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Shorty has a dog's life: a loving owner who takes him to work with her, excellent care and the chance to strut his stuff every so often in dog shows.
This weekend, Shorty, a miniature poodle owned by Mary Belanger of Traverse City, will be one of more than 600 dogs who will participate in the Grand Traverse Kennel Club's 2006 Dog Show and Obedience Trial. Held Friday through Sunday at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center, the show will feature everything from rally events and a puppy extravaganza to agility runs and judging for dogs of all shapes and sizes.
As for Shorty, a rescue dog, he will be quite busy over the weekend with rally, obedience and agility events ' it's all play to him.
"The dogs really enjoy it," said Belanger, owner of Classy Canines in Traverse City who has been showing dogs for 20 years. "We travel around to shows pretty much in Michigan, it's fun to go to shows and see people you see at other shows."
Dogs participating in the Grand Traverse Kennel Club show will come from around the state and Midwest, with some from as far away as Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Thirty-four dogs registered will be traveling more than 300 miles with their owners to the show.
The annual Grand Traverse Kennel Club show, an American Kennel Club certified event, injects a burst of revenue into the local economy. Even surging gas prices have not impacted registration numbers, which are higher than last year's.
"A lot of shows are down this year but we're up a little bit and the reason is people make this a vacation," said Elaine Suter, president of the Grand Traverse Kennel Club. "People are getting more picky about how they spend their dog show money, but they still do this one. It does bring a lot into the community."
Suter, who recently moved to the Lansing area with her husband, Mark, shows Portuguese Water Dogs. She has been training and showing dogs for 22 years and travels to shows around the region.
"Two weekends ago I was at a show with 1,200 dogs," said Suter, who is chair of this weekend's Grand Traverse Kennel Club show. "That was a lot of dogs."
At noon on Saturday, the Grand Traverse Kennel Club will welcome two K-9 deputies from the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Department and one K-9 officer from the Traverse City Police Department. The club will present donations of $1,000 to the Sheriff's Department and $500 to the Police Department to help defray costs of the dogs.
"Those donations are intended to provide equipment or anything associated with expenses specifically related to the dogs: vet bills or training seminars," said Stu Nunneley, a member of the club who helped organize this event. "This is a one-time thing on the part of our club because we're a rather small operation but we wanted to demonstrate to the law agencies and the community that we fully support the ongoing K-9 operations that provide safety to the public and officers involved."
The Grand Traverse Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show will be held on Friday from 2-7 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center. Admission is free on Friday while Saturday and Sunday it is $2 for adults, $1 for children and seniors; a family plan is available for $5. Organizers recommend arriving before 3:30 p.m. at the latest on Saturday and Sunday. Show times for specific breeds will be posted at the Civic Center by Friday morning.
Dog Training
Micah is allowed on the furniture. In fact, that is where he was found lounging recently during a visit to Renaissance Gardens healthcare facility at Seabrook in Tinton Falls.
The 2-year-old golden retriever/Australian shepherd mixed breed dog, who was adopted by the community in February, clearly enjoys his new living arrangements.
As he sprawled next to program assistant Shoronda Clark on the couch in the lobby, he waited to see who might offer him a treat.
Would it be Edward Anderson, Catherine Potocki, Joan Haynes, Edith Atlas or Ann Walling? It didn't take the sprightly young dog with a curled tail long to realize that all five residents had biscuits for him.
The facility's operations team met in December and found that they all were in favor of adopting a dog to live in the facility, said Kris Stanley, purchasing manager.
"Residents were polled, and the majority were in favor of having a pet. The Pet Committee was formed and agreed to meet once a week," she added.
Jackie Schatell, public relations manager for Seabrook, said a rescue dog, or a dog that needed a good home, was sought.
"Studies have shown that a pet can be part of the cure for loneliness, depression, and lowering blood pressure," she said.
"In February this dream was realized and Micah arrived from a shelter in Indiana, after having been rescued by the Pet Adoption Network of Red Bank," she said.
After a weeklong trial period, the adoption was finalized.
"This is pet therapy. He gets the residents to be more alert and he gets them moving," Stanley said. "Everyone wants to pet him."
In the lobby, Micah proved her point by walking up to each of the five residents seated on chairs for a treat and some petting.
The dog is entertaining, brings back memories, and is an excellent conversation starter, Schatell said.
"I'll never forget it. I had older sisters and for Easter one year they gave me a cocker spaniel. His name was Corky," said Haynes, as she cuddled up to Micah.
Haynes described Micah as being very inquisitive.
"Boy, is he smart," commented Atlas, who noted that she had cats, but not dogs, all of her life.
"I was a little girl and my mother wouldn't live without a cat because she was afraid of mice," Atlas recalled.
Walling said that Micah has a good life at Renaissance Gardens.
"He's got the run of the place. I feed him three times a week ' on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays," said Walling, who added that she has had seven boxers during her lifetime.
Clark said that Micah is free to roam the building, except for pet-free zones on each floor to accommodate those who are afraid of or do not like dogs and the dining room and kitchen area.
"And he knows it," she added. "Once he was trying to sneak into the dining area when I wasn't around and I heard his paws. I said "Is Micah in the dining room?' and when he heard my voice he came running right out."
Micah also knows which offices to visit to get a treat, and he spends time on each floor, she said.
"He likes to run up and down the hallways, and he is walked frequently, along with Louie the Dog, a senior French poodle who lives with another resident," said Mary Lynn Kirsch, acute care coordinator.
"The son of one of our residents said that it makes his mother's day when Micah jumps up on her bed for a cuddle," Kirsch said.
Stanley said that dogs are allowed to visit residents as long as they are properly vaccinated and licensed.
