Paw Of Courage Award

American Kennel Club honors Northampton dog and his owner for therapy services.

He knows sign language, bringing huge smiles to the face of nonverbal autistic children when he follows their commands. And senior citizens with memory issues remember exactly when he’s supposed to come for a visit.

That’s Jackson for you. A friend to so many. And now that the coronavirus pandemic is preventing his guest appearances, he’s taking to the internet to continue spreading his goodwill online.

For all his service as a therapy dog, Jackson recently won the Paw of Courage Award bestowed by the American Kennel Club. The honor is only given to a few dogs nationwide each year, so this is quite a tribute to Jackson and his owner, Bob Wharton of Northampton.

“The Paw of Courage awards have been given to several police and military working dogs throughout the years, but we thought in the midst of this global pandemic, the heroes right now are the dogs helping their human counterparts get through this difficult, unprecedented time,” said kennel club spokeswoman Samantha Seymour. “We asked people to submit stories about dogs doing amazing things and awarded the ones who stood out the most.”

Wharton was unaware of the nomination process and was surprised to be contacted by the AKC. But he knows his 8-year-old golden retriever is well deserving of the honor.

Jackson has been a therapy dog for six years and has completed more than 1,400 visits to schools and nursing facilities where he comforts those in need with his big, expressive eyes, silky fur and wagging tail.

He’s even gone to college, helping anxious students relax while they study for finals or other exams.

Jackson won awards from Therapy Dogs International and now is working with the Angel-on-a-Leash Therapy Dogs organization which Wharton and his friend, Steven Kramer, now lead. There’s about 65 dogs in the organization.

Since he retired from the corporate world, Wharton decided he wanted to do volunteer work. Having loved and owned dogs since childhood, he thought he would train a puppy as a therapy dog and help him help people in need. He chose a golden retriever, even though he likes all dogs.

“It’s my favorite breed. I’m just partial to them,” he said.

Jackson has taken to the work like a border collie does to herding sheep.

“He loves people. He knows all his commands by voice, by signal and by sign language,” Wharton said. He enjoys seeing the interaction between Jackson and those he has visited.

Since some autistic children use sign language, he taught the dog some commands in it. Now when the children see Jackson follow their signed directions, “their facial expressions are ear to ear smiles,” Wharton said.

Since schools are now closed, and nursing facilities aren’t accepting visitors, Wharton said he’s had to figure out other ways for the dog to make his visits.

The dog stars in “Joke of the Day” videos, in which Wharton gives Jackson some human characteristics and expressions. Wharton makes and shares these and other videos and pictures of Jackson with the students and seniors from the two elementary schools and nursing facilities they used to visit.

“The residents love him,” he said.

Wharton has even written a children’s book, starring Jackson. “The book has been sent electronically to the homes of the children from the first grade class that they visit for the children to read to their families during this stay-at-home order,” the kennel club noted in its award presentation.

Wharton said working with his dog and Angel on a Leash has become a fulfilling activity. All the therapy dogs associated with the nonprofit organization are registered, certified and trained.

Dog Training Needed

Therapy Dogs Ready To Work

Gloria Taylor, Village of Gilchrist, and her therapy Chihuahua named Angel are not used to being held back. The two spend a good deal of time visiting memory care facilities, rehabilitation centers, and  occasionally, terminally ill patients. Angel also is on Taylor’s church visitation team. Angel has a full calendar and thrives on it. “Some days, she’s working back-to-back on those visits,” Taylor said. “She loves what she does. She was born to do it.” Since assisted living facilities and other senior-living establishments stopped allowing visitors, it’s been a challenge for on-the-go therapy dogs to stay mentally stimulated. But their creative and innovative owners are happy to take on the challenge.

“She’s so used to being on the go all the time,” Taylor said. “The first week was a challenge for her. As time has gone on, she’s gotten more adjusted.”

Angel was a little depressed at first, but Taylor helped her shift from idleness to becoming a student. Taylor calls their learning times together “school,” and right now the two are tackling piano together.

They started with one keyboard that could sit on the floor, but the keys weren’t long enough for Angel’s paws.

“I got her one where the keys are a little longer, just to get her paws on the keys,” she said.

Taylor also is teaching Angel various tricks, but she can tell Angel is ready to get back onto people’s laps and fulfill her calling as a therapy dog.

