Service Dog Awareness Month

September is Service Dog Awareness Month, a time when we honor the contributions and loyalty of some amazing animals that serve our nation’s military heroes.

Bobby Bones, Radio and TV personality, joined us today to share about how he’s teaming up with Purina Dog Chow for their third annual service dog salute campaign.

For many U.S. military veterans with PTSD, service dogs are providing remarkable life-changing benefits that no other therapy can. That’s why Purina Dog Chow and our Service Dog Salute program are committed to supporting the care and training of more service dogs for veterans — so that every military hero in need can find a canine hero of their own.

Bones is a military advocate who hosts a top nationally syndicated country music radio show. He is also New York times best-selling author, a mentor on American Idol, he recently won an ACM Award for national on-air personality of the year and he’s working on a new show on national geographic.

Animal Services Drive-Thru

If it’s time to vaccinate your dogs, the Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley has you covered.

A drive-thru vaccine clinic will be available rom 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Telshor 12 parking lot. ASCMV will be offering vaccines for rabies, DHPP, Bordetella and microchips with a cost of $10 each.

The socially distanced event will require drivers to wear face masks and to stay inside their cars with dogs leashed.

Cat vaccinations will not be available. According to a Facebook post by ASCMV, in previous years staff was able to vaccinate cats by going inside of cars with doors locked and windows closed to avoid pets running away. Because of COVID-19 safe regulations, cat vaccination won’t be available at the event.

AMR’s Therapy Dog

American Medical Response San Bernardino County is welcoming its new therapy dog, Rampart, who recently passed his Certified Therapy Dog exam.

AMR acquired Rampart when he was 10 weeks old and he is now a year and a half.

At the age of 4 months, he started basic obedience classes, progressing through advanced obedience classes. At 8 months, he passed his Canine Good Citizen Certification (CGC) which tests the dogs by AKC standards of obedience.

Since then, he started with a local therapy dog group, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, this group was suspended.

Rampart has visited all San Bernardino County AMR and Reach operations for various visits and after critical calls.

In addition, he has visited the Victor Valley paramedic program, the local county supervisor, and local hospitals to meet with their staff after some critical calls to provide emotional support.

Now that he is certified, he joins the GMR Therapy Dog Team, one of 22 dogs across the country ready to respond to caretakers wherever he is assigned.

Rampart’s handlers are Mike Romo (operations manager of Victorville AMR) and Leo Lara (operations supervisor of Victorville AMR).

Trainers With Guide Dogs

The coronavirus has no boundaries and has the potential to sideline the guide dog business that transforms the lives of those visually impaired and blind.

When the virus spread uncontrollably across the country in March, Sylmar-based Guide Dogs of America carefully moved forward with a plan to secure its future against the possibility of shutting down leaving a void of available service dogs.

“If we were to shut down, we’d see the effect of that in two years when there wouldn’t be enough of-age, highly trained guide dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired,” said Puppy Program Coordinator Stephanie Colman. “There wouldn’t be any breeding, no training.”

When the pandemic first brought the state to its knees and stay-at-home orders were enacted, Guide Dogs of America had a nursery full of puppies and several dogs due to give birth. It was impossible to shut down.

“We made changes to the campus environment to enact physical distancing and put several health and safety measures in place,” Colman said. “We also quickly figured out how to pivot from in-person puppy training classes where our volunteer puppy raisers learn how to teach the pups in their care the skills they’re expected to learn in puppyhood to Zoom-based learning. We also turned out puppy pick-up process into a curbside drive-thru affair, passing puppies through car windows like Happy Meals.”

A majority of the guide dogs are Labradors followed by a Labrador/golden retriever mix breed and German shepherds.

Labradors are mainly used because they are adaptable. They have a willingness to work for food and are flexible given the variety of people they live with over the years.

“They love the one they are with, so they handle that transition very well,” Colman said.

It takes about two years and $60,000, at no cost to the blind person, to raise and train the dogs and their future owners. The organization is primarily funded by International Association of Machinists local across the country.

When a dog is about eight weeks old it is given to a puppy raiser.

Raisers teach them to be obedient in a variety of environments and follow commands.

“And most importantly, they are going to get that dog out into the world and incorporate the dog into every facet of their life so the dog learns to be civilized, calm and competent in all the different possible settings it might find itself in later once it is a guide dog with a world view,” Colman said.

