Howl-Worthy Super Bowl Commercial

Volkswagen has done it again with another superb commercial that this time has pet lovers howling!

Watch the commercial here!

Angel With A Tail by Wyndi Warren

The greatest beauty is found in the hearts of those who love, but how do you cope with the losing the one you love?

In the memorable Angel With A Tail, Wyndi Warren retraces her wonderful journey with Sabre, an amazing German Shepherd, the dog she dreamed of from childhood. He became her cherished “angel with a tail.” He taught her to be a better person and drew many people and other animals to him with his engaging personality. No one suspected their blissful happiness would ever fade away.

Sabre developed Degenerative Myelopathy, a fatal disease that affects many other breeds today. His struggle left a lasting legacy that guides others from a shocking first awareness to a final celebration of life now and forever after. Enjoy his inspiring story—and share the extraordinary tale with someone you love.

After a forty-year career that led her from counseling and consulting with police departments to landscape design, author Wendy Warren embarked on an incredible new career in writing. From showing and training German Shepherds, she offers her voice in the fight against Degenerative Myelopathy (DM), a fatal disease that affects not only dogs but the people who love them. Wyndi’s first book, Angel With a Tail, has touched many with an inspiring story of love and determination triumphing through adversity.  Wyndi Warren lives in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Write Wyndi at: AngelWithATail2011@live.com, visit www.angelwithatail.com 

Order Direct, or Available at www.amazoncom, or order from a book store anywhere.

Dog Flu Outbreak

By Dr. Andrew Jones, DVM

So this has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, as well as in various local media:

“Active outbreaks of highly contagious canine influenza have been reported in New York and New Jersey in recent months. The virus also has been detected in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado and Texas and is being investigated in California, according to Merck & Co., which makes a dog flu vaccine.”

This ‘new’ dog flu virus first appeared in 2004 in greyhounds, and it is believed that it resulted from a horse flu virus that mutated.

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Canine Flu Symptoms
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Similar to flu in people.

Fever, cough, nasal discharge, lethargy, decreased appetite, weakness, joint pain/discomfort, and in some cases difficulty breathing.

Over 95% of dogs have no secondary effects, and recover within 7 days as their immune system rids the virus.

A SMALL percent can have secondary bacterial lung infections  (pneumonia)- in VERY serious cases a dog could die.

Transmission is through coughing, secretions, and close contact with infected dogs.

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WHAT should you do?
———————

Well you are likely NOT surprised that at couple of the major vaccine companies have made a vaccine for this. And what do they advise?

Vaccinate.

But there are concerns with the vaccine, and even the AVMA does not advise giving it as a core vaccine…

In fact most veterinarians are only advising the vaccine for very high risk dogs- those around many other dogs in close quarters, such as boarding or doggy day care.

—————————–
Is there EVEN an outbreak?
—————————–

There have been a small number of cases, but there is no central reporting body.

And none of the major veterinary associations are suggesting there is a dramatic increase.

IN fact the ‘increased awareness’ comes from the News Release referencing the website doginfluenza.com- this just so happens to be sponsored by Merk, which makes a vaccine for canine influenza.

———————————-
Bad NEWS sells drugs
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So in summary here:

A Drug company which manufactures a vaccine releases news claiming there is a ‘MARKED’ increase in cases of canine influenza.

News media run the story giving it credibility.

Pet owners get concerned and ask for their dogs to be protected.

Veterinarians vaccinate these dogs- whether they need it or not.

Seems somewhat unscrupulous to me.

My suggestions are to not vaccinate your dog for Dog Flu.

Keep their immune systems strong so they can fight off disease in the first place.

Consider probiotics, essential fatty acids, colostrum, and immune supportive mushrooms.

Visit http://budurl.com/dogsupplement for more details.

After Duty, Dogs Suffer Like Soldiers

I thought you might find this interesting.  No surprises.  At least the military is trying to deal with it in some way.

