The Dog and Hound Spring 2016 by The Dog and Hound

Volume 5 • Number 2 • Spring 2016

The Dog & Hound

Spring 2016

P.O. Box 332 • Montmorenci, SC 29839-0332 • 803.643.9960 •

www.TheDogAndHound.com • Editor@TheDogAndHound.com

Time Dated Material • Periodicals • Volume 5 • Number 2

elcome to the Spring 2016 edition of The Dog and Hound. We had a terrific time putting this issue together and we hope you enjoy reading it. Our main feature is a story about the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which took place on February 15-16 in New York City. Although I have usually tried to watch this show on television and have always enjoyed seeing all the different breeds that it showcases, this was the first time that I actually went, and it was a great experience. Not only did I see many beautiful dogs, it also was an opportunity to consider dogs from a different world. Our paper is based in Aiken, S.C., where the majority of the dogs are farm dogs, hunting dogs of various types and most especially rescue dogs. We don’t have as many dogs from the upper echelons of the dog show world here, so our paper doesn’t usually have much chance to cover stories about them. Two of the top dogs we met at Westminster actually did come from Aiken; Hobbs, a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog owned by Melissa and Brett Jarriel, and our cover dog, Parker, a Standard Schnauzer owned by LeAnn Shank, Dr. Cindy Brown and Judy Marchant. We also got to see and photograph dogs that flew in from Japan, dogs that have thousands of people in their international fan clubs, and one dog, CJ, a German Shorthaired Pointer, who is among the most famous dogs in the world after his Best in Show win this year. Although I still love our rescue dogs just as much, Westminster gave me a new appreciation for purebreds and the people who have dedicated their lives to them. I saw the passion and devotion

Spring 2016

of people who breed dogs for the future, while also honoring the history and traditions of their chosen breed. It was a different perspective, and I am glad that it can be represented in this issue. Speaking of changing perspective, my trip North also afforded me the opportunity to visit a humane society in New Hampshire that receives some of the homeless dogs that are shipped out of the Aiken County Animal Shelter through the FOTAS Aiken transfer program. This was an excellent chance for me to learn what it is really like to be in an area that does not have a companion animal overpopulation problem. New Hampshire is one of the first states in America to devote itself to ending the unnecessary euthanasia of adoptable dogs, and its efforts have been extremely successful. My article about this difference of perspective is the first in a series I have planned about animal welfare in the North and the South and how the two areas can work together. I hope that these articles will help people in both places gain a better understanding of the situation, because there are misunderstandings and misconceptions on both sides. Finally, we had a chance to chat with Valarie Trapp, a local screenwriter who has a dog-centered script in development called Dog People. And we also we met Trish Wamsat, a dog trainer who has come to the SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare as the new “Headmaster” of their Phideaux University program. These two devoted dog lovers gave us a chance to consider the various ways that dogs and our relationships with them can enhance, and even save our lives. We hope that you enjoy this issue. Please let us know if you have an idea for a story or if you know something that we should be covering. We want to be your dog newspaper. Enjoy the spring weather!

The Dog and Hound EDITOR & PUBLISHER Pam Gleason ART DIRECTOR Gary Knoll ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jean Berko Gleason LAYOUT & DESIGN Gary Knoll ADVERTISING 803.643.9960 editor@thedogandhound.com PHOTOGRAPHERS Pam Gleason Gary Knoll

Going Out Of Town? Don’t miss future issues of The Dog and Hound. We will send you a one year subscription (4 issues) for $14.00. Just send us a check or credit card & your mailing address: P.O. Box 332, Montmorenci, SC 29839 editor@thedogandhound.com Or sign up on the web at www.TheDogandHound.com

About the Cover Our cover shows Shana’s Blue Bayou (Parker), who won Best Of Breed at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this February. Parker, co-owned by LeAnn Shank, Judy Marchant and Dr. Cindy Brown, is currently America’s number one Standard Schnauzer. Read more about Westminster on Page 12.

Photography by Pam Gleason.

Pam Gleason Editor & Publisher

The Dog and Hound Policies: The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers, editors, or the policies of The Aiken Horse, LLC. The Dog and Hound is owned by The Aiken Horse, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Table of Contents 6 10 12 16 18 22

A Positive Approach: Trish Wamsat Silver Paws: Cosmo Being at Westminster Dogs Can Save Your Life: Valarie Trapp A Tale of Two Cities: Conway and Aiken Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Friends

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Spring 2016

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A Positive Approach

Opposite: Trish Wamsat with a dog she is fostering for Train a Dog Save a Warrior

New Trainer at the SPCA

Story and Photography Pam Gleason “I love dogs,” says Trish Wamsat. “But I also love people. I think that’s different from a lot of dog trainers who love dogs, but really don’t like people. Even some positive trainers I have known are mean to people, and I don’t understand that. How can you help dogs if you aren’t nice to people, too?” Trish is a lifelong dog trainer with a résumé that includes work in a prestigious animal hospital, time in a police dog training academy, and running her own highly successful training business in California. She is the author of the book Choosing and Raising a Puppy – How Hard Could it Be? She also holds two patents on her innovative no-pull harness, the Bodycollar. When she is not teaching or enjoying her own dogs, she is helping to train dogs for veterans through Train a Dog, Save a Warrior. This is a program that pairs a shelter dog with a veteran and allows that veteran to help train his or her own service dog. Trish, who recently relocated to Aiken, is setting up shop at the SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare on Willow Run Road, where she has been recruited as the “Headmaster” of Phideaux University. This is the innovative dog training program that was created three and half years ago by Ann Kinney, the Albrecht Center’s director of training and enrichment, to help make the shelter dogs more adoptable. While Ann will continue to work with dogs that available for adoption, Trish will be offering classes and activities that are open to people and their dogs in the community. These classes will include basic manners and life skills for dogs of

all ages, and more. There will be puppy classes, classes for adolescent dogs and classes to help dogs with specific undesirable behaviors such as pulling on the leash or jumping on people. More advanced classes include games to improve obedience as well as exercises in following scents, which Trish says are excellent for shy or fearful dogs. Over the summer, Trish is also planning to offer several courses in snake avoidance. “I called a few of the vets and I discovered that snake bites here are a pretty serious problem,” she says. To top it off, Trish will be organizing a number of different activities that are fun for dogs and humans. These include lure coursing, dock diving and barn hunting. “Most people who get dogs don’t get them