Puppy raisers keep the dogs for a little more than a year before they return to Sylmar for an additional four to six months of training with professionals who teach them highly complex guide dog skills.

During months of coronavirus restrictions, the organization is experiencing an uptick in puppy raisers, but there are still chances for anyone interested in pursuing the job. A call for volunteers to raise puppies is in full force during September, national guide dog month.

The coronavirus outbreak has also presented challenges for puppy raisers as well as those who eventually receive a dog. Raisers haven’t been able to get the dogs out as much.

Those outdoor training sessions are an important part of the puppies’ socialization and exposes them to many situations they may encounter later in life as working guide dogs.

Dogs are matched with their partners throughout the United States and Canada.

Before COVID-19, qualified clients stayed at the 7.5-acre Sylmar campus to learn about how to team up with their dogs during a three-week, in-residence program. Those vitally important classes have been canceled.

And while post-coronavirus days can translate into more isolation for the dogs and their owners, one skill harnessed guide dogs don’t learn is how to keep socially distanced while working outside in their communities.

The ability to judge 6 feet for the dog is impossible and is especially challenging for their blind owner.

“Please if you see someone with a guide dog or anyone with a disability walking down the sidewalk, don’t make the decision for them that they are not going to get 6 feet between you,” said Lorri Bernson, a blind spokeswoman for Guide Dogs of America. “Please make the decision for them by taking yourself and moving around because many times I can hear someone coming down the sidewalk and I can tell the sound isn’t moving around me but it’s still coming at me. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to go off the curb (quickly) and take the direction on my own to get away to make that 6-foot barrier.”

Bernson, 58, is teamed up with her third guide dog, Captain, a happy-go-lucky 2-year-old yellow Labrador.

She has been visually impaired for 25 years due to complications with diabetes and admits to feeling isolated the past six months in her Encino home especially since she is working from home.

“(The isolation) is a little more elevated because of not being with others and I miss being out there with Captain,” Bernson said. “Many people with guide dogs will say their dog is the bridge to their social (interactions) and can be the magnet that draws a stranger into a conversation that otherwise might not have happened. Captain and I are a team; we go everywhere together. I trust him with both of our lives in his paws. I trust him more than myself because he has all of his senses and I know his role. He’s selected to be that dog, the dog that takes the challenge on and is going to succeed. In training, we give them many opportunities to show us that this isn’t their thing.”

Not all of the 150 puppies born and bred annually in Sylmar go on to be guide dogs. Guide dog work is complex and not the right job for every dog. About 60 are eventually matched with blind clients.

There are many reasons some dogs don’t make the elite job of being a guide dog including hip, eye, elbow and medical reasons. Those dogs that don’t make it may become other types of service dogs and could be paired up with a veteran with post-traumatic syndrome or someone with autism for example.

And if the dog is not eligible to be a service dog of any capacity, then the volunteer puppy raiser has a chance at adoption.

COVID Dogs At Airport

A pilot project has been started with four dogs that are sniffing samples at the airport.

The extremely sensitive olfactory sense of dogs might prove to become a groundbreaking new tool in the fight against the COVID-19. According to the preliminary tests conducted at the University of Helsinki, trained scent detection dogs seem to be quick in recognizing coronavirus from samples and might even be more sensitive than many of the tests that are now on the market.

Dogs’ noses are now put to test at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. A pilot project has been started with four dogs that are sniffing samples at the airport.

The official status of corona dogs is still being clarified, so civilian dogs are used in the pilot instead of service dogs. Civilian dogs are not being trained for sniffing humans directly. Participation in testing with dogs is voluntary at this time. All passengers and airport personnel can seek to be tested. It will be possible to go over to the use of official coronavirus testing with service dogs when permitted by a change in the law.

“We have ten dogs that can reliably work in the airport environment,” says University of Helsinki research coordinator and Nose Academy CEO Susanna Paavilainen.

Almost all the dogs have some smell background already, some may already have several smells that they recognize and search for. In addition to the smell of coronavirus, they need to be trained to function in the airport environment.

“Some of the dogs will remain as laboratory dogs, that will sniff samples in very calm circumstances without distractions. The work shifts of a dog proceed in terms of the dogs’ endurance, so we always have two dogs ready to step in while two others are on a work shift.”

