Thursday, September 12, 2013

Service Dogs | aschae"s Dogblog




Doctors Say Family Dog Saved Lost Toddler, MO May 15, 2009





Source: KSPR.com, May 10, 2009


A Missouri toddler, who wandered away from his home last week, has been released from the hospital, just in time for Mother’s Day. Three-year old Joshua Childers was all smiles this weekend as he left the hospital in Crystal City. Doctors say he had hypothermia, scratches and bug bites from his “hike” in the Mark Twain National Forest. They now think the 120-pound family dog helped keep the boy safe and warm.


“One of our initial concerns was how could a 35-pound child could stay alive in forty degree weather in the rain for two nights and three days,” said Steven Crawford, Childer’s doctor. “That may be the answer, and he was telling about being with the dog at night.”


The family dog is a Great Pyrenees, and doctors say the fluffy dog kept Joshua alive through his 52-hour ordeal.




 












Oregon airport uses dog to chase birds off runway


Filed under: Recent News,Service Dogs — aschae @ 1:59 pm
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Source: VictoriaAdvocate.com, May 9, 2009


NORTH BEND, Ore. (AP) — A small airport on the Oregon coast is taking care of its bird problems with a border collie named Filly.


Southwest Oregon Regional Airport sends the dog after the pesky Canada geese that can pose a hazard to aviation.


“She’s chased flocks of geese into the water,” said Bob Hood, the airport’s wildlife manager. “She’s really good at her job and she really likes her job.”


Filly is the third dog — officially called wildlife management canine — that Hood has trained to work at the airport.


Hood and the operations crew had used propane cannons, cracker shells, whistles and horns as scare tactics to shoo away intruders before a commercial flight struck some geese.


“There was damage to the nose of the aircraft. They smashed into the radar dome,” Hood said. “I remember seeing a goose was inside the dome.”


Nobody was hurt, but Hood said it prompted the airport executive director to ask him to look into the U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife management program.


Hood started training with the American Society of Canine Trainers in 1994 and by 1997 had become a certified trainer.


Since then he has trained dogs for the North Bend Police Department and Coos County Search&Rescue, as well as for law enforcement agencies in Florence and in Jackson County.


The Federal Aviation Administration requires most airports to have a wildlife management program in place to be certified for commercial passenger traffic.


Once a year, Hood attends a training seminar given by the USDA, U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife or the FAA. He meets people from all over the country with different types of animals they’re dealing with.


“I met a guy in Florida where there were alligator strikes,” Hood said.


The FAA and USDA have reported that from 1990 to 2003, there have been more than 50,000 aircraft damaged by wildlife strikes, with 124 people injured and eight killed.


Since the airport joined the wildlife management program, the number of wildlife strikes in North Bend dropped from several annually to one or two a year, Hood said.


“The birds are so dangerous to airplanes, you have to do something,” he said.




 












Four new pet heroes honored in Canada May 8, 2009


Filed under: Events,Heros,Search & Rescue,Service Dogs — aschae @ 1:58 pm
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Source: UPI.com, May 4, 2009


TORONTO, May 4 (UPI) — Three dogs and a cat were honored as human-lifesaving heroes at the Purina Animal Hall of Fame in Toronto Monday.


The inductees included a young Bijon Frise dog named Sophie from Olds, Alberta, Sophie awoke her owner and alerted her that the woman’s daughter had slipped into a diabetic coma in her bedroom.


The second dog inducted was an 8-year-old Chow Chow named Jarod from Genelle, British Columbia. Jarod distracted a charging black bear and allowed its owner and another dog to flee to safety before escaping from the bear.


The only cat inducted was a 21-pound male domestic shorthair named Nemo, which made persistent efforts to awaken a Toronto woman and alert her that her husband had stopped breathing beside her in bed. The man survived.


Purina also honored Ace, a Dutch-Shepherd mix adopted by a police officer in Hamilton, Ontario, who trained him as a search and rescue service dog. In December, Ace located a woman missing for three days during a major snowstorm. She was buried in snow, but recovered.


Since the inception of the Hall of Fame in 1968, 117 dogs, 24 cats and a horse have been named as heroes for their life-saving deeds, Purina said in a release.




