Spring 2014 by The Dog and Hound

Volume 3 â&#x20AC;˘ Number 2

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

Spring 2014

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

www.TheDogAndHound.com • Editor@TheDogAndHound.com

Time Dated Material • Periodicals • Volume 3 • Number 2

e had a great time putting together our Spring issue because it gave us a chance to do a little traveling and meet a few dogs and people we admired. First and foremost, we were lucky enough to meet Chaser, Spartanburg’s “Canine Einstein.” If you don’t know about Chaser, she is a Border Collie who has demonstrated that she knows the names of over 1,000 different toys and objects, as well as the meaning of a dozen verbs and some simple prepositions, giving her the receptive vocabulary of a bright preschooler. Chaser knows more words than any dog ever tested and is one of the most verbally adept animals known to science. Not only did we meet her and take her picture, we also got to play with her, give her a stuffed horse that we named “Aiken” since that is where we come from, and of course, meet her family, John and Sally Pilley and their daughters Robin Pilley and Pilley Bianchi. Chaser was a delight – of course, we knew she was the smartest dog ever tested, but to us, she was a great dog first, an outgoing and friendly character whose primary purpose in life seems to be playing, and getting people to play with her. (She is very good at it.) Chaser has her own book, and has been featured in more magazines, newspapers and television shows than you can count. We are honored to have her as our cover dog and as the subject of our center spread article. She even signed my copy of her book – so did Dr. John Pilley, the book’s author. He’s a hero of ours too. Not only did he spend three years teaching

Chaser all those words, he has a love of and devotion to dogs and to learning that would be hard to match. A retired professor, and now 85 years old, his enthusiasm for life and for play are infectious. While were in Spartanburg, we stopped by the city’s Animal Services division at the Department of Public Safety to catch up with Major Steve Lamb and the animal services staff there. I had originally interviewed Major Lamb last fall for an article we ran about the No Kill movement, but the Spartanburg story was so interesting, we thought it demanded stand-alone treatment, which we are giving it here. Major Lamb, who took over animal services a few years ago, likes to say that their department is a “new breed of animal control,” which strives to improve the lives of people and animals in Spartanburg through education and partnership: “explore the situation, rescue if necessary, and protect always.” As of yet, most of Major Lamb’s innovations in the city have affected cats rather than dogs, but the new spirit of cooperation and collaboration from the department is beginning to engender a communitywide effort to make things better in the city. Major Lamb also devised an excellent social media campaign that has given Spartanburg an international reputation and inspired thousands of people from across the country to look to the city as a model for what might be done anywhere. Closer to home, we have an article about the new Aiken County Animal Shelter, which opened in March. Aiken County has needed a new shelter for a very long time, and the new building is a vast improvement over the old one in every way. We also have dog news from Aiken and beyond, an article about a lost pet Facebook page that is making a difference in Columbia, and of course, our regional calendar of events. We hope you enjoy this issue. Be sure to patronize our advertisers, since they are the people who allow us to bring you all of this content. As ever, if you have an idea for a story or know of something we should be covering, drop us an email. We’d love to hear from you. It’s finally spring, time to go outside and play. I’m thinking about a nice game of fetch.

Pam Gleason Editor & Publisher

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 number & 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 Chaser The Border Collie, known as the “canine Einstein” for her ability to understand English words. Read about her on page 12. Photography by Gary Knoll 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.

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

Table of Contents 6 New Aiken County Shelter 8

Chasing Tails Pet Patrol

9 Dog News 12 Chaser the Border Collie 16 New Breed of Animal Control 20 Regional Calendar of Events 22 The Naming of Rambling Rose

The Dog & Hound

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

New Animal Shelter for Aiken County Public-Private Partnership by Pam Gleason

n March, animal welfare in Aiken County took a giant step forward with the opening of the new Aiken County Animal Shelter. The new shelter, which sits on four acres of county owned land at the corner of Wire Road and May Royal Drive, is a modern 19,000 square foot building that more than doubles the capacity of the old

lobby ($30,000) down to a tribute plaque ($1,000) or 4” x 8” paver ($100). “This is so important for all of Aiken County,” says Mary Lou Welch, who is the vice president and a cofounder of FOTAS. “This is what we have been driving toward for four years now. It’s a remarkable example of what can be accomplished when private citizens and the local government work together toward an important community goal.” The new shelter is completely different from the old one, which was built in 1990 and designed to hold about 100 animals at a time. The old one. Animals were moved there on Sunday, March 2. On Monday, March 3, exactly one year to the day after the new building’s official groundbreaking ceremony, the shelter opened its doors for business. The ribbon cutting ceremony that officially celebrated the event took place on Sunday, March 23. About 300 people attended, and seven animals (six dogs and one cat) got to go to new homes afterwards. The new shelter cost $2.2 million dollars, not including $46,000 in kennel and office furnishings. The volunteer group Friends of the Animal Shelter of Aiken County (FOTAS) provided the impetus for the construction of the building, as well as $125,000 in funding, which was used for architectural plans. FOTAS is still in the midst of a campaign to raise more money for dog beds and other furnishings for the dog and cat areas (the Fit Furnish Finish campaign) and there are a number of sponsorship and naming opportunities still available. These range from the shelter receiving

shelter had facilities that were inadequate at best. For instance, in the old shelter, spay and neuter surgeries were carried out in a room that was literally a closet. The new shelter has a dedicated operating room with a special stainless steel operating table. The old shelter had essentially no ventilation and there was no way to separate healthy animals from sick ones. In the new shelter, there are two isolation rooms. In addition, banks of kennels on the adoption floor are divided into several separate rooms, each with its own ventilation system so that all the dogs are not breathing the same air. This limits the spread of any viruses the dogs might have picked up. “Some of the dogs that we brought over from the old shelter had colds,” says Bobby Arthurs, who is Aiken County’s chief animal control officer. “We put them all in one wing, and they were just like a bunch of sick kids. In about a week, they all got better, and the other dogs didn’t get sick. So that’s a big improvement.” Other differences include much better access to the outdoors and vastly improved play areas. The new dog kennels have guillotine doors leading to small outdoor pens so that dogs can enjoy the sunshine or leave their sleeping areas to relieve themselves. In addition, there are several fenced and grassy play areas, where volunteers can take them for

The Dog & Hound

Spring 2014

outdoor exercise and vigorous games of fetch. “The whole place is so calming compared to the old shelter,” says Mary Lou. “You don’t hear a lot barking. It’s peaceful, and the dogs are so much happier.” The improvements at the new shelter are not limited to the physical building. There are also new programs in place or in the works to help raise the number of adoptions and improve the welfare of animals that find themselves in the animal control system. One thing is a policy to scan stray animals for microchips in the field as they are picked up. If the animal has a microchip, he can be returned directly to his owner rather than brought to the shelter. “We have about three or four animals a month that we return that way,” says Bobby Arthurs. “It’s better for everyone. The dog doesn’t have to go to the shelter, we don’t have to do the paperwork, and the owner

animals loving homes. Although the new building is a vast improvement over the old one, it is still just one step in solving Aiken’s homeless pet problem. Mary Lou, in concert with members of FOTAS and other animal advocates, worries that people will see the new building and get the false impression that there is now enough space to house all of Aiken’s homeless pets until they can be safely adopted. This is not the case, however. Although the euthanasia rate in Aiken has been dropping over the past five years, it is not dropping as quickly here as it is in other parts of the country. In fact, even compared to other counties in South Carolina, Aiken County is far from the safest place to be a homeless pet. Last year, the county shelter took in 4794 animals. Of those, 1581 were either adopted or rescued and transported to states where there is a shortage of adoptable animals. That leaves 3381 that did not find homes and were put down. Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of these animals would have been adoptable if there was space for them in the shelter, more local adopters, or more programs in place to get them to parts of the country where there are fewer homeless animals and more people looking for pets. The new shelter will not hold more animals than the old one did; it will simply hold them more humanely. For this reason, it will not, on its own, make a difference in how many animals can be saved and rehomed. Buildings cannot save animals. Only people can. FOTAS remains committed to promoting spay and neuter, and it is always seeking to increase adoptions and rescue transports. The new county shelter is at 333 Wire Road, just a short distance from the old one. It is open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Adoptions include spay or neuter, vaccinations and microchips. Volunteer dog walkers and cat patters are always welcome, and foster homes are desperately needed, especially as puppy and kitten season approaches. Don’t miss the year’s biggest FOTAS fundraiser, Woofstock, which will take place on May 3. For more information, visit www.fotasaiken.org Sandy Larson, Bobby Arthurs, Annette Van Der Walt