The testing at the airport has been designed to be safe

The testing at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport has been designed carefully. Passengers who are allergic to dogs or are afraid of them have been taken into consideration, and so now a dog will smell only samples swiped from the skin, that is, not the people directly.

When a passenger at the airport comes to the corona dog sampling station, he or she steps into a small space delineated by screens, where he or she takes a skin swipe from him or herself according to the instructions given and drops the sample into the container provided for it. The dog and its trainer are behind a wall, where the dog sniffs the given sample. In this way the allergic passengers, among others, are taken into consideration, and care is taken that the trainers are not subjected to the coronavirus. Personal information is not collected at the sampling station. If the result is positive, the passenger is directed to the Helsinki University Hospital’s health information station for further instructions.

“It is often asked if a dog can catch coronavirus. According to studies, dogs lack the receptor to which the coronavirus attaches,” says Susanna Paavilainen. She adds that there has also been no information from around the world that dogs of corona patients would have become ill.

It has been discovered that coronavirus is easy to smell for dogs, so because of this, training dogs is relatively fast, and the results are good. The training of a dog to be a corona dog is very individualistic, however.

Learning the smell of coronavirus takes from a few hours to a few months. International peer-reviewed studies have shown that a dog’s ability to find positive patients is about 94-100%, depending on the dog.

What is special is that dogs can also detect coronavirus from a significantly lower amount of virus than the commonly used PCR tests. This means that a dog will be able to identify the coronavirus in humans earlier than laboratory tests. It has also been found that a dog’s nose has identified coronavirus infection in asymptomatic people days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms. Laboratory tests cannot do this.

Retired K-9 Mani

The Defenders of the 8th Security Forces Squadron hosted a retirement ceremony Sept. 17, to honor Mani, a beloved military working dog.

Mani began his career in 2011 here at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, where he accumulated more than 1,500 hours of law enforcement patrols.

His last active-duty partner, Staff Sgt. Zachary Kunkler, 8th SFS MWD handler, reminisced on his times with Mani.

“During this past year, every morning I would come into work and start my routine with his one raspy bark,” Kunkler said. “[He was] always eager to get away from his younger colleagues for some peace and quiet. He would trot to the exit of the runs and patiently sit, waiting for me to open the door.

“When we got outside, he would make his way to this specific spot and make sure it was marked while trying to catch his breath,” Kunkler said. “Mani was always the first one to go to bed, and the last one to wake up. I couldn’t imagine this year without the old man. He knew every day was going to be a good day. If anyone was feeling down, he’d sprawl across your lap and make sure you had a friend.”

Mani will retire to Charleston, South Carolina, where his former handler Staff Sgt. Jake Mikell, 628th SFS, will look after him.

“Ever since I left Korea, I knew I wanted to adopt Mani,” Mikell said. “Korea is very unique in the sense that we are allowed to bring our dogs back to our dorm rooms as much as we want. Mani spent practically every night in my room and got me through some hard times while I was in Korea toward the end of my time there.

“I was there from May 2016 to May 2017, and my flight always loved having him around,” Mikell said. “He took his job very serious.”

Mani’s last patrol was during the 8th Fighter Wing’s recent 9/11 memorial ceremony. He spent a lot of the time laying down, but when it was time to move, Mani was ready, like always.

As attendees said their goodbyes to Mani at the end of the ceremony, they had the opportunity to both pet and give dog treats to Mani.

He received his final salute from the squadron and, after 9 long years, Mani was on his way to his forever home.  It was clear that the 8th SFS and MWD section will miss him dearly.

“I’m gonna miss the old pup,” Kunkler said. “But the couch life was a long time coming and be deserves it after his time serving in the world’s greatest Air Force.”

Farewell, Mani. Thank you for your service.

Students Want Therapy Dogs

Essexville-Hampton Public Schools’ robotics program has reached the final stage of a national grant competition that could win it $25,000 toward a goal of bringing full-time therapy dogs to each building in the Bay County district.

The State Farm Neighborhood Assist program has 200 finalist competing  for 40 $25,000 service grants, and public voting for the competition began Wednesday, Sept. 23. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the district was 15th out of 200 on the leaderboard and has a good shot at securing a grant, said Ethan Shannon, robotics teacher and team mentor for “The E-Ville Empire” at Essexville-Hampton’s Garber High School.