 












Dog program helps kids to read, AZ April 29, 2009


Filed under: Children & Dogs,Heros,Recent News,Service Dogs — aschae @ 3:59 pm



Source: ArizonaRepublic.com, April 26, 2009


Dogs may be man’s best friend, but now thanks to a unique reading program in Flagstaff, dogs are also a student’s best friend. Paws to Read lets students practice reading aloud by reading to a therapy dog. The goal of the program is to promote literacy and the love of reading to children.


Often children have difficulties when reading aloud. Since the dogs listen and don’t tease or judge the child, confidence levels increase. Paws to Read creates a positive, non-threatening, fun environment for children in both classrooms and public-library settings.


“When I read, I stutter a little bit, and when I read to the dog, it didn’t make fun of me,” student Beatriz Flores said.


Paws to Read pairs Delta Society-registered therapy dogs and their handlers with young readers. Warm brown eyes and doggy grins make all the difference in children’s reading experiences.


“It has been observed, over and over again, that children’s reading abilities improve as they gain confidence reading to dogs,” said Pat Policastro, program coordinator.


Flagstaff Medical Center is the lead agency for the program. It provides the pet therapy teams, program expertise and coordination, and continued financial support. Flagstaff Unified School District provides the space and child participants. Currently, there are Paws to Read teams in Flagstaff public schools, local charter schools and summer-reading programs at the public libraries.


The program works through a coordinated effort between the school, classroom teacher and Paws to Read. Dogs are introduced in a classroom after behavioral expectations have been discussed with the students and the teacher. Sessions last 15 to 30 minutes a week.


An additional benefit is the greater self-esteem that students gain by improving their reading skills. Teachers reported an increase in students volunteering to read aloud in class and an increase in students checking books out of the library.


“We’ve been impressed with the results of Paws to Read,” Flagstaff Superintendent Kevin Brown said. “It’s another way of bringing volunteers into our schools to directly benefit our students.”




 












S.B. Therapy Dog Survives Fighting Ring, but Blood Sport Remains Active, CA March 26, 2009





Source: Santa Barbara Independant, March 25, 2009, by Cathy Murillo


The story of Daisy Mae the pit bull is like that of any other survivor — she suffered pain, got back on her feet, and is now living a sweeter, more meaningful life because of her experience.


Daisy Mae, formerly part of a dogfighting operation, is now a therapy dog in Santa Barbara making weekly rounds at Cottage Hospital’s pediatric ward and Villa Riviera retirement home. Gentle and affectionate, the three-year-old cuddles with the elderly and frail, and even allows small children to hold her tight when they are undergoing painful medical procedures.


Her miracle of rehabilitation mirrors that of the dogs rescued from the Michael Vick fight farm, where only one dog had to be euthanized for being vicious. Of the remaining 47 Vick canines, most have been placed in homes, many with children, other dogs, and cats.


While Daisy Mae and the rehabilitated Vick dogs are changing hearts and minds about the American pit bull terrier, dogfighting continues to be a dark and bloody reality in the United States. According to the national Humane Society, 99.9 percent of fighting dogs are pit bulls. And unlike the Vick case where the football player paid rehab costs, most dogs rescued from fight rings are put down because there are no resources to rescue, evaluate, retrain, and relocate the animals.


A Sack of Potatoes


Daisy Mae’s life these days is a stark contrast to her puppyhood. Found on the streets of Oakland, California, in 2006, she was believed to have served as a “bait” dog in a pit bull fighting operation. Dogs without fighting instincts are used to bring out dominance in other dogs.



Daisy Mae with her owner Alison Hansen.

Daisy Mae with her owner Alison Hansen.



The brown and white dog was starved and emaciated at 37 pounds. Not much else is known about Daisy Mae, according to her owner Alison Hansen, 32, a Santa Barbara wedding planning professional. Hansen found her in a shelter affiliated with the BAD RAP organization, or Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls (badrap.org). The dog was extremely withdrawn and frightened, cowering against the wall.


“Something came over me. I vowed, ‘She can never have a bad day again,’” said Hansen, who admits to originally wanting an athletic dog that she could exercise with. “I had wanted a [Labrador] experience, but what I got was a little sack of potatoes.”