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because they want to be dog trainers,” says Trish. “They want to have that bond with their dog and have fun with their dog, and these activities provide that.” Ann Kinney is thrilled to welcome Trish to Phideaux University, not just because she had been hoping to find another trainer to help people in the community solve their dog problems, but because she and Trish are on the same page with regard to dog training philosophy. Both believe in positive training methods rooted in the scientific study of how dogs learn; both believe that most dog problems can be solved by understanding what is motivating the dog and offering him a better solution. Both reject the notion that dogs and people have an adversarial relationship, or that dogs will always try to assert their dominance over people and misbehave if you don’t constantly remind them that you are number one in the household. “When people come to me and they say their dog is being stubborn, I ask them, how does your dog feel when you’re mad at him?” says Trish. “And they say he hates it. And so then I ask, well why on earth would your dog choose to make you mad? I do a little exercise with them. I say ‘go stand over there . . . no, not there. . . no. . . not there’ and they start offering behaviors to me, moving to new places before I tell them. And then I say, when you started doing those things, you were asking questions. You weren’t being stubborn, you weren’t trying to not do what I was telling you to do. You were trying to find out what I wanted. And that is what your dog is doing. They test, they ask questions.” Although today Trish’s methods are firmly in the positive camp, she grew up as a traditional dog trainer. Traditional training does not take the dog’s perspective into much account and mostly uses coercion to get the point across. Although traditional training has evolved somewhat over the years, it still relies on choke chains and various levels of force to induce the dog to do what its person is asking. Reward-based trainers are on the opposite end of the spectrum, offering dogs rewards for desirable behaviors and ignoring undesirable ones. There is considerable and heated debate in the dog-training world about which of these philosophies is better, and advocates of one method can be quite dismissive of the other. In the early part of Trish’s career, she was convinced that traditional methods were the best way. She had used them, she knew that they worked, and she never imagined that she would ever become a “cookie trainer.” But then she got Limerick. When Trish was a child she says that she was like the obsessive character in the movie Rainman, but her obsession was with Lassie. She never outgrew her love for Collies, and so, about a dozen years ago, when a Collie breeder brought a litter of premature puppies to Adobe Animal Hospital in California where Trish worked in the intensive care unit, she was overwhelmed with the desire to take one of them home. Eventually, she had her chance. One of the puppies was having difficulty walking and her head was tilted to the side, presumably a consequence of her premature birth. When the puppy was about six weeks old, the breeder finally decided that the puppy didn’t have any quality of life, and that she should be put down. But Trish

Spring 2016

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offered to adopt the puppy and see if she could be helped. There was By contrast Trish’s classes today are fun, with laughter, games, contests a chiropractor at the hospital, and, a few days later, he worked on the and creative problem solving. “I figure that if I am not entertaining, puppy’s neck as an experiment. The puppy, whose spinal cord had been people are not going to come back, and I won’t be able to help them and compressed by a misaligned vertebra, was suddenly able to straighten their dogs. I want to bring people in, and to want to come back. I love her head and to walk several feet. After several months of regular laughing with them. I love making people feel good about themselves treatments, she developed into a relatively normal dog, although she still and their dogs. When I was training dogs in California, I always asked had some difficulties with her balance. new people how they heard about me. The referral was always from a There was one more problem. This dog, now called Limerick, couldn’t veterinarian, or a behaviorist or another trainer, or, the best part for have any pressure put on her neck at all. This meant no choke chains me was when it was from ‘the three ladies at Starbucks with the really and no pulling her around to teach her how to sit, lie down or heel. well-behaved dogs,’ or ‘the lady in the dog park whose dog was so well “I realized that I had no way of communicating with this dog,” says trained.’ That for me, was the best feeling ever.” Trish. “I couldn’t yank on her, I couldn’t scare her. I had no way of “This is what sets Trish apart,” says Ann Kinney. “Not only does she communicating with a dog that didn’t involve scaring it or hurting it. So have a wealth of knowledge and experience, but she can teach it, she can I had to learn.” communicate it quickly to anyone.” Trish started to study positive training methods, and began using According to Ann, adding Trish’s services will help fulfill the Albrecht them on Limerick. She was amazed by how well they worked. At the Center’s mission, to improve animal welfare in Aiken and the entire same time, she knew that her dog would always have some limitations, Southeast region. and she learned to accommodate them. “When I started Phideaux University, my original goal was to make “Limerick taught me a lot,” says Trish. “She taught me to laugh. She the Albrecht Center a regional destination for adoption, because made me realize that you have to work with the dog in front of you and people would know that the dogs that we have available for adoption they are all different. I started realizing that there was a dog in there, are really well prepared to go into a home and be a great dog,” she says. that it wasn’t the way I was taught. I still used choke chains in my classes for quite a while, but over the years I started to change, incorporating some of the positive methods into my classes. Then I went to a seminar where I saw that these methods could work on normal every day dogs that were having common problems that families have with their dogs. And I was sold. It was hard to give up some of the methods that I knew worked, so it was a process.” Now that Trish uses positive methods to train dogs, she looks back with some regret on the way she trained in the past, not because her dogs could have been more obedient or better trained, but because her relationship with them could have been so different. “Dogs that are trained in the traditional way are always a little scared,” she says. “It prevents them from being everything that they could be.” She also explains that one of the big troubles with methods that rely in punishing the dog when it does something wrong rather than rewarding it when it does something right is that if your timing is off – you punish your dog ten seconds after he does the thing you don’t want him to do, rather than Ann Kinney works with a shelter dog in Phideaux University at the SPCA Albrecht Center. immediately – you run the risk that he might not associate the punishment with the undesirable behavior. This “Having Trish on board will let us go one step further. It will put us in can confuse and upset the dog, and it damages your bond with him. a position to help enhance the dog-human relationship for everyone. “I’m not teaching dog trainers how to train,” says Trish. “I’m teaching It’s not all about training and obedience. When we have barn hunt and regular people, who have five kids, and maybe don’t have the best lure coursing, these are things that use a dog’s natural canine abilities timing. If your timing is off and you use punishment, you can ruin your and they can have so much fun. Any time that you can do something dog. That isn’t going to happen if you use reward-based training.” with your dog that he thinks is fun, you’re building value for yourself in Trish says that changing to positive methods has also transformed her your dog’s eyes and that improves the relationship. Being able to offer training classes. In a traditional obedience class, all the dogs are taught all these things makes our mission so much broader. Everyone in Aiken in exactly the same way and things tend to be strict and regimented. who has a dog should come and check it out.” “Part of what that training is based on is the idea that there is an Training classes are open for registration now! To learn more about the new adversarial relationship between the person and the dog, that the dog is services at the SPCA, consult www.LetLoveLive.org. To learn more about trying to get away with something.” Trish Wamsat, visit www.trishwamsat.com

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Silver Paws

Cosmo the Potcake by Pam Gleason

osmo’s story almost ended before it began. She was born on the island of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos in the year 2000. No one knows where she came from, but they do know how she was found. One afternoon, a sailboat was heading back to the harbor to beat a storm, when the people on board saw something bobbing in the waves. They got closer and realized that it was a puppy clinging to a piece of wood. They used a net to fish her out and brought her back with them to shore. The puppy, about three months old, was skinny and had every kind of worm, flea, tick and parasite. Her eyes were swollen shut and her coat was in poor shape. But she was friendly and wagged her tail, and so the people who saved her thought she deserved a chance. They took her to the vet on the island, and that vet treated her. Within a short time, she was a normal brown puppy with a sweet temperament. Now all she needed was a home.

