Project Learning and HAWS Animals

Earlier this month I was contacted by an extremely mature middle school student from Bay Lane Middle School in Muskego, WI about a school project she was hoping HAWS could help with. Cassie, and her friend Nicole, were researching the effect that human and animal interactions have on both people and animals, and were wondering if they could come in and interview some people at HAWS about this topic.

Bay Lane Middle School is unique to Wisconsin -- it is a project based school in which students are placed in teams of two to four individuals, and are educated through doing projects, rather than through traditional curriculum.

Cassie and Nicole stopped in one morning and got a tour of HAWS while the staff and volunteers were still cleaning animal cages and spent time with volunteers who work with dogs, cat and small animals.

Before they left I asked them if I could see the project when it was finished, and just today I received an e-mail with a link to their finished project -- a website with their findings.

Congratulations to Cassie and Nicole -- they did a wonderful job finding the information, putting it together and creating a website!

Butterflies and Coyote Poop

As camp nears the end and I have less administrative duties, I've been able to spend a little more time with the kids. It always strikes me that there are many opportunities for education when it hasn't been scheduled. One such opportunity came up the other day when I was walking dogs with a group of kids.

I pointed out a couple of beautiful monarch butterflies and one of the kids wondered why there were so many in the field where HAWS volunteers walk dogs. I pointed to the milkweed plants and explained that monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed and that the caterpillars eat only milkweed.

Later on that same walk one of kids noticed a big pile of poop laying on the ground. As I pulled out out a bag ans started to pick it up, I saw another educational opportunity and started to talk about why it's important to pick up after dogs (and was secretely annoyed by the dog walking volunteer who apparently didn't do so), when I noticed that it wasn't dog poop.

The poop was a very dark black and had berry seeds in it -- it was coyote scat. I pointed these features out to the kids (yes, they actually were interested - isn't everyone interested in poop?) and talked about the fact that wildlife biologists use scat in their study of animals. Biologists can tell a lot about an animal through their poop such as their range of territory, health and diet.

All in all it was a good walk.

Cat Agility

A few weeks ago HAWS hosted feline behaviorist Victory Pappa from Cats International to talk to Waukesha County cat owners about cat behavior and help them solve cat behavior problems. Victoria did a great job explaining how to deal with cats not using the litterbox, play nipping, and counter cruising.

As a dog trainer one of the things I explain to dog owners is that many times behavior problems occur because our dogs are bored. Environmental enrichment and exercise can go a long way towards helping resolve a lot of behavior caused by boredom.

Therefore I wasn't too surprised when I learned that the same is true of cats. Many times people get cats because they don't want to spend as much time exercising them and consider them less work than dogs. And in a lot of ways this is true. However cats are very smart and curious animals, and if they aren't given enough to do can get into trouble.

Victoria brought along Vivian Frawley who brought her cat Linus for a special demonstration. She believes that teaching cats agility -- an obstacle course much like the dog sport -- can go a long way to getting them mentally tired, and possibly prevent behavior problems from occuring. Below is a video of Linus going through a simple course.

Another Summer Ended

Ok -- summer isn't exactly over yet, but HAWS summer session of Kids 'N Critters Day Camp has ended. Last week I was happy to get some respite from kids for a few weeks so I could start planning for the school year before first semester starts. This week it feels unnaturally quiet in the building, and to be honest working at the computer is becoming tedious. I can't wait until school starts up again so I can work with kids.

This summer HAWS had 430 kids between the ages of 6 and 14 years visit HAWS. It was a summer of a lot of firsts for us.

It was the first time we had 2 rooms in which to run camp -- and so it was also the first time we ran 2 different camps at the same time. It was the first time we had 40 (some sessions a few more!) kids attending camp at the same time. It was the first time we ran two brand new specialty camps; Camp Gone to the Dogs and Shutterbug Camp.

The best response on the survey we sent out to the parents came from one of the kids. This respose said: "All of the animals we interacted with were friendly. None of them were mean that we came across. It taught me stuff that I wouldnt have known.Some day I would like to become a vet. So this camp was very fun and helpful to me."

Based on that I'd say camp was a success.

Art Camp

Over the years HAWS has increasingly incorporated specialty camps into our schedule. One of the first specialty camps we started with is Art Camp.

For a week kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years attend our Art Camp. In the morning they do the things that our other camps do -- walk dogs, play with cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and other animals, do some volunteer work, and play some games. In the afternoon they create artwork.

Kristin Gjerdset, an associate professor of art at Wisconsin Lutheran College, spends several hours each day that week with the kids helping them capture animals in their artwork. Art is about really looking at things and intrepreting what you see. HAWS hopes that Art Camp helps kids see animals in a new way -- as creations that deserve to be respected and protected as creatures of beauty.

I'd say we achivieved that this year. Additionally -- we have a lot of very talented young artists in our community. Take a look at some of the pieces and I think you'll agree.

HAWS -- Not Just For Mammals!

Many times people are amazed to find out that we get animals other than dogs and cats, and are even more suprised to find out that we'll take reptiles. HAWS can go months and months without seeing any reptiles come through our doors. That was the case until recently.

Currently we have several turtles of the species Red Eared Slider, two Bearded Dragons, and an albino Corn Snake.

The kids from HAWS Kids 'N Critters Day Camp especially loved meeting the Bearded Dragons. Their reactions ranged from "cool!" -- to "they're weird looking". Most of the kids wanted to hold them, although some of the kids were a bit unsure about it once their turn came.