Micah sleeps in Clark's office during the week and nurses working at night look in on him frequently.
On weekends, he goes home with Robert Boyars III, the assistant director of dining services.
"Although Micah does create more work for our staff, I am happy to say that the participation from all departments at Seabrook has been wonderful," said Joanne Goldberg, program manager. "We are able to bring joy and fun to our community."
Dog Training
A Pasadena man was sentenced yesterday to the maximum term in jail for slashing a dog's throat and leaving the bloody animal on the doorstep of an ex-girlfriend's mother, whom the man blamed for ending the relationship.
Robert Lee Grim, 26, said nothing as Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck acknowledged Grim's heroin problem and expressed concern that Grim's criminal activities had "progressed" to nearly killing a dog and using it to menace his former girlfriend's mother. Manck ordered Grim jailed for three years for the attack on the dog. He placed Grim on five years' probation for drug possession and barred him from contacting his ex-girlfriend and her mother.
"Mr. Grim's revenge was a Mafia-style intimidation," Marjorie Cooke, the mother, told the judge.
Cooke returned from taking her daughter, Sue Cantu, to an airport Jan. 3, 2005, to the sight of a bloody towel and drops of blood on the front step of her Millersville home, she said. Her car tires were slashed.
Grim and a friend had taken the mixed-breed dog from the street, cut a 3 1/2 -inch gash in its neck in the parking lot of nearby Baldwin Memorial United Methodist Church and left the animal for Cooke, said Assistant State's Attorney Kim DiPietro.
But the dog crept away and was discovered by a neighbor on her stairwell. She called police, DiPietro said. The dog, Casper, who has since recovered, belonged to a Baltimore woman who had left it with her nephew in Millersville, she said.
District Public Defender David Harding said Grim had injected heroin just before attacking the dog. He said his client needed treatment for heroin addiction and a dependency on OxyContin stemming from treatment for a 1998 motorcycle accident. He said Grim had previously come to court under the influence of drugs.
Charges against a friend originally accused of being involved in the incident, George Martin Treas, were dropped in April.
Dog Training
Scarlet, a 2-year-old Siberian husky, gets a bath Tuesday before an event at the AKC-sanctioned dog show at the Twin Falls Country Club.
Shake, rattle and roll
Dog-lovers congregate for Onofrio Dog Show
By Kevin Otzenberger
Times-News correspondent
FILER?The judges scrambled to finalize their selections as rapidly increasing winds began to wreak havoc on the awnings and tents around the show rings. But even the violent afternoon wind couldn't blow the smile off the face of Best in Show handler Jorge Olivera, who had just been given the first top prize of this year's Onofrio Dog Show Circuit at the Twin Falls County Fairgrounds.
The overall winner of Tuesday's show was an affenpinscher owned by Dr. Loren Lipson and Carol Girouard of Pasadena, Calif. The team is one of many who travel across the country each year to compete in this annual, AKC-sanctioned, all-breed dog show put on by the Snake River Canyon Kennel Club of Idaho.
The second half of the dog show will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the fairgrounds.
The show marks the first stop on a circuit that will spend the next four days in Blackfoot and then 10 days in Montana.
'People come from all over the country, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, all over,' said show Chairwoman Mary Stotz. 'There are a bit over 700 entries from just about all the AKC-registered breeds.'
Obedience class coordinator Janice Harper said competition is a bonding experience for dog and owner.
'The more you work with your dog, the more the dog responds to you,' she said. 'You're not doing it for the scores; you're doing it because you and your dog love working together.'
Harper explained that if anyone wants to enter their AKC-registered dog into an obedience competition, they need to find a personal trainer and that the most useful outlet to find those trainers is through local kennel clubs like the Snake River Canyon Kennel Club.
'I started my dog at seven weeks old, very gently,' said Harper, 'but I've trained dogs as old as 12 years old.'
Dog Training
State authorities are encouraging beachgoers to leave their dogs at home during the shorebird nesting season of March through August, but some dog owners say that pooches are being unfairly targeted.
"You've got to be kidding me," said Steve Patterson of Brunswick when told of the state's suggestion that dogs be left at home to give nesting shorebirds a better chance of survival.
"If owners keep their dogs under control as they are supposed to, the dogs won't ... harm nesting birds," said Patterson, who has been bringing his boxer, Bogart, and mixed-breed dog, Blondie, to St. Simons Island's beaches for years.
While the two dogs occasionally chase birds, Patterson said they have never harmed a bird. He said he keeps them on leashes and out of the dunes where birds make their nests.
Brad Winn, program manager with the Coastal Nongame Endangered Wildlife Program of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, doesn't see it as being that simple, though.
He said the mere presence of dogs can cause harm to seabird and shorebird species who nest on beaches such as the red knot, piping plover, whimbrel, black skimmer, American oystercatcher, brown pelican and royal tern.
"Humans and dogs on beaches can scare the birds away from their nests and bring the added threat of nests and young being trampled," Winn said.
"Dogs are prone to harass and kill the adult birds and the chicks."
State authorities have not passed any laws banning dogs from beaches. The only beaches in Georgia on which dogs are forbidden under state mandate are on Williamson Island, St. Catherines Island Bar, Little Egg Island Bar, Pelican Spit and Satilla River Marsh Island.
Bill Hamby, vacationing on St. Simons Island from his home in Roswell, is both a dog owner and birding enthusiast. He has no problem with some restrictions on when dogs are allowed on beaches during shorebird nesting season.
The bigger issue in his mind, though, is the importance of owners keeping their animals under control, he said.
He witnessed a scene earlier this week when an unleashed dog was harassing two birds on East Beach.
"It was early in the morning and a dog was chasing a great egret and a snowy egret," he said.
Dog Training
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