By JAMES DAO, http://tinyurl.com/7gmsf2m

SAN ANTONIO — The call came into the behavior specialists here from a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and now was cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.

Apparently even the chew toys hadn’t worked.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.

If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these days, here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out mines, track down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental strains of combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.

By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD. Of those, about half are likely to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.

Though veterinarians have long diagnosed behavioral problems in animals, the concept of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, and still being debated. But it has gained vogue among military veterinarians, who have been seeing patterns of troubling behavior among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like humans with the analogous disorder, different dogs show different symptoms. Some become hyper-vigilant. Others avoid buildings or work areas that they had previously been comfortable in. Some undergo sharp changes in temperament, becoming unusually aggressive with their handlers, or clingy and timid. Most crucially, many stop doing the tasks they were trained to perform.

“If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it’s working, but isn’t, it’s not just the dog that’s at risk,” Dr. Burghardt said. “This is a human health issue as well.”

That the military is taking a serious interest in canine PTSD underscores the importance of working dogs in the current wars. Once used primarily as furry sentries, military dogs — most are German shepherds, followed by Belgian Malinois and Labrador retrievers — have branched out into an array of specialized tasks.

They are widely considered the most effective tools for detecting the improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, frequently used in Afghanistan. Typically made from fertilizer and chemicals, and containing little or no metal, those buried bombs can be nearly impossible to find with standard mine-sweeping instruments. In the past three years, I.E.D.’s have become the major cause of casualties in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps also has begun using specially trained dogs to track Taliban fighters and bomb-makers. And Special Operations commandos train their own dogs to accompany elite teams on secret missions like the Navy SEAL raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Across all the forces, more than 50 military dogs have been killed since 2005.

The number of working dogs on active duty has risen to 2,700, from 1,800 in 2001, and the training school headquartered here at Lackland has gotten busy, preparing about 500 dogs a year. So has the Holland hospital, the Pentagon’s canine version of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Dr. Burghardt, a lanky 59-year-old who retired last year from the Air Force as a colonel, rarely sees his PTSD patients in the flesh. Consultations with veterinarians in the field are generally done by phone, e-mail or Skype, and often involve video documentation.

In a series of videos that Dr. Burghardt uses to train veterinarians to spot canine PTSD, one shepherd barks wildly at the sound of gunfire that it had once tolerated in silence. Another can be seen confidently inspecting the interior of cars but then refusing to go inside a bus or a building. Another sits listlessly on a barrier wall, then after finally responding to its handler’s summons, runs away from a group of Afghan soldiers.

In each case, Dr. Burghardt theorizes, the dogs were using an object, vehicle or person as a “cue” for some violence they had witnessed. “If you want to put doggy thoughts into their heads,” he said, “the dog is thinking: when I see this kind of individual, things go boom, and I’m distressed.”

Treatment can be tricky. Since the patient cannot explain what is wrong, veterinarians and handlers must make educated guesses about the traumatizing events. Care can be as simple as taking a dog off patrol and giving it lots of exercise, playtime and gentle obedience training.

More serious cases will receive what Dr. Burghardt calls “desensitization counterconditioning,” which entails exposing the dog at a safe distance to a sight or sound that might set off a reaction — a gunshot, a loud bang or a vehicle, for instance. If the dog does not react, it is rewarded, and the trigger — “the spider in a glass box,” Dr. Burghardt calls it — is moved progressively closer.

Gina, a shepherd with PTSD who was the subject of news articles last year, was successfully treated with desensitization and has been cleared to deploy again, said Tech. Sgt. Amanda Callahan, a spokeswoman at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

Some dogs are also treated with the same medications used to fight panic attacks in humans. Dr. Burghardt asserts that medications seem particularly effective when administered soon after traumatizing events. The Labrador retriever that cowered under a cot after a firefight, for instance, was given Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, and within days was working well again.