doesn’t have to pay a fine. I think it’s a good way to promote microchips to the people who don’t want to have them.” Another new feature is a software program called PetPoint that will provide a computerized online database of all the animals brought in by animal control. PetPoint will allow animal control officers to take pictures of animals as they are impounded and to post those pictures, along with the animals’ descriptions, in an online, searchable database. Currently, Aiken has a website and a Facebook page, Aiken Pets Reunited, where citizens who have lost or found animals can post their pictures. Aiken Pets Reunited has been responsible for hundreds of reunions over the years, but, because it does not include animals at the shelter, it is incomplete. The addition of an official database that catalogues all the animals picked up by animal control is something that animal advocates in Aiken have been wanting for a long time. The staff is currently undergoing training on the new software and the shelter’s lost and found site is expected to go live sometime this spring. According to Arthurs, animals impounded by the city will also be posted online using the same system. One of the main ways that the new shelter differs from the old one is that the old shelter was essentially designed as an animal pound, while the new one has more emphasis on offering animals for adoption. For instance, the new shelter has a private room where prospective adopters can discuss what kind of animal they are looking for and where they can fill out adoption paperwork after they have made their choice. Even more important, the new shelter now employs Annette Van Der Walt to be the adoption coordinator, a position that did not exist in the past. Annette, who has been a volunteer at the shelter for years, is dedicated to animal welfare and has worked tirelessly to find Aiken’s sheltered

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

Chasing Tails Pet Patrol Bringing them Home by Sallie Sharpe

olumbia, S.C.: The sound of rain on the car’s roof was deafening, a steady, unrelenting downpour. Meg Ellis watched as lines of water ran down her window. As she drove, a shadow of a figure, hunched over with his head hanging, caught her attention. It was a beaten-down yellow dog, walking by a row of businesses. She was already running late to pick up her children from daycare, but she felt the dog was calling to her. She turned the car around. Upon seeing her stop, the dog ran the car. Meg didn’t even get her window down before his paws were against the door begging to come in, and so she let him. That day, Meg took the collie/golden retriever mix home. She was happy to see that the dog had an ID tag, and dreamed that he would be reunited with his owner. However, it turned out the number on the tag was to a shelter. Meg was instructed to bring the dog in, and the shelter would contact the owners, which is what she did. The next day, Meg called the shelter to make sure that the dog was now at home. But the shelter told her “We have contacted the owner. He says that he has not lost a dog. The dog is heartworm negative, but because of his older age, he will be euthanized on Friday.” Meg Ellis drove right out to the shelter and adopted the dog, now named Mullet. Mullet inspired Meg to start her pet-finding business, Chasing Tails Pet Patrol, which was established in April 2011. “Mullet was an unwanted, discarded dog, left to fend for himself or die, but he was my treasure,” Meg explains. Soon, Meg started making it her mission to reunite lost dogs with their families. While doing this, she began to realize that there was a huge gap in the process. One problem was that people were simply uninformed. When they lost a dog, they did not know what procedures would help get him returned. They didn’t know to make and hang fliers. Most people didn’t know what a microchip was or that it cost nothing to take a found stray to a shelter to get him scanned for one. A lot of people didn’t even know to check at shelters for their lost dog. Meg says that Chasing Tails Pet Patrol has two missions. The first is education: pet owners need to know what steps to take to find their pets. The second is publicity: finding a way to reach the most people possible as soon as a pet goes missing. Facebook became the engine under the hood. “So many people use Facebook, and it is easy to post pictures. You can talk to people in real time.” To start the Chasing Tails Pet Patrol page, Meg scoured Craigslist and The State, a newspaper in Columbia, for lost and found animals. She started posting pictures of found animals from Richland County Animal Care. All of this was in hopes of creating reunions. And creating reunions is what she has done. In the four years since Chasing Tails was founded, over 2000 pets have found their way back home with help from the page. “It’s a community effort,” says Michele Affronte-McCausland, an animal lover from Columbia. “It has brought pet owners together for a common cause. People share Facebook posts of lost dogs and it works!” For instance, one sunny day, Michele spotted a pretty dachshund running down the road a few blocks from her house. She picked him up, took a quick picture of him with her cell phone and posted it on the Chasing Tails Pet Patrol Facebook page. The post was shared right away. Within one hour Michele received a call from the pup’s owner. He told her that after he saw the post, “I was thinking to myself ‘Wow- that looks like my dog. Wait-- that IS my dog!” He had no idea that his dog had wriggled out of the yard. The Chasing Tails Pet Patrol has been growing because so many people want to help. A few months back, there was a car crash on Interstate 26. Two dogs were in the car. The human passengers were taken to the hospital. Several drivers saw the two dogs run from the

The Dog & Hound

scene. Someone who was unaware of the accident caught them not far away and took them to a local veterinary clinic, posting their pictures to the Chasing Tails Facebook page. The owners saw the posts, and were relieved to know that their dogs had been found and were being treated. When they left the hospital, they got their dogs back. A group of strangers, linked only by their love of animals, worked together to make the reunion possible. Without Facebook, it would have been nearly impossible to locate the owners. They were in the hospital, recovering from injuries. If someone had called the number on the dogs’ ID tags, it would have been days before the owners could even answer a phone. Not every story has a happy ending. Pamela Lancas Garnica lost her dog Roxie on New Year’s Eve. “Roxie was my heart. I was a complete wreck when she went missing,” says Pamela. Susie Bennett saw Pamela’s post and, realizing that Pamela lived only a few miles from her house, she jumped into the car and began to search, eventually finding her. Roxy, unfortunately, had been hit by a car. “At least I have closure,” Pamela says. “And I have found community support through prayers sent my way, and empathy shown. I have a lot of new friends too.” While searching for Roxie, Pamela spotted a dog that matched the description of a missing pet on the Chasing Tails page. The dog was reunited with his family. Pamela even adopted three shelter cats that were on death row: she found them after reading a post about them on the Chasing Tails page. “I still miss Roxie, and there is a hole in my heart now, but I feel comforted knowing that I have helped four pets.” Pamela now actively looks for pets other people have lost. “We’ve just got to work together,” she says. Community involvement is what Meg Ellis had in mind when she created Chasing Tails Pet Patrol. “Meg is an angel to us and our pets,” says Michele Affronte-McCausland. “I would be a wreck if one of my pets got out, but knowing that there’s this community that actually cares and will share photos and stay alert, is a really big comfort.” It’s easy to join Chasing Tails Pet Patrol and help create even more reunions. Just go to Chasing Tails Pet Patrol on Facebook, and click on the “Like” button.

Help Bring Your Dog Home

1. Make sure your pet is wearing a tag with your current phone number. 2. Get your pet microchipped, and register the chip with the company that makes it. Microchipping is easy, harmless and not very expensive. 3. Fireworks and pets don’t mix. Even though your dog did great last year at your Fourth of July bash, doesn’t mean he will be happy this time. Keep your animals in the house on holidays that are celebrated by fireworks.

If Your Dog Goes Missing

1. Post on Facebook (Chasing Tails Pet Pet Patrol if you are in the Columbia area; Aiken Pets Reunited in Aiken, other lost and found sites in your area.) Be sure to include: a picture, the location where the dog was lost or found, an accurate description, your contact information, including your phone number. Tag yourself in any post that mentions your animal so you will be notified of updates. 2. Post fliers and signs around your neighborhood as laws allow. Take fliers to local veterinarians and pet supply houses. 3. Contact your neighbors, alerting them to the fact that your pet is missing. Put fliers in your neighbors’ mailboxes. 4. Check local shelters. You may have to check with them several times, because there are so many pets brought in. 5. Don’t give up hope. Some dogs have been found after being missing for years.

Spring 2014

Dog News by Pam Gleason

Woofstock Returns

Woofstock, a festival to raise money for Aiken’s Friends of the Animal Shelter, will be coming to the new Aiken County Animal Shelter on Saturday, May 3. The event runs from 10:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. It will include agility and obedience

form teams and solicit donations from their friends. Anyone who raises $300 or more will be entered into a drawing to win a 16 GB iPad Mini. The online fundraiser is using CrowdRise, a popular site for nonprofits. The goal is to raise $20,000 for spay and neuter voucher assistance programs. It is also possible to register by mail. (www.fotasaiken. org for more information.) In addition to spay and neuter assistance, Woofstock will also help support the FOTAS transport program, which helps tranfer dogs from the shelter to rescues in the MidAtlantic and Northeast.