Daisy Mae’s rehabilitation was intense but amazingly quick. She hadn’t been taken for walks or exposed to the world outside of her pen, apparently. Whenever facing a new experience — a flight of stairs, the sound of a car horn, bicycles, cats — she would freeze up, or lie flat on the ground, or pee on herself.


Hansen patiently worked with the dog, who eagerly took to training as she wanted to please her new mistress. Within four months, Daisy Mae had mastered all the obedience commands (sit, stay, down), earned a Canine Good Citizen certificate from the American Kennel Club, and even passed the rigorous testing developed by Therapy Dogs International to become a working volunteer canine.



On one of her visits to Cottage Hospital, Daisy Mae hangs out with Wyatt Talor.

On one of her visits to Cottage Hospital, Daisy Mae hangs out with Wyatt Talor.



Two of the Vick dogs are therapy dogs now, too. One is Hector, who’s getting national attention for his accomplishment, as he’s covered with ugly scars from fighting. Hansen believes Hector and Daisy Mae should stand as proof that bad owners are the problem, not bad dogs. So moved by her dog’s transformation, Hansen has joined the campaign against breed-specific legislation. It’s not fair for cities, counties, or states to outlaw all pit bulls, she said.


“These laws are punishing the wrong end of the leash,” Hansen said, adding that many pit bull owners don’t know they shouldn’t drive through Denver, Colorado, with their pet. The breed, even under the care of nonresident travelers, is subject to being euthanized. Closer to home, Hansen has to deal with random breed prejudice. She tells the story of bringing Daisy Mae to a kickball game. Although the dog was dressed in a silly Pocahontas dog-costume, a frightened woman with a small dog yelled at her, “Keep your fucking dog away from my dog.”


Pit Bull Watch


Humane Society officials are wary of all the publicity generated by the Michael Vick pit bull matter. Yes, many of the dogs were turned around to live happy, normal lives, but the effort cost a lot of money. Most pit bulls taken from a fighting situation end up getting the needle.


“You don’t hear so much about the abused and neglected dogs that get euthanized,” said Adam Goldfarb, a pit bull expert with the Humane Society of the United States. “Not all dogs are able to recover from traumatic circumstances.”


Dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states, and Goldfarb’s organization is active in increasing the penalties for spectators at fighting events and for ownership of fighting dogs. The Humane Society offers a $ 5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction of a dogfighter. Most busts come from anonymous tips because the industry operates underground.



Joe Yuncker and Daisy Mae.

Joe Yuncker and Daisy Mae.



Some events are huge and charge admission. Large amounts of money are being wagered, said Goldfarb. Additionally, other illicit activities — drug use, weapons exchange — are part of the scenario.


Goldfarb is not convinced that a true fighting dog can be rehabilitated. He described a dangerous combination — a dog that wants to kill, and also exhibits the “gameness” that unscrupulous breeders admire. Gameness is a trait by which a dog will continue fighting even though she is injured and exhausted. “You can’t place a dog like that in a community.”


On the bright side, those traits are completely artificial. It’s not beneficial to the species (or the pack) to have individuals trying to kill each other. So without the influence of bloodthirsty human breeders, those traits disappear. The average pet pit bull, or shelter pit bull, doesn’t have deadly instincts.


No one knows that better than Jan Glick, head of Santa Barbara County’s Animal Services department. Her three shelters (sbcphd.org/as) are full of pit bulls, and she is quick to point out that shelter dogs are screened for aggression against cats or other dogs, extreme prey drive (going after small wildlife), and for compatibility with small children.


Pit bulls were bred to be aggressive against other dogs, not people, she said. Still, the public has a fear of the breed, and it’s a stigma that is unwarranted in many cases. Glick also reports that there have been no dogfighting busts in Santa Barbara County, though she believes some fighting activity does takes place. (There are more incidents of cockfighting; sheriff’s authorities raided an 800-chicken ranch two weeks ago.)


Glick was glad to hear about Daisy Mae’s success. “Every dog is an individual and needs to be evaluated that way,” she said. “I encourage people not to think in a breed-specific way.”