At the time, Annette Van Der Walt and her husband Piers were running a scuba diving business based in Providenciales. They had already rescued one puppy, a little black dog named Chess that they had picked up in the Dominican Republic. They were not in the market for another dog. “We had made the commitment to be a one dog family,” Annette explains. “But they called me from the vet’s office and asked if I wanted to adopt this puppy to be a friend for Chess. I wasn’t really planning on doing it, but on a Friday I was running errands in town and I happened to find myself near the vet, and decided to stop in.” The puppy was cute, and the vet said maybe Annette should just take her for the weekend, to see how she got along with the other dog. Annette agreed, put the puppy in the car, and took her home. Chess, who was about six months old at the time, liked the puppy just fine, and so of course, she didn’t go back to the veterinary office the following Monday. To sweeten the deal, the vet promised to spay the puppy at no

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charge if the Van Der Walts would adopt her. The deal was done. They named her Cosmo, after the beautiful cosmos flowers that bloom in Annette’s native South Africa. Cosmo is a Potcake, a type of mixed breed dog native to the Turks and Caicos. The dogs are named after what they are fed, leftovers from a traditional rice and pea meal cooked in a pot. Potcakes vary in appearance, though most are medium sized dogs, known for being loyal, intelligent and very hardy. Cosmo is the traditional potcake color: brown with darker brown points. These days, Potcakes are found in many shades and shapes, reflecting the different breeds that have been brought to the islands and bred with the native dogs. Cosmo grew up on Providenciales. When the Van Der Walts relocated to the United States in 2008, Cosmo came too, flying by cargo to Miami, where Annette picked her up to bring her home to Aiken. Wherever Cosmo has been and whatever life has thrown her way, she has always taken everything in stride. “She’s a very uncomplicated dog, a very easy dog,” says Annette. “She’s an obedient dog, she’s not a barker, she’s faithful. She gets along with everyone and she’s one of those dogs that doesn’t get involved with any other dog’s business.” Because Cosmo loves everyone, she was a natural as a therapy dog and visited nursing homes regularly during her first few years in Aiken. When Annette got very involved locally in animal rescue, she ended up taking in many different dogs, some as fosters and some as permanent residents. Cosmo was never jealous or possessive of her home or her people. In the early days, she was a calming influence on the new dogs, helping them to feel at home when they arrived direct from the shelter or from another stressful situation. As she has grown older, she has retired from that role, preferring to keep more to herself. Although she is slowing down as she approaches her 16th birthday, Cosmo has always been very healthy, with few problems or illnesses, not counting one time when she almost died. This was when she was attacked by a foster dog, and almost killed. Annette had to bring her to the emergency clinic in Columbia where her wounds were stitched up. Although she was an older dog, 13 at the time, she recovered completely. These days, Cosmo spends much of her day resting, but she still enjoys short walks, and she has always been an enthusiastic eater. “She loves her marrow bones; that’s her favorite thing. She lives for those,” says Annette. “It’s been almost 16 years since I got her; the longest time that I’ve ever had a dog,” Annette continues. “She’s had a good life, a quiet lifestyle, good nutrition. And she has just been a good dog. She’s always there for a person, and has always been my solid pillar – I feel secure when I see her. She is my soul.”

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Being at Westminster America’s Oldest Dog Show

Story and photography by Pam Gleason

otel Pennsylvania, located on New York’s Seventh Avenue just across the street from Madison Square Garden, is the traditional host hotel for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Walk in the front door on Sunday, February 14, the day before the breed judging begins, and you won’t need anyone to tell you this. The hotel is crowded with dogs and their people. Not only are there people with dogs of all descriptions checking in or just sitting in the lobby, there are also thick, glossy dog show magazines strewn about – Showsight, The Canine Chronicle, The Herding Dog, and so on. These magazines are chock full of advertisements for dogs that are being “campaigned” for Best in Show. Hundreds of dogs have full-page color ads, and several

the Saturday before the breed judging) and, new this year, Master’s Obedience, held on Monday alongside the breed classes. The 2016 show attracted 2,752 dogs that came from all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, as well as 12 foreign countries. Any way you look at it, this is a lot of dogs. In fact, with more breeds added and interest running high, a few years ago the show outgrew the relatively cramped space at Madison Square Garden. In 2013, the majority of the competition was moved to exhibition halls on the West Side at Piers 92 and 94 – adjacent industrial-themed buildings bordering the Hudson River. Preliminary breed judging takes place during the day at the piers. Then the winner of each breed comes back to the Garden on Monday and Tuesday evenings to compete for Best of Group. On Tuesday night, Best of Group is followed by the allimportant Best in Show, the competition that crowns the Westminster champion for the year. Westminster is a benched show, one of just a handful of American Kennel Club benched shows left in the country. Unbenched, “showand-go” shows allow dogs to enter their classes and leave the show premises as soon as they are done. In a benched show, dogs are required not just to stay at the show grounds, but to remain on display at their “benches” throughout the day, unless they are competing or taking a bathroom break. At Westminster, all dogs are required to be at their benches from 11:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on the day that their breed is judged. The only exception to this is that the Best of Breed winners are released by 3 p.m. so that they have time to get back to midtown and prepare for the group competitions at Madison Square Garden, which begin at 7 o’clock. The benches themselves are purple-painted wooden cubicles with

Two Komondors in the ring

have spreads of two or more pages, costing their owners thousands of dollars. How much these ads influence the actual judging is debatable, but they certainly do let you know who the pre-competition favorites might be. If you had any question about how important the Westminster contenders are to the Hotel Pennsylvania, you would have your answer if you descended the stairs from the main lobby. The lower lobby has been completely transformed to cater to the canine crowd. There is a large, well-lit area with bathing tubs and grooming tables. Then there are doggy treadmills, where, on this afternoon, a pair of smiling Samoyeds are getting their daily exercise. And finally, there is an indoor dog park and “comfort area.” Here, the floor is protected by heavy duty plastic and covered with a thick layer of pale yellow pine shavings. Hotel guests of the four-legged variety can do their business in this zone, and there are even plastic replicas of fire hydrants to get shy dogs in the mood, so to speak. There is no need to brave the cold and crowded Manhattan sidewalks, scoop in hand.

The Competition

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog show was started in 1877 and has been held every year since, despite two world wars, the Great Depression, natural and man-made disasters and dramatic changes in society. It is the longest running dog show in America, and is second only to the Kentucky Derby as America’s oldest continuously held sporting event. It has taken place at Madison Square Garden (in all of its incarnations) in all but seven of its 140 years. When it started, there were 35 classes, about half of which were for foxhounds. This year, in 2016, Westminster has classes for 199 separate breeds (including seven added this year) as well as the Master’s Agility Championships (held

enough room for some supplies and a wire crate. Exhibitors may have a grooming table in front of their benches, but very little else. Dogs can take nap breaks in their crates, but they are not permitted to hide from the public: “ALL CRATED DOGS MUST BE IN CRATES that permit the public to easily view the dogs,” states the show handbook, capital letters adding extra emphasis to the rule. There is surprisingly little visible publicity surrounding the show in New York City, although, each night, the exterior of Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building are both lit up in purple and gold, the Westminster Kennel Club colors. The Westminster Dog Show signs on Piers 92 and 94 are not visible from the main road, and cab