National Fire Dog Monument

The National Fire Dog Monument, a life-size bronze sculpture depicting an arson dog and his handler, was dedicated in Washington D.C. in October 2013. Arson dogs are a special class of detection dogs that have been trained to alert to common accelerants at fire scenes. Their sensitive noses can sniff demonstrations put on by the Palmetto Dog Club and Southern K-9 Solutions, balloon animals, face painting, tours of the new shelter, and of course, adoptable dogs and cats, kittens and puppies. In addition, there will be a number of dog competitions that run from noon until 2 p.m. These include best trick, best costume, best kisser and best hairdo. Live music, appropriately, will be provided by 4 Cats in the Doghouse. This is an Aiken based classic swing and jazz band that plays every Thursday night at The Willcox on Colleton Avenue. The band will start at 1:30 – before that, music will be played by DJ Jason from JRS Entertainment. Woofstock will also feature an essay contest for children in grades one through five. The contest is divided into three age groups and there will be three winners. First and second graders are asked to draw a picture of their pet and complete the statement “My pet is my best friend because . . .” Third and fourth graders must “Convince your parents why you should have or get a cat or a dog.” Fifth graders are asked to explain why it is important to the Aiken community to spay or neuter pets. Winners will receive a number of gifts, as well as the chance to judge one of the dog contests on the day of the event. Entry forms are available at www. fotasaiken.org and are due on April 7. There will also be a “Ride to Woofstock” fundraising motorcycle ride that leaves from the shelter at 10:00 a.m. and will proceed to the town square in Wagener and then return to the shelter by 12:30 so that riders can enjoy the festivities. Participants can be either real motorcyclists or virtual motorcyclists. In any case, they must register and raise at least $20 to be included. Riders are encouraged to

Spring 2014

fire engines. Dalmations are coach dogs, and were accustomed to running along with carriage horses. They used to run ahead of the engines, helping to clear the way and escort the engines to the fire. Arson dogs on the other hand, are not typically Dalmatians. They are more likely to be Labradors, a breed often trained in drug and bomb detection. Dogs that are started as guide dogs but are not suitable for one reason or another are popular recruits to arson dog programs. The most established arson dog training program is sponsored by State Farm Insurance, which has a keen interest in helping the police determine if a structure insured through their company was burned down intentionally. There are just 81 arson dog teams working in North America today. The National Fire Dog Monument, called “Ashes to Answers” was sculpted by a 24-year-old volunteer firefighter from Colorado named Austin Weishel. It was installed across from the National Building Museum and behind D.C.’s Engine Company 2 in 2012. Today, the statue includes an arson dog and his handler. In the future, there will also be a bronze fire hydrant with water pouring out of it into a dish to serve as a canine drinking fountain. The idea for the monument came from Jerry Means, who is an arson dog handler with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The model for the sculpture is Sadie, a K-9 agent who was named Law Enforcement/Arson Dog of the Year in 2011. This March, the Washington Post sponsored a contest called Monument Madness, “the Washington Post’s challenge to see which one of the region’s monuments stands above the rest.” The competition started with 32 monuments. After three weeks of voting, the National Fire Dog Monument was the surprise winner, defeating such famous structures as the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. In the final round, the dog narrowly defeated the National Seabee Memorial.

out arson, and they can also help tell investigators who was involved in setting the fire. After all, the scent of many common accelerants can linger on an arsonist’s hands, even after multiple washings. The dogs might also alert to the clothing or shoes of an arsonist. The stereotypical image of a firehouse dog is, of course, a Dalmatian. The tradition of keeping Dalmatians at firehouses harkens back to the days of horse drawn

The Dog & Hound

Aiken Police Dog

Aiken’s Department of Public Safety lost a K-9 officer this March when Sasja, an 8-year old Belgian Malinois, lost her battle with cancer. Sasja, who was born in the Netherlands, was partnered with Corporal Bryan Griswold and had been with the department since 2009. She worked as a narcotics detection dog. Although the Aiken Department of Public Safety will have enough money in the budget to replace her next year, Virginia Johnson,

sister of the late Master Corporal Sandy Rogers, was inspired by the news of Sasja’s death to start a fundraising campaign to buy a new police dog for the department. The department says they need about $8,000 to replace Sasja. Aiken Public Safety, which also has a dog tracking team, normally has two drug detection dogs on the force. They would like to be able to have four. Master Corporal Rogers, was shot and killed in the line of duty two years ago in Aiken. According to her sister, Rogers loved dogs, so sponsoring a new police dog is the perfect way to honor her memory. Virginia hopes that a new police dog can be named Sandman (her sister’s nickname) in her memory. Johnson plans to raise money by selling t-shirts and decals featuring her sister’s car number, 203. Donations are being accepted at Jack Rogers Tire at 1724 Richland Avenue, Aiken SC 29801 or call 803-649-9495.

The Dog & Hound

Spring at the Albrecht SPCA

The Albrecht SPCA on Willow Run Road is buzzing with activity this spring. In addition to an active adoption program for dogs and cats, the facility is also holding a number of special events, activities and contests. In April, the center is having a “Make a match” contest in which they will choose the five people deemed to look the most like their pets. The winners will appear on the SPCA’s 30 second television commercial. You have to go to the website to register (www.LetLoveLive.com), fill out a form and upload a picture of yourself with your pet. May will see the return of the Thursday Yappy Hour event, which features live music, a cash bar and use of the Aiken Dog Park. Yappy Hour, which started last year, proved to be highly popular. The event will be held monthly at the SPCA and runs from 5-8 p.m. The first one of 2014 will be on May 8. Music will be provided by Scott and Drew, who play folk, Southern rock and blues. The next one will be on June 5 with music by Karen Gordan who is a jazz singer. One of the most successful volunteer programs at the Albrecht Center is Phideaux University, a training program for dogs in the shelter. Phideaux University gives dogs a basic foundation for learning, teaching them to pay attention to whoever is holding their leash. This makes them more adoptable and easier to integrate into family life when they leave the shelter. Phideaux University has been so successful that it is being expanded this year, allowing people to bring their own personal dogs in for training. Ann Kinney, who runs the program, hopes to give people some basic tools to help them train their dogs, rather than sign them up for extended lessons. The Albrecht SPCA has been in its state-of-the-art new building for a little over a year. It is located at 133 Willow Run Road. For more information, visit www. LetLoveLive.org

Old Dogs, New Tricks?

A new study conducted in Vienna has shown that, as they get older, dogs begin to pay less attention to people and their surroundings. In this way, they are similar to people, who

also exhibit a decrease in attentiveness as they age. The results of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The study was conducted at the “Clever Dog Lab” at the Vetmundi Vienna. Its subjects were 145 Border Collies ranging in age from 6 months to 14 years. The dogs’ reactions to several different situations were observed and analyzed. One test was a nonsocial test: the dogs were confronted with a child’s toy that suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and hung there suspended by a string. The second test was social: a person that the dog knew entered the room and pretended to paint a wall with a roller. The scientists measured how quickly the dogs responded to the suspended toy, and how interested they appeared to be in the person with the imaginary paint. All the dogs reacted to the dropped toy with the same speed, but the younger dogs remained interested for much longer than the older dogs. All the dogs were more interested in the social situation than the non-social one, but the younger dogs were more curious about what was going on than the older ones, who exhibited a “certain calmness,” according to the study’s lead author, Lisa Wallis. Other tests included one on “selective attention” in which the dogs had to perform two different tasks consecutively. In this case, the dog had to learn to retrieve a food reward thrown to the floor, and then look into the experimenter’s eyes, at which point, they would earn a second treat. In this task, the middle aged dogs (ages 3 to 6) proved the most adept.

The study suggests that old dogs may indeed be hard to teach new tricks, both because their reaction time decreases and because they simply aren’t as interested. Adolescent dogs (1-2 years) appear to go through a difficult period because they are more distractible than middle aged or older dogs. However, once the experimenter actually gets their attention, they learn the fastest of any of the dogs tested.

Spring 2014

Emergency After-Hours New Patients Welcome

Best friends deserve the best care.

