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.

Love Happens to Cockatoo

I saw a Jennifer Aniston movie on DVD the other night called "Love Happens". In one scene the male lead in the movie, Burke, decides to follow up on the promise he made to his deceased wife to free her pet Cockatoo if anything happened to her. And so he takes the bird out to the woods in Seattle and releases it.

A beautiful sentiment, however extremely inhumane. Had Burke bothered to do any research before he rashley decided to free a bird used to being cared for by people he would have found that this was a bad idea.

Cockatoos are native to Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It's not likely that a cockatoo would be able to survive a winter in Seattle where it gets down to as low as 40F.

Additionally -- animals raised in captivity were never taught survival skills. Releasing a pet bird to fend for itself could end up with his being unable to properly forage and know how to avoid dangerous situations.

I know this is "just a movie", but it still bothered me that such an irresponsible act was portrayed in film without the plot line indicating in some way just what the possible consequences could be for the bird.

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.

Kids Thinking Pawsitive at Agility

Each week-long session of HAWS Kids 'N Critters Day Camp goes on an animal related field trip. Last week's session of Camp Gone to the Dogs had a fantastic opportunity to visit Think Pawsitive Dog Training in Oconomowoc.

Think Pawsitive, owned by Katie Oilschlager, specializes in the canine sport of Agility. Agility is a fast moving sport consisting of an obstacle course and requiring teamwork on the part of the dog and it's handler.

It takes some time, training and practice before a dog and it's handler are ready to do many of the obstacles properly. In order to give the campers a true sense of what Agility is, the kids used dogs who have been trained in the sport. Katie's dog Rella volunteered for duty, along with Dixie (who belongs to HAWS employee Cassie Gugin), and Mystic.

Katie did an excellent job explaining what agility is, and had the kids practice doing obstacles without the dogs. One of the more difficult obstacles is the weave poles -- the dog always enters the poles with the first pole on his left. Katie had the kids go through the poles themselves.

Then they got to work with the dogs. Fortunately the kids had worked with adoptable HAWS dogs for four days before they did agility because they had already learned how to be motivating and patient with dogs. Those skills came in handy -- although the dogs were good at agility they were working with complete strangers and so needed a little extra effort.

The campers had a fantastic time. Many of them have attended HAWS camps in the past, and they told me doing agility was the best field trip they'd been on. And Katie, Cassie and I were grateful that they tired our dogs out.

Below is video from that day - enjoy!

Camp Gone to the Dogs!

It was an idea I toyed with for our summer camps several years ago, but at that time it just wasn't feasible. Back then our camps consisted of up to 24 kids at a time confined for the most part to just one room. Restricting the number to a smaller group would have meant a loss of income for HAWS. And there wasn't any way for us to pull it off with 24 kids.

The idea was that a small group of kids would have the same dog to work with for an entire week. With the building addition the idea became much more realistic since we now have two fairly large rooms in which to hold camp. This year's camp consists of two sessions running at the same time. So while one room can hold 24 kids attending a "regular" session of camp, the smaller room can allow a group of 15 kids to attend a different camp during the same week.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our first session ever of "Camp Gone to the Dogs", and it couldn't have gone better. Kids between the ages of 9 and 13 years were placed into groups of 3, and each group assigned a dog for the week. During the camp day the kids are responsible for walking, grooming and training "their" dog. If the dog poops on a walk the kids have to pick up and dispose of it. When the dogs are taken out of or returned to their kennels the kids have to ensure that the kennel is clean -- if it isn't they have to clean it.

About half of the 7 hour camp day is spent with the dogs. The rest of the time the campers are involved in other activities such as watching short PowerPoint presentations on dog safety, training, and canine body language. They meet other HAWS animals such as cats, rabbits, turtles and HAWS education snake. They baked Salmon Training treats, and then had the opportunity to use them in training.