drivers don’t necessarily know how to take you there. But once you get inside the exhibition halls, it is clear that more publicity is not necessary. Especially on Monday, which is Presidents’ Day and a holiday, the place is packed. Between the two piers, there are ten show rings, all going simultaneously from 8 a.m. until about 4 p.m. Each exhibition area is crowded with spectators at least three rows deep, and most people end up sitting in the bleachers watching the action on large television screens stationed outside each ring. The benching areas are similarly crowded. One of the ideas behind a benched show is that the public is supposed to be able to get up close and personal with the different dogs, meet them and their owners, and learn about the unique characteristics specific to each breed. The exhibitors can’t just focus on how their dogs will do in the ring, they also spend a lot of time answering questions, allowing their dogs to be petted and admired, and generally being on display for many long hours. Some dogs and people are clearly energized by this. Others may find it exhausting. But the general advice given to exhibitors is that if you are going to do Westminster, you have to relax and go with the flow. In the ring itself, the dogs parade around, stand and pose, and allow the judges to touch and examine every part of them, including not just their teeth but their private parts as well. Handlers keep the dogs’ attention with a seemingly endless supply of treats that they pull out of their pockets, or from inside their clothing, or from their mouths. Even though every dog is groomed and prepared to a T, there is still a lot of fussing and touching up that goes on in the ring. Handlers adjust their dogs’ legs and rearrange their heads and lips whenever the judge is not

The loudest cheers this year seem to be reserved for a celebrity 4-yearold German Shepherd named Rumor (Lockenhaus Rumor Has It V Kenlyn) shown by her breeder and co-owner, the professional dog handler Kent Boyles. Whenever Rumor does anything, it seems, there is clapping and cheering. Rumor came into the competition as the number one German Shepherd in the country, as well as the number one herding dog and the number one show dog. She already has 101 Best in Show wins under her collar, and seems poised to capture that honor at Westminster as well. She wins her breed on Monday afternoon and advances to win the herding group at the Garden on Monday night. It seems to be her year. She even has two-page spreads celebrating her many victories in most of the glossy dog magazines.

Performance

Westminster is best known for its breed classes, but it broadened its appeal in 2014 by adding a Masters Agility competition. This year, it

Obedience dogs “stay” while their masters walk around the ring. Twice.

CJ, as he enters the ring for the Best In Show competition

actually looking at them. Dogs with long coats get constant grooming even while in the ring: a stray hair is clipped here, shaggy ears are misted with water there, forelocks and feathers are quietly combed. Every once in a while, the crowd cheers and claps loudly. This is usually when an especially beloved or well-thought-of dog is asked to trot around their ring. Sometimes it is when the judge announces his or her winner. The Westminster crowd seems especially entranced by dogs with big heads and floppy lips. Lots of long hair is also a crowd pleaser. Bulldogs always seem to elicit cheers, as do St. Bernards. New to the competition this year is the Clumber Spaniel. Clumbers are heavy bodied, dense-coated dogs with big heads, mournful expressions and loose skin on their faces. Cheers for them are enthusiastic. Other crowd favorites include little, cute dogs and dogs that are popular as pets in America. Labrador Retrievers, America’s number one dog for almost a generation, boast the largest number of entries of any breed in the show (51) followed closely by Golden Retrievers (50). Both these breeds have thousands of enthusiastic fans.

doubled down with the new Masters Obedience test. Master’s Agility took place on Saturday, February 13, before the breed judging began. It attracted a full field of 330 competitors, including 76 different types of purebred and 26 individual mixed breed dogs, who competed against the purebreds as well as for their own special, mixedbreed prize. The overall winner this year was an Australian Shepherd named Holster, owned by Wendy Cerilli of Greenwich, NY. The mixed breed prize went to a 10-year-old New York dog named Hailey, owned by Karen Profenna. Hailey, who is labeled a Boston Terrier-Beagle mix, also does some 175 tricks and serves as a therapy dog. Master’s Obedience, structured as a combination obedience and utility test, took place on Monday in front of a large audience. The top 150 obedience winners in the country were invited to enter, and the first 35 to send in their entries were accepted. The obedience dogs came in many shapes and sizes, though Golden Retrievers were the most popular, with 11 entrants. All but two of the handlers were women. All the exhibitors performed impressively in both individual and group activities. In one particularly challenging exercise, the dogs were asked to sit together in rows at the center of the ring while their owners walked around the outside twice. (No one moved.) After several hours of different tests and exercises, the top ten dogs were called back to perform a six-minute freestyle routine, some of which were quite inventive. In the end, there were two dogs with identical scores, a black Labrador Retriever named Heart and a Belgian Turvuren named Smartie. These two dogs had to perform one last run-off heeling exercise to determine the winner. Smartie, owned by Julie Hill from Louisiana, strayed a little

Saturday Adoption Hours at the Aiken County Shelter!

11:30 am - 4:00 pm

Silver Paws & Seniors

Schedule a birthday party at the shelter on a Saturday!

Special Half-Price Adoptions if you are 60+ years old and adopt a 6+ year old dog or cat at the Aiken Animal Shelter $35 Dogs, $17.50 Cats

Thank You Veterans

Sponsored by FOTAS, adoption fees are half price for any U.S. military services men, women & veterans who adopt a dog or cat at the Aiken County Animal Shelter.

$35 Dogs, $17.50 Cats

AIken COunTy AnImAL SHeLTer 3 3 3 W i re Ro a d | A i ke n , S C 8 03. 642. 1537

Adoption Hours:

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Mon, Fri 9 am - Noon & 1 - 4:30 pm, Tues, Wed, Thurs 9 am - Noon & 1 - 5 pm, Sat 11:30 am - 4 pm

Their Lives Are In Our Hands

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Spring 2016

wide on one turn. Heart, owned by Linda Brennan from New Jersey, was letter perfect and was named the Masters Champion, while Smartie was the Reserve. Just two days earlier, on Saturday, Smartie was also a finalist in Masters Agility.

Although Parker acquitted himself well in the ring that night, the judge chose a different dog, a Samoyed, Bogey, as Best of Working Group. That dog went on to the featured Best in Show competition that closed the show.

Aiken’s Entrants

Best in Show

Aiken sent at least two dogs to compete at Westminster this year. One was Hobbs (Firesides Pick Me Out a Winner) a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, owned and handled by Melissa Jarriel. Melissa lives in Aiken, and Hobbs is not just a conformation dog. He is also a qualified working pack dog, a master draft dog, a brace draft dog, a weight pulling dog and an agility competitor. He takes long daily hikes in the Hitchcock Woods, and his superb conditioning was evident as he trotted around the ring. Hobbs did not win his breed class, but he was chosen as the “Select” dog. The judge chooses the Best of Breed, then the best dog of the opposite sex, and then the Select Dog and the Select Bitch. It was a great accomplishment, especially considering that Melissa is an amateur handler and there was no publicity campaign backing her dog.

