National Pet Week May 2-8th 2010

 

Petsmart kicked off the National Pet Week once again with its annual Second Chance for Love – National Adoption Weekend.

There is some great work here at the Oakland Animal Services that I wish to acknowledge in regards to Lucy, titled “From Shelter Dog to Search & Rescue Dog.”

Here’s one of the great stories found at http://oaklandanimalservices.org/

Lucy has been at Oakland Animal Services for almost 8 months! We quickly realized that Lucy is a special dog - extremely intelligent and very ball driven. We put her through several tests to assess her ability to be able to train to be a Search and Rescue Dog and she passed all of them! These tests included throwing a ball and then spinning her around in circles to see if she would still go look and find the ball and hiding a ball to see if she was able to get it. Even though Lucy passed these difficult tests, we were unable to find a group who would take her into their program because she is part pit bull.

We didn't give up though! Volunteers made calls to groups all over the country. And, Amy, one of our volunteer mentors, and Martha, our Animal Care Coordinator, made a video of Lucy and publicized it all over the internet. The video went viral and finally nearly 8 months after she came to the Shelter, we got a call from a woman in Las Vegas who was looking for a dog to train for search and rescue! She saw Lucy on the video and knew Lucy was the one! Friends of Oakland Animal Services paid for Lucy's fligt to Las Vegas and she was sent today to start her new life!

Headed for Search/Rescue After 8 Months!

Something about Shepherds named Buddy

There something synonymous about “rescue”, the name “Buddy” and German shepherds.

In Sept. 2008, a German shepherd named Buddy saved his owner's life by calling 911 when the man had a seizure. Buddy was able to press programmed buttons until a 911 operator come on the line.

During the 911 call, Buddy is heard whimpering and barking after the dispatcher answers and repeatedly asks if the caller needs help.

Police were sent to the home, and after about three minutes Buddy is heard barking loudly when the officers arrived.

Buddy was adopted at the age of 8 weeks from Michigan-based Paws with a Cause, which trains assistance dogs, and trained him to get the phone if he began to have seizure symptoms.

Another Buddy:

In April 2010, Buddy an untrained 5-year-old German shepherd guided Alaska State Troopers through winding back roads to a fire at his owners' workshop.

Caught on a patrol car's dashcam video, shows Buddy meeting the trooper's vehicle, then dashing to their property about 55 miles north of Anchorage.

"He's my hero," owner Ben Heinrichs said, his voice breaking. "If it wasn't for him, we would have lost our house."

The dashcam video shows Buddy meeting the trooper's vehicle, then dashing to their property about 55 miles north of Anchorage on April 4.

Buddy’s owner was working on parts for his truck when a spark hit some gasoline and ignited, lighting his clothes blaze. The man ran outside to stomp out the flames by rolling in the snow, closing the door to keep the blaze from spreading, but realized Buddy was still inside the burning building and let the dog out.

Buddy ran into the nearby woods where the dog encountered a trooper, whose global positioning device had failed while responding to a call about the fire.



The video shows Buddy occasionally looking back at the patrol car as he raced ahead, galloping around three turns before arriving in front of the blaze, which was very close to the home.

CELEBRATE the joy your pet brings to your household. If you don’t have a pet, you should consider the benefits of pet ownership and support pet adoption.