Blog

Hunter the Golden, Remembered

Hunter was a great therapy dog and an even better friend – our heart goes out to his family now that he’s gone.

Hunter-PortraitWhen Dante and I first met Diane, she had a wonderful German Shepherd named Jesse and it was with Jesse that Dante started his visiting career – and never had there been a better guide for him.

However, there was a better buddy!

Hunter the Golden Retriever came into Diane’s life sometime in 2000.  He had been released from the Seeing Eye program for a medical condition – he coughed when too much pressure was put on his collar.  Otherwise, he was a solid working-dog-to-be.

Diane immediately began training him for visiting work.  He was a natural – always the perfect gentleman on visits – calm, beautiful, and inviting, he charmed the pants off of many a visitor.

Diane, Hunter, Dante, and I spent many a visit together in those early years of HART Programs. And while our boys worked well together they also played well together off-the-clock.  While on duty they made a good odd couple with the serious Hunter offset by the goofy Dante.  When a client needed a balancing, barking goof-ball they got Dante, but when a client needed a snuggly, beautiful golden ball of “more fur than fingers could penetrate” for a good cry or hug, they got Hunter who leaned quietly up against anyone who needed it.

Mind you, when he was off duty Hunter was the quintessential golden with as much goof as Dante.

Hunter’s stories are legendary:  from the little boy at the Family Assistance Center post-9/11 who spoke first to Hunter about the loss of his father to the man in the rehabilitation area of the hospital who had not been allowed to get out of bed all day due to his fluctuating blood pressure but who insisted he get to see the golden (and insisted they monitor his BP the whole visit – which remained perfect for the entire visit with Hunter).  Hunter brought joy and healing to countless strangers.

As a visiting therapeutic activities dog his accomplishments were great, but they were secondary in comparison to the love he gave his own family.  Hunter was always there for Diane through major life changes—including both ups and downs and he was there for his new little charge Emi when she came to be a part of his family.

Hunter’s story moved from the Hudson Valley south to Tennessee and then west to Texas.  Hunter left a swath of love and affection as he moved with his family across this country.  Knowing Hunter and knowing Diane I have to assume he continued to bring joy to anyone who reached out to pet and engage him.

Each dog who comes into our lives – our own and our friend’s – brings us a morsel of love and knowledge.  It is up to us to accept both of these gratefully, knowing that it is a gift from the Universe.

Thank you, Hunter, for all that you brought all of us and thank you Diane for letting us share in his love and understanding.

I know that somewhere out there Dante just came running up to the new arrival, ball-in-mouth, saying “Hey buddy, good to see you – wanna chase?”

It’s hip to be Square

Three Dogs Training has moved to using Square card readers to accept credit card charges in the field.

While it’s understandable that you’d think I was tipping my hat to Huey Lewis and the News, I’m actually going to talk about something slightly cooler than 80s retro music: behind the scenes, Three Dogs has been busy migrating to Apple from Windows.

There have been some growing pains – mostly for Lawrence – but the upsides to moving over were just too numerous to ignore.

The iPad and iPhone, for instance, really are as amazing as advertised and don’t get me started on how great (and sometimes hilarious) Dragon Dictate is.

While many of the benefits are out of public view, one that we’re really excited about is that I’m now able to swipe credit cards thanks to the Square reader. By using the reader I’m now able to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover anywhere I go.

More and more it’s becoming clear that we’re sprinting toward a cashless society, and the level of convenience Square offers is just too great for my clients not to take advantage of it.

Happy Birthday, Boo!

We wish Boo a very happy and healthy eleventh birthday!

It was eleven years ago October 31st that Boo joined our family.

There was no way we could tell that this little black and white ball of fur we saw in a stripmall fly-by-night pet store would turn into the incredible dog he did.

His mother was probably ill while pregnant, which left him with cerebellar hypoplasia – a disorder which is caused by the cerebellum not being mature at birth – that was immediately apparent in his jerky, stiff movements and overall lack of coordination.  His other symptoms gradually made themselves known as it was clear that he was partially deaf, progressively lost his eyesight, and suffered from a number of cognitive disabilities.

Despite all of those hurdles, he was was able to trooper his way through training and eventually passed his Delta Society evaluation to begin his career doing therapy work.

There he was:  a small puppy thrown away in front of a pet store, who could barely stand or walk and who would take over a year to housetrain, but he was the one who gave a family their son back and made national news doing it.

As much as we love him, he’s also a powerful reminder that we can’t overestimate an animal’s ability to exceed our expectations (or prejudices) based on their origins or pedigrees.  Every dog, whether they’re from a shelter, breeder, or a stray has within them the same potential to shine.

(Editorial Note – I had intended on posting this on Halloween, but that little bit of snow we had left us without power until just recently.)

Holy moly – Three Dogs Training has a mailing list!

Want to get the latest positive reinforcement and Three Dogs Training news in your inbox? Join our mailing list!

We’ve been busy as beavers at Three Dogs lately, but most of the changes have been behind the scenes and out of sight.

One of them that you can see for yourself – if you look just a little over to the right – is that we’ve got a spanking-new mailing list.  I thought out loud awhile back that it would be nice to have one to keep people updated with all the new things we’ve got going on and I guess someone was listening.

We’re still finalizing what we really want to do with it, but I can tell you right now what I’m not going to do with it:  any of that creepy stuff like loaning it out or selling it off.

It’s easy to join – just put your email in the box and click subscribe.  It then sends an email to confirm that you wanted to sign up and even lets you know how to unsubscribe – but who would want to do that?

So, if you’re interested, give it a click and join in on the fun.  Best of all, it’s free!

Everyone’s looking forward to Halloween, but what about your dog?

While Halloween is great fun for us, it is often very stressful for a lot of dogs. Here are some helpful tips and products.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  

It distills everything that a holiday should be – fun silly enjoyment with chocolate!  

Halloween also happens to be the day we adopted Boo, but that’s another story.

The air is crisp and kids are running around acting and dressed strangely.

There are knocks on your door constantly and there’s food being handed out from bowls that are probably at dog height.

Halloween activities are all great fun for us, but can you think of a combination of things that could put a dog more on-edge?  (Unless, of course, you added firecrackers into the mix?)

One of the reason we like holidays so much is that they are departure from the norm of everyday life.  We do different things. We adopt different schedules. In a word, things are different.  For a large number of dogs an unexpected change in routine is like fingernails on a blackboard and can set off a spiral of stress-related, unhealthy behaviors.

Where to put the Chocolate?

The bowl of mostly chocolate should be up and away from the dog. Your dog should not be able to reach it by jumping or putting his paws up, or knocking it over.

What about all the knocking strangers in weird costumes at the door?
I can’t see anything through this Peephole!

Your dog doesn’t need to be right by the door. Have your dog in another room as far from the door as possible. Give your dog a stuffed kong or other puzzle toy so he/she is happily occupied. A stuffed bone, or goat horn would be good too.

I have written a number of blog posts on anxiety aids and have a number of products that can help in the Boo-tique.

If none of the anxiety aids or toys helps reduce your dog’s stress, your veterinarian may be able to prescribe some anti-anxiety medication.

Then it will be time to call a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and/or a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant so that next year your dog can have a

Happy Halloween.