Melissa Jarriel with Hobbs and their ribbon

Another Aiken entrant really distinguished himself. Shana’s Blue Bayou (Parker) came to Westminster as America’s number one Standard Schnauzer. He left as Westminster’s Best of Breed, winning his class and beating 13 other Schnauzers for the honor. Parker, a 3-year-old salt and pepper dog, was bred right on Banks Mill Road in Aiken by LeAnn and Louis Shank. He is co-owned by LeAnn Shank, Judy Marchant and Dr. Cindy Brown, the owner of Aiken Animal Hospital, who is also his veterinarian. LeAnn Shank has been involved with Standard Schnauzers since 1987 and her kennel, Shana Standard Schnauzers, has produced over 200 champions. LeAnn frequently handles the dogs herself at the shows. In January 2015, however, she and Dr. Brown sent Parker off to show with a young, North Carolina-based professional, Liz Holle, to give him experience and added confidence in the ring. LeAnn says she always knew that Parker was a top quality dog, but did not anticipate that he would start to win so much so early. He immediately began racking up Best of Breed titles at shows throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic and went on to win BOB at the Standard Schnauzer National Specialty last June as well as the AKC Eukanuba National Championships last December. Parker stayed with Liz Holle through the winter, and she was the one who handled him at Westminster. The Best of Breed win on Tuesday afternoon meant that he would return on Tuesday evening to compete in the Working Group class at Madison Square Garden.

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All of the preliminary activities at Westminster lead up to one thing: Best in Show. This class comes with its share of drama and spectacle. The lights in Madison Square Garden are dimmed, and each group winner comes out individually, running into the green-carpeted arena under moving spotlights. Giant television screens near the ceiling provide everyone with a close-up view of each dog. The crowd cheers for each competitor, going wild for its favorites. This night, there are some that get more cheering than the others: Rumor, the German Shepherd who won the Herding Group, Annabelle, the Bulldog who won the NonSporting Group and Charlie, the Skye Terrier who won the Terrier group (and was Reserve Best in Show last year) would surely win the top spots if these things were chosen by an applause meter. But that is not how it works. The judge for Best in Show this year, Dr. Richard Meen, comes from Toronto, and is a past president and chairman of the board of the Canadian Kennel Club. A former breeder of Afghan Hounds and Borzois as well as Skye Terriers and French Bulldogs, he is also a psychiatrist by profession. Keen to stay as unbiased in his assessment as possible, he stayed away the first night of the show, choosing to go to the theater instead. Before the judging, he told the New York Times that he had not been able to avoid seeing the many advertisements for dogs being campaigned for the top spot, but that he was going to try to forget them all by the time he entered the ring. The competition does not last long. Each dog is paraded about; each stands for an in- depth assessment and examination. In a last run-through, Dr. Meen approaches each dog and looks at it intently through a frame made by his hands. Then he sends the dogs for one last trot around the arena and goes to the judging stand to write down his choices. The dogs return to their designated spaces on the edge of the ring. “A truly wonderful line up, a privilege to be here, thank you so much,” says Dr. Meen approaching them. “My Reserve Best in Show is the Borzoi.” He holds up the ribbon to many cheers, presenting it to a smiling Shota Hirai, who handles the beautiful Lucy for her owner, Mai Ozeki, who is his wife. Lucy (Belisarius Jp My Sassy Girl) was the number one dog in Japan in 2015, and came to Westminster after about a month of showing on the West Coast. And then it is time for the big announcement. “Best in Show dog tonight for 2016 is the German Sh . . .” starts Dr. Meen, walking toward the front of the line where Rumor stands ready. Kent Boyles, her breeder/owner/handler steps forward, eager for the prize. The crowd erupts in deafening applause. But the judge is not looking at Rumor. He is heading for the dog behind her. “Shorthaired Pointer,” he finishes. Kent Boyles pulls up, gives Rumor a treat and pats her on the chest. It is not their night after all. The German Shorthaired Pointer, Vjk-Myst Garbonita’s California Journey (CJ) acts like this is the kind of thing that happens to him every day. A long-strided and sleek 3-year-old liver and white dog, CJ lives in Temecula, California and is co-owned and shown by the professional dog handler Valerie Nunes-Atkinson. Valerie has won a top prize at Westminster before, back in 1981 when she was named the best Junior Handler here at age 15. This is her first Best in Show at Westminster, and the 18th Best in Show in CJ’s year-long career. Valerie accepts hugs and congratulations from the other finalists, hugs and kisses her dog, and then she and CJ pose on the Westminster champions’ platform where they receive their ribbons and trophies. A horde of photographers, kept back by a rope barrier, is ushered into the ring to snap their picture. While Valerie entertains questions from the press, CJ strikes poses and eats treats, looking and acting every bit the reigning champion.

The Dog & Hound

Dogs Can Save Your Life

Valarie Trapp, the Author of Dog People Story and photography by Pam Gleason

ccording to the screenwriter Valarie Trapp, dogs not only saved her life, they were also responsible for the success of her writing career. Valarie, who grew up in North Augusta, got her start in the film industry in front of, rather than behind, the camera. She was in her final year at the University of South Carolina, when she took a part as an extra in a film being shot in North Carolina. A talent agent liked her looks, and recruited her to be a commercial model. Although she had always dreamed of becoming a writer, she dropped out of school just two final exams shy of graduation to embark on a modeling and acting career. She became established in New York and Los Angeles and traveled to shooting locations around the world. Five years later, settled in L.A., she saw an ad in a newspaper for American Eskimo puppies. She called the seller, who said there were only two puppies left, and so she drove out to meet them right away. “They were white and fluffy and running around in her small yard,” she says, But there was another one, too, in the corner, alone behind a wire barrier. This one was not so fluffy, not so white. The breeder said the puppy had distemper and would not be sold or adopted out. But Valarie would not be deterred and after a long discussion, she had the puppy wrapped in an old towel in a box from the seller, and she took him directly to the Westside Clinic in Santa Monica. It took a few weeks, but he recovered and came home to live with her. He was originally named Mr. Spit for his spunkiness, but the name that took over was Noodles. Valarie was married at the time to a man who was not who she had thought he was at first. “We were both young, in love, and I moved too quickly. He was an abusive person,” she says. “Because I was in front of the camera those years, I was dropping bookings because I couldn’t hide my bruises. I had my pride, and I was not sure how to address this part of my new life; so, I hid it and lived a lie.” She stayed until she realized she was not the only victim. “I was on a shoot that wrapped early so I rushed home, hoping to take Noodles to the dog park before dark.” But, when she got to her house, he was not inside. “I heard the hose spraying on the stucco wall in the garden,” she says. “As I walked out, I noticed Noodles had made a little mistake on the floor, and then, I saw my husband blasting my tiny little puppy with the hose. He was spraying him so viciously that Noodles was pressured against the wall. I can barely stand the memory.” “For some reason, I did not leave to protect myself from being abused. But, that night, Noodles and I left and never looked back. Noodles saved my life.” At this point, Valarie needed to supplement her income, and so she took a job at the Malibu Tennis and Riding Club, where she exercised horses for private clients for whom she eventually began pet sitting. “I had beautiful horses to ride, and wonderful places to live. So, I didn’t feel like I a struggling artist with no money,” she says with a laugh. Within a year, the clients for whom Valarie was riding and pet sitting learned that she was a writer and asked to see her scripts. The producers Lloyd Phillips and Beau St. Clair, and the actor Pierce Brosnan were the owners of the horses Valarie and Noodles took out for exercise in the Malibu hills. “Lloyd sent my first script, Have Mercy, to Jon Levin at CAA [Creative Artists Agency]; and, Beau sent him my second script, Virginia’s Run. That’s how I became a client at CAA, and so my writing career had credibility. And I owe it all to Noodles,” she says. Valarie was soon hired by Joe Roth and Pliny Porter at Disney to adapt two books into a screenplay for Julia Roberts. Simultaneously, she was hired by Goldie Hawn and Shanna Tyndall Nussbaum to adapt the Joyce Carol Oates play, The Eclipse, into a television movie for CBS.

