Posts in Category: Human-Animal Bond

A litter of puppies and their mother, Sheba, who befriended U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, have been transported to the U.S. The puppies will be adopted by the service members, while Sheba may be trained as a service dog and placed with a veteran in need. Staff Sgt. Edwin Caba and others were elated to see the dogs again. “We just built a bond you can’t even describe,” he said. CBS News/The Associated Press

For the story, pictures and video, CLICK HERE

The Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Retriever Lifetime Study is recruiting 3,000 healthy, young golden retrievers to be studied for clues to the breed’s high incidence of cancer. The foundation is partnering with veterinarians and owners around the country in the 10-year, $25 million study. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could tell [an owner] whether her dog has a high predisposition to a certain cancer so we can catch it really early?” said foundation President and CEO David Haworth, also a veterinarian. “Or if we know what a cancer’s pathway is, our drug partners can find a way to intervene.” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) (8/22)

Bonnie is a Shetland Sheepdog (also known as a “Sheltie”).

Max is a Basenji and loves to participate in all sorts of dog sports!

In July, 2012, Stacey Hirsh noticed that her dachshund, Tater Pie, was having problems. “Hhe started having breath only a mother could love,” she said. “It was really bad. It got to the point where his breath was so bad that I knew if I could smell it he could taste it.”

She took her dog, then nearly 12 years old, to VCA All Care Animal Referral Center in Fountain Valley. “They said that some of his teeth needed to be pulled,” she said.  “It was affecting his sinuses. He couldn’t breathe. It really hurt when he chewed. And this dog is like a bottomless pit when it comes to food. I couldn’t brush his teeth. I couldn’t touch him or anything. He didn’t want anything to go near his mouth.”

Stacey was virtually broke and was unemployed and looking for work at the time. “I was really struggling but Tater Pie always came first. He makes my heart go pitter-patter,” she said.

She had a savings account but it was gone. “All of it went for him.”

At All Care, Dr. Robert Murtaugh told her about Angel Fund. “I’d never heard about it until he brought it up. I can’t say enough about the VCA in Fountain Valley. Without them it never would have happened.” Angel Fund provided $500 to help pay for Tater Pie’s surgery. The hospital also made a substantial contribution.

“There was quite a bit of work that needed to be done – Tater Pie had seven or eight abscessed teeth pulled. And, I gotta tell you, the day after they pulled his teeth, he had more energy than he’s ever had before. He was in there [the hospital] for a day and a half maybe and he started running around like he was a little puppy. Forty-eight hours after his surgery he was eating.  He was on medication for sinus infections before the extractions. Now he is taking nothing.”

Stacey who lives in Irvine, and her dog have a bond that is rare.  “He is my heart beat,” she said. “He is the love of my life. I never had a child and he’s it. I would clone him if I could. He’s amazing. I don’t leash him but he follows me everywhere.  He has a great appetite now. He’s a whole different dog. He has been life-changing for me.”

Not too long after her dog’s surgery, she found a trinket in a pet store while visiting New York. “It was this magnet,” she said.  “It says: ‘Saving one dog will not change the world but, for that one dog, the world will be forever changed.’”  That says it all for her.

Microchips can mean the difference between being reunited with a lost or stolen pet or losing that friend forever. An estimated 10 million-plus U.S. pets go missing annually, but about 94% of animals with microchips are reunited with their owners. Once the microchip is implanted, a quick and relatively painless procedure that can be done during routine veterinary exams, a pet owner’s most important task is keeping contact information current so he or she can be quickly located if a lost pet is found. The Huffington Post/The Blog (8/12)

The picture above is meant to compare the size of the microchip with a grain of rice.

Last weekend Wellington, my 9-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, provided me with a somber reminder of why it is so important that we provide our pets with some type of identification. In the midst of a furniture delivery he decided to take a walk on his own. By the time we noticed that Wellington had gone missing he was nowhere to be seen. With my heart in my throat I ran down our driveway, only to find one of my neighbors walking a contrite-looking Welly back to the house.

The prospect of losing a beloved pet is every pet parent’s worst nightmare. But pets do go missing every day, and despite the best efforts of owners and local animal control, many of these pets are never reunited with their families.

If accidental losses weren’t enough to be concerned about, a disturbing new trend of pets being stolen is cropping up in news reports this summer. The American Humane Association estimates that more than 10 million dogs and cats are lost or stolen in the U.S. every year. Some of these pets wind up for sale on local Craigslist boards and sadly, others are sometimes sold to medical laboratories, where they become unwitting test subjects in the name of science.

