Sammy is a very talented boy, he can paint, and his paintings have sold for $1,700. That’s a lot of dog biscuits. The best thing about this talented pup is he’s part of Shore Service Dogs. They are a wonderful organization that train service dogs and use rescues dogs whenever they can, giving them a second chance at life.
To help raise money for Shore Service Dogs some of the pups are trained to paint. Don’t worry, everything they use is non-toxic and the dogs seem to really enjoy it. Watch Sammy in action and you’ll see what I mean.
Since this is a dog blog, a couple of times a month our boy Bo (woof!) thought it would be nice to get the news through a dog’s eyes.
Bo invites everyone to read a chapter from his upcoming book BAD TO THE BONE due out late September. It’s a funny memoir about the crazy adventures we have shared together over the last 14 plus years, told through Bo’s eyes.
Okay Bo, take it from here….
I recently read a survey that most dogs don’t like vets. I was shocked to hear those results.
I mean, what’s not to like? The camouflage? The ability to relieve themselves on a battlefield? It certainly can’t be the yummy c-rations.
Then I realized the survey was talking about veterinarians, not veterans. That made me feel better.
Well, since I’ve stumbled upon the subject, let me just send a quick thank you for all the members of the armed forces. Without their sacrifice, the freedoms we enjoy in this country would most assuredly be replaced by the chains of totalitarianism.
I know that all dogs know this and are eager to provide support. Check out the study the Dept of Defense has on tap to figure out just how great of animals we are, courtesy of the Kansas City Star.
Can a canine companion soothe the volatile emotions of a soldier haunted by post-traumatic stress disorder?
It may sound far-fetched, but the Department of Defense wants to find out.
If you’ve ever been to a PetSmart store you know you can bring your “well-behaved” dog in, of course we all know the meaning of that is very subjective. What’s inappropriate to some is sometimes thought of as cute by the dog owner.
Since PetSmart is a pet supermarket it’s one thing to allow dogs, what if you were walking in your local grocery store and you saw someone with their dog, not a service dog, would it bother you? What about if the dog went to the bathroom in the store?
In Portland’s Pearl District this is happening, it’s become dog owners versus non-dog owners. Dogs are now frequently seen in grocery stores and in the last year the food safety division of Oregon’s Agriculture Department has received over 600 complaints about this issue.
“Usually they’ll hold off and not make a complaint until they’ve seen a dog urinate in the grocery store or jump up and try to swipe a pack of meat,” said Vance Bybee, the head of the food safety division. “Or they’ve seen dogs pooping in the aisle, that sort of thing.” Read the rest of this entry »
We have the first pick forour new Dog Of The Week feature, and I don’t think the winner will come as any surprise. It’s no other than…drumroll please…Sam, the 2009 Community Service Pet Hero.
I posted Sam and Brittney’s story on Monday and if you haven’t read it yet take a minute to do so, they are an amazing duo.
Sam is a very special dog. I am currently [and will be until May of 2010] training him to become a Certified Service Dog, AND Arizona’s first Courthouse Dog. His job will be to sit up in the witness stand with victims, mainly children, who have been terribly abused and traumatized, and will be a comfort to them and can help them to testify.
There are only four or five other Courthouse Dogs in the US, and out of those, Sam will be one of the first that is actually a Service Dog. The others are only Therapy Dogs, and do not have public access…which means they can be, and often are, removed from the courtroom.
In May I posted about Dogster member Brittney (two-legged) and her dog Sam, partners in the Puppy Raising Program. The Foundation for Service Dog Support, a non-profit organization based in Arizona, runs the program. They are a support and resource center for those with service dogs, and those who seek information and training on service dog issues.
The program allows students to earn HS credits, while learning puppy raising, canine obedience and canine safety programming. At the end of three semesters, the teams must successfully pass the FSDS Certification test, and the dogs will then be matched with individuals in the community with disabilities who require service dogs.
Being a victim of crime is traumatizing under any circumstances, when a child is a victim it’s that much more devastating. It is much harder for children to express themselves, especially in molestation cases, so this is where a program called Courthouse Dogs steps in.
Founder Ellen O’Neill-Stephens uses well-behaved dogs to act as companions for traumatized victims of child abuse. Dogs are used to help calm a child’s nerves and to help them talk about things they may not be comfortable saying to an adult.
We know this works well with reading programs where dogs are used to help children with reading difficulties. Those kids are often afraid to read out loud for fear of being ostracized by their peers, but stick a dog in front of them and all of a sudden they start reading. After all, dogs never criticize.