Dogs that do not recover quickly are returned to their home bases for longer-term treatment. But if they continue to show symptoms after three months, they are usually retired or transferred to different duties, Dr. Burghardt said.

As with humans, there is much debate about treatment, with little research yet to guide veterinarians. Lee Charles Kelley, a dog trainer who writes a blog for Psychology Today called “My Puppy, My Self,” says medications should be used only as a stopgap. “We don’t even know how they work in people,” he said.

In the civilian dog world, a growing number of animal behaviorists seem to be endorsing the concept of canine PTSD, saying it also affects household pets who experience car accidents and even less traumatic events.

Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, said he had written about and treated dogs with PTSD-like symptoms for years — but did not call it PTSD until recently. Asked if the disorder could be cured, Dr. Dodman said probably not.

“It is more management,” he said. “Dogs never forget.”

3 Stress Clues and 5 Stress Busting Tips To Help Your Animals Breeze Through The Holidays

Holidays, vacations, and any change in routine are typically stressful times for most of us, and seriously stresses out your animals.  But, they don’t have to be if you know what to do to minimize the stress.

Taking the right steps to de-stress your animal helps you de-stress too, because it helps you plan in ways that are more manageable, creates more certainty, and helps you be less emotionally imbalanced.

Remember that your animal mirrors you – so if you’re stressed, frustrated, anxious, nervous or worried in any way, that’s the message they get and that’s what they’ll act out (mirror back) for you.

Instability is not your animal’s friend!

Your job is to make their environment as stable and calming as possible, and to prepare them properly in advance for changes in routine.  Monitor them carefully during the events.

That doesn’t mean that they can’t experience change in routine or be completely protected from anything new or different.

It simply means that they need to know:

• What to expect
• When things will happen, who’s involved
• What you need from them/how you want them to behave
• How long you’ll be gone
• Whether they’ll be in a kennel or boarded while you’re gone and that you’re coming back and when
• Whether they’ll be coming with you and what to expect
• And, they need a way to tell you what they want and if they have questions or concerns.

So you can see how important it is to help your animals de-stress through the holidays when going on vacations, moving or when you go on trips together.

There are many Stress Clues.  Here are the three most common ones:

1.  Excessive panting or heavy breathing. This can also look like running around uncontrollably, being restless, hyperactive, bouncing off the walls and acting unpredictably… Pay attention to the signs and don’t ignore them!  They aren’t happy – they are stressed and need your help.  Be consciously aware and calmly and confidently create a time out where they can calm down, then leave them alone.

2.  Holding their breath and being rigid, tense, a worried expression, or they go into a hiding mode.  If that’s the case, then give them a safe zone.  That could be their kennel, or simply shut them into a room where they can calm down on their own.  They have become hyper-stimulated and need a chance for their sympathetic nervous system to reboot.  Some animals are easily over stimulated, so notice where their tolerance levels are and try not to exceed that.

3.  Acting out with really bad behavior.  Usually when they get to this stress clue, they’ve already blown through Stress Clue 1 and 2, and are over the top before you’ve noticed or paid attention and taken appropriate action.  What you can do about it at this point is simply remove them from the area and take them back to their safe, quiet zone.

What can you do if you see any of these Stress Signs? 

1.    Keep their routine stable in as many ways as you can.  Feeding routines should be at the same time of day with their same foods, keep to their same sleep schedule, if they’re being boarded – take their favorite toys or treats and be sure they have things of their own with yours and their scents on them (scent is critically important to animals).

2.  Discharge energy – they need exercise!  If they start getting fussy, irritable, depressed or start acting out, they need play therapy (for cats) or a great walk or run for the dogs.  Exercise, discipline (rules, limitations, boundaries – include and continue training and reward for good behavior keeps their world more stable) and then affection, in that order.

3.  No look – No touch – No eye contact… until they calm down and are ready to connect calmly with others on your terms.  For animals that get too excited or over stimulated, practice (and tell your guests or other people you’re in contact with) to ignore them until they settle down.

