people.”

Paws Giving Independence

Paws Giving Independence is a service dog program based in Peoria that trains dogs to help people with various disabilities.

During the pandemic, training looks different and PGI is finding new ways for trainers to teach important skills.

“There’s still people out there that have disabilities and need these dogs,” said Michelle Yuen, director of animal intake and training.

Soon, the service dogs will help people in wheelchairs and alert owners to medical issues like seizures.

“These dogs really are essential workers,” said Yuen.

And training is key.

“Sometimes it can be the difference between life and death,” said Donna Kosner, director of community outreach, education, and applications.

So, Paws Giving Independence is getting creative.

“Our training has changed a bit with social distancing and just with the changing of the standards of groups,” said Yuen.

Virtual training sessions are helping dogs learn and practice skills during quarantine.

“A lot of our dogs have been training mainly at home, so the skills carry over at home is similar to in public but again it’s definitely not the same,” said Yuen.

Training in public is a huge part of working on service dog’s skills.

To help, Northwoods Mall is stepping up.

“We trained regularly at Northwoods Mall before all this happened, so the fact that they’re inviting us back here is really great,” said Kosner.

In small groups, trainers are now able to work with dogs, giving them real life experience.

“The dogs can practice still one on one with some of the skills that they need to learn,” said Yuen.

The trainers and dogs are making the current circumstances work in an effort to serve people with disabilities in the area.

“We’re really trying to find creative ways to get our dogs safely and keep the community safe,” said Yuen.

Leaders say they hope to continue training at Northwoods Mall while it’s closed to the public.

During this time, Paws Giving Independence is still taking applications and conducting interviews virtually.

Top Dog Missy

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.

Virtual Comfort From Therapy Dog

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cathy Robbins and her five-year-old therapy dog,  Finn, would visit multiple patients at Riddle Hospital in Pennsylvania a few days a week. They would share moments together comforting patients and their families — like the coma patient who physically shifted at Finn’s touch, or the patient who briefly woke from a coma to talk about Finn with Cathy. One day in mid-March day, everything changed.

Cathy and Finn were asked to visit the ICU staff, who were struggling as they watched COVID patients die daily without family members beside them.

She had to work to stay calm as they entered the hospital, where staffers had spent four hours cleaning and disinfecting the break room Finn would greet staff in. She didn’t want Finn to notice her nervousness and feed off her negative emotional energy.

The medical staffers were happy to see Finn, a staff favorite they hadn’t seen for weeks after volunteer services had been suspended. One or two staffers were allowed in at a time while social distancing.

Most of the visits were happy, with doctors and nurses saying hello and petting Finn. For others, there were layers of sadness as they shared tears. Finn walked up to one nurse and touched noses with her. That was the moment Cathy was grateful that she could do this.

It was emotional. It was happy. It was sad. Finn and Cathy stayed through it all.

“I didn’t know that that was going to be our last time in there until all of this is over.

When it became clear that taking Finn to the hospital was too risky as it could jeopardize people’s safety, Cathy began browsing a Facebook group for therapy dogs to find ideas to help patients from afar. She saw how other therapy dogs were interacting with patients by sending cards or videos. Cathy thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to have a giant life-sized Finn around the hospital?

So she had her sign-making friend, Joey, create the first Finn sign: a simple cutout of the mottled black and white mixed-breed dog Cathy rescued four years prior.

Cathy’s first glimpse of Finn was when she called him the “cutest puppy she’d ever seen” when his photo popped up in her Facebook feed. When she learned 11-week-old Finn was set to be put down, she made sure to get him on a truck that transported him across multiple states. When Finn was lifted out of the truck, Cathy says it was love at first sight.

Animal Welfare Charity

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is an avid animal lover and dog mom, so she’s doing her part to assist the U.K.–based animal welfare charity Mayhew as it struggles amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

According to Newsweek,  the duchess has been making secret calls to Mayhew, which is currently experiencing financial hardship due to the global health crisis. An organization that works to keep homeless individuals with their dogs, whom they rely on for emotional support, Mayhew has seen a devastation in its income recently, as the public fundraising events it relies heavily on to sustain the charity have been halted due to stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines.

“The Duchess is in touch and working with Mayhew at this time,” a source confirmed to Newsweek.

According to the outlet, Mayhew is urgently asking for help to fund the purchasing of food, as well as flea and worming treatment for the dogs.

“We receive no government support or anything so we rely completely on public donations, which are for the most part gathered from fundraising events,” said Mayhew’s media officer Sarah Hastelow. “It’s been a steady decline of operations and funds. We are trying to be as adaptive and reactive as possible.”

Mayhew was one of the last engagement visits Meghan embarked on as a working royal in England. The duchess shared photos of her visit to the organization in the days after she left for Canada, where she, Prince Harry, and their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, resided before relocating permanently to Los Angeles, California.