 












Mean dogs stand guard at Idaho prison March 25, 2009





Source: Associated Press, March 25, 2009


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Nobody has broken out of the Idaho State Correctional Institution in more than 20 years. Prison officials like to think a hard-bitten corps of sentries with names like Cookie, Bongo and Chi Chi has had something to do with that.


The institution is the only state prison in the U.S. to use snarling, snapping sentry dogs to patrol its perimeter.


In a program begun in 1986, 24 mean dogs – mostly German shepherds, rottweilers and Belgian malinois, with a few boxers and pit bulls – roam the space between the inner and outer chain-link fences 24 hours a day, ferociously defending their territory.


Get too close to the fence and they will bare their teeth, bark and lunge. Set foot in their space and they will attack.


The animals themselves are former death row inmates – dogs that were deemed too dangerous to be pets and would have been destroyed at the local pound if they had not been given a reprieve and assigned to prison duty.


“We’re basically giving them a second chance at a good, healthy life,” said Corrections Officer Michael Amos, who heads the sentry dog program. “Those same instincts that make them a bad pet make them good sentries.”


Prison officials say the canines save on manpower and are more reliable during power outages than electrical security systems and more effective in the fog and the dark than the humans posted in the lookout towers. They also seem to have a powerful deterrent effect.


No one has escaped from the 1,500-inmate medium-security prison since the dogs were brought in. No one has even tried to get past the fences since the early 1990s.


“The average offender has no problem engaging in a fight with a correctional officer – they’re used to fighting with humans. But they don’t want to mess with a 100-pound rottweiler who has an attitude and who wants to bite the snot out of them for climbing that fence,” said James Closson, a dog trainer in Boise who arranged the donation of some overaggressive dogs to the prison when the sentry program was new.


Over the years, the dogs have bitten handlers, badly mauling a staff member who in the late 1990s entered the kennel without first making sure all the animals were caged. But no inmates locked up at the prison have been bitten, authorities said.


Dogs were once widely used as sentries in the U.S., particularly after World War II, when canines that had been trained by the military were pressed into civilian service. The practice fell out of favor during the civil rights era as police dogs became associated with racist and repressive law enforcement, said Chris Byrne, owner of Stonehill Kennel and Unlimited Dogs, which provides police dogs to the New York Police Department.


Many prisons continue to use dogs for tracking escaped inmates or sniffing out drugs or other contraband, but not as sentries.


“Most facilities have gone to electronic motion detectors or electrical fencing,” said Jay Christensen, deputy warden of security at the Idaho prison. “But technology can be circumvented. We had a guy at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution get through a motion detector system a few years back” by moving so slowly that the sensors didn’t pick him up.


“The dogs are much more dependable and the cost is really low,” he said.


In the early 1990s, three inmates at ISCI tried to escape through the one portion of the fence that wasn’t guarded by dogs at the time, Christensen said. The guards in the towers could not see them in the dark, but a dog along a nearby section of the fence sounded the alarm by barking.


The ruckus alerted the nearest tower guard, who fired a shot, hitting one of the convicts, Christensen said. The two others were so frightened by the shot that they gave up, and all three were recaptured, he said.


Officials promptly reconfigured the fence so that there were no sections without dogs, he said.


Angus Love, executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, an inmate advocacy group, said he knows of no complaints about the use of prison sentry dogs.


The dogs work two days on and one day off. On their days off, they are returned to their kennel, where their handlers groom them, play ball and tug-of-war with them, or, in the summer, let them splash in a plastic kiddie pool. The handlers have to be alert at all times because of the danger of getting bitten.


Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, said that the Idaho prison appeared to be handling the dogs well, but that he had mixed feelings about the program.


“We love the thoughts behind it, of taking dogs who would otherwise be euthanized and finding a way to work with them and give them a kind of purpose to their life,” Goldfarb said. “But we’d have concerns of the dogs being harmed in some way, if an inmate could throw or poke something through the fence that could harm the dogs. And I’m not sure what kind of life that is for a dog. When people have dogs in their home, we would certainly discourage them from leaving the dog on a chain or in a pen for most of their life.”