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Have Mercy was immediately optioned by Barry Spikings at Castle Rock Entertainment, and Virginia’s Run went into production in Nova Scotia. The film won the Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival for the Best Dramatic Feature Film of 2002. Today, she has several scripts that are in development with some of the biggest names in the business. One of these is her original screenplay Dog People, which she is hoping to have produced within the next year or so. Dog People is Valarie’s first romantic comedy, and it is the story of what happens when a high strung, wealthy New York professional woman inherits Montauk, her estranged father’s mixed breed dog. The script has received lots of positive attention from stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Grant, Ann Hathaway, and Keira Knightley. Valarie’s longtime producer, Barry Spikings, has been working to put a cast together sometime over the summer, although it is nearly impossible to predict exactly what will happen in the film industry. “I got the inspiration to write Dog People when I was driving through New Mexico to Telluride one summer with Noodles, and I picked up a stray dog. I named him Montauk, and my then manager, Jane Berliner, told me that he had to be my next screenplay,” says Valarie. Other dogs in the script include a deaf Standard Poodle named Mrs. Smith who is based on a real life dog named Pepino, one of the dogs Valarie used to housesit for in Malibu. Dog People is set in New York, where people who love dogs are a special group living in their own world, a world where dogs are central to everything. One of the main themes of the story is that dogs make people better and more human. Valarie hopes that when the film does get made, the actors will all donate a portion of their salaries to dog welfare charities, and that the dogs in the movie themselves will be from shelters. According to Valarie, the film industry is full of dog lovers, and caring for dogs is something that almost everyone in the industry has in common. “Reese has four dogs; Julia Roberts has several dogs on her ranch in New Mexico – whenever there is a stray that needs a home she takes it in. I just don’t know anyone in Hollywood who isn’t a dog person.” When Valarie was on location in Mexico for a big budget film with her second husband who was the director, the cast and crew collected stray dogs and puppies everywhere they went. “Our assistants and production crew would care for the dogs, then arrange for them to be adopted in Los Angeles. We would get the dogs vet checks with all their bloodwork done and then we would get them passports. Then we put the dogs on the studio jets and sent them back to L.A.,” says Valarie. “At one point, everyone on the set was fostering dogs. We had 11!” All of those dogs got new homes except one, Miss Possum, a fluffy blond dog that Valarie kept for herself and as a companion to her faithful Noodles, the dog that saved her life. A few years later, Valarie divorced, and returned to Aiken. “Noodles and Miss Possum brought me home to be with my family after my divorce,” says Valarie. “We took a week to cross the country, stopping to see the sights and let Noodles rest often. He was now 15. When we arrived in South Carolina, Noodles said goodbye. He died the day after I returned. He had gotten me home safely. He saved me a final time.” Today, Valarie and Miss Possum split their time between Aiken and Los Angeles. For the past 15months, Valarie has been teaching English at the Center for Innovative Learning in Aiken, an alternative school for kids who have had temporary troubles in their regular schools. Although she continues to write and develop scripts, she says that Dog People will always have a special place in her heart. “Our dogs are life changing,” she says. “And I am very grateful for that.”

The Dog & Hound

A Tale of Two Cities

The Different Worlds of North and South by Pam Gleason

onway, New Hampshire is a quintessential New England town. It has a quaint main street and a church with a gleaming white steeple. There are views of Mt. Washington and the White Mountains in the distance. Built along the banks of the Saco River near the Maine border, it is not large: its year round population is about 10,000. But many of the people you might see here are not year round residents because this is an area for vacationers. In the winter they come to ski; in the summer to canoe, kayak, swim and fish in the Saco or in nearby Echo Lake. There is also hiking and rock climbing. If you love nature and the outdoors, there is much to draw you here. The Conway Area Humane Society sits just off East Main Street. Opened in 2003, it accepts owner surrenders and stray dogs and cats from Conway and 12 neighboring towns. Because it has the animal control contracts with these towns, it also takes any animals that are confiscated in court and cruelty cases, as well as those picked up by the police. Its mission is to promote the human-animal bond: it has educational outreach and it provides low cost spay and neuter and veterinary services. It also has a pet food pantry for people who need temporary help caring for their animals, along with other support for those who require assistance with animal issues. There are six full time people on staff and over 200 dedicated volunteers. The spacious kennels and cat rooms can comfortably accommodate 54 dogs and at least 200 cats. People come here from all over the region when they want to add a pet to their families.

two from Aiken and two from Texas,” said Christie. “We don’t usually schedule transports this far in advance, but because these dogs are getting adopted so quickly and we can’t get another transport right away when we run out of dogs, we end up with a backlog of applications. Christmas was terrible that way. We got 19 dogs on December 12 and figured we would be all set, but there were so many people looking to adopt they were all gone by December 16, and people still wanted more dogs.” The shortage of adoptable dogs in the New Hampshire area, along with the strong demand for them, ensures that the vast majority of dogs that are transported to Conway are adopted in a matter of days, if it takes that long. “A lot of them are already spoken for when they get here,” says Christie. “We’re

Christie Mackie and her daughter with Baxter, a dog from Aiken they are currently fostering

Outside the spacious Conway Area Humane Society

On a recent Saturday in February, the facility housed a total of nine cats and five dogs. Two of the dogs weren’t currently available for adoption because they had some medical issues that were being addressed. One of the cats couldn’t be released because he was part of a court case that was pending. This makes a total of 11 adoptable animals. “This is our quietest time of the year,” says Christie Mackie, who is the volunteer coordinator for the society. “We do have more animals sometimes, especially cats in the fall when it starts to get cold. We won’t be so empty next week because we’re expecting a transport of dogs.” The dogs will be coming from the Aiken County Animal Shelter in Aiken, S.C. This is one of two Southern shelters that Conway works with to fill their need for adoptable dogs. And make no mistake about it, there is a need. “We have five transports scheduled in the next month and a half:

The Dog & Hound

really lucky that Debra, our operations manager, is a phenomenal photographer. There’s nothing like a picture to get a dog adopted. If she puts a dog on Facebook, it’s gone. People fight over them. Our last transport, I think we had 12 dogs, and they were all adopted within 36 hours. People are looking for cats too. We have a long waiting list.” New Hampshire state law requires that all shelter dogs imported across state lines undergo a 48-hour quarantine before they can be available for adoption. When Conway receives a transport, the dogs are put in kennels in a glass-walled quarantine wing. When the news comes out that they have arrived, prospective adopters come from far and wide to look at them. “They can’t meet them and they can’t touch them because of the quarantine, but they can look,” says Christie. “So people come and look, and they have the ability to pay to put a dog on hold for when it does become available.” Prospective adopters are counseled to make their applications well in advance. All adopters are carefully screened, including a written application and an interview. Sometimes there are also background or home checks. Only approved adopters can take an animal home, and people who get a dog from the society might have been waiting for months.