126 Dominion Drive, Suite 1060 Aiken, South Carolina Located next to Mi Rancho off Whiskey Road

(803) 226-0551

Dr. Kevin Weis

Spring 2014

www.hollowcreekvet.com staff@hollowcreekvet.com

The Dog & Hound

The Genius of Chaser Spartanburg’s Canine Einstein by Pam Gleason, photography by Gary Knoll

oes your dog listen when you talk to him? If so, does he understand what you are saying? No one would seriously dispute that dogs can learn the meanings of some words. Many dogs know to sit when you tell them to, and they might know commands such as “come,” “fetch” and “stay.” They probably also know their names, and that words such as “no” mean they are doing something wrong. If you say “We’re going to take a walk,” they might know that this is good. If you say “It’s time for your bath,” they might know that this is bad. Well-trained dogs may have learned many more words and commands. For a long time, however, some animal behavior experts and dog trainers insisted that dogs can’t really learn human language, that they may recognize some words, but are mostly reacting to tone of voice and body language. There is a famous old “Far Side” cartoon drawn by Gary Larson that depicts a man chastising his dog Ginger. One frame shows what the man is saying (“Okay, Ginger! I’ve had it! You stay out of the garbage. . Understand, Ginger? . .” etc.) while the other shows what the dog hears: “Blah blah Ginger blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Ginger . . .” and so on. The old way of looking at dogs’ ability to understand language could have used this cartoon as an illustrative diagram. But there are many people who now believe that dogs have greater abilities than this, and some dogs that have challenged long-standing beliefs about their intelligence and language learning capabilities. These are not simply animals that have learned tricks and routines. They are dogs that have proven, under rigorous, scientific conditions, that they have the ability to learn and understand much more than a handful of words and commands. Foremost among these dogs is Chaser, a 10-year-old Border Collie who lives with her family, John and Sally Pilley, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Dr. John Pilley is a retired professor who taught psychology at Wofford College for 30 years, and now spends much of his time exploring how much language his dog can learn.

Chaser The Border Collie

Chaser is a medium-sized, fluffy-coated black and white dog with perky ears and a jaunty patch above one eye. A beloved member of her family, she is also scientifically significant, and, over the last three and a half years, has become an internationally known canine celebrity. Her claim to fame is that she has demonstrated that she knows the names of over 1,022 separate objects and can retrieve them when asked, accurately picking out the named object from an assortment of others. What’s more, she can recognize categories of objects, knows a number of different verbs, some prepositions, and can understand and react appropriately to some simple sentences. What impresses language researchers the most is her ability to learn the name of a new object by inference, using a paradigm that is known in the scientific literature as the “novel name/nameless category principle.” This means that if you put an unfamiliar toy in with toys that she knows, when you ask her to retrieve something using a name she hasn’t heard before, she will correctly infer that the novel name must belong to the new object and bring it to you. This is one way in which young children learn the names for things in their environment. Until recently, it has been considered a property exclusive to human language learning. Chaser has also demonstrated “fast-mapping”, meaning that she can learn the name of a new object in one session with just a few repetitions of the word. She knows more words than any other dog that has been tested, and her extensive vocabulary puts her up with the most

famous and accomplished animals in the language learning world, such as Alex the parrot and Koko the gorilla. Chaser burst onto the international scene in December of 2010, after Dr. Pilley and Dr. Alliston Spirit, Robin, John, Chaser & Sally Pilley Reid, a colleague at Wofford College, published a paper detailing Chaser’s accomplishments in the British academic journal Behavioral Processes. The paper was published online before it came out in print, and the story was so intriguing that it was quickly picked up by the mainstream press. By the end of the year, Chaser had gone viral. Articles in major publications extolled her as the “World’s Smartest Dog” and a “Canine Einstein.” In February, 2011, she was featured in a segment on the television show Nova Science Now. She has been to New York City to appear on the Today show. She’s been on the BBC, Fox News, Inside Edition and the NBC and ABC nightly news. Articles about her have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, in London’s Daily Mail and the Times. She has been written about in at least 46 different languages. Most recently, she taped a segment with Anderson Cooper that will appear on ABC’s 60 Minutes this spring. Chaser even has her own book, Chaser, Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words, written by John Pilley with Hilary Hinzmann and published by Houghton Mifflin. By all odds, Chaser is the most famous dog in South Carolina.

Learning Language

“Chaser is a family dog first,” says Dr. Pilley, who stresses that, although he has gotten most of the press and the credit for training her, he always had plenty of help from his wife and his two daughters, Robin Pilley and Pilley Bianchi. (Pilley is a professional musician who lives in New York – in the book, she is referred to as Deb.) Although Dr. Pilley decided to teach Chaser as much language as he could even before he and Sally picked her up from her breeder, their new puppy was never considered a research subject. If there was ever any question, they would always put her home life above her scientific life.

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

As Dr. Pilley explains in his book, Sally bought Chaser as a Christmas present for him in 2003. Chaser was bred by Wayne West, who owns Flint Hill Farms in Pauline, South Carolina. West breeds working Border Collies for sheepdog trials, and Chaser came from a long line of accomplished herding dogs. Chaser wasn’t born yet at Christmas, but the Pilleys had a reservation for a puppy. They went to pick her out in June when she was eight weeks old (“Really, she picked them,” says West.) Dr. Pilley had long wondered how much language a dog could learn and from the time he took his new puppy home, made it his mission to find out. He prepared for her arrival by buying a large number of stuffed animals, balls and toys. He was particularly excited to be working with a Border Collie because he knew that Border Collies have been bred for generations to listen carefully to the farmer and are considered the most intelligent and trainable breed of dogs. They have a strong herding and work instinct, which he reasoned would translate well to language learning. After all, sheepdogs can obey many complex commands, and have been said to know the names of dozens of individual sheep in their flocks. Dr. Pilley’s idea was to make his collection of stuffed toys Chaser’s surrogate flock, and divert her herding instinct into playing with and managing these toys. Although he followed Wayne West’s advice to “let the puppy be a puppy,” Dr. Pilley started Chaser’s training right away by teaching her some basic obedience commands, and naming her toys for her as she played with them. He reasoned that she would be more motivated to learn the names of her toys if she was more interested in them, so he made playing with them high priority. As Chaser matured, he began to have longer and more serious training sessions with her, but to her, these sessions were always about play. “I don’t use food treats as rewards for her,” says Dr. Pilley. “Instead, I use play. It keeps the work interesting and it takes advantage of her natural instincts.” To teach Chaser the name of a toy, he starts by holding up and telling her its name. Her favorite toy is a blue racquetball, which is called Blue. To teach her the name, Dr. Pilley showed it to her and said “Chaser, this is Blue.” Then he rolled it toward her, and as she took it in her mouth, he repeated the word “Blue.” Then they would play with the ball – he might hide it and tell her to “Find Blue,” or toss it and tell her to “Fetch Blue.” In each play session he would repeat the name of the object over and over. It did not take Chaser long to begin to understand that the words her “Pop-pop” uttered as she played referred to specific objects. Soon, she had many toys whose names she knew, and her play sessions included games in which she had to select the right toy from a “herd” of different toys. Her memory for the names of the toys proved to be better than Dr. Pilley’s. In order to keep the names straight, he took to labeling each toy with a permanent marker. When Chaser was still a little puppy, Dr. Pilley read an article in the prestigious journal Science about a German Border Collie named Rico who had demonstrated that he knew over 200 words. He decided to see if Chaser could top that number, and made it his goal to teach her 1,000 different words. For three years, Dr. Pilley worked with Chaser for four or five hours a day. By the time he and Alliston Reid published their scientific paper,

The Dog & Hound

Pilley had amassed 1,022 toys that he kept in plastic storage bins on his back porch. Chaser knew the names of all of them. In the process of learning the specific names of these toys, Chaser also learned some general categories. For instance, she knows that a round bouncy object is a ball, and a disk-shaped one is a Frisbee. These days, Dr. Pilley has stopped concentrating on teaching Chaser new words and shifted his focus to teaching her elements of grammar. He is also working on teaching her through imitative learning, in which she watches what he does and then does it herself. Imitative learning in dogs (sometimes called ‘do as I do’ learning) is being studied scientifically in Hungary.