The program, with 36 dogs in all, costs less than $ 100,000 a year, including food and veterinary care, Christensen said. He worries that one day, officials will come up with the $ 300,000 or more he estimated it would cost to replace the animals with electric fences or motion detectors.


“Is this K-9 program going to survive for ever and ever? Probably not,” he said. “But I tell you, I do not want to be the deputy warden of security who takes these dogs off the perimeter. I consider that a risk to the public.”


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Search Dog Foundation gets $ 1 million, CA January 27, 2009





Source: Ventura County Star, By Gareth W. Dodd, Correspondent, Monday, January 26, 2009


The Ojai-based National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has received a $ 1 million grant from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation to help create a national training center on 125 acres of land in Santa Paula.


The grant comes on the heels of a $ 1.6 million award from the Frank McGrath Jr. family, which was used to make a down payment on the ranch site in Santa Paula. During the next three years, the Search Dog Foundation hopes to raise $ 14 million more to take ownership of the land, build a training center and establish an endowment fund for its maintenance.


The foundation pairs dogs — usually Labradors, golden retrievers or border collies found in animal shelters — with firefighters to create skilled search teams. The dogs are trained to find victims during natural or man-made disasters.


The group’s “proven ability to deliver highly trained teams at no cost to fire departments is especially important as emergency service budgets are cut and resources are strained to their limit,” Lauren Dachs, the Bechtel foundation president, wrote in a statement. “The economic crisis in our country challenges grant makers to fund projects which will have an important, lasting impact on society — and the creation of a national training center will help achieve that goal.”


Capt. Matt Garrett of the Ventura County Fire Department said establishing a training center in Santa Paula would save him time and money. He travels once a month to the group’s current training center in Gilroy, where he puts Gabby, a 2-year-old black Labrador, through her paces for two days.


The team also trains twice a week at several facilities in Southern California, said Garrett, who bears the expense of training, housing and feeding Gabby.


“It’s amazing what these dogs will do with positive reinforcement,” said Garrett. “She’s a working dog; she has a job. She’s not a pet that lounges around the house.”


The dogs are trained to find a scent and locate a victim under piles of rubble, no matter how long it takes.


“Their job is to make sure no one is left behind,” said Garrett.


“They find a scent, trace it to its source and get rewarded with love and play. Their payday is play day. We’ve been together since August, and she’s progressing well.”


Once used primarily for wilderness or avalanche searches, the dogs became more popular following their use to sniff out victims of the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing. The need took on a new urgency after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.


The search teams have been deployed to Hurricane Katrina, La Conchita mudslide and the Chatsworth Metrolink train crash last year, said Janet Reineck, the group’s development director.


Reineck said the United States needs more than 400 canine-firefighter search teams to handle all the disasters. Currently it has about 200, and teams are retiring every year.


The group has trained 85 search teams since its founding in 1996, including 61 that are currently active. It receives no government funding, relying on support from individuals, private foundations and companies, officials said.




 












Rescue dog will sniff out cancer, England January 4, 2009


Filed under: Health,Heros,Recent News,Service Dogs — aschae @ 12:28 pm
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Source: BBC News, Jan 4, 2009


A rescue dog from Oxfordshire is being trained by a medical charity to sniff out cancer.


Casper sniffing a specimen
Casper is trained to recognize the scent of cancer cells in urine


Spaniel puppy Casper had been living in the Blue Cross animal centre in Burford for months but was continually passed over because of his boundless energy.


This made him perfect for scientists looking for dogs for their project.


Now Casper is being taught to recognise the scent of cancer from urine samples. It is hoped this will lead to earlier diagnosis and save more lives.


Claire Guest chief executive of Cancer and Bio-detection Dogs said: “Chances are lower for dogs like Casper to find a home as he has a very high drive and is incredibly energetic and bouncy.


“It can make them disruptive in the home but it makes Casper perfect for us.”









It’s like trying to recognise a certain ingredient in a soup



Claire Guest, Cancer and Bio-detection Dogs



Dogs have already been known to be able to smell cancer cells.


A north Oxfordshire man credited his pet Rottweiller with sniffing out his skin cancer in November last year. But the the scenting skills of cancer dogs are even more delicate.