Spring 2016

During their quarantine, all the dogs are examined thoroughly by a veterinarian, including fecals and bloodwork. If they are not already spayed or neutered, they get that too. If the vet finds any unexpected health issues, those are treated, even if they are expensive or complicated problems. “We have donors that have given money specifically for vet work,” says Christie. “So we can send dogs to specialists if they need it. We have dog trainers who can help with behavioral issues. Whatever care they need, they will get it here.” Dogs from the transports are in high demand, but local owner surrenders and strays also get homes, even older or more difficult to adopt dogs. For instance, the shelter’s longest tenant, a Beagle mix named Ellie, just went home. “She was almost 16 years old,” says Christie. “She hated other dogs, hated cats and hated children.” She was adopted by a 25-year-old woman who had seen her story on the society’s Facebook page. The practice of bringing in transports has another, unexpected benefit, which stems from the fact that it brings more people into the shelter. “Maybe they will come to look at a puppy, and they look around and see a local dog, or a beautiful cat, and they go home with that one instead. Or it often happens that they have a friend, and they send their friend in to adopt an animal they saw,” Christie explains. Although it hasn’t always been this way, Conway has a hard time keeping its shelter filled. “Your mission at the shelter is to put yourself out of business, so it’s a good problem to have,” Christie says. “Still, there are some misconceptions here about transports: some people wonder why we bring these dogs in and whether they are displacing local animals. But we don’t have animals that are sitting here not getting adopted. We try to tell people, all the animals here are taken care of. We can take care of so many more because the demand here is huge.”

Too Many Dogs: Aiken, S.C.

The drive from the Conway Area Humane Society to the Aiken County Animal Shelter is just over 1,100 miles and takes about 18 hours. But the separation between the two places is much greater than mere distance. While the shelter in Conway is almost empty, ACAS is chronically overflowing. Every adoption kennel has one or two dogs; the intake wing is full of dogs waiting for a space on the adoption floor. The shelter normally takes in about 2,500 dogs every year, an average of about seven per day. There are dogs of all ages, sizes and descriptions: old dogs, young dogs, big dogs, little dogs, mutts and purebreds. This is puppy season, and there are also expectant mothers and litters of puppies. There are more puppies in foster homes, too. The shelter would love to get all of the young puppies into foster homes so they can grow up away from the shelter environment, but there just aren’t enough fosters to accommodate every maternity case. “Most of the animals that come into the shelter are adoptable,” says Jennifer Miller, who is the president of Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) in Aiken. “Our goal is for the shelter never to have to have to euthanize an adoptable animal. We aren’t there yet, but we’re getting closer.” When FOTAS was started in 2009, the euthanasia rate at the shelter hovered around 95%. Last year, in 2015, Jennifer says it had dropped to 39%. There have been many factors in this improvement, one big one being the construction of the new, modern shelter in 2014. But the main things have been more public awareness, better access to spay and neuter services, more outreach into the community, a push for adoptions, and a robust transfer program. “Adoptions are the key,” Jennifer explains. “This is the community shelter, and we need the community to come here if they’re thinking about getting a cat or a dog. This is their public shelter. Ever since we started doing so much PR about our adoptions, they’ve been going really well. But in order to get those 50 dogs off the adoption floor, we need transfers.” FOTAS works with a number of local rescues to help find homes for

Kayden Pickett hugs his foster dog before loading her on her transport

Spring 2016

The Dog & Hound

their adoptable animals, but most of their transfers are out-of-state. we only send puppies, or we only send cute fluffy dogs. Well you can They transport dogs to Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, see that’s not true,” says Jennifer. And it isn’t. There are some puppies Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Conway is one of their favorite and cute little dogs, but there are also bigger dogs, and even some pit receiving rescues. In all, Jennifer estimates that FOTAS is working with bulls. Some of the dogs getting “on the bus” are coming directly out about 20 different out-of-state organizations this year. of the shelter. Others are being delivered by their fosters. Jennifer says The interstate transfer program started out small. Back in 2009, Mark that transports are generally an exit strategy. Many of the dogs selected Choper, who transports horses up and down the East Coast, started are ones that have been overlooked on the adoption floor, who have taking some dogs back North in his trailer when he was returning from been there the longest. The dogs going on the transports are very much dropping off horses in Aiken. Today, the transfer program has grown representative of the dogs that are on the shelter’s adoption floor. And to a point where 10 to 20 dogs leave the shelter on a regular basis, when a litter of puppies goes, its mother goes too. sometimes as often as once a week. “If they want to take the puppies they have to take the mother,” says Organizing and arranging these transports is a massive undertaking. Jennifer. “Sometimes they can’t: if the mother is heartworm positive, for “It’s like a puzzle,” says Jennifer. First the receiving rescue tells FOTAS instance, because some states won’t let you bring in heartworm positive how many dogs it can take, then FOTAS volunteers identify likely dogs.” candidates and send their pictures and bios to the rescue. If the rescue Another misconception, according to Jennifer, is that dogs being approves the dogs, they are put into foster care for a week to 10 days. transported will be in essentially the same situation up North as they This has many benefits: first, it frees up a kennel at the shelter so that were in Aiken: in danger of euthanasia if they aren’t adopted quickly another dog can be saved. Second, it gives the dog going enough. to the rescue a chance to decompress in a home before “People think if the shelter is being transported. Third, it allows FOTAS to learn more overcrowded here, it must be about the dog, and that information can be included in overcrowded there, too. They can’t “brag sheets” that are sent to the receiving rescue. Finally, understand that there’s a difference,” it can fulfill a quarantine requirement in a receiving state. says Jennifer. “We’re very careful Rescue transports have grown fairly common on a national about who we work with and basis, but they are not well regulated. Some states have where we send our dogs because enacted legislation that requires shelter animals to spend we know these animals have been several days or a week out of the shelter before they can be through so much we want to make brought across state lines. New Hampshire, for instance, sure that they are going to a good requires a quarantine in the dog’s home state, followed by a place. We don’t work with any place quarantine once he has arrived at his rescue. that would euthanize an adoptable Once all the dogs have a destination, there is vet work animal; we’d rather not send them and paperwork to be done. Then the transport itself has to than have them go somewhere that be arranged. FOTAS still uses Mark Choper and his horse isn’t great. We get vet references, van on occasion, but the majority of transports are charters. and we check them out. Then, once These are vans equipped with crates that come to the we send them the dogs, we keep in shelter to pick up the dogs and drive them directly to their touch, find out how they are doing. destinations. If it is a long drive, the transporter gives the Our dogs are almost always adopted dogs rest breaks along the way, but the main goal is to get within a week, usually less. ” them to their destination quickly and safely. Once all the dogs are loaded, the “Transport done the wrong way is a nightmare,” says people who fostered them say their Jennifer. “We could send them with a transport that goes last goodbyes, and the van rolls Jennifer Miller and Kathy Jacobs celebrate another all over and picks up dogs at different shelters and it would out of the parking lot. Jennifer and transport van loaded and on its way out be cheaper, but we won’t do that. We don’t want them to Kathy, who are already planning the arrive at their rescue stressed, or possibly exposed to some disease from next transport, send new dogs home with the fosters who just dropped other dogs on the transport. That’s one of the reasons we have a good a dog off. “We do worry about burning out our fosters,” says Jennifer. reputation: we have good dogs and they are arrive fresh and healthy.” “That’s why we need more of them.” FOTAS normally pays the cost of the transport, which is typically Over the next hours, the dogs on the van will move from one reality about $100 per kennel. The funding comes from donations. to another, going from a place where they are often seen as disposable “FOTAS is 100% volunteer,” Jennifer explains. She and another to a place where they are treasured. The situation is so different between volunteer, Kathy Jacobs, arrange the transports and between the two of the North and the South, people in one place often can’t seem to them put in about 40 hours a week doing it. “It’s not like it’s a full time comprehend the other. Southerners might not understand that there job,” she continues. “We can do other things, but we’re always working really is a shortage of shelter dogs in the North. Northerners, not on it. I’ll get a text or an email from Kathy at 10 o’clock at night and accustomed to seeing an overflowing shelter, might believe that puppies at 6 o’clock in the morning. The staff at the shelter does a lot of the from transports are not shelter dogs at all: they must be dogs that have paperwork and helps out a lot, but they’re chronically overworked over been bred on purpose to supply the “retail rescue” trade. there. They couldn’t do what we do.” None of that matters today to the dogs on the van. It has often been said that dogs live in the moment, and that may be true. But anyone Getting on the Bus who knows them recognizes that they do have a concept of what is to On a recent Saturday, a small group of volunteers has arrived at the come. One of the things that is endearing about dogs is that even those Aiken County Animal Shelter to help load the van that will take almost that have had terrible lives often seem to face each new day with an two dozen dogs North. There are dogs of many types: old, young, little, expectation that things might get better, that there is hope in the future. big, litters of puppies and their mothers. One by one, the dogs are A few years ago, most of these dogs would not have had a future at all. loaded into crates in the van, while Jennifer Miller and Kathy Jacobs Today, thanks to transports and a rapidly improving animal welfare work with the shelter staff to make sure every dog has its veterinary climate in this country, they are moving toward it, and it is looking records and health certificate. bright. “There are a lot of misconceptions about these transports. One is that

