Teacher's Pet

Having a pet in the classroom can be a wonderful experience for children. Students can learn about the responsibility involved for caring for a pet and develop empathy for others. Additionally a classroom pet can create lessons in a variety of subjects that can motivate students to learn. What part of the world the pet comes from works well into a geography lesson, and the food that the animal eats can develop into a lesson in nutrition or biology.

One of the problems teachers can find in having a classroom pet is that they may not want a pet to be their permanent responsibility -- especially when it comes to breaks in school in the winter, spring and summer, when the teacher would have to either care for the animal at home or make accomodations for him. And having a pet in the classroom may be a fantastic learning experience for the short-term, but not a good idea for the entire year.

A few years ago I developed a program where teachers can foster small animals through HAWS for a temporary basis. The Teacher's Pet program requires teachers to fill out a classroom foster application and promise to be completely responsible for the care and welfare of the animal. The animal is still a HAWS adoptable animal -- however is on loan to the classroom for however long the teacher would like to keep it.

Once the teacher gets their application to me we discuss what animals are currently at HAWS that would be available to become Teacher's Pet fosters. Animals appropriate for this program include rodents (hamsters, mice, rats, guinea pigs), birds such as parakeets and cockatiels, and some reptiles.

Once the animal has been chosen I bring the animal to the classroom and do a 1/2 hour long presentation to the class talking about what kind of a pet the animal makes, what food it eats, how to properly care for it, and how to handle it. The teacher is given a packet of information about the pet and caging, equipment, and a supply of food and bedding that will last a few weeks. While the animal is available for adoption while in the classroom, it stays until the class is finished with it. So far all of the animals in the Teacher's Pet program have been adopted by one of the students in that pet's classroom.

The wonderful thing about the Teacher's Pet program is that the classroom gets a pet for as long or as short of a time as the teacher wants it. It gives the teacher an option to have a pet other than purchasing a pet from a pet store, and then trying to find a home for it once the school year is over. The program is a great opportunity for HAWS to educate the teacher and the students about the care of the particular pet they've chosen. And since the pet has a sign on it's cage that it's a HAWS animal available for adoption, the parents and other members of the public that visit the classroom learn that HAWS has more than just dogs and cats available for adoption.

Today a dwarf hamster went to his new home in Mrs. McSorley's second grade classroom at University Lake School. The kids were very excited and enthusiastic. They all plan on bringing toilet paper tubes and small pieces of vegetable's for Mr. Pibb. And they asked wonderful questions about how often the water in his bottle should be changed and how often they should clean his cage. I have no doubt that Mr. Pibb is in great hands and that the kids will learn a lot from him.

Creatures of the Sea

Last week I went to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the Association of Pet Dog Trainer's Conference. The conference itself was wonderful -- I learned about some fantastic studies on canine cognition, got some wonderful tips on dog training, and met up with old friends and met new friends.

While dogs are my first love, I'm am fascinated by animals of all kind. I was lucky enough to be able to get to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta the day before the start of the conference. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world with exhibits that contain 8 million gallons of water!

It was a wonderful opportunity to see beluga whales, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, manta rays, jelly fish and octopus.

Some of the smaller exhibits allowed me to get up close and see things like the lion fish and sea dragon (see the video!)

My favorite exhibits were the petting tanks where visitors have an opportunity to touch some of the sea animals. The highlight of my visit was petting bonnethead sharks and cownose rays.

Patience is a Virtue

I think more than anything else in my life, working with dogs has had the biggest impact on my capacity to be patient. Dogs really can humble you -- once you think you have them figured out, they throw you a curve ball.

And I haven't learned to just be patient when working with dogs -- patience has permeated other aspects of my life. I've learned to empathize when dog owners are experiencing behavior problems, and when they're struggling to teach their own dog something new. I've also learned to be more patient in the non-doggy aspects of day to day living.

The current semester of PETS (Positive Empathy Training for Success) program I'm doing with Lad Lake -- a school for at-risk kids, has been underway for a month now. This is the third semester I've done this program, and this is the youngest group of kids that have participated. They range in age from 11 to 14 years of age.

PETS involves 20 minutes of PowerPoints on training, behavior and other dog related topics, and the last part of the hour has the kids working with shelter dogs. I've had to be more patient with this group of kids because they are younger, and so it's a bit more difficult for them to understand some of the concepts in the presentations. I've had to learn to go a bit slower with them, and to review concepts and terms as we go.

Some of the kids are students at Lad Lake precisely because they lack self control and don't have much in the way of patience. This is very evident with one of the PETS participants in particular. He is an extremely bright kid who loves to participate in discussion. He has very good problem solving ability. But he's a bit bossy with the other boys and interrupts when someone else is talking. He has so much promise if he can just learn some patience.

That's what the PETS program is all about. We still have 3 months to go in this semester, and I hope working with HAWS dogs can make a difference for him.

What Makes a Birthday Happy?

What about spending it at an animal shelter playing games and interacting with animals?

HAWS had our first birthday on Friday for Katie Bies who turned 10 years old. For years we've had inquiries about parties, and we've always had to turn parents down since we really didn't have the available space to do it. With the addition of a second meeting room, we are finally able to offer this as a service.

HAWS birthday party packages are geared for kids between the ages of 6 and 12. For the older kids we have a mystery game in which a Tasmanian Tiger is missing from a zoo. The kids have to find out which one of their assigned characters have committed the tiger kidnapping by looking for clues throughout the shelter. Katie and her friends had a blast playing this game. When we hold parties for younger kids we will play more age appropriate games that will be just as fun.