Not only do the kids love this camp, but the dogs are gaining huge benefits from it as well. With a minimum of 2 walks and 2 training sessions a day, as well as opportunities to just "hang" with their kids to get petting, massages and brushing - they get more attention and exercise than any other dog in the shelter. And I'm amazed at what a wonderful job they are doing with the dogs. The training is fantastic -- I never thought they'd be able to lure Jersey into a down -- but she's doing it with just a verbal cue already! And our little Bichon Sherlock looks so handsome now that the girls gave him a bath and spent a lot of time brushing him.

I want to thank the kennel and adoption staff for putting up with this camp program this week. Shelter Manager Kelly made sure we had enough kid-suitable dogs by going to Milwaukee Domestic Animal Control Commission and transferring a large number of dogs to HAWS a few weeks before camp started. Our kennel staff has had to endure kids wandering through the kennels to take out and return dogs to their kennels. And our adoption staff had to let potential adopters know that they couldn't take the camp dogs home for a week. This really was a shelter collaborative effort!

We have two more sessions of Camp Gone to the Dogs left and I'm excited at the impact this will have on both the kids and dogs involved. I'll let you know how it goes.

Endings and Beginnings

I can't believe that the school year is almost over (already finished for some schools)!

I just graduated another group of boys from Lad Lake through our Positive Empathy Training Program. Each week 6 boys came to HAWS on Monday and Wednesdays to learn about a dog related topic and train HAWS adoptable dogs.

What was really interesting about working with the boys is that they would sometimes appear to be bored and not really paying attention, and then later they'd say something that told me they really were listening to what I had to say. It was very gratifying to hear them tell each other to ease up on a dog that was stressed, and point out all the stress signals the dog was displaying.

I will miss these young men, and hope nothing but the best for their futures. I look forward to working with a new group of Lad Lake boys next fall.

In the meantime I'm getting ready for another summer of our Kids 'N Critters Day Camp. With our building expansion we now have much more space and are actually going to be running two different camps concurrently. I'm looking forward to some of the new activities I've added to the schedule -- such as clicker training cats and dogs in their cages. It's another way for the kids to be hands on with the animals -- something both parents and campers have been asking about.

Keep an eye out for future blogs about camp -- especially the new specialty camp I'm calling "Camp Gone to the Dogs".

When Opportunity Knocks

One of the things I've learned over the years in my job is that you have to be flexible when doing presentations. Sometimes training demonstrations with dogs don't go as planned, sometimes kids ask questions that take you off track, and sometimes things happen that end up being a really great education opportunity.

Yesterday I participated in a High Interest Day at St. John Vianney School in Brookfield. Whether they're called High Interest Day, Try-It Day, or Kid's Choice Day (depending on the school) -- they are very popular this time of year. The school brings a variety of presenters in on topics as varied as karate, rock climbing, baking, criminal forensics, and pets. The idea is to give kids a way to try new things and perhaps find where their interests may take them.

This year St. John Vianney asked me to talk about pet care to three different groups of kids. As we were playing a pet care game some of the kids were petting Mystic, and interrupted me to ask about a bump they'd found near his ear. Thinking it was an irritation left over from the tick I had removed the day before I told them not to worry about it. But they were insistant that it was huge and I should look at it.

It turned out to be a dog tick -- already dead because I treat Mystic with Frontline. As I removed the tick I talked about how pet ownership sometimes involves doing something unpleasant - such as pulling out a tick. Then I talked about the fact that Mystic is treated with Frontline -- which is a tick and flea preventative and the fact that dogs can get Lyme disease from ticks.

Of course pulling a tick from Mystic wasn't part of my presentation, but what a great opportunity to show them one of the more unpleasant sides of pet ownership!

That same day I had another opporunity. Three years ago at a different school's High Interest Day I trained Mystic to "play the piano". I haven't had him around a piano since -- so when I saw that there was a piano in the room where I was working with the kids I decided to see if he still remembered how to do it. You can see the results in the video below.