Happy

[kestrell]

Usually around the first of the month I have a list of things I need/want to buy, but I woke up this morning and realized that, except for some new socks, I really didn't want anything.

So I just donated some money to
4 Paws for Ability
http://www.4pawsforability.org/
after reading this great NY Times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/magazine/wonder-dog.html?_r=1&hp
--I love the way that they get animals to people who have invisible disabilities, or who may be worried that they quote aren't disabled enough unquote to qualify for a dog.

Also, and I'm embarrassed to admit this, but those dogs with the butterfly ears sound adorable.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for spreading the joy. Service dogs can be so amazing (and so much work). It's interesting that new dog training centers are popping up all over. We've got two in Madison:

occupaws.org
Traditionally skilled Guide Dogs, but with extra home training as well as kid training. These folks have hit the ground with many paws indeed in terms of PR: they're running a full-side-of-the-bus ad of a lovely Golden pup in a training vest, labelled "Future Bus Rider."

The other is wags.net, which nominally stands for Wisconsin Academy for Graduate Service Dogs. These folks also work with inmates at the med-security women's prison; the dogs go live with the women for four months and come out with excellent obedience skills. And of course it may be saving the sanity of some of those prisoners.

I wonder if the new kinds of training -- positive-only, "clicker" reinforcement -- makes possible a more decentralized system? My old roomie's first dog from Long Island had a "nasty collar;" chain links with curved spikes on the inside. Nowadays I can imagine total strangers yelling at her for that.

Have you ever thought of a dog for yourself?