A Case of Multiplication

Math was never my strong suit - in school I much preferred reading and writing to 'rithmatic. When I was with the kids from Blair Elementary School in Waukesha on Friday for my after-school program visit, many of them felt the same way. Of the 10 kids present, only 3 raised their hands when I asked if they like math.

However, I brought along a math problem for us to work on together, and we all found it much more enjoyable and informative than math usually is. ASPCA has a website for kids called Animal Land. It has a ton of fun resources to educate kinds about animals -- cartoons, news stories and activity sheets are just a few of it's offerings.

Friday I used one of the activity sheets entitled Rabbits, Rabbits and More Rabbits to give the kids a frame of reference as to what can happen if an unspayed female animal is allowed to breed. After a year and 3 months you end up with 100 rabbits. While this is a great biological mechanism for a wild bunny where the survival rate is extremely low, this is a disaster for a pet.

I knew that some of the kids would get it after my presentation and discussion, but I was really impressed that most of them really understood the ramifications of over-population and not spaying or neutering. Before we did the math problem Joseph had said, "But what if you want to breed your pet?". And afterward when we were talking about how to take care of 100 bunnies and probably not being able to find homes for them all I could tell he was re-thinking his original question.

Activities like this are so simple to do, and yet open up a wonderful avenue for discussion with kids. Not only did we talk about spaying and neutering pets, but also about what makes a good breeder, the fact that just because animals are cute doesn't mean that they are healthy enough to be bred, and gave me a chance to review what HAWS is and why we take in animals.

And as always, the best part of the visit was the animal I brought - a rabbit of course. Beauty charmed the kids and had a blast trying to figure out ways to break out of the circle of kids. She was able to explore quite a bit of the library while performing evasive manuevers in the meantime.

I know meeting Beauty was the kid's favorite part of my visit, but I'm hopeful they will remember our math problem as they grow older and get pets of their own.

Two Points of View

I was at the dog park the other day and observed another owner calling his dog. "Fred Come!" He called several times -- with the dog ignoring him until the 3rd or 4th recall when the dog decided he would respond and starting running to his owner.

I was apalled when, as the dog got about half-way there, the owner yelled in a very gruff, growling voice "Get over here!" And was even more upset when the dog finally arrived only to have his owner roughly grab him by the scruff, lean down, stare right into his eyes and start yelling at him again.

The dog trainer in me hurt for the dog. From the dog's point of view this is what happened. Fred decided to respond to the owner's cue, he got yelled at it as he was responding, and then when he finally arrived he got physically punished and yelled at some more. Not only is this really, really bad training (why would the dog want to come when called if this is the consequence?), but in my mind it's horribly abusive.

Quite frankly it ruined my visit to the dog park. I didn't feel that I could approach the owner about it -- my experience is that when you give unasked for advice it's generally met with anger and hostility. And so I abandoned the dog to his fate and left angry at the owner.

These past few days I've tried to think of it from the perspective of the owner. I can't believe that he doesn't love that dog. Really, would a person who didn't care about their dog bother to take him to a dog park and spend a part of their weekend day giving their dog an opportunity to run off leash? This is the act of someone who really does care.

Not to use this as an example of appropriate parenting, but if Fred were a child it would make more sense. A child is asked to come over to the parent, the child dawdles and has to be asked several times, and as the child finally heads towards the parent is chastised for not responding the first time. Children are capable of understanding that the yelling is for not responding the first time they are asked.

What pet owners need to understand is that our pets aren't capable of this type of understanding. The consequence they receive will apply to whatever they are doing at the exact moment it's delivered. So yelling at the dog as he is coming is punishing him for coming. The owner should have been heaping praise on his dog for coming when called, and then made a mental note to work more on recalls so that the dog would respond faster in the future.

But sometimes those of us who love animals are very judgemental about the way others treat their pets. And what we have to understand and continually remind ourselves is that not everyone has the same level of education when it comes to the care and treatment of animals.

My job as Humane Educator is to attempt to give people the tools they need to be better pet owners. Being an advocate for the pet means not only seeing it from the animal's point of view, but trying also to see it from the owner's point of view. Only through understanding how others see things will I be able to find a way to reach them and help change the way our pets are treated. Hopefully this is a lesson I'll remember.

Almost Done!

HAWS went through construction the last 6 months of 2009. We endured sawing, pounding, dust and inconvenience for many months while space was added, and parts of the existing building were torn apart and remodeled.