4.  Be calm, confident and assertive – no matter what happens.  If they are acting out with bad behavior, don’t yell, don’t call their name and don’t chase them.  Use your correcting voice and your body language to distract or redirect them until you can better control them. Then simply remove them from the area until they’ve calmed down, and you can have your chat together.

5.  Tell them what you want them to do!  They need a job and they need to know what’s expected of them, and how you want them to behave.  So tell them!

First, after they’ve calmed down and can listen to you again, talk to them about their behavior.  Image what they did that was bad and feel how upset that made you.

Then, feeling your emotions about what happened.  Doing this properly is critical because they can feel them too.  Emotions let your animal know why it is important to you.

Next, image what the consequence of their bad behavior is or could have been, showing them the worst case scenario.  That helps them put the story into context so it makes more sense.

Finally, tell them the story about what you wanted them to do in that situation, how you would feel if they did that, and how happy that would make you feel.  This way you address the bad behavior, but you also offer the positive suggestion for what you really want to have happen.

Want more?  There are 3 simple steps to communicating in my free Quickstart to Animal Communication home study course.  And the world’s first Animal Communication Made Easy System™ and Virtual Retreat takes you much deeper into heart centered connection and understanding.

Your cat, your dog, your horse or your bird depends on you to care for them.  And a big part of your doing that successfully is in knowing how to understand them and communicate with them on a daily basis.

Plus, communicating with your animals is really fun, too.  When properly prepared, they can give you all kinds of feedback about your family and friends, alert you to any potential trouble brewing, and partner up with you to have the best time possible.

Focusing on creating a more stable environment helps your animals be calm, peaceful, happier and healthier during the holiday – and will help you enjoy them more too.

Val Heart - The Real Dr Doolittle, Val is internationally known as an expert animal communicator, teacher, author & master healer specializing in resolving behavior, training, performance, and health problems, and assisting with end of life situations.  Learn Animal Communication in One Weekend™ Virtual Retreat   contactval@valheart.com   http://www.valheart.com/acsretreatl.html

© Copyright Val Heart & Friends LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Reprint rights by request only.

Pets Make Great Gifts! Your Pawliday Season Shopping Guide

By Joan Hunter Mayer

Dear Inquisitive Dog Guardians,

The holiday season is a popular time of year for adopting pets  – with cats and dogs being firmly at the top of the list. It’s also a time for giving. Combine the two and you end up with many folks finding companion animals on their hearth decked out in big fancy bows!

As a certified professional dog trainer, I’ve heard both happy and not-so-happy stories from folks who’ve been on the receiving end of a cute ball of fur.  So to help ensure more stories that end on a happier note, while avoiding tales of woe, my trusty sidekick, Poncho, and I thought it would be a great time to send out gentle reminders to help you decide the best options for this life-changing decision.

Surprises can be delightful, especially if you’ve been able to play investigator, gathering enough data to conclude that your friend will for sure want a pet. If you’re in doubt, another possible way to go about it is to recruit one family member who agrees that a new pet is both what your friend wants and is logistically feasible.

Should You Give the Gift of a Furry or Feathered Friend? Take Our Quiz!

• Q: Are you 100 percent certain that all people who will be directly involved with caring for the pet are in complete and total agreement with bringing this animal into their lives and home?
• Q: Is it clear which type of pet — including species, breed (pure or mixed), gender, size and age — the gift recipient wants?
• Q: Does the gift recipient live in a place that allows pets? This includes being aware of any county-specific breed restrictions.
• Q: Is the gift recipient physically capable of taking care of the specific animal you wish to give them?
• Q: Is the gift recipient financially able to care for this pet for the duration of the animal’s life?
• Q: Does the recipient’s schedule and lifestyle fit in with the species-specific traits of the animal you wish to give as a gift?