“She’s a lover,” she said. “I keep telling her soon, soon, soon, we’ll be doing our thing again.”

Maximus the bulldog will be 9 years old in June and is used to his packed schedule as well. He’s been a therapy dog since he was 1, said owner Susan Feinberg, of the Village of Pennecamp.

Maximus is active in the Dynamic Dog Club’s circus and on the Dynamic Dog Drill Team. He’s also the mascot for the Corvettes Village Vettes car club. He also participates in R.E.A.D., Camp Villages and fashion shows.

“We’re still doing some practice for when we start the circus again,” Feinberg said. “He knows how to get on the skateboard. He also does spinning 10 times in a row with the treat in my hand.”

Feinberg makes sure to get Maximus out each day to greet some friends, like his brand new Yorkie friend.

“As much as he loves that we’re home, when you’re a therapy dog and a social dog, you’re used to having that stimulation,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg is proactive in asking those in her dog community about how they feel about getting together, with social distancing, once the recreation centers start opening.

“I’m writing a note out to everyone when this is all over, since we want to try to get a few new members for the group,” she said.

In ordinary times, she said the close-knit group even dances with their dogs to keep them active.

“When I say it’s time to dance, Maximus will run to the car,” she said.

As a therapy dog who visits assisted living facilities and local elementary schools, Maizie likes to dance, too.

While she’s been missing visits with the people at the facilities and the kids at the schools, something the cockapoo does up to three times a day, she’s been keeping her skills fresh and on point with owner Donna Mygrants, of the Village of Sanibel.

Besides dancing, Maizie can ring a service bell on cue, play “dead dog,” where she gets perfectly still, and roll over on demand. She also does math.

At the school one day, the kids were working on their math and asked Mygrants if Maizie could do math, too.

In a quick-thinking maneuver, Mygrants told them Maizie could count to two. She said “one” and held out her hand for Maizie to lay her paw down. Mygrants took her hand away and then put it back, and Maizie put her paw down again, adding the sum.

“(The kids) think she’s adding, and the people in the nursing homes think that’s funny,” Mygrants said.

No doubt Maizie is ready to get back to duty after all of this time rehearsing her crowd-pleasing feats with more than just the Mygrants as her audience.

“She’s still up on those (tricks),” she said, adding, “but I think we’re cramping her style because we’re (the ones she sees) all the time.”

Retired Police Dog Gets New Wheels

Vinnie served his community as part of Dorset Police from September 2013 alongside his handler, PC Brendan Trent, playing a vital role in keeping peace and order on the streets of Dorset. Often just the sight of Vinnie, a German shepherd dog weighing an imposing 40 kilos, was enough to defuse potentially violent situations before they escalated, but unfortunately a medical condition forced him to retire in September 2018 after five, hard-working years on the force.

Service Animals At Work

Keeping a six feet distance from others and stopping at a marked spot on the floor in lines for grocery store checkouts are behaviors that most of us are getting used to. But, they’re new tricks that you can’t teach seeing-eye dogs.

“There’s no way we can teach that,” Joan Markey with The Seeing Eye said. “The dogs are just taught to clear their owner around an obstacle, and sometimes those obstacles are people.”

The Seeing Eye is an organization that trains guide dogs, and they’re hoping to get a message out to the public, tasking the sighted population with helping guide dogs to navigate the new normal for their owners.

While social distancing can’t really change the way service animals work, it is changing the way some of them are trained.

“Normally they gain access as they get older, however with things being closed down here in Kentucky, it has put a little bit of restriction on where our dogs can go,” Samantha Kiewel with Wildcat Service Dogs said. “So, it does kind of restrict their socialization.”

That limits most of their training right now to things that can be done healthy at home.

But, it’s not all bad. The distance to stop the spread of COVID-19 is also reinforcing a rule many of us have a hard time with following, not petting service animals.

“You never want to distract a service animal from doing its task,” Cory Dahlkamp with Always Faithful Dog Training said. “So, right now, with people being socially distant, it’s kind of refreshing that everybody is staying six feet away because they’re worried about germs because that’s what they should be doing for people with service animals anyways.”

They’re behaviors for all of us to remember during the pandemic and after it’s over.

Chappie Checks In

Once a regular fixture in the newsroom and studio, our service puppy in training “Chappie” hasn’t been to work since mid March.