Protecting our pets from loss and theft is fairly simple, but hardly foolproof. As pet parents, we do everything we can to keep our furry friends out of harm’s way, but there are times when even the most vigilant among us become distracted; furniture deliveries being a case in point. On warm August nights, it can be tempting to just open the back door and let our pets roam in the yard unsupervised. Or you may think, “What’s the harm?” and tie Fido up to pop in a shop for an iced coffee. It only takes a split second for a thief to snatch your pet, and once he is gone, your best chance of recovering him may be his microchip.

Microchips are the only permanent method of pet identification, and not only are they extremely helpful in the event your pet is lost, but having your contact information linked to your pet’s chip can help you prove rightful ownership in the event that your pet is stolen. One of the very first things I did when Welly joined the family was get him microchipped.

Don’t have your pet microchipped yet? Here’s what you need to know:

• It is estimated that more than 94 percent of lost pets who have a microchip are successfully reunited with their families.

• Microchip scanning devices are available to all U.S. animal shelters and veterinary clinics. If you’re not sure whether your pet is chipped, have him scanned.

• Injecting a microchip into your pet’s back takes less than 10 seconds and is only as painful as a vaccination.

• Microchips are made of biocompatible silicon and encased in glass, and rejection and infection are rare.

• The biggest reason microchips fail to reunite lost pets with their owners is that the owner information either was never registered or it wasn’t current. Register your pet’s contact information immediately when you get the new chip. If you already have a chipped pet and are unsure of your pet’s microchip number or manufacturer (info you will need to update your contact details on the chip), take him to your local vet clinic or animal shelter to be scanned. Don’t take any chances!

While microchips are the only permanent form of identification for your pet, there are some promising new options for pet identification that can work in tandem with a chip to make sure you always know the whereabouts of your best friend.

GPS-enabled collars can help you find your lost pet using your smartphone. When your pet goes missing, you get a text message with the GPS coordinates of the collar. The message contains a link to the coordinates on a map, which you can open on your smartphone and use to start your search efforts. Some models even act as a virtual fence, sending you an SMS message when your pet leaves a predefined zone. In other words, as soon as your dog leaves the yard, you can be notified of his location. While the technology can be pricey (some models fetch close to $500), it can be well worth it for the extra peace of mind.

After Welly’s escapade last weekend I am investing in a GPS collar; next time he may not be so lucky as to end up in the arms of a friendly neighbor! No one wants to think about their pet being lost or stolen, but being proactive about protecting pets against the unexpected can help create a happy ending for everyone.

Windsurfers came upon a female dog struggling against the current in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay on Monday evening. They hoisted the dog onto their boards and eventually flagged down passerby Adam Cohen, who is caring for her until the owner can be found. Cohen took the dog to the Berkeley Dog and Cat Hospital where veterinarians looked for but didn’t find a microchip. San Francisco Chronicle (free content) (8/13)

The tale of how the paddling pup pulled from the middle of San Francisco Bay got there and who owns her remains a puzzle, but more details have emerged about her rescue by a pack of windsurfers and a boating commuter.

The dog, a black pup that appears to be a Labrador mix or a Mastiff, was pulled from the chilly bay waters about one-quarter mile west of the end of the old Berkeley Pier – a good two to three miles from shore – by windsurfers who spotted her struggling in the water Monday evening. They handed her off to Adam Cohen, a Berkeley engineer who commutes to and from San Francisco in an inflatable boat, who her took her to his home to recover.

On Tuesday, the dog was taken to Berkeley Dog and Cat Hospital to see if she had an embedded chip that might identify her owners. She didn’t, and rather than turn the dog over to an animal shelter, Cohen and his family are taking care of her at home while hoping her owners show up.

The Berkeley Dog and Cat Hospital is helping with the search for the owners. Anyone who thinks they may know the dog’s owners is asked to call Katie Corrigan at (510) 225-4545.

The dog, who was wearing a collar but had no tags, seemed to be recovering nicely, said Lisa Grodin, Cohen’s wife.

“The dog follows me everywhere,” she said as the dog licked her. “She is so sweet. She’s lovely.”

While there have been plenty of calls from reporters and people interested in the dog and her story, Grodin said there were not yet any leads to her owners or clues as to how she ended up apparently swimming toward Angel Island in the cold, choppy bay.