If you’ve answered yes to these questions, then bravo! We’re happy to hear you know this potential pet parent quite well, and have thought things through, in terms of how a pet would fit into his or her current situation. However, we still encourage you to include your friend in the decision-making process. Surprises can be exciting, but they’ve also been know to backfire!

If you’ve answered no to even one of these questions, then we suggest you discuss this thoughtful gesture first before giving a gift that keeps on giving.

An option for becoming a full-fledged guardian to a pet is to become a foster parent first or spend time volunteering at local shelters in order to get to know different types of animals. You can also give your recipient books on the type of animal he or she is considering. Fact-finding and data retrieval can help shed light on a particular pet and its needs, as well as empower your intended to make an informed decision.

Matchmaking Tips to Ensure a Good Fit:

If you’ve decided to move forward with making this a pawliday season for someone, we encourage you to help that someone prepare for this responsibility by thinking through the following considerations:

• All for One and One for All: All persons involved with direct ongoing care of a pet should be in complete agreement when bringing a new animal into a home, especially the adults. Sure, people can change their minds, but if someone holds any resentment, it can affect all relationships within the family dynamic.
• The Time Factor: Being a guardian to domesticated animals is a long-term commitment that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Many pets thrive on human companionship, dogs in particular. This means that schedules need to be open and flexible, especially after the newness wears off. But remember, training your dog can be done in just minutes a day on your own time and can be tons of fun!
• Financial Commitment: Many species live 10 years and beyond. Multiple the daily necessities by the number of years and it adds up. Some animals are very budget-friendly, and others not so much. You’ll want to write out an annual expense log of general costs to help determine the bigger picture for your gift recipient to care for the animal for its entire life and make sure it’s feasible.
• Home Environment: Are there any foreseeable life-changing events that your gift recipient might experience during the pet’s lifespan? Relocating, marriage, pregnancy, death, divorce and people moving in and out of the household can all have an impact on the emotional state of an  animal.
• Physical Limitations: Depending on the species, age and temperament, some animals require more physical activity than mental activities, and vice-versa – and some require both to help fulfill their needs! Make sure your gift recipient’s lifestyle is a good match for the animal. Help your friend research the species’ needs and encourage him or her to find a pet with similar personality traits, including likes and dislikes in social settings and activities.

We understand that giving or receiving a companion animal who provides unconditional love is something many would want; however, when it comes to giving someone else a pet as a present, it can be risky — not just to the person who ends up being the animal’s caretaker, but to the animal as well. So before you start your search for the perfect set of paws or claws, we encourage you to take a few minutes to plan out your matchmaking strategies.

Dear Inquisitive Canine is written by Joan Mayer and her trusty sidekick Poncho. Joan is a certified professional dog trainer and human-canine relationship coach. Poncho is a ten-pound mutt that knows a lot about human and canine behavior. Their column is known for its simple common sense approach to dog training and behavior, as well as its entertaining insight into implementing proven techniques that reward both owner and dog.

Joan is also the founder of the Inquisitive Canine and developer of the Out of the Box Dog Training Game , where her love-of-dog training approach highlights the importance of understanding canine behavior. If you or your dog have questions about behavior, training or life with each other, please email them directly.

How to Keep Your Dog at a Healthy Weight By Billy Rafferty

By Billy Rafferty and Jill Cahr, http://tinyurl.com/y9fhlfg

Diet affects every aspect of your dog’s physical and mental well-being. When your dog eats low-quality food and treats, he’s not just consuming empty calories, which packs on pounds; his body is being robbed of the building blocks necessary to maintain good health, energy and an upbeat attitude. Feeding good quality food and treats helps keep Fido’s waistline in check and increase his quality and quantity of life.

Your dog can’t read labels or ask questions; he’s relying on you to make intelligent choices for him. Once you learn to decipher labels, you may be surprised or shocked at what you see.

For instance, the length of the ingredient list doesn’t always indicate the quality of the food. A protein from a specified animal should be the first ingredient. Avoid generic proteins such as “meat” or “poultry.” Although dogs like to eat some of the animal parts we don’t, proteins from a specified animal are better than byproducts. Likewise, byproducts are better than rendered meals.