Katie reads mystery game instructions to her guests.








After which the guests try to gather clues.













You've gotta have cake at a birthday party!










And of course meet some animals!

What's short, and long and doesn't belong in WI?

Yesterday HAWS got a call from the Muskego Police Department asking us to come and pick up an animal. This isn't an unusual request -- HAWS does pick-ups of animals all over Waukesha County. Sometimes it's a stray cat, dog or even ferret that someone found. Sometimes it's a sick or injured native Wisconsin wild animal that we then transfer to a wild-life rehabilitation center.

What made this particular call unusual is that it was a wild animal that isn't native to Wisconsin.

Someone fishing in Big Muskego Lake had seen an alligator over a period of several days and was finally able to capture it. Obviously alligators are not a species native to Wisconsin. The alligator isn't talking, but we assume that he (she?) was someone's pet that had become too difficult to keep, and so that person decided to get rid it it by releasing it into the lake.

Unfortunately the easy way out for the human was the worst thing to do for the alligator. A native of the southeastern part of the United States, the American Alligator would be incapable of surviving the cold temperatures and icy water we get here during Wisconsin winters.

This is not the first alligator found in the midwest this year. About a month ago an alligator was found in the Chicago River -- most likely a victim of a different pet owner unable to care for an animal that was getting bigger and more aggressive.

American Alligators are very aggressive, can live up to 60 years, and can grow to be 13 feet long. It would be very difficult for most people to provide an appropriate habitat for an alligator when full grown, and it would be a dangerous animal to keep without proper precautions. It's not fair to keep a wild animal as a baby only to "get rid of it" as it grows and becomes more difficult to manage.

However, if someone does have an animal they can no longer keep, we encourage them to surrender them to their local animal shelter -- where the animal can be properly cared for.

In the meantime - the HAWS alligator is basking in the warmth of a heath lamp. In a few days he'll be transferred to a reputable rescue in Illinois where he'll get the care that he needs and deserves.

New Semester, New Start

With the new school year I start my semester-long project with a group of boys from Lad Lake -- a non-profit organization that provides services to at-risk youth. Twice a week five boys from their Day Education Program come to HAWS to learn about dog behavior, training and other topics and actually do some hands on work with our adoptable dogs.

The goal is that they will develop empathy for others, learn patience, and get motivated for academics back at school.

The boys had their first two visits to HAWS this week. The Monday their visit consisted of an orientation to HAWS. They also got to meet Niya -- one of HAWS adoptables.

On Wednesday they watched a PowerPoint presentation on clicker training, had an opportunity to practice their clicker timing with an exercise, and were able to clicker train Mystic to put his toys away.

This is a trick I've worked with Mystic on a few times, but never seem to find the time to actually take it to the next level. The completed trick consists of dog toys scattered around the room -- the dog picks up each toy one at a time and deposits it into a box. By Wednesday's session with Lad Lake I had Mystic to the point where he could pick up a toy a few feet from the box and drop it in most of the time.

At Wednesday's session I warmed Mystic up by familiarizing him with a new box and getting him somewhat consistent with picking up a toy I'd dropped on the floor and putting it into a cardboard box. Then each boy took his turn with the clicker while I gave suggestions as far as when they should click.

The boys did great, however Mystic had a very difficult time when I placed two toys on the floor. He loves carrying around multiple soft toys in his mouth at the same time (his record is 5 at once!) and he just didn't have it in him to drop one toy and leave it behind before he picked up the second. With a little brainstorming the boys and I decided that once he had deposited one toy I would throw a second toy away from the box. This seemed to work better for him.

The Lad Lake boys may be very new at this, but they have excellent timing, and seemed to understand at one point that Mystic wasn't misbehaving, but was a little stressed out. I think this is going to be a wonderful semester.

Animals Aren't People

Over the weekend I went hiking with my dogs. It was a perfect day -- not too hot, and the good company of a friend and her dogs. Mystic suddenly veered off the path, disappeared for a few seconds, and came out of the brush proudly displaying his find. It was the bone of some poor deer that had died from unknown causes. Mystic saw it as a prize -- proudly holding it in his mouth and running down the path. I saw it as a bit disgusting.

One of the most wonderful thing about pets is that animals aren't people. Most pets enjoy our attention, and require very little for them to love us. One of the worst things for many people is that animals aren't people.

Let's face it, we find poop disgusting -- while many dogs like to sniff, roll in, or even worse, eat it. We don't like it when cats scratch up our furniture. Rabbit biting you when you reach in the cage? Almost unforgivable! We want our pets to stop doing such offensive and disagreeable behaviors.

But the truth is -- animals are not people. They have their own instincts, behaviors, and a very different way of looking at the world. While this makes them fascinating to be around, it can also be vexing as a pet owner dealing with behaviors that may not fit in with the "human" way of doing things.

While some of these behaviors can be trained out or modified so that the pet fits in better in our families, we also have to realize that there may have to be some compromise and even allowances of our pet's natural behaviors.

Instead of punishing a cat for scratching -- which is a natural cat behavior, we can teach them to only scratch on a scratching post instead. Instead of getting mad when the rabbit bites and decide not to handle them at all, we can find ways to make it so that the rabbit doesn't feel a need to bite. Rabbits can be territorial and dislike having their space invaded. Allowing the rabbit to come out of his cage on his own instead of being pulled out will make things easier for both of you.

Many dog owners would have made their dogs drop the disgusting deer bone. But I couldn't see any reason that Mystic shouldn't continue to carry it -- since it made him happy. The compromise was that he wasn't bringing it home with us -- I made him drop it at the edge of the parking lot.