The identity of the windsurfers who spotted her did emerge Tuesday, however. Ed Coyne, 62, a real estate investor from San Rafael, and John Newman, a San Francisco attorney, were windsurfing off Treasure Island about three miles west of Berkeley and four miles east of Crissy Field when they spotted a smallish black creature swimming.

“At first, we couldn’t tell whether it was a baby seal or what,” Newman said. “Then we saw it was a dog.”

Coyne said the dog kept swimming against the tide, and in choppy waters, but was struggling.

“She was completely exhausted,” he said. “Waves were coming and she’d get pushed under, then push her head back up and keep swimming.”

Coyne jumped into the water and called out to the dog but couldn’t get her attention. He got back on his board, circled in front and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. He placed her on the board, where she sat shivering but seemingly grateful to be out of the water.

Soon, nearby windsurfers gathered, keeping the dog out of the water while they used a radio to call the Coast Guard.

After waiting for about an hour, they flagged down Cohen, and called off the Coast Guard, helping lift the dog into the boat and to safety.

“Ed was determined to save and rescue that dog,” Newman said. “On Monday, he was that dog’s best friend.”

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan

Photographer Lori Fusaro is compiling photos of older animals for a book she hopes will inspire people to think about adopting older pets from shelters. Fusaro’s idea for the book coalesced when she met Sunny, an ailing 16-year-old mixed-breed dog, at a Los Angeles shelter. Fusaro adopted her, and a year later, they are still together. Fusaro knows letting go will be difficult. “I didn’t want to open my heart for that kind of pain, but how much sadder and more horrible for me would it be to leave her at the shelter,” said Fusaro. “It will be terrible to lose her but much worse to leave her to die alone.” The Washington Post (tiered subscription model)/The Associated Press

CLICK HERE to read the full story

Molly’s contributions to the field of dentistry are often acknowledged with a smile and a pat on the head.

On most days, the 4-year-old cocker spaniel roams Applewood Family Dental in Woodbury, MN waiting to be summoned to comfort a fidgety patient.

Some people are so averse to dental work that they regularly skip cleanings or push back appointments, Dr. Brian Kraby said. To help address the problem, he decided to bring in Molly to help ease patients’ minds as they sat in his chair.

Therapy dogs long have taken part in similar programs to counter anxiety and depression in schools, libraries, hospitals and nursing homes. But Kraby said he believes Applewood is the first dental office in the state to adopt the practice.

“If that’s going to help other people for probably more traumatic situations in life, why can’t a dental office do it?” he said.

“A lot of times in dental schools you’re trained to do something just a certain way. You’re never really trained to think outside of the box.”

Kraby said he was initially skeptical when Mary Reck, his dental assistant and Molly’s trainer, came to him with the idea shortly after he bought the office in April. It only took a few appointments to change his mind.

“I’m trying to reach out to that segment of the population that won’t see a dentist, wouldn’t consider doing just routine stuff to keep the preventive aspect of things under control,” Kraby said.

On a recent morning, 10-year-old Hugh Witzmann patted Molly’s black fur with one hand while gripping the armrest with the other. The work he needed done took no more than 20 minutes, and Hugh appeared visibly relieved when it was done.

He said he was comforted by Molly’s presence. “It kind of doesn’t freak you out as much.”

Molly, who also has worked at battered women’s shelters and with children of alcoholics, had a lot of training before she was allowed to interact with patients.

She and Reck completed four obedience classes and an eight-week class at AllBreed Obedience, a dog-training school in Woodbury that partners with Pet Partners, a national nonprofit organization that brings therapy dogs to the sick and elderly.

Therapy dogs must be “comfortable in their own skin. They’re comfortable around people,” All Breed owner Debra Schneider said Monday. “These are dogs that from the get-go enjoy being around humans and have absolutely no signs of being reactive” to outside stimuli, including loud noises and other dogs.

Hypoallergenic breeds make for good therapy dogs, but Reck said that the animals — Molly included — are wiped down with disinfectant after every visit.

Dr. Edward Creagan, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, noted several benefits of partnering animals with patients in a video interview on Pet Partners’ website.

“When you look into the eyes of that cat, when you stroke that dog, when you hold that animal there is a surge of hormones deep within the center of the brain and these hormones provide a tremendous feeling of peace, of serenity, of tranquility. They decrease our blood pressure, they decrease our pulse, they lessen our depression,” Creagan said.