Always buy the best food you can afford. When a manufacturer uses cheap ingredients, it has to bulk up the food with fillers to meet the government’s minimum nutritional requirements. As a result, the portion size for cheap food is typically larger than for more-expensive food with higher-quality, more-digestible ingredients.

In the end, you’ll be buying more of the cheaper food, which usually works out to be more expensive than buying the higher-quality food in the first place. Just as with humans, obesity is a growing problem for dogs. Limit table scraps; they’re fattening, and some human food, such as chocolate, grapes, onions, garlic, bones and Xylitol, is dangerous for dogs.

Billy Rafferty has been a dog care professional for 25 years. Billy is the owner and principal stylist at Doogy Dooz in Chicago, where he has acquired a reputation as the go-to groomer for dogs of every variety and his current wait list has over 300 names. Billy’s expertise extends beyond keeping a dog looking good and his clients rely on him for advice on all aspects of dog care. Billy’s impressive credentials and education combined with his vast real life experience caring for dogs make him a unique voice in the animal world. Billy’s clients include celebrities, politicians and even a Broadway producer. Know more about Billy Rafferty on http://www.happydogland.com/

YouTube Video: Pugs Watching Themselves on You Tube

When you’re as cute as a Pug, it’s hard not to watch yourself 24/7. Get a peek at these three lively Pugs who can’t decide whether they would rather go for a ride, go to the dog park, or continue watching their adorable selves on You Tube!

Positive Dog Training and the Perils of Punishment

By Jonathan Klein, Dog Trainer / Behaviorist, www.isaidsit.com

Punishment addresses the symptoms of the behavior, not the cause. And not only is it less likely to solve the problem, it often makes it worse.  I teach my clients that positive, reward-based training will elicit better behavior, is fun for both the people and the dogs, and it won’t have the detrimental side effects that come with “dominance” training.

At a recent lunch I was talking about a dog I was training.  A friend said, “Don’t you think a few good whacks with a newspaper ought to just about cure that?” As a behaviorist who has spent his career focused on developing and teaching positive dog training techniques it hurts me to think how often confrontational methods are used by laypersons. And even more troubling is that many of these people are learning these methods from professionals.

Teach, Don’t Punish

At the beginning of my 20+ year career, I was told to do things like “jerk him really hard, then praise him more to overcome the effects of the jerk” and “better she be afraid of you than whatever else she is afraid of.”  That advice seemed cruel and I was not going to do those things to any dogs. Why would we want our dogs to be afraid of us? What I embrace as being more effective is to teach the dog what we want them to do and then reward them with rewards and affection.

Why Punishment Doesn’t Work

Many people tell me they punish their dog for getting on the couch.  If you reprimand a dog when you find it on the couch, all you teach the dog is to be sneaky. It only takes one time on the sofa for the dog to learn for the rest of its life that the couch is wonderful except when you are around.  They aren’t thinking that they are leaving evidence.

No matter how many times you reprimand the dog, even if you see it get on the couch, the dog still knows the sofa is great when you aren’t there. All it will have learned is to get off when you return.  A better solution would be to teach it to wait before getting on the couch and reward it for going on its own bed.

Stopping Your Dog from Stealing

I have many dogs brought to me by owners complaining bitterly about their dog stealing things.  In almost all cases these dogs belong to clients who make a concerted effort to be faster than the dog and prevent it from getting stuff in the first place. So what’s the connection?

By trying to beat the dog to the stuff, taking it away, and telling it “no” the owner is actually reinforcing the wrong behavior even though they think they are reprimanding. In the dogs mind, this is a challenge and it knows it will get attention. For some dogs it can even lead to fear issues. Wouldn’t you be afraid if someone was running after you and screaming?