Therapy Dogs Zoom

In less trying times, the kids and dogs would meet at a Washington-area library, but due to COVID-19, the program has moved to the video-conferencing app Zoom.

Each eager reader is paired with two dogs who listen to the story during the 30-minute sessions, with varying degrees of attentiveness. During this time, the readers gain valuable learning skills and added confidence in reading.

“The dogs don’t care if you mispronounce or stutter over a word,” James Haworth, director of PAL, told CTV News.

The dogs also help the children cope with the isolation of staying at home during the pandemic.

“Sometimes I feel sad, missing my friends and everything,” said Sarah Eilenberg, a young reader in New Jersey. “I just get really happy when I see all the dogs.”

Because it’s gone virtual, the program is now available to Canadians as well.

“It’s really fun, especially to meet new dogs every time,” said Olivia Smith, a reader from Kingston, Ont.

The program has proven to be a smashing success, according to Olivia’s mother Caitlin Newey.

“Olivia actually shoos me away so she can read to them in private with the handler,” she said. “It does give me a bit of a chance to get some work done.”

Dogs Smelling The Virus

We all know dogs have a great sense of smell, but can they sniff out the COVID-19 virus in people?

Everything has an order to it, to dog it’s not that big of a deal but to us it is. Dog’s sense of smell is so above and beyond what we we’re able to smell and sense things that we just had no idea is there,” said Jack Grigg.

Jack and Lori Grigg the owner’s of Paradise dog training specialize in training certified service dogs to do unique tasks, such as search for bed bugs and tell diabetic owner’s when their blood sugar is too low.

They believe they can train a dog to detect COVID-19.

“We have been doing a little bit of research and Penn State has a program where they are training COVID-19 dogs and there is also a program in Britian,” said Lori. “We thought we’d get on the bandwagon and train a dog to detect the COVID-19 virus in asymptomatic people.”

They would train the dogs by having them smell a clothing item that someone who has COVID-19 was wearing. The dog will pick-up on the smell, and be able to detect the virus in a human with positive dog-treat reinforcement training.

In order to train the dogs, the Grigg’s will need some help.

“What we need is people who have the COVID-19 virus. That will give a pair of white cotton gloves or white nylon socks, wear them for 10 minutes and then we get the samples. We ask them to put them in a baggie and seal the baggie up and they won’t get more contamination and then we’ll train the dogs off the socks and the gloves,” said Lori.

The dogs won’t be exposed to the virus because they will be sniffing the items through the sealed baggies.

Therapy Dog Abigail

 

Hero Dogs

Two Mid-Missouri dogs remain in the hunt for recognition as national heroes.

Olive and Sobee have moved on to the semifinals for the 2020 Hero Dog Awards, an annual nationwide competition recognizing America’s hero dogs.

The two were nominated early this spring for consideration for the award. Almost half a million votes have been cast, and the local rescue dogs remain standing.

Olive will now vie with two other canines for the title of the nation’s top therapy hero dog of the year.

Sobee is one of three semifinalists in the service dog category.

Seven winners of their categories will compete to become the American Humane Hero Dog. The awards will be broadcast as a two-hour special on the Hallmark Channel.

Olive, a poodle mix, volunteers as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate for the Cole County Court, serving as a therapy dog for children going through the ordeals of the legal system.

Her owner, Capital City CASA volunteer Lisa Bax, nominated Olive in the therapy category for her work with children who are often victims of violence or neglect and are appointed a CASA.

She has served more than 300 children since beginning in the court system in 2016.

Sobee is Jason Howe’s service dog. Howe had difficulty adjusting to civilian life after returning from two military deployments. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and began self-medicating. While home with family in Maine, he ran into an old friend who had a service dog. The friend connected him with K9s on the Front Line, a nonprofit that partners trained service dogs with military veterans. Through them, he partnered with Sobee, a boxer mix that had been rescued from a Georgia shelter.

She flipped a switch in his life, he said. Since then, she has helped Howe establish a Missouri chapter of K9s on the Front Line.

Round 2 voting for the hero dogs is open until July 16. People are invited to vote daily at herodogaward.org.

A third round of voting will take place from July 30 through Sept. 10. The date and time for the Hero Dog Awards broadcast has not been determined.

Therapy Police K9

There’s a new top dog at the Dilworth Police Department, but she’s not like any police dog in the Metro.

The Dilworth Police Department says Keely is the first therapy and community service dog in the area.
She was sworn in this week.
Keely is a 10-month-old lab from a Detroit Lakes shelter.
You won’t see her chasing down bad guys.
Instead, Keely will be a fixture at community events and help people in the city during tough times.

She lives with police chief Ty Sharpe when she’s off-duty. He says, “Therapy dogs play a really big role in just well-being of officers, well-being of city staff, and the well-being of people. Her second function is to be a therapy dog and go out, see victims. If we have a traumatic event she’ll respond out there.”