I came across the Dog Bark Park Inn in Cottonwood, Idaho and I’m now somewhat obsessed.
Its a Bed & Breakfast guesthouse inside the World’s Biggest Beagle. Guests enter the body of the beagle from a private 2nd story deck. Some of the dog’s decorative furnishings are carvings by Dog Bark Park chainsaw artists Dennis & Frances. Inside and up another level to the head of the dog is a loft room with additional sleeping space plus a cozy alcove in the muzzle.
The Beagles have names too: Toby and Sweet Willy. Toby, a 12-foot tall beagle statue, was built by Dog Bark Park artists Dennis Sullivan and Frances Conklin.
Sweet Willy, officially known as Dog Bark Park Inn, is one of America’s latest additions to the type of roadside architecture popular in the early days of automobile vacation travel when travelers would often buy gas, eat meals or stay overnight in a building that looked like something else. Remember coffee pot or teacup gas stations, milk bottle shaped restaurants or the shoe and duck houses? For today’s travelers Dog Bark Park Inn offers a glimpse into those bygone days with all the comforts of our modern days.
When Chad, a yellow Labrador retriever, moved in with Claire Vaccaro’s family in Manhattan last spring, he already had an important role. As an autism service dog, he was joining the family to help protect Ms. Vaccaro’s 11-year-old son, Milo — especially in public, where he often had tantrums or tried to run away.
Like many companion animals, whether service dogs or pets, Chad had an immediate effect — the kind of effect that is noticeable but has yet to be fully understood through scientific study. And it went beyond the tether that connects dog and boy in public.
“Within, I would say, a week, I noticed enormous changes,” Ms. Vaccaro said of Milo, whose autism impairs his ability to communicate and form social bonds. “More and more changes have happened over the months as their bond has grown. He’s much calmer. He can concentrate for much longer periods of time. It’s almost like a cloud has lifted.”
Dr. Melissa A. Nishawala, clinical director of the autism-spectrum service at the Child Study Center at New York University, said she saw “a prominent and noticeable change” in Milo, even though the dog just sat quietly in the room. “He started to give me narratives in a way he never did,” she said, adding that most of them were about the dog.
The changes have been so profound that Ms. Vaccaro and Dr. Nishawala are starting to talk about weaning Milo from some of his medication.
Anecdotes abound on the benefits of companion animals — whether service and therapy animals or family pets — on human health. But in-depth studies have been rare. Now the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, is embarking on an effort to study whether these animals can have a tangible effect on children’s well-being.
In partnership with the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in England (part of the Mars candy and pet food company), the child health institute is seeking proposals that “focus on the interaction between humans and animals.” In particular, it is looking for studies on how these interactions affect typical development and health, and whether they have therapeutic and public-health benefits. It also invites applications for studies that “address why relationships with pets are more important to some children than to others” and that “explore the quality of child-pet relationships, noting variability of human-animal relationships within a family.”
The national institutes’ interest in this type of research goes back at least two decades. Valerie Maholmes, who directs research on child development and behavior at the children’s health institute, said that at a broad-ranging meeting in 1987 on the health benefits of pets, the N.I.H. “concluded that there needed to be much more research,” especially on child development.
Other sessions confirmed the need for research, but most studies focused on negative interactions, like the ways pets could spread disease, said James A. Griffin, the institute’s deputy chief of child development and behavior.
Meanwhile, the Waltham Center was expanding its own research to do some small studies about human-animal interaction, said Catherine E. Woteki, global director of scientific affairs for Mars Inc. “We are a pet food company and pet care company,” Dr. Woteki said, “and we’re interested in seeing that that relationship stays a strong one.”
Reviews of the Waltham research program indicated that larger studies over longer terms with appropriate control groups were needed. When Mars became aware of the institutes’ interest in this type of research, a public-private partnership was established, with the company committing more than $2 million. The National Institute of Nursing is also providing money.
Peggy McCardle, chief of the institutes’ child development and behavior branch, said the money from Mars helped jump-start the efforts. Dr. McCardle added that the N.I.H. had established protocols for public-private partnerships and that all proposals got two levels of review before being approved.
People working with animals expect the research to back up their observations. At Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Southern California, for instance, dozens of volunteers regularly take their dogs to visit patients. Children being treated for serious illnesses often have the blues, anxiety or depression. “The dogs brighten them up,” said Emily Grankowski, who oversees the pet therapy program at the hospital.
Some patients who have refused to speak will talk to the dogs, she said, and others who have refused to move often reach for the dogs so they can pet them. So the animals become part of the therapeutic program, especially in the areas involving speech and movement.
“The human-animal bond bypasses the intellect and goes straight to the heart and emotions and nurtures us in ways that nothing else can,” said Karin Winegar, whose book “Saved: Rescued Animals and the Lives They Transform” (Da Capo, 2008) chronicles human-animal interactions. “We’ve seen this from coast to coast, whether it’s disabled children at a riding center in California or a nursing home in Minnesota, where a woman with Alzheimer’s could not recognize her husband but she could recognize their beloved dog.”
Such observations are not new at Autism Service Dogs of America, which brought Milo and Chad together. “Many children with autism can’t relate to a human,” said its director, Pris Taylor, “but they can relate to a dog.”
I have been a dog person since I can remember. My parents had a rescued Sheltie Shepherd mix named Foxy when I was born- one of father’s fraternity brothers from PENN (who he incidentally had dinner with this week) had found the dog after the 1971 earthquake and somehow convinced my parents, neither of whom had ever had a dog, to adopt him.