Special Dog, Special Relationship

If Chaser can learn over 1,000 words, does that mean that any dog can? Exactly how special is she? Wayne West, her breeder, thinks that any Border Collie has the potential to be like Chaser. “It’s the training,” he says. “Her mama was a real smart dog, that’s for sure, and she’s a real smart dog. But with dogs, it’s the training that makes the dog. The training and putting the time in.” Does Dr. Pilley himself think Chaser’s intelligence is exceptional? He doesn’t know, because he has never worked with a dog this intensively before. “I always say she has the intelligence of a toddler,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons that I think the way she has learned is so important. Toddlers learn best through play, and everything that Chaser learned was by playing with her, by making learning a game.” However smart Chaser is, the Pilleys value her first and foremost for who she is, rather than what she can learn or how famous she has become. She is a friendly creature, with a sunny personality and a happy belief that everyone she meets is likely to be a new playmate. She has an outsized personality, along with an endearing tendency to express her own opinions. “They call her the most intelligent dog in the world,” says Pilley Bianchi, “And people expect to see an obedient Border Collie. But that’s not her. She doesn’t always do exactly what you tell her to. In fact, she can be rather willful.” Dr. Pilley shrugs and smiles. “This is a family thing,” he says. “We don’t ask for strong obedience. She does for me what I want most of the time. So I figure, she should have the right to do what she wants sometimes.” And Chaser knows what she wants, and is happy to express it. In fact, she can be quite vocal in some of her opinions. Sally Pilley often walks her with a group of neighborhood dogs, and some time ago there was one dog in the group that she didn’t like. “Whenever I said his name, she would growl,” says Sally. “I can’t remember the name of the dog.” She tries out a few names, but they aren’t right, and so she asks her daughter Robin. “The dog Chaser didn’t like?” asks Robin. “You mean Casey?” Chaser, who is playing nearby, overhears this, lets out a loud growl and starts shaking her toy furiously. “Yes, it must be Casey.” Chaser growls again, even louder this time. There doesn’t seem to be any question that she understands what people are saying to her. She just wants to make sure that people understand what she is saying to them. Learn more about Chaser on her web page: www.chaserthebordercollie. com. You can also keep up with her latest exploits on the Chaser The Border Collie Facebook page. And of course, you can buy her book: Chaser, Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows 1000 words on Amazon.com

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound

Major Steve Lamb, Officers Jessica Lancaster & Mike Johnson

A New Breed of Animal Control The Spartanburg Philosophy by Pam Gleason

ajor Steve Lamb of Spartanburg, S.C. does not have a background in animal control. A 23-year veteran of the Spartanburg Public Safety Department, he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. “My career has been in investigations and running divisions and things of that nature,” he says. A few years ago, he took over the

department that supervises animal control in the city, and from that day forward, things in Spartanburg began to change. It started with the name. “We changed the name from animal control to animal services,” he says. “We don’t feel like we control anything. We are here to provide a service to the community. I wanted to change our philosophy, to push more on the idea of partnership and community involvement.” One day, Nancy Dischler, a retired schoolteacher who lives in the city, showed up at the Police Department. “We were having a meeting,” says Major Lamb. “She said she wanted to talk to us about feral cats. So I said, come on in.” Nancy, who was involved with maintaining a feral cat colony, explained the practice of trap, neuter and return (TNR), a method of dealing with feral cats that has been gaining popularity and acceptance all over the country and the world. The basic premise behind TNR is that the traditional rounding up and euthanizing of healthy feral cats is not only inhumane, it is also a waste of resources and does not accomplish the basic goals of promoting animal welfare, reducing pet overpopulation, or mitigating harm associated with free-roaming animals. For one thing, the number of feral cats that can be trapped and euthanized each year represents only a very small fraction of the estimated number of feral cats in the country. Their elimination cannot possibly have any meaningful effect on the size or impact of the free roaming feral cat population. You might as well try to kill every raccoon in the country. TNR advocates say that a better method is to trap neighborhood feral cats, neuter them, vaccinate them against rabies and distemper, and then put them back where they came from. As Nancy Dischler explained to Major Lamb, many communities, including Spartanburg, already have a population of “cat people” who manage feral cat colonies, providing them with food and shelter and getting them neutered so

Spring 2014

that they can’t reproduce. Neutering does more than simply keep the colonies kittenless. It also reduces the potential for nuisance behavior, such as yowling and spraying. Feral cats that have been TNR’ed can usually be identified by their ears. Ear-tipping, a procedure in which approximately a quarter inch of the top of one ear is surgically removed, is an internationally recognized sign that the cat has been sterilized. “My background is investigations, so we started investigating,” says Major Lamb. “The cat people are very secretive, so it took a while to get them to talk to us, but eventually they did. We formed a small community team of about six people that we asked to meet with us at the department. We served lunch, we sat down, and I said I have no idea about feral cats, so you have to tell me. We soon found out that before I was responsible for the department, we were essentially against these cat people, picking up their cats after they had paid for spay and neuter, and euthanizing them, or handing out tickets, and they were terrified of that. I explained that that was not my purpose.” When Major Lamb was in charge of criminal investigations, he made use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) maps to show him which areas of the city had high crime rates. He used the same system to analyze the city’s feral cat population. First, he took two years’ worth of data on feral cat complaints, 820 in all, and he fed that data into his mapping software. This gave him a map that showed where Spartanburg’s calls about cat nuisances had been. Then, he had the cat people show him where the managed colonies in the city were, and he made a second map that showed all the major established colonies. “When I superimposed one map over the other, I saw that there was

essentially no overlap,” he says. “Where we had true organized colonies, we did not have any complaint calls. So the theory I went on was that if we had more colonies run by these cat people, we would have fewer calls that we responded to as an agency.” Spartanburg has two officers who work in animal services, Officer Mike Johnson and Officer Jessica Lancaster. Over the next year, they continued to study feral cats, helping to care for colonies, monitoring them with surveillance cameras, and even successfully moving a colony from where it had formed behind a fish store to a less congested area a

The Dog & Hound

few miles away. “We did things that I knew, from my background in investigations, would be seen as true documentation of what we were doing, and that I could use if I had to go before the city council,” says Major Lamb. They also used that documentation as part of a grant application that they made to PetSmart Charities. PetSmart was impressed, and gave them $38,000 to TNR as many cats as they could, starting in the year 2013. In January of that year, city cat policy was changed. In the past, the officers might catch a feral cat in a trap and take it to the Spartanburg Humane Society where it would be euthanized. Now, when they caught a one, they took it to Animal Allies, a spay and neuter clinic, which sterilized it, vaccinated it, eartipped it, and returned it to them. The next day, they would take the cat back where it came from and release it. From January 2013 to March 2014, the city TNR’ed 752 cats. What Spartanburg was doing was quite new: although TNR is fairly common among rescue and humane groups, it is rarely, if ever, practiced by municipal animal control. Major Lamb wanted to make sure that

people knew that the department had changed, and so he turned to the Internet. “We starting out on this thing called Facebook on January first,” says Major Lamb. “I had never used Facebook before. We wanted it to be a sort of a journal for us, to show people what we were doing and that we were telling the truth. We wanted to be transparent; we wanted to be humble; we wanted to bring in some partnerships, some ideas; get information. We wanted it to be a learning experience.” One of the first things on the Spartanburg Animal Services page was a picture of a red and black sign that said “Please Don’t Read This Post!! Too Shocking!!!!” The accompanying text explained the changes that had taken place: “ . . over the past year we have formed a citizen team that helped change our name, our strategies and our mission. We want to: 1. Help eliminate the euthanasia rate in our community; 2. Promote adoptions and foster programs; 3. Establish an organized feral cat TNR program; 4. Partner with citizens and animal based organizations. We have listened, and we have changed! (Spread the word!) Over the next weeks and months, the page would be filled with pictures of TNR’ed cats being released from traps, or sunning themselves near their colonies, or eating cat food. When there was a cat that needed to be rescued from a drain pipe, or off a roof, or tiny kittens that needed nursing, the page would show pictures of Officers Jessica and Mike performing rescues or feeding kittens with an eyedropper.