The dogs are trained to recognise cancer cells in urine samples but the researchers say the training regime is very complicated.


Ms Guest said “It’s like trying to recognise a certain ingredient in a soup. There are lots and lots of soups, some have them have it, some of them don’t.”


It is estimated that Casper will be a working cancer dog within four months.






Beamish the Rottweiler
Beamish the Rottweiler was credited with sniffing out his owners skin cancer



The ultimate aim of the project is to introduce a medical test where people can go into a doctor and get a full medical from a urine test and a breath test.


The Cancer Dogs charity said there is already an electronic nose device that aims to identify cancer from urine samples but they are way behind the dogs “simply because their sense of smell is so advanced” and they are making “great leaps all the time”, Ms Guest said.


Researchers said they want to see how the dogs work and upgrade their technology accordingly so people can have a simple non-invasive test to give them the earliest possible warning if they have cancer.


Ms Guest added: “We actually want to reduce some fear of cancer diagnosis -you hear so many people say – ‘if I had it I wouldn’t want to know’, because they think their chance of survival is low but now with great advances in medication early diagnosis is the key to survival and cancer doesn’t have to turn into a terrible tragedy.


“It’s the people who don’t know they’ve got it who don’t stand a chance – that’s the tragedy.”




 












Diabetic says special dog has been a lifesaver November 23, 2008


Filed under: Heros,Service Dogs — aschae @ 8:54 am
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Source: mercury News, by Lunda Goldston, Nov 21, 2008



Devin Grayson no longer has to wonder alone when her blood sugar gets low. Her service dog, Cody, looks out for that.


Devin had struggled with diabetes for more than 20 years and was starting to live a pretty isolated life when she heard about Dogs for Diabetics in Concord, a non-profit organization that provides dogs at no cost to insulin-dependent diabetics in California.


Cody is so good at his job “he’s saved my life at least three times a month and saves me from being really ill about three times a week,” said Devin, who lives in San Leandro and takes Cody to work with her in San Francisco.


With her type of diabetes, Devin had “started to lose the ability to sense anything was wrong. You start to get confused, and it’s an acute condition that can result in a coma in 20 minutes.”


No more. Cody is on the job.


Cody and other D4D dogs (Dogs for Diabetics) are trained to respond to the smell of the chemicals released by the body at the onset of hypoglycemia. Researchers are still trying to determine exactly what the canines notice when a person experiences a low blood sugar.


People who have insulin-dependent diabetes use a glucose scan to check their blood sugar, “but you’re not checking every single minute or every hour, and you have to go to bed at some point,” Devin said.


Cody sleeps beside her bed. If something starts to go wrong, the 3-year-old dog jumps up on Devin’s bed and will try to make eye contact with her. If he can’t get her attention, he will put his nose on her hand — it’s called “a bump” — and then nudge the hand for her to “open it up and give him the treat.”The training is reward-based, and Cody loves getting those treats. If the situation calls for it and Devin gets really ill, Cody is trained to go get another person and bring them back to her.


“I call it the Lassie effect,” Devin said. “He’ll usually go find my boyfriend or my boss and literally lead them back to me.”


The golden retriever has given Devin the confidence to go anywhere she wants, especially since Cody, as a service dog, gets to go everywhere with her “wearing his cute little vest.”


When she takes off Cody’s vest, “he’s a young active golden retriever,” she said. He loves to play with Devin and catch a ball, but he’s never really off duty.


For more information about Dogs for Diabetics, go to www.dogs4diabetics.com. The private, nonprofit organization relies on donations and grants to survive. It has placed 70 dogs in the past four years and has 49 more in training.


Cody could be in line for another honor: official Milk-Bone spokesdog. From thousands of entries, Cody and Devin are among the 100 finalists. The title will come with a $ 100,000 contract to serve as spokesdog for a year, and the dog’s photo will be featured on a Milk-Bone box.


Another finalist is Warren Skrifvars of Hayward and his German shorthair, Stonewall, named after Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson because Warren is a Civil War buff.


“My wife entered us in the contest and didn’t tell us about it,” said Warren, who is a firefighter with Cal Fire. “Then I get this big ‘official’ envelope in the mail.”