Channel 3’s Kathryn Daniel is raising Chappie for Canine Companions and he has been homebound during the COVID-19 crisis. She shares how she’s keeping him on track

with his training, much of which is mastered in public. Here’s her story in her words.

We call him “Happy Chappie”. Our 65 pound puppy just turned one and is three quarters way through his time with us.

So far, he’s mastered twenty five commands and needs to learn five more before November.

We used to practice mostly on the go, in stores, restaurants and on the job. I took Chappie almost everywhere with me so he had lots of “real world” experience and exposure.

Since that’s out for now, my husband Brion and I have turned to Brittney Clark. Clark has trained three working service dogs, with one more set to graduate soon.

Milly is latest puppy in training and Chappie’s very best friend. They’ll go to puppy college together in the fall. Clark said, “Milly is very high energy so she’s not getting as much brain power, as much thinking since we’ve been in quarantine so she’s been a little bored.”

Clark works hard to keep Milly’s mind and body busy. She laughed, “A lot of swimming, a lot of walks, a lot of play dates with Chappie.”

One way is the “Kibble Challenge”. It’s not a formal command, but a self-control exercise. To master it, they can’t make a move for the kibble on the floor or on their paws. That’s hard for a chow hound like Chappie, but he’s getting better.

Clark is also making common commands more complicated. “If she’s out in the yard and I say ‘sit’ it doesn’t matter where she is, I want her to sit there. I don’t want her to come to me, I want her to sit right where she’s at,” explained Clark.

Shelly Locke is the head trainer for the Southeast Region of Canine Companions, the non-profit Chappie and Milly belong to. Locke said to keep Chappie sharp, we need to work with him about thirty minutes a day. She elaborated, “Five minutes here, ten minutes there. Especially with a young puppy, even a year old, beyond would bore them out.”

Chappie has been housebound for about six weeks. I worry he might lose his public manners. Locke told me to not fret about that. She said, “I think once you are able to get back out into that routine he’s gonna fall right back into it.”

She suggested we ease him back into outings when the time is right and things are deemed safe to do so. “Maybe do a couple of short trips where you’re really focusing on him to see how he’s doing,” Locke advised

Locke cautioned us to just take it slow and not overwhelm him. That will not be not a problem for this laid back puppy, I’m the worry wart in our duo. In fact, Chappie is so calm I’ve wondered if he’s too relaxed to be a working dog.

Locke laughed and told me that shouldn’t be a problem. “Those slower moving, sluggish kind of Eeyore dogs sometimes make a really great service dog.”

Nationwide, Canine Companions has 400 service dogs ready to graduate and meet their teammate, but for now those matches are on hold for the time being.

Tomorrow morning we’ll share how they’re continuing their mission with all six campuses temporarily shut down across the country.

Watch Service Dogs Get Trained

 

 

 

Everyone could use a pick-me-up right about now, and something that makes even the darkest of souls smile? PUPPIES.

Canine Companions is a non-profit that trains puppies to eventually become service dogs for people with disabilities. They’re now featuring a YouTube channel that shows their baby dogs snuggling, eating, playing, sleeping, and all the other cute puppy things that puppies do. It’s available every day 10am-7pm.

Therapy Dogs Provide Comfort Online

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a corgi named Tucker spent several hours a month comforting patients at Stanford Hospital and enjoying cuddles from medical students who were having a rough day or were homesick for their own dogs.

Now, regional shelter-in-place orders have sidelined Tucker from his work as a registered therapy dog at Stanford Hospital and Stanford University. Tucker seems to enjoy the extra four walks a day with his owner, volunteer Betsy Grotte, near their San Carlos home; but she can tell he’s not pleased when she won’t let him greet his admiring fans. He doesn’t understand social distancing.

That doesn’t mean he’s lost the power to make people feel better. So, Grotte and Tucker have moved to Zoom with several other therapy dog teams to provide virtual K-9 comfort.

Owners also are using other creative ways to to extend therapy dogs’ reach during the pandemic, including using Instagram and special videos.

“It’s just fun to get our dogs more involved — whether they’re here or not here,” said Molly Pearson, a child-life specialist who oversees the Pet Assisted Wellness Services program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

Martha Kessler, an executive director of finance and administration at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is the volunteer coordinator of the therapy dog visits on campus; and she organized recent Zoom events in partnership with Stanford Health Care’s PAWS program.

Kessler figured that putting dogs on camera would at least be entertaining; she also hoped it would provide emotional support during the pandemic.