The Dog & Hound

“I wanted it to be interesting,” says Major Lamb, who had done media relations for the police department in the past “I tried to create Officers Jessica and Mike as animal heroes in our community, to show that they were caring and wanted to give back and were there for the public. I wanted them to know we were not an enforcement based program any more.” The Facebook page was an immediate success. It gained followers from around the city, the state, the country and the world, with an overwhelmingly positive response. People started commenting and writing in every day, asking how they could get their own cities to follow Spartanburg’s lead. Today, the page has over 12,000 “likes.” “We receive so many posts and private messages and emails from around the world, it’s almost impossible for us to keep up with it,” says Major Lamb. They also get postcards, letters and unsolicited donations. Major Lamb was invited to speak at the Alley Cat Allies national conference in Washington D.C. last November, and will be speaking at a conference sponsored by the same group in Dallas this April. Although he says he is happy to share his experience with anyone who is interested, he is too busy to accept all the invitations he gets. The attention Spartanburg has gotten has not been limited to the Internet, either. Television stations and major national papers now have Spartanburg on their radar. For instance, when Officer Jessica recently rescued a cat that was stuck inside the engine of a car, the story was featured in USA Today, and picked up nationally by some television stations. TNR is still a controversial and hotly debated issue in the animal control world, but Major Lamb says that, even with all the attention his department has gotten over the last year, there have been very few complaints, and none from within the city itself. How can other cities and towns emulate Spartanburg? “It isn’t something other people can’t do,” says Major Lamb. “You just have to talk to the right person in your city government. It’s nothing spectacular.” “Do your homework,” adds Officer Mike. “Research and make a citizens’ board. Make friends with the colony caretakers. That’s the hardest thing to do – to gain their trust because they are so secretive in what they do. Recognize that it is a lot of work. We don’t have any big secrets to making it work. We buy our cat food at Sam’s Club and our cat traps at Tractor Supply.” “It’s a fit for us here in Spartanburg,” continues Major Lamb. “I can’t say what will work in other places. But it seems to be working for us, and we’ve had so many inquiries nationally from people who want to know how our program works. A lot of city government people are interested, because they realize that the old fashioned way doesn’t seem to be working. But a lot of the old school animal control people don’t want to change. It’s their bosses that want change.” Although Spartanburg Animal Services is most visible for its work with cats, the department has other “out of the box” ideas that is has implemented as well. Over the winter, for instance, the department asked for advice from the National Audubon Society and set about making 100 bird houses that it placed in wooded areas (“nowhere near our cat colonies.”) The lumber was donated from all over the community. They are also working on some other ideas to improve the lives of Spartanburg’s dogs. “Our goal is to educate and help if we can, so we need to make sure that what we do doesn’t have consequences we didn’t intend,” says Major Lamb. “We don’t want to penalize people. We want to be there for people and for their animals.” Considering all that they have done for Spartanburg’s cats, one might suppose that Major Lamb and Officers Jessica and Mike are cat owners and have cats at home. Do they? Officers Mike and Jessica shake their heads. They have dogs. Major Lamb laughs. “Well, I took two of them home for the team because no one else wanted them. But we’ve got three puppies. I’ve always been a dog person.”

Spring 2014

References Available

Expert Horse Care Farm Sitting Pet Sitting

You Should Eat So Well.â&#x201E;˘ Fromm Family Foods Family Owned & Operated in Wisconsin since 1904

Fromm owns their own manufacturing facilities Total Control from Ingredient to Kibble

Fromm uses ONLY US-Sourced & USDA-Inspected ingredients

Herbal Solutions Centre South â&#x20AC;˘ 803.649.9286

Classifieds ADOPTIONS/PUPPIES Adopt a Shelter Dog or Cat from the Aiken County Animal Shelter. Many beautiful, healthy, friendly animals to choose from. 411 Wire Road, Aiken. See the pets at www. fotasaiken.org. 803.642.1537. Trinity Farms Terriers: Quality family dogs with proven calmer dispositions. Generations of great

Spring 2014

temperaments. Health/dispositions guaranteed. Breeders of terriers for 30+ years. Donna Fitzpatrick. 803.648.3137. www.easyjacks. com & trinityfarmskennel.com & trinitynorfolkterriers.com. Albrecht Aiken SPCA. Dogs, puppies, cats and kittens for adoption. Hours of operation: Mon-Sat. 11 am - 5 pm. Weekly

offsite adoptions at Aiken Petsmart, Sat 10 am- 3 pm; Sun 1:30 pm 6:30 pm. www.LetLoveLive.org 803.643.0564 . Pointers! More than just bird dogs. Many beautiful purebred Pointers of all ages available for pets or for hunting. www.pointerrescue.org. ANIMAL CARE Horses And Hounds Aiken. Pet &

Horse-Sitting. Reasonable Rates, Bonded and Insured, Vet Assistant. 803-643-9972/803-443-8303. horsesandhoundsaiken@gmail. com. www.horsesandhoundsaiken. com Pet sitting, farm sitting, expert horse care. References available. Mary Jane Howell. 802.295.8294

The Dog & Hound

Regional Calendar of Events April 4 4 4-6 5 5 5 5

5 5

5 5-6 5-6 10-13 11-12

12 12 12

12-13 12-13 12-13 12-13

Professional Retriever Trainers Association Field Trial. Various Properties, Pavo, GA. Terri Curtis, 715.495.5455, foxhollowretrievers@me.com. $5 Freaky Friday Adoption Event: Pets are Tie Dye for! Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Greater Columbia Obedience Club Agility Show. South Congaree Horse Arena, 301 Oak Street, West Columbia, SC. Karen Wlodarski, 843.696.2892, karen-w@msn.com, www.gcoc.net. Shelter Tour. 1pm. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Scottish Terrier Club of Greater Atlanta Dog Show. Jim Miller Park, 2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta, GA. Glenda Tucker, 678.513.4017, tuckerglenda@comcast.net. North Georgia Beagle Club Hunting Test. 1339 Elliott Family Parkway, Dawsonville, GA. Eric Autry, autrysgraveyard@yahoo.com. Pawmetto Lifeline Bark in the Park. Enjoy a fun-filled family event while helping to save homeless pets across the Midlands. Finlay Park, 930 Laurel Street, Columbia, SC. 803.465.9174, sjohnson@ pawmettolifeline.org. Easter Bone Hunt benefiting Cavalier Rescue. Woodruff Pet Resort and Spa, 70 Concourse Way, Greer, SC. 864.877.0488, info@ woodruffpetresort.com. Strut Your Mutt Benefit Dog Show. All proceeds go towards pulling dogs from the euthanasia list, being vetted as well as spayed/neutered, and transported to Maine to find their forever home! Monroe County Recreation Department, 100 Dan Pitts Drive, Forsyth, GA. aligoode.pixel@gmail.com. Stack-a-Mania V. Join the American Bully Kennel Club for one of the best dog shows of the year! Heritage Park, 95 Lake Dow Road, McDonough, GA. 770.899.7226. Palmetto Pointing Breed Club Hunting Test. 106 Whitetail Drive, Walhalla, SC. Debbie Darby, 864.882.0215, whitetailgwp@ mindspring.com. Palmetto Retriever Club Hunting Test. Cooper Black Wildlife Management Area, Cheraw, SC. Janet Hasty, 803.427.4321, janet1980hasty@yahoo.com. Perry Dog Show. Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter, 401 Larry Walker Parkway, Perry, GA. Onofrio Dog Shows,405.427.8181, mail@onofrio.com. Greyhound Association of North Georgia Lure Coursing Test. Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter, 401 Larry Walker Parkway, Perry, GA. Sharon Webb, 770.778.4346, sbwtlc@yahoo. com, www.gangcoursing.org. Cove Creek Beagle Club Hunting Test. Cove Creek Running Grounds, Pickens, SC. Sherren Powell, 864.419.8582, mrslrabbit@ bellsouth.net. Atlanta Retriever Club Hunting Test. Black Dawg Farm, Buckhead, GA. Kate Bertram, 404.680.5256, katehovan@gmail.com. 26th Annual Dogwood Festival. Bring Fido to participate in Outdoor Big Air®, Extreme Vertical™, Speed Retrieve™ or Iron Dog™. Adjacent to the Historic Courthouse, Main Street, Perry, GA. 330.241.4975, dd_admin@dockdogs.com. German Shepherd Dog Club of Greater Charlotte Dog Show. Piedmont Kennel Club Showplace, 13607 Choate Circle, Charlotte, NC. Patti Hart, 704.792.0680, pattihart@ctc.net. Dachshund Club of Metropolitan Atlanta. ADOG-Dogwood Training Academy, 3929 Green Industrial Way, Atlanta, GA . William S Geshwiler, 931.381.7926, wgesh18@aol.com. Carolina Terrier Association Earthdog Test. Owl Hollow Farm, 6515 Whitney Road, Graham, NC. Tina Lunsford, 336.552.8369, tjoyl@yahoo.com. Bluegrass Coursing Club Coursing Ability Test. Maggie Valley Recreation and Festival Grounds, 3987 Soco Road, Maggie Valley, NC. Debbie Moody, 864.340.1350, houndrunnersc@gmail.com.

The Dog & Hound

18-19 18-20 18-20

19-20 19-20 25 25 25,27 26 26-27

26-27

May 2 2 2

2-4 2-4 3 3

jrSPCA Meeting. 6-7pm. The jrSPCA is a group of 6th - 12th graders dedicated to learning about and loving animals. They have monthly meetings and take on 3-4 fundraising projects a year. Must be a registered volunteer and have gone through volunteer orientation to participate. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Neuse Retriever Club Hunting Test. Neuse Way Nature Center, 401 W Caswell Street, Kinston, NC. Keith Maready, 252.531.2875, keithmaready@gmail.com. Durham Kennel Club Agility Show. Durham Kennel Club Agility Field, 7318 Guess Road, Hillsborough, NC. Jenn Galgano, 757.481.4854, gonedoggin@cox.net, www.durhamkennelclub.com. Atlanta Obedience Club Agility Show. Willls Park Equestrian Center, Wills Coliseum, 11915 Wills Road, Alpharetta, GA. Donna Slavin, 706.254.3451, atlantaobedienceclubsecretary@gmail.com, www.atlantaobedienceclub.com. Carolina Cocker Club Dog Show. E.Clarkson Rhame Memorial Arena, Broad Street, Camden, SC. Robert McKinney, 540.589.1515, cameocockers@cox.net. North Georgia All Breed Herding Dog Association Herding Test and Trial. Woods End Farm, Farmington, GA. Gay Silva, 706.474.2744, gay.silva@ymail.com. Carolinas Retriever Association Field Trial. Diamond E. Farm, Mullins, SC. Lee Hanes, 2929 Country Club Road, Winston Salem, NC. 336.391.2558, blhanes@att.net. Atlanta Retriever Club Field Trial. Black Dawg Farm, Buckhead, GA. Carol Parante, 404.664.5754. Carolinas Retriever Association Hunting Test and Field Trial. Diamond E. Farm, Mullins, SC. Lee Hanes, 336.391.2558, blhanes@ att.net. Foothills Beagle Club Hunting Test. 417 Oakhill Road, Belton, SC. Lewis Wilson, 864.915.7973, lwilson534@charter.net. Piedmont Border Collie Association Herding Test and Trial. Way to Me Kennel & Farm, 6480 Poplar Springs church Road, Sanford, NC. David Raper, 919.245.0553, davidraper@centurylink.net, www. piedmontbordercollie.com. Sawnee Mountain Kennel Club of Georgia Obedience Show and Rally. Family Pet Obedience School, 4890 Hammond Industrial Drive, Ste 100, Cumming, GA. Ann Fultz, 770.519.1624, muttsmom@gmail.com, www.smkcga.com. Florence Dog Show. Eastern Carolina Agricultural Center, 5226 E. Palmetto Street, Florence, SC. Onofrio Dog Shows, 405.427.8181, mail@onofrio.com. $5 Freaky Friday Adoption Event: Yo Mama! Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Tall Pines Retriever Club Field Trial. Beaver Run Farm & Surrounding Farms. Leesburg, GA. Linden Dunaway, 229.226.8397, dunaway@rose.net. 2014 Rucker Jump into Summer. Bring Fido to participate in Outdoor Big Air®, Extreme Vertical™, Speed Retrieve™ or Iron Dog™. Rucker Pet & Wild Bird, 5456 Bethelview Road, Cumming, GA. 330.241.4975, dd_admin@dockdogs.com. Winston-Salem Dog Training Club Agility Show. Lone Hickory Indoor Arena, 1950 Bethel Church Road, Yadkinville, NC. Tina Eastman, 843.838.1480, handlererror@yahoo.com, www.wsdtc.org. Valdosta Kennel Club Agility Show. Reed Bingham State Park, 542 Reed Bingham Road, Adel, GA. June Ebert, 813.983.1997, astibug@ msn.com. Shelter Tour. 1pm. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Atlanta Dog Jog. The fun- run and walk features a 1-mile and 5k course. Benefit for VetHeart of Georgia & Canine Assistants.l. Piedmont Park, 1320 Monroe Dr. NE (Parking Address), Atlanta, GA. 678.309.9800.

Spring 2014

3-4 3-4 3-4 5-9 8

8-10 8-11 9-10 10 10

10-11

16-18

17-18 17-18

Labrador Retriever Club of the Piedmont Hunting Test. H. Cooper Black Rec. Area, Patrick, SC. Bit Jordan, 803.329.1323, labluvr@ comporium.net, www.piedmontlabclub.com/home.cfm. Oconee River Kennel Club Dog Show. Oconee Heritage Park, Hwy 441 S., Watkinsville, GA. MB-F Inc., 336.379.9352, mbf@infodog. com. Greyhound Association of North Georgia Coursing Ability Test. Oconee Heritage Park, Hwy 441 S., Watkinsville, GA. Linda Hurst, 865.604.7734, jezismom@yahoo.com, www.gangcoursing.org. Keeshond Club of America Dog Show. Crowne Plaza Asheville, One Holiday Inn Drive, Asheville, NC. Foy Trent Dog Shows, 573.881.2655, info@foytrentdogshows.com. Yappy Hour. 5-8pm. Live music, cash bar, open dog park, TONS OF FUN! Scott and Drew are back by popular demand with folk, southern rock, and blues. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Perry Dog Show. Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter, 401 Larry Walker Parkway, Perry, GA. Onofrio Dog Shows,405.427.8181, mail@onofrio.com. Canaan Dog Club of America Agility Show. T.Ed Garrison Arena, 1101 W. Queen Street, Pendleton, SC. Laurene Galgano, 757.481.4854, gonedoggin@cox.net, www.cdca.org. Cooper River Retriever Club of South Carolina Hunting Test. H.Cooper Black Jr Memorial Field Trial & Recreation Area, Cheraw, SC. Michelle Love, 803.463.1313, michellelove2000@yahoo.com. Phideaux’s Flea Market (8a - 2 p) and Dog Wash (10a – 2p). Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. Greater Columbia Obedience Club Inc. Obedience Show and Rally. Tri-City Leisure Center, 485 Brooks Avenue, West Columbia, SC. Christopher Brooks, 864.263.7382, gcoc_trialsecretary@ showentries.info, www.gcoc.net. Iron Will II. K9 event for all dogs and handlers who are ready to compete in agility, protection, and search and rescue. There are also water events. Cash prize and bragging rights for the fiercest dog and handler. Come watch -free!! Entrance fee is $50 with 1/2 of all proceeds to the winner! 109 Winchester Road, Townville, SC. 864.965.8103, ctamaklo@ymail.com. Mid-Atlantic Hound Association of Central North Carolina Dog Show. NC State Fairgrounds, 1025 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC. Brenda Adams, 336.379.9352, approvals@infodog.com, www. mahahounds.com. Youngsville Agility Club of North Carolina Agility Show. Teamworks Dog Training, 195 Robbins Road, Youngsville, NC. Patty Novak, 919.803.7142, dockcorgi@gmail.com, www. youngsvilleagilityclub.com. Cocker Spaniel Specialty Club of Georgia Agility Show. Chateau Elan Winery and Resort, Pavillon 100 Tour De France, Braselton, GA. Karen Wlodarski, 843.696.2892, karen-w@msn.com, www. cockerspanielclubofga.org. Raleigh-Durham Labrador Retriever Club Dog Show. NC State Fairgrounds, 1025 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC. Dan Frye, 919.971.2634, entries@rdlrc.com, ww.rdlrc.com. Mid-Atlantic Hound Association of Central North Carolina Lure Coursing Test and Trial. Flintrock Farm, 221 Flintrock Trail, Reidsville, NC. Edward Kominek, 919.323.3353, eddie@ kominekafghans.com. jrSPCA Meeting. 6-7pm. The jrSPCA is a group of 6th - 12th graders dedicated to learning about and loving animals. They have monthly meetings and take on 3-4 fundraising projects a year. Must be a registered volunteer and have gone through volunteer orientation to participate. Strikehouse Lanes, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www. spca-albrecht.org.

23-24 Lure Coursing Test and Trial. Chattahoochee Hills Farm, 9440 Browns Lake Road, Fairburn, GA. Sharon Webb, 770.778.4346, sbwtlc@yahoo.com. 23-26 Fletcher Dog Show. Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC. MB-F Inc., 336.379.9352, mbf@infodog.com. 24-25 Tara Afghan Hound Club Dog Show. Holiday Inn Select Perimeter, Holiday Inn Select, 4386 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, GA. Karen Mays, 678.957.9544, karen@zencor.com. 31-Jun 1 Piedmont Border Collie Association Obedience Show. Durham Kennel Club, 7318 Guess Road, Durham, NC. David Draper, 919.245.0553, davidraper@centrylink.net,www. piedmontbordercollie.com. 31-Jun 1 German Shepherd Dog Club of North Georgia Dog Show. Ellijay Fairgrounds, 1729 S Main Street, Ellijay, GA. Mac McCarthy, 770.993.9758, bvp@bellsouth.net.

June

Yappy Hour. 5-8pm. Live music, cash bar, open dog park, TONS OF FUN! Scott and Drew are back by popular demand with folk, southern rock, and blues. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. 6 $5 Freaky Friday Adoption Event: Plaid for Dads! Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. 6-7 Palmetto Obedience Training Club AKC Rally. Northwest Recreation Center, 701 Saxon Avenue, Spartanburg, SC. Rose Schwietert, 864.579.1164, rose.schwietert@gmail.com, www. palmettotrng.com. 6-8 Moore County Kennel Club of North Carolina Agility Show. Bon-Clyde Learning Center, 3030 Lee Avenue, Sanford, NC. Karen Wlodarski, 843.696.2892, karen-w@msn.com, www.mckcnc.com. 7-8 Fletcher Dog Show. Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher, NC. MB-F Inc., 336.379.9352, mbf@infodog.com. 7-8 Palmetto Obedience Training Club Inc. Obedience Show. Northwest Recreation Center, 701 Saxon Avenue, Spartanburg, SC. Rose Schwietert, 864.579.1164, rose.schwietert@gmail.com, www. palmettotrng.com. 14 Phideaux’s Flea Market (8a - 2 p) and Dog Wash (10a – 2p). Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. 14 Georgia Dachshund Races. Dachshund races, costume contest, doggie weddings, best coat, longest, smallest, oldest, best nose, obstacle course and more. Jim Miller Park, 2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta, GA. 14-15 Western Carolina Dog Fanciers Association Dog Show. Haywood County Fairgrounds, 758 Crabtree Road, Waynesville, NC. MB-F Inc., 336.379.9352, mbf@infodog.com, www.wcdfa.org. 18 jrSPCA Meeting. 6-7pm. The jrSPCA is a group of 6th - 12th graders dedicated to learning about and loving animals. They have monthly meetings and take on 3-4 fundraising projects a year. Must be a registered volunteer and have gone through volunteer orientation to participate. Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, 199 Willow Run Road, Aiken, SC. 803.648.6863, www.spca-albrecht.org. 21-22 Savannah Dog Training Club Obedience Show and Rally. Groves High School, 100 Priscilla D. Thomas Way, Savannah, GA. 912.308.1007, pawsomeresults@gmail.com, www. savannahdogtrainingclub.com. 28 Bully Independence Day IV. Join the American Bully Kennel Club for one of the best dog shows all year! Georgia National Fairgrounds, McGill Marketplace Building, Perry, GA. 404.819.6332. 5

Advertising in The Dog & Hound Classified ads are $20 for the first 30 words & 40 cents for every word thereafter. Photo Classifieds are $35; (limit 40 words) Business Cards: $70 per issue, or $300 a year (local business discount: $60 per issue or $220 per year)

Spring 2014

Editor@theDogandHound.com The Dog & Hound, P.O. Box 332, Montmorenci, SC 29839 We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover Pay online: www.TheDogandHound.com Or Call us: 803.643.9960

For detailed rate sheet & publication schedule, visit

www.TheDogandHound.com advertise in the Summer 2014 issue! Advertising deadline: May 23, 2014 Publication date: June 6, 2014

The Dog & Hound

The Naming of Rambling Rose By Lexa Roséan; Photography by Carlos Costes

y little bundle of fur came home with me on a cold wintry night and fell fast asleep in her cozy crate. In the morning, she made a thorough investigation of her new home. I sat in my big leather chair with a cup of coffee and set about choosing her name. I thought she should have a goddess name. “Hecate – queen of the witches,” I called out. No response, and when I looked down at the puppy, I knew she was too cute to be a Hound of Hel. “It’s much easier to name a cat,” I thought. I had never named a family dog. That was my mother’s forte. All our dogs had French names – a toy poodle named Boutique because my mother loved to shop. Even my sisters and I were given French middle names – Nanette, Babette, and Georgette. They never really fit us, but they suited my mother, because she loved all things French. She wanted to name my brother ‘Lafayette’ but my father said: “NO”! Then she decided upon ‘Ashley Beauregard.’ My father nixed that too, so we had two dogs named Ashley Beauregard – a Pug and an Old English sheepdog. The Pug carried the name well. “Nothing French,” I thought. How about a tango name? I love to dance the Argentine tango and I am coming upon the 20-year anniversary of my passionate embrace of this dance. How about Cara Sucia! That’s the name of my favorite tango. “Cara Sucia”, I called out. In that moment, the puppy pooped on the floor and started to sniff it. I ran to clean it up. ‘Cara Sucia’ means dirty face . . . perhaps not a good choice. . . After two days of my calling and singing out names of Argentine tangos, tango dance moves, names of famous venues where tango is danced (“Nino Bien,” “El Beso,” “Maipu 444” ) the dog continued to pay me no mind. I made a call to the vet, because although the puppy had bonded with my socks and leather jacket, and even cuddled with me, she had not made eye contact. I was told that she was very young and not to worry; it would happen. I decided to move in another direction with the naming ritual. I had just begun working on my master’s degree in psychoanalysis. What was the name of Freud’s dog? “Jo-Fi”, I said.. How do you pronounce that anyway? “Jofi? Yofi?”

The Dog & Hound

Sounds like Yafeh, which means ‘pretty’ in Hebrew. Nice name; however my puppy didn’t respond. How about a Hebrew name or something Kabbalistic? I have a Hebrew name and I am well versed in the mystical tradition. At this point the puppy let out a sharp yelp, which I interpreted as meaning: “Enough about you! Who am I?” “Right,” I thought. “Who is she?” Well, I didn’t know much about her. She’s a Peagle – one of the new hybrids – half Pekingese and half Beagle. I picked up her papers and had a look. Her mother’s name is Rambling Paris in the Fall. Her father’s name is Rambling Hercules. Rambling is the name of the farm where she was born. She’s a rambler for sure. She had scampered around every inch of the apartment and made contact with every object (except my eyes). “How about Rambling Rose?” I thought. “That’s quite a mouthful, a long name for such a little dog. Yes, but you could call her Rosie.” “Rosie!” I said out loud. She made eye contact! She said: “Ro Ro” and waddled over, stood on her hind legs, and begged for me to lift her up. I said “Rosie” again and picked her up. She gave me a kiss on my cheek. “Rosie!” More licks and a long gaze into my eyes. Wow! What’s in a name? Everything! The French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan theorized that words possessed magical power. Therefore, that which we call a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. I then realized that her name would be Rosie Roséan. Hmmm, rather like me. Later that afternoon, my sister reminded me that our father, who had recently passed, was nicknamed ‘Rosie Roséan’ by his buddies. I also remembered that my great grandmother was named Rose. No one in the family had named a child after her. In only two days, I realized the intense amount of parenting involved with raising a dog. This puppy is the closest I’ve come to having a child. It seemed appropriate to name her after grandma Rose. I looked all over the world for an exotic name but when I finally saw Rosie with my ‘eye’ (instead of my ‘I’), she brought me right back to a name that had been in my family all along, just as Rosie feels as if she’s been family all along. Rosie Roséan. Learn more about Lexa Roséan on her website: www.lexarosean.com

Spring 2014

ENTER TO WIN!

Do you look like your pet? If so, the SPCA Albrecht Center would like you to share your photo for the chance to win big! Five winners will be chosen that look most like their pet, or even a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pet, to appear in a commercial airing on WFXG Fox54. Albrecht Center employees are not eligible for entry. You must provide a photograph of yourself with the pet you look like. Pets are not limited to dogs and cats. Winners are selected by a confidential panel of judges. Judgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; selections are final. If you are unable to appear during the scheduled filming time, another contestant will be chosen to take your place. Winners will be notified no later than 4.25.14. For details and entry to win, visit www.LetLoveLive.org.

Spring 2014

The Dog & Hound