As of Thursday morning, Sept. 24, the team has fallen to 21st, but is still solidly within the margins of winning a grant.

People can sign up on State Farm’s website to cast up to 10 votes a day for their favorite proposal. Voting ends on Friday, Oct. 2, and State Farm will announce the winners on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

FIRST robotics teams foster a culture of community service, Shannon said, which led a group of his high schoolers to look a team project to help their fellow students.

The students found that therapy dogs could help improve the mental health of the community, which has become more relevant as anxiety-related issues spike during the novel coronavirus pandemic, Shannon said. Kids having access to a therapy dog can help improve self esteem, reduce anxiety and calm students in crisis, he said.

“To be able to de-stress with one of those animals is like nothing else we have for any of those kids right now,” Shannon said. “It’s something that can really, really make a positive impact on the school.”

Over the past year, the program raised nearly $5,000 to bring its first dog, a Shetland sheepdog named Chip, to Verellen Elementary School. Chip is ready to start his job as soon as in-person classes resume, Shannon said.

“After this COVID thing… There’s gonna be a lot of anxious kids out there, especially the little ones,” Shannon said. “We’re excited (Chip’s) gonna be part of it too.”

Winning the grant would likely provide enough funding to finish the students’ goal of getting three more dogs for the community, Shannon said. The dogs would have classroom presence at the high school, middle school and two elementary buildings, and would also be used in outreach programs at the local Boys & Girls Club, hospitals, nursing homes and group homes, he said.

The students thought it would take much longer to raise the money to buy Chip alone, Shannon said. Winning the grant and reaching their goal would be the fulfillment of a dream for them, he said.

Guide Dogs Partnership

Countryfile star Adam Henson took time out of a busy day on his farm to meet buddy dog owner Evie Gormley in a new heart-warming video from charity Guide Dogs.

Sixteen-year-old Evie, from Aberdare in Mid-Glamorgan and her buddy dog, Uma, met Adam at his Cotswold Farm Park near Cheltenham to chat about sight loss and their shared love for animals.

Buddy dog Uma is a partner and friend to Evie, helping her to overcome barriers around her vision impairment. This is something that Adam has a very personal connection with, having lost his nephew Ben, who had sight loss, to cancer at a young age.

Adam said: “When my late nephew Ben lost his sight at five years old, it brought home to me the challenges facing families with a visually-impaired child. Animals had a wonderfully calming and therapeutic influence on him, dogs in particular, so I fully understand the incredible impact that Uma has had on Evie.

“It was delightful to meet them both. She’s a wonderful person and listening to her explain how Uma has given her back her confidence was inspiring.”

Evie, who has Ramos-Arroyo Syndrome, a condition which affects both her eyesight and hearing, first applied to Guide Dogs’ Buddy Dog scheme in 2016, when she was 12. She was soon matched with Uma, a black Labrador x Retriever cross.

From that moment, Uma hasn’t left the side of the aspiring young judo star, giving her the confidence to make friends and train for her goal of joining the Paralympic judo team.

Evie explained: “Before I had Uma, I didn’t talk or play much, and I didn’t have many friends. Now I have her, people come up to me to say hello and I’ve made a lot more friends.

“She also loves helping me with my training, sitting with me while I do push ups and running alongside me when we’re in the park. She’s amazing!”

Buddy Dogs is a service designed to specifically help children and young people with sight loss, by providing them with a friendly dog.

Project Manager for the Buddy Dogs service at Guide Dogs, Verity De Winton, said: “Buddy dogs are wonderful for children and young people with sight loss. They are not guide dogs, but they help to develop self-confidence, improve relationships and have a hugely positive effect on the child and family’s well-being”.

Evie added: “I don’t see myself as having a ‘condition’, I just have to do things differently to achieve my goals. Uma is always with me and has helped me so much with my confidence. I’m starting college in September and she’s helped me realise that one day, I will definitely be applying for a guide dog.”

Animal Control Fees

If your pet gets out in the Village of Plainfield and animal control needs to be called, it will cost a bit more to get your beloved creature back.