Moving into new space has been very exciting -- the animals have bigger, cleaner space to inhabit, and our staff is able to care for them because of a better floor plan. One last part of the building has yet to be moved into -- until today.

Formerly our rabbit and small animal room was converted from someone's office and only about 72 square feet and animals spilled out into the hallway. We sometimes had as many as 17 rabbits, 4 guinea pigs, several cages of birds, several cages of rodents, and a reptile or two all at the same time. To say it was crowded is an understatement!

The new space is comprised of two rooms. One is the former room, and the other is about 100 square feet. New caging for the rabbits has been ordered and will be here soon, and new guinea pig caging has aready been set-up. In the meantime the moving in-process has been started.

The photos show the bigger of the new room, and Cookie the guinea pig about to be placed in her brand new cage. The new room is definately bigger, and is certainly a brighter and much more cheery than the old space.

So stop on in and see the rest of the building soon - whether you're considering adding to your family or not!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I think a lot of us wanted a dog just like Lassie when we were growing up. Not only was she smart and a protector of Timmy, but she had that beautiful long hair flowing as she ran. Would Lassie have been quite so popular had she been a Smooth Coated Collie -- the short-haired version of her breed?

Many people are attracted to long haired animals as pets. There's just something about luxurious locks on a rabbit, cat or dog that attracts us.


Unfortunately too many people don't think about how much care long hair requires on an animal -- despite the fact that people comment all the time about how much work their own long hair is, or how much easier it is to care for a shorter hair cut.


All too often HAWS gets in animals that have been neglected by their owners and need a haircut because the fur is extremely matted. Matted hair on an animal is unsanitary and painful. The more matted it is, the more it pinches or pulls at the skin as the animal moves.

The dog in the photo came in for surgery through HAWS low-cost Spay and Neuter Program. The owner loves this dog -- why else would she bother to have him neutered? But she was a bit uneducated as to his grooming requirements. Our staff was able to talk her into having him shaved and you can see the result -- it looks more like sheep wool after having been sheared rather than hair after a cut!

If you realize that you've neglected your pet's hair and have some matts your best bet is to take him to a groomer. Trying to get matts out is a delicate process that could result in the dog being cut if you do it wrong. A professional touch is needed to ensure your pet isn't hurt, but also ends up with an attractive new "do".

Second Chances

One of my favorite radio shows is "This American Life" broadcast locally on Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR 90.7). "This American Life" tells stories of Americana in small segments. Each week they have a theme and profile true stories within that theme through interviews and authors reciting essays.

Showtime has picked up This American Life as a television series and because I've enjoyed the program so much over the radio, I've started to rent the DVDs. This is how I learned about Second Chance.

Second Chance is a bull. More specifically he is the cloned bull of one family's beloved pet now deceased. The original bull, Chance, was tame enough that he was allowed to wander their property without fences or tethers. Chance was used in several Hollywood movies and TV shows. David Letterman rode him on his show. Children played with him.

As Chance became geriatric and his family faced his inevitable demise they heard about cloning studies being done at Texas A&M University and lobbied hard to have the university clone their beloved Chance. Despite the fact that the University doesn't clone pets they eventually caved and allowed it to be done as they needed a geriatric animal to clone as part of their research.

This story reminds me very much of something I experience listening to pet owners after they've lost a beloved pet and come to HAWS. Going through the grief and loss of their family member and love for animals people frequently come by HAWS to find a new pet. Many times grieving pet owners are looking for an animal that resembles the pet that they lost. They cling to the hope that because the animal looks the same that it will behave the same.

The very sad ending to the segment on "This American Life" is that Second Chance wasn't anything like the original Chance. Second Chance severely gored his owner - not once, but twice. Second Chance may have looked like his predecessor and even had the exact same genetic material, but it didn't mean he was the same -- not by a long shot.

Each human being is an individual with our own personalities. Even identical twins are their own person. We have to realize this is true of our pets as well. As unfortunate as it is, most of the animals we've chosen to keep as pets will not live as long as we want them to.

But each of us can have a second chance, and we all can give another living being a second chance. While we cannot replace a beloved pet by getting one that looks and behaves the exact same, we can learn to love an animal for their own individual personalities and traits. And by adopting an animal you can give them an opportunity to have a forever family that they might not otherwise have.