Warren’s wife, Laurie, had wanted a golden retriever but has taken to the 75-pound Stonewall, who turned 4 in October.


Warren said he woke up early one morning and “I heard this running around in my living room. I open up the door and my wife is chasing the dog, saying ‘I’m going to get you.’ “


Laurie and Stonewall are getting along quite well, although Warren knows his hunting buddies are going to crack up over the chasing story.


“He’s a great dog,” Warren said. “My wife knows everyone in the neighborhood because of that guy.”


Good luck to Devin, Cody, Warren and Stonewall. The winner will be announced in January.




 












Revolutionizing Dog Guide Training With Technology November 11, 2008


Filed under: Recent News,Service Dogs — aschae @ 2:18 pm
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Source: PRNewsWire, Nov 10.



Leader Dogs for the Blind is the first dog guide school in the United States to permanently integrate a talking GPS navigational tool into dog guide classes for people who are blind and visually impaired. HumanWare, makers of the GPS Trekker Breeze, has partnered with Leader Dogs for the Blind to launch this completely unprecedented, state-of-the-art approach to training in time for a class of 24 dog guide students in November 2008.




“By including a talking navigational device in training, Leader Dogs for the Blind is revolutionizing the art of dog guide training,” said Greg Grabowski, president and CEO of Leader Dogs for the Blind.


“One of the overriding themes we hear from our students is the anxiety and apprehension of travel in a new environment. For many, the first time using a dog guide combined with travel in a new city creates a situation that makes learning difficult and stressful. We believe we can really enhance the way we provide services by placing a GPS device in every student’s hand while in our training program,” continued Grabowski.


Leader Dogs for the Blind has partnered with HumanWare to determine the very best strategy for integrating the GPS technology into the dog guide curriculum. The students will be trained in the use of the device during their 24-day stay at Leader Dogs for the Blind. The Trekker Breeze is an audible device that will give step-by step directions for a programmed route and notify the user of upcoming streets and landmarks, among other functions.


“In August, I returned to Leader Dogs for the Blind to receive my third Leader Dog, ‘Theo’. I was given the Trekker Breeze to use during my training on how to work with Theo. I found that I was much less worried about getting lost and could pay more attention to what I was learning. I remember the last time I came to the school I spent a lot of my time trying to memorize roads and really focusing on how I will get to places. Using the Breeze in class made me a lot more relaxed and I really enjoyed my experience,” said Craig Hall, of Flint, Michigan.


After the students complete the 24-day training at Leader Dogs for the Blind, 14 of the American students will return home with the Trekker Breeze. These students have been selected to participate in an ongoing study to determine the long-term usability and assess the functionality of the GPS device in their home environment.


“We are pleased to partner with Leader Dogs for the Blind in this initiative that will bring GPS technology benefits to an even wider portion of the visually impaired population. Combining the renowned expertise of Leader Dogs for the Blind and the Trekker Breeze will significantly enhance the traveling experience of the students. This program is a new chapter of this success story,” said Gilles Pepin, CEO of HumanWare.


People from all over the world come to Leader Dogs for the Blind to enhance their ease of travel and independence. Leader Dogs have been placed, completely free of charge, in every state except Hawaii and more than 30 countries. The 24 students in the upcoming November class are from: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, Nevada, Illinois, Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico.


Leader Dogs for the Blind is known throughout the world for its forward thinking and innovation in the dog guide field. In fact, Leader Dogs for the Blind is the only dog guide school in North America to hold a dedicated program to train dog guides for people who are deaf and blind. Leader Dogs for the Blind is also the only dog guide school to offer an entire continuum of learning for people who are blind and visually impaired, including: classes on learning to travel safely with a white cane, classes on how to use a GPS talking navigational tool, and classes on using a computer with a screen reader.


“We are sure our newest initiative will dramatically enhance the ease and pleasure of travel for people who are blind and visually impaired. Once we are able to secure funding, we plan to offer every student who comes to our school to receive a Leader Dog a free GPS unit to complete their mobility package,” said Grabowski.


If you are interested in learning more about classes offered at Leader Dogs for the Blind or if you would like to donate, call (888) 777-5332 or visit www.leaderdog.org.



 









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