The Plainfield Village Board Monday approved animal control service fees charged by Will County Animal Control, which typically involves residents calling from an at-large snake or coyote. The service fee charged for an animal call-out during regular business hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays has increased from the current $100 to $130. The service fee charged after hours and on weekends and holidays was hiked from $150 to $200, and emergency call out has increased from $250 to $300.

“In each situation,” Police Chief John Konopek said, “the village is charged the applicable service fee regardless of whether an animal is taken into custody.”

In consideration of the fee increase, Konopek said administrative fees for citations related to situations where animal control needs to be called also needs to be increased. Those situations include keeping of miniature pigs; keeping of dogs/cats in excess of the permitted number in the village; prohibition of animals at large; restraint of dogs; and public nuisance caused by an animal. The penalty for violating that ordinance has now increased from the current $100 to $150.

Bill Wentworth of Plainfield, who was out on a recent evening with his German shepherd, said he does not support the fee hike.

“I always worry when my kids take the dog out for a walk because he can overpower them and run away,” he said. “If that happens and someone calls the village, I will be fined $150 if my dog is roaming the neighborhood. To me, it is a bit excessive.”

Family Promise And PetSmart

PetSmart Charities has renewed its support of Family Promise with a grant for $25,000. The grant will be used to continue the operations of the Pets with a Promise Program, which operates at Family Promise Affiliates across the United States.

Pets with a Promise began in 2015 when Family Promise realized that families experiencing homelessness were often being forced to make the decision between seeking shelter and keeping a beloved pet. The program provides sheltering services for pets in Affiliate run kennels or other local facilities, so that families can keep their pets while they stay with Family Promise and work to achieve sustainable independent housing.

“At PetSmart Charities, we believe in the importance of preserving the bond between pets and people, no matter what life challenges or circumstances pet parents may be facing,” said Kelly Balthazor, regional relationship at national charity. “We’re proud to once again support Family Promise in providing resources to keep more pets and people together in communities across the nation.”

“During this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, more families than ever are at-risk of losing their home and their sense of normalcy,” said Claas Ehlers, Chief Executive Officer of Family Promise. “Pets are an important part of a family and provide comfort during difficult times. This grant from PetSmart Charities and the continuation of the Pets with a Promise program, will ensure that more families and their pets receive the support they need until they can achieve sustainable independence.” Family Promise has Affiliates in over 200 communities across the United States which provide prevention, shelter, and stabilization services to families at-risk of and experiencing homelessness. Traditionally, Family Promise Affiliates have operated shelters in community spaces and congregations, but the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted them to find creative ways to continue serving families while ensuring safety.

Little did she and her family know how important their new puppy, Roxie, would become to them when they brought her home three years ago.

There was an immediate connection between Tasha, who suffered from periodic seizures, and the new dog. Roxie stuck close to her human “sister,” even sleeping at the foot of her bed. But no one realized how special their bond was until Roxie witnessed one of Tasha’s seizures.

“Roxie found me and grabbed at me, leading me to Tasha,” recalls Tasha’s mom, Laurie. “Thankfully, I got to her in time.”

From then on, dog and daughter were inseparable, Laurie says.

“Roxie’s my emotional support animal,” Tasha explains. “Whenever I’m about to have a seizure, she finds my mom, whines, and makes her come check on me.”

When the family lost their home and came to Family Promise-Salt Lake, Utah, they worried what would become of Roxie since most agencies barred pets. But Family Promise was able to keep human and canine members of the family together through Pets with a Promise.

“Because Roxie’s expenses were covered, a volunteer offered to board her. The family visited as often as they wanted,” says Family Promise Program Manager, Alyssa York.

For the three months the family was in the emergency shelter program, Roxie had a safe, comfortable home. And although she wasn’t around daily to keep a close eye on Tasha, Roxie enjoyed frequent visits from her family.

The family is now in transitional housing, and Roxie is back at the foot of Tasha’s bed each night.

Since Roxie, the Affiliate has lodged one cat and expects to serve many more families and their pets. York is thrilled about this opportunity.

“Now families don’t have added worries about their pets when they’re in a crisis,” she says. “I love that we don’t have to turn anyone away.” Family Promise envisions a nation in which every family has a home, a livelihood, and the chance to build a better future. What began as a local initiative in Summit, NJ, has become a national movement that involves 200,000 volunteers and served more than 111,000 family members in 2019. Family Promise will change the future for 1 million children by 2030.