Bearded Dragons get their name because if threatened the expand the area under their chin - puffing their necks out to look bigger and more threatening themselves. The two we currently have are used to being handled, and so didn't feel the need to threaten any of us -- my research found that Beardies are one of the easiest lizards to keep as pets because of their tolerance for handling.

Getting unusual animals in at HAWS gives me an opportunity to educate kids about animals they most likely aren't familiar with. The more knowledge they have about the natural habitat of exotic animals and what kind of requirements there are for proper care, the better choices we hope kids will make in the future. If we can get them in the habit of asking questions about animals and instill a desire to learn about them, it might cause them to research prospective pets before their bring them home.

Good pet ownership starts wtih making appropriate choices. HAWS hopes that through our education programs we're planting that seed with the youth of Waukesha County.

Pet Myths: Older Dogs Can't be Trained

Running the dog training program we hold here at HAWS, I have a lot of opportunities to talk to dog owners interested in having their dogs learn better manners. One question I get asked on occasion is, "He's already (5 year, 7 years, 9 years, etc), is it too late to train him". I always assure the owner that indeed their dog is not.

I've written quite a bit about Mystic who accompanies me on many of my HAWS education outings. My other dog is 13 year old Belle, a border collie mix -- possibly with Papillion, that I've had since she was about 8 months old. I don't use her for education programs because she gets over-whelmed with large numbers of kids trying to interact with her.

Despite the fact that she's lost some of her hearing, at 13 years of age Belle is still very agile, and her mind is still as sharp as ever.

Yesterday I held a program here at HAWS with a group of teenage boys. We were talking about dog training, and I announced that I would be bringing Mystic out to do a training demonstration. The boys asked for Belle instead, because they felt sorry for the poor dog that was whining to come out.

So I brought Belle out and did some clicker training with her. She was EXTREMELY pleased to be working, and was so focused on me I don't think she even noticed there were 6 adolescent kids in the room.

Clicker training involves no direction from the trainer, other than a click and a treat when the dog does something the trainer likes. It uses a process called shaping, in that the trainer clicks each small step that leads the dog towards the final desired behavior.

In Belle's case my intention was to train her to lie down with her head on the floor and a paw over her nose - it's something I see her do on occasion. First I was clicking her any time she lay down. Intially she was trying all the previous tricks she had been taught -- sit up, roll-over, crawl, and wave. After she was clicked several times for down it became her most offered behavior.

I then had to get her to rest her head on the floor. She was staring at me so that her head was directed upwards. I clicked anytime she lowered her head a bit, and made sure that the treat was delivered close to the floor.

It took 10 minutes, but finally she was laying down and resting her head on the floor. The next step would be to get that paw to cover her nose, but we ended it there. A good trainer trains a new behavior only a few minutes at a time because dogs actually learn faster that way. And you always end on a good note. I'm not always good at following those rules, but I wanted to make a good impression on the boys.

It was wonderful to see my senior dog have so much enthusiasm for learning after all these years. Both of us had a wonderful time, and I hope the boys learned something about older animals (people included) having value, and being capable of learning.

Famous Daves Refuses to Serve Sheep

One of the most interesting things about working at HAWS is sometimes I never know what I'll find in our animal cages here.

A few days ago our staff were called out to Famous Dave's restaurant in Waukesha to pick up a stray animal. Usually the animals our staff handle are things like dogs, cats, rabbits, an occasional ferret or sometimes even a bird. Occasionally they come across a more unusual species.

Our staff knows animals, and they weren't going to have the wool pulled over their eyes this time -- they know the difference between a dog and a sheep! We don't know how she got there -- that part of Waukesha is anything but rural. But ewe can bet she wasn't there to sample the ribs!

Baaaah-bara is currently residing in a dog kennel here at HAWS while we do the 7-day stray hold. If not claimed she'll be turned over to greener pastures, where she can live out her life in a flock of other sheep blissfully grazing to her hearts desire.

HAWS Walk

Up until Saturday morning I could have told you that the weather in Waukesha the first Saturday in May would be cold and/or wet and rainy. That's the way it's been for the last 5 years that I've worked at HAWS. I know this because our Annual Walk is always held on this date.


Five years ago the walk had to be downright cancelled -- the grounds at Minooka Park were so flooded that we were unable to hold the event.

Last year it was raining so hard that we were forced to end our walk early. Of course as we were taking the tents down the sun decided to make an appearance.

However, Saturday, May 2, 2009 was a beautiful day -- we really couldn't have hoped for better weather. The temperature was in the mid 60's, the sun was out and while there were spots of mud on the trail, overall everything else was dry.


The Walk is HAWS biggest fun-raiser. There have been 26 years of them and they are run by a group of HAWS volunteers called The Friends of HAWS.

This year we had a great turn-out. Apparently not everyone is staying at home trying to avoid catching the Swine Flu!

The top photo is of Mystic meeting his fans! I had two girls tell me that they knew Mystic -- he had come to their school. Alas -- they didn't remember me -- even after I told them that I had come too, since I'm Mystic's driver.


Mystic also met HAWS Mascot Lucky -- although Mystic was very unimpressed.


The dog with the blue "do" was a huge hit at the walk.

And among the many contests held on Saturday was the dog-owner look-alike contest. Marilyn Mee from WKLH (a huge HAWS supporter) was our MC and is interviewing the little girl and her basenji. They DO look a bit a like, don't you think?