Foxy was awesome- smart, playful and ever-patient as I am sure I was not exactly a gentle or delicate kid. He along with the Woody–the puppy we got when I was 3– were my constant companion as a child. From that point on I was just drawn to all things dog…particularly dog rescue.
Kids & Dogs
But for normal kids how do they find out about rescue… what happens at a shelter… how to treat and properly care for dogs?
Today the answer is most likely an amazing show on PBS called Martha Speaks. The series and the books follow a family dog who eats alphabet soup and gains the ability of human speech. In addition to its mission of vocabulary development–always a good thing– the series aims to educate children 4-to-7 about shelter animals, and inform families on pet ownership and responsibility.
I love this show, and I’m particularly excited about its new season premieres on September 14th. Over the course of the new episodes, viewers will see a two-part episode that further explores Martha, the title character’s days as a shelter dog and other new episodes that present strong anti-littering/pet safety messages in a way that is accessible to kids. Here is a preview of the episode airing today
A woman named Susan Medaugh created Martha Speaks. The idea behind came one day over lunch with her then-seven-year-old son when he asked what would happen if he fed their family dog his alphabet soup. From there Meddaugh has educated and inspired so many kids and families about dogs. She is truly a role model for me. I hope the work I do with my book (The Complete Single’s Guide To Being A Dog Owner, Adams Media 2009) and this blog might make even a fraction if the impact she has had on helping to protect and cherish the dogs of this world!
Be sure to tune to your local PBS affiliate (even if you don’t have kids) today, September 14th!
I am in New York working on The Video Voter Guide- it’s a comprehensive voter information program that allows all candidates for city election to tape a candidate statement. I’m overseeing the project and it’s being taped at 30 Rock/WNBC which is pretty cool.
What is not cool, however, is how much I miss Ranger! I’ve only had him a few short months but I can’t stop thinking about him!
My Son Ranger
To deal with my own separation anxiety I have developed the following coping mechanisms:
1. I have about 10 different photos of Ranger on my phone and I shuffle through them at least a couple of times a day.
2. Change my home screen so that I get a new shot of Ranger every day.
3. Check in on Ranger at his home away from home (my friend Amy’s house)
4. Hang out with my dog-owning friends and family in NYC.
and finally
5. Stop random people with dogs on the street and get my dog fix.
Last night I did a combo of 4 & 5 when I had a fabulous dinner with my friends Shelly and Julie at Tiramisu (a yummy Italian place on the corner of 80th & 3rd) with their adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniels Sadie and Sasha. I felt like a true New Yorker, sitting outside and enjoying a great Italian meal with friends (canine and human alike.)
Then as I was heading home, I saw the most adorable Chocolate Lab just sitting like a perfect angel as her parents enjoyed their sushi dinner. I couldn’t resist asking if I could say hi. Jordan (the lab) and her parents obliged my need for a dog fix and Jordan and I engaged in some mad love complete with slobbery lab kisses- a personal favorite.
Chocolate Lab in Pearls
I come to find out Jordan’s parents are actually transplanted LA people, they went to the same vet that I do and Jordan is a rescue; definitely my kind of people. Oh, and Jordan has been featured on the Martha Stewart Show- a celebrity dog!
It’s doesn’t all up to actually being able to be with Ranger, but I’m coping!
It’s been about 4 months since Bella died, and I miss her terribly. But she is everywhere in my life, particularly with the book, and for that I am so grateful.
I actually wrote so much about her, that some material didn’t ultimately make it in the final manuscript. In cleaning up my computer today, I found a few pages about Me & Bella–The Beginning…
Bella & Me
Finding Bella was absolutely, hands and paws down, the best thing that ever happened to me. But I almost gave her up, a thought which makes me ill to even think about. But six weeks after I found her I was moving to Seattle to be with a boyfriend and into apartment that didn’t take dogs. Moving cities seemed like enough of a challenge and I knew how much it took to care for a dog. I had been a failure of a dog mom to my college dog Tucker, and I didn’t know if I could handle the responsibility of bringing Bella with me to a new city and a new life.
muchlove.org
Ambivalent but looking out for her best interest, I decided I would try to find a great home for Bella through a rescue group I worked with in Los Angeles called Much Love. As I handed her off to a volunteer and walked towards my car (they felt my bond with Bella was already too strong and she would show better at the adoption event if I wasn’t there), Bella got away from the volunteer, ran after me and tightly wrapped her two front paws around my waist in a hug. She clung to me like a child clings to her mom on her first day of school. Something inside me clicked. It felt like she was asking me not to let go, and to this day I never have.
I like to say the stars aligned when I found Bella. Although I had been hesitant to bring a dog with me to Seattle, the timing was actually perfect. I had a built-in best friend and more importantly, with no job, and no friends, I had a ton of time to devote to her and to being a stand-up dog mommy. Good thing too; I needed every I had to take care of Bella.
Seattle Public Market
When getting a dog, people often idealize what life with that dog will be like. And for everyone those dreams are different. For some it could be dressing their Chihuahua in cashmere sweaters and rhinestone tiaras as they tote their baby around the world in a Louis Vuitton caring case? For others it could be images of snuggling with a big mutt beside a cozy fire while sipping tea.
Before I left LA for the northwest, I dreamed of taking leisurely walks with Bella on the gorgeous walking trails around Seattle. I would be holding hands with hot my boyfriend who would then