The Dog & Hound

Spring 2016

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Spring 2016

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The Dog & Hound

Man’s Best Friends by Mike Ford

he news arrived in the form of a post on social media: “Gretchen’s health has declined in recent days. We’ve been told she may have days, but she may have only hours.” I might easily have missed it. I’d been about to take the dogs out for their pre-dinner walk. Had the message come even a minute later, I would have been outside, and might never have seen it at all, or at least not until it was too late to respond. As it was, I sat in my chair, reading the rest of the note and remembering the day 20 years ago when Gretchen and I met. I’d recently moved from New York to the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. One afternoon I was walking my black Lab, Roger, around the block when suddenly I was confronted by a tall, thin woman with impossibly long grey hair being pulled down the sidewalk by two

out-of-control black standard poodles. The poodles turned out to be Blaise and Zoe. The woman turned out to be Gretchen. After making introductions, she led Roger and me to the local dog park. As our dogs ran around and sniffed one another out, Gretchen and I did the human equivalent. Finding one another compatible, we agreed to meet again the next afternoon. We did that nearly every afternoon during the five years that I lived in Boston, spending many hours in that little neighborhood park or wandering around the nearby Arnold Arboretum (the creation of the brilliant landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted) with the dogs. Although we talked at great length about our dogs during these walks, we also talked of other things: music, film, food, art, life. Gretchen taught philosophy at the New England Conservatory of Music (Blaise was named for Blaise Pascal, and Zoe after an Aristotelian concept that I don’t even begin to understand), and once answered a blind date’s “What do you like to do for fun?” with “Think.” She viewed the world as a puzzle to be endlessly studied and marveled over. Gretchen’s relationship with her dogs was as interesting as she was. She was not a dog person in general. She found them needy, and perhaps slightly stupid and too eager to please their human companions. Their tendency to fetch balls and bring sticks in exchange for praise or treats reminded her too much, I suspect, of the students who attempted to win her favor with compliments and gifts rather than by rigorous intellectual exercise and wrestling with the big questions.

The Dog & Hound

But while she was not a dog person, she was most definitely a poodle person. Convinced that they were smarter than all other dogs, she built for Blaise and Zoe elaborate mazes in her apartment, fashioning walls out of stacks of philosophy books and tunnels out of sheets. She timed the dogs to see how quickly they could make it through, and boasted of their successes, often while pulling discarded potato chip bags, diapers, and other assorted inedibles out of the mouth of Blaise, who had a spectacular case of pica that Gretchen attributed to insatiable curiosity rather than boorish canine behavior. When Blaise was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a toe removed, Gretchen and I spent three months pulling him around on our walks in a red Radio Flyer wagon and carrying him up and down the stairs to her apartment. Upon his eventual death, she clipped his topknot and announced plans to construct a reliquary for its housing. A week later, in a plot twist of Shakespearean proportions, Zoe choked to death on an object she found in the yard. Gretchen, in an uncharacteristically superstitious moment, consulted a pet psychic to see if her departed poodles had anything to say to her. The woman informed her that Blaise had not been a dog, but the incarnation of a superior being, perhaps even a deity. Zoe, unable to live without him, had effectively committed suicide so that they could be together again. Gretchen related this news with enormous relief and a touch of pride at having been able to spend time, however short, with such wondrous creatures. The fact that her acceptance of what to many people would seem an unlikely truth flew in the face of all her academic principles endeared her to me even more. She never got another dog. But although our daily walks came to an end, our friendship did not. When I left Massachusetts for California, we saw each other whenever she came to San Francisco, where she’d grown up, to visit her family. And we remained in touch through social media, which allowed me to follow the battle that she had waged against cancer for the past several years. So while the news of her impending passing did not entirely come as a shock, it was nonetheless a blow. Gretchen’s husband asked that we not phone her, but that we write her messages that he would read to her. Now, faced with the question of how to respond, I, who have spent a lifetime making a living with my words, could find none that adequately expressed what I was feeling. How to say goodbye to this person who, brought into my life by a chance meeting between our dogs, was about to pass out of it? Finally, I sent her this: “What have you gone and done now? I was thinking of you just last night, and the lovely walks around the pond and in the Arboretum with the furry ones. It seems a lifetime ago sometimes, and other times like just yesterday. Life is a strange thing, and it’s best when you have other strange people to share it with, if only for a time. Thank you for being my friend.”

Spring 2016

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Spring 2016

The Dog & Hound

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