If we reward the dog for finding something, and teach it to share, we might be able to get it back undamaged. Teach your dog to give you the item in return for something better, like a treat or dog toy.  Then you can play with the toy and make “proper play” more fun than “mischievous play.” I’ve saved many remote controls and lots of clothes that way.

Remember, if we tell dogs what not to do they have no way to get out of trouble which also opens the door to potentially negative side effects. It is much more effective to use positive training methods and teach what we want the dog to do (like stopping them before they get on the couch) so we give both dogs and owners a solution.

Of course if you have a problem that seems like it’s getting worse, I always suggest contacting a professional trainer or behaviorist in your area.  More information on how to find a positive trainer can be found on my website.

About the Author:

Expert trainer and behaviorist Jonathan Klein is the owner of the award-winning, Los Angeles-based boarding and training facility “I Said Sit!” School for Dogs (www.isaidsit.com). A pioneer in the causative approach to training, in which behavioral problems are solved by removing the cause rather than punishing the dog for the symptoms, Klein also offers up training tips on his website The Dog Behavior Expert (www.TheDogBehaviorExpert.com).

Forgotten Heroes: The 9/11 Search and Rescue Dogs

There are twelve 9/11 search dogs who are alive and still with us today… Their eyes say everything you need to know about them. Truly amazing creatures.

Moxie, 13, from Winthrop, Massachusetts, arrived with her handler, Mark Aliberti, at the World Trade Center on the evening of September 11 and searched the site for eight days.

Tara, 16, from Ipswich, Massachusetts, arrived at the World Trade Center on the night of the 11th. The dog and her handler Lee Prentiss were there for eight days.

Kaiser, 12, pictured at home in Indianapolis, Indiana, was deployed to the World Trade Center on September 11 and searched tirelessly for people in the rubble

Bretagne and his owner Denise Corliss from Cypress, Texas, arrived at the site in New York on September 17, remaining there for ten days.

Guinness, 15, from Highland, California, started work at the site with Sheila McKee on the morning of September 13 and was deployed at the site for 11 days.

Merlyn and his handler Matt Claussen were deployed to Ground Zero on September 24, working the night shift for five days.

Red, 11, from Annapolis, Maryland, went with Heather Roche to the Pentagon from September 16 until the 27 as part of the Bay Area Recovery Canines.

Abigail, above, was deployed on the evening of September 17, searching for 10 days while Tuff arrived in New York at 11:00 pm on the day of attack to start working early the next day.

Handler Julie Noyes and Hoke were deployed to the World Trade Center from their home in Denver on September 24 and searched for five days

Scout and another unknown dog lie among the rubble at Ground Zero, just two of nearly 100 search and rescue animals who helped to search for survivors.

During the chaos of the 9/11 attacks, where almost 3,000 people died, nearly 100 loyal search and rescue dogs and their brave owners scoured Ground Zero for survivors.

Now, ten years on, just 12 of these heroic canines survive, and they have been commemorated in a touching series of portraits entitled ‘Retrieved’.

The dogs worked tirelessly to search for anyone trapped alive in the rubble, along with countless emergency service workers and members of the public.

Traveling across nine states in the U.S. from Texas to Maryland, Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas, 34, captured the remaining dogs in their twilight years in their homes where they still live with their handlers, a full decade on from 9/11.

Their stories have now been compiled in a book, called Retrieved, which is published on Friday, the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Noted for her touching portraits of animals, especially dogs, Charlotte wanted ‘Retrieved’ to mark not only the anniversary of the September 2001 attacks, but also as recognition for some of the first responders and their dogs.

‘I felt this was a turning point, especially for the dogs, who although are not forgotten, are not as prominent as the human stories involved,’ explained Charlotte, who splits her time between New York and Amsterdam.

‘They speak to us as a different species and animals are greatly important for our sense of empathy and to put things into perspective.’

Did you know? A well-trained Service Dog should be trained 1 to 2 hours per day over 6 months = 180 to 360 hours total training!