Another Rascal Post

One of the things that amazed me the most about Rascal is his work with my students from Lad Lake. The Lad Lake boys have been working twice a week training dogs at HAWS since first semester started in September. They had been working with Rascal almost from the beginning.

HAWS has a copy of the DVD "Take a Bow Wow Wow" and "Bow Wow Take 2" that one of it's producer's, Virginia Broitman donated to HAWS for use in our work with at-risk kids. The boys watched the videos and used a lot of it when they were teaching Rascal his various tricks such as spin, take a bow and rollover. One day they asked if they could teach Rascal to open and close cabinet doors. I was suprised that they wanted to teach something somewhat compicated, but we set about doing it.

At the time the boys started this project they had been working with Rascal for quite some time. Rascal was clicker-wise, and the boys fairly experienced in their training skills. I still didn't anticipate how quickly Rascal learned how to open and close cabinet doors. Even better was the teamwork that the boys displayed as they worked through this training problem.

Luckily I got it on video -- enjoy!

Rascal Went Home!

Something I hear on a regular basis from people who don't work at HAWS is "I could never work in a shelter". While it can be sad and heartbreaking to deal with the issues we see daily in an animal shelter, seeing animals go to new homes with good families makes it all worth our while. Earlier this week our entire staff was overjoyed when Rascal finally went home after living here for 5 months.

Rascal was brought to HAWS on August 5, 2009 because his owners couldn't have him at their new place. As a Pit Bull his breed automatically made him a difficult placement. Not only are people leery about adopting them due to their bad reputations, HAWS also has additional restrictions on them. Many insurance companies will not provide home owners or renters insurance to families with pits as pets, and so one of our requirements is proof of insurance. We also do a little more scrutiny on potential adopters since we want to make sure our adopted dogs actually end up as beloved members of the family -- rather then fighting other dogs.

Unfortunately Pit Bulls get a bad rap. Yes -- they are large powerful dogs, but then so are Labrador Retrievers and Malamutes. Yes, they can cause damage when they bite, but then so can Border Collies and Dalmatians. Pit Bulls are one of the breeds that lead the lists for bite statistics, but those statistics are misleading.

Are Pit Bulls more dangerous because they make the list, or do they make the list because there are many more of them in the USA than there are, as an example, Old English Sheepdogs? It's difficult to know. The AKC lists the top 10 breeds in the USA each year, but Pit Bulls are not an AKC breed and so wouldn't be listed since they can't be registered. As a matter of fact, Pit Bulls aren't really a breed, but more of a type and include the American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers and their mixes.

One of HAWS functions is as a bite case facility -- we quarantine animals who have bitten a human breaking skin to ensure that the animal does not have rabies. Many times we have at least one or more dogs in our kennels with "bite case" signs on their cages. Very rarely are those bite case dogs Pit Bulls (we see many other breeds such as German Shepherds, Cocker Spaniels, Jack Russel Terriers, Border Collies, Poodles, etc). On the other hand it's not uncommon for anywhere from 25%-50% of our adoptable dogs to be Pit Bulls or mixes thereof.

Pit Bulls were bred to be tough dogs who could physically with stand the damage incurred by fighting other dogs. But they were also bred to be extremely tolerant of human interaction -- with aggression towards humans being bred out of them. Historically Pit Bulls have been highlighted in a positive manner. Sergeant Stubby is the most decorated dog in US military history for his work in WWI. Petey in the Little Rascals movie was a Pit Bull, as was Tige from the Buster Brown advertisements. Helen Keller had a Pit Bull as a pet, and Laura Ingalls Wilder's dog, Jack the brindle Bulldog is believed to have been a Pit Bull.

Pit Bulls are not a breed for everyone. They do have strong powerful jaws and they physically are strong animals. They should be well socialized as puppies, and go through training so that they have good manners. HAWS only places dogs we feel will be safe members of the community -- and that includes Pit Bulls who go through the same behavior evaluation that our other adoptable dogs go through.

Luckily Rascal passed our behavior evaluation. Boys from our Lad Lake program worked with him twice a week to instill some training and help him with his mental exercise. And our wonderful dog walkers made sure that he got out every day, sometimes three times a day, for exercise and attention. We would have preferred that Rascal find a home in less time than five months. However he is a great dog and we're happy we could give him a chance. We wish Rascal and his new family many years of love and happiness.