Personal experience told her that some dogs are well-suited to connecting via screen. Case in point: Whenever Kessler joins a work meeting via video conference, one of her English golden retrievers, also named Tucker, butts in.

“He totally lays under the table until I get on a Zoom call. Then he has to bomb it, every time,” Kessler said. She initially shooed him away, thinking it was unprofessional to have her dog in a meeting, but, “People were like, ‘Why are you putting him down?'” she said.

Still, holding pet therapy sessions involved more than inviting interested people to a Zoom call. Trainers had to sort out a number of details: How would the audience interact with the dogs? Should owners hold the dogs? Play with them on the ground? Set them free to explore, play or even sleep during the sessions?

Nearly 80 people — a mix of university students, staff members and Stanford Health Care employees — tuned in last week for a Zoom event with about a dozen dogs.

Tucker the corgi handled the moment by lying contentedly on the couch. Viewers wished one dog, Oscar, a happy birthday, and made comments or asked questions about how dogs are selected for the program.

Unlike service dogs that are trained to assist their handlers, therapy dogs have one role: to cheer people up. Their owners are typically community volunteers whose dogs are registered with Pet Partners, a national pet therapy organization.

Before being matched to volunteer opportunities, dogs are screened for such things as temperament, adaptability and sociability with strangers. A few dogs, like Grotte’s Tucker, have additional qualities that allow them to visit patient rooms. That work requires dogs to be small enough to lie on patients’ beds, and to have a calm temperament, unlikely to be fazed by disturbances or loud noises.

Besides using Zoom, Stanford-approved pairs are finding other ways to connect.

Kessler shares photos of the dogs and posts event links on the Stanford Pet Partners Instagram account.

At Packard Children’s, Pearson is collaborating with the hospital’s Sophie’s Place Broadcast Studio to produce “Weekly Dose of Donnie” video segments to play in patients’ rooms.

Donnie, a full-time facility dog donated by Canine Companions for Independence, is familiar to families and staff because she accompanies Pearson in her work preparing children for surgery.

Donnie serves as the video segment’s “host,” and last week two of her therapy dog friends made appearances, “talking” and updating young patients about their activities during their hiatus.

Next week, child-life staff will start one-on-one virtual therapy dog visits for hospitalized children, Pearson said.

She said she’d love for virtual therapy to continue, even after shelter-in-place orders are lifted: “Animals lift people’s spirits, whether it’s in person or watching videos.”

Retirement Community Gets Furry Visitors to Liven Up COVID-19 Quarantine

Residents at The Middletown Home retirement community recently received some very special visitors. Local animal rescue and service organizations brought animals to the facility and made one-on-one visits to each resident’s window. The smiles and joy these visits brought went a long way in helping liven up the extended quarantine these high-risk residents are enduring.

Puppy Parade Featuring Service Dogs

Therapy dogs from Susquehanna Service Dogs went window to window, sharing their love and comfort right through the glass. Participating dogs included Safari, an eleven-month-old Golden Retriever; Guinness, a year and a half old black Lab; and Blanche, a five-year-old Golden Retriever. Blanche is The Middletown Home’s own “Facility Dog,” so her presence was especially appreciated.

Pick Up After Your Pet

When I walk down the street, why are there piles of dog feces on the sidewalk? Are there laws that owners of dogs pick up their pet’s feces? Is it not toxic to humans?

The way it makes me feel, is angry! At the owners, it is not the dog’s fault. Most of the time the owner doesn’t care. Don’t people know that feces are hurtful to us. Feces causes zoonotic (a disease that can be transmitted though dog feces to human).

You’re out for a walk, when you step in dog feces, first it changes your mood and attitude to all dogs. Next you track it everywhere— car, home, work or friend’s house. Along with getting it everywhere, if the dog is sick or gets a virus, we can get it through their feces.

I like animals, and share a service dog with my girlfriend, so I know accidents happen but not every time. So if you own a pet, can you please pick up after your pet? You wouldn’t leave a toddler in a soiled dipper all day, or leave the diaper anywhere but the trash, would you? Don’t you pet owners treat your pet like a child?

On the other side of stepping in feces for dogs is, if you step in it with your right foot its good luck, and the left one, bad fortune. So do your part and keep this planet clean. We got nowhere else to go.

Richard Lefrancois

Greenfield