“Sometimes, these children will say things to the dog that they’re too embarrassed to say to a person,” Stephens said. “We had a girl who had been severely abused and she could never talk about it. But she petted Jeeter for over 90 minutes straight and she was able to tell what happened.”
It’s not easy to become a courthouse dog, only about 30 percent of dogs in training actually make it. Usually golden or Labrador retrievers are used, trainers start working with them when they’re only 8 weeks old and training continue for about 18 months.
I want to thank Dogster member Veronica for letting me know about the annual Psychiatric Service Dog Society gathering in Lompoc, CA, that just took place.
She attended with her service dog Ollie, one morning a news crew came and did a story on the society and the gathering which she thought was really good and worth sharing. I totally agree.
The video highlights how important dogs are to individuals with mental and emotional issues. When you have a disability that others can’t see or understand the emotional support these dogs provide is priceless.
Sen. Al Franken is introducing a new bill which would give service dogs to injured veterans.
Franken’s legislation, which is an amendment to a 2010 military funding bill, would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a pilot program to train at least 200 service dogs through nonprofit organizations and give them to veterans with physical and mental disabilities.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Luis Carlos Montalvan, a disabled Iraq war veteran, suggested the idea to Franken months earlier at the presidential inaugural ball in Washington.
“It was really like a dream come true,” Montalvan, a journalism student in New York City, told the paper.
There is an amazing device that helps guide dogs guide the blind. You’ve got to check out the Peepo GPS Device, technology at its best.
Guide Dogs for the blind folks generally come trained for taking them around the neighborhood and maybe an extra distance. This surely curtails mobility and independence in case they want to explore more than their usual territory. The Peepo GPS Device gives these people a certain degree of freedom to travel beyond the normal route. The GPS system charts the course and guides the dog to the desired destination using a series of vibrations to steer him.
The two-part device comprises of a handheld GPS unit, which uses vocal commands to register the destination and map it. The second attaches to the guide dog’s handle and gives subtle directions via vibration zones; L= Left, R= Right, F= Forward and up on arriving the destination, the zones simultaneously vibrate.
The biggest USP of this device is that it has a touch “return home same way function”, which is quite reassuring.
Since this is a dog blog, a couple of times a month our boy Bo (woof!) thought it would be nice to get the news through a dog’s eyes.
Bo invites everyone to read a chapter from his upcoming bookBAD TO THE BONE at Bo Knows Online. It’s a funny memoir about the crazy adventures we have shared together over the last 14 plus years, told through Bo’s eyes.
Okay Bo, take it from here…..
Today’s story: not weird, not crazy just another reason to love us four legged, fuzzy creatures.
That’s right, not only are we adorable, non-judgmental and eager to please, but now we’re also getting into the human healthcare game.
Turns out our noses are life savers. No, not the green, red or yellow variety but the soul saving kind. A sniff here and a sniff there and we can tell whether a diabetic’s blood sugar falls to a dangerous level.
Of course it is at this point the true test of being man’s best friend comes into play. Ask yourself, are you going to give up that Butterfinger bar in your fur suit to save that human?
While you decide, Reuters has the details on the research.
AYLESBURY, England (Reuters) – Dogs are being trained in Britain as potential life-savers to warn diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels.
Man’s best friend already has been shown capable of sniffing out certain cancer cells, and dogs have long been put to work in the hunt for illegal drugs and explosives.
Their new front-line role in diabetes care follows recent evidence suggesting a dog’s hyper-sensitive nose can detect tiny changes that occur when a person is about to have a hypoglycemic attack.
The Dogster Dog Blog is committed to tracking every story related to all foods recalls. You can count on us to keep you completely in the nose of every detail.
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Sammy is a very talented boy, he can paint, and his paintings have sold for $1,700. That’s a lot of dog biscuits. The best thing about this talented pup is he’s part of Shore Service Dogs. They are a wonderful organization that train service dogs and use rescues dogs whenever they can, giving them a second chance at life.
Since this is a dog blog, a couple of times a month our boy 
“Usually they’ll hold off and not make a complaint until they’ve seen a dog urinate in the grocery store or jump up and try to swipe a pack of meat,” said Vance Bybee, the head of the food safety division. “Or they’ve seen dogs pooping in the aisle, that sort of thing.” 
We have the first pick for our new Dog Of The Week feature, and I don’t think the winner will come as any surprise. It’s no other than…drumroll please…
“Sometimes, these children will say things to the dog that they’re too embarrassed to say to a person,” Stephens said. “We had a girl who had been severely abused and she could never talk about it. But she petted Jeeter for over 90 minutes straight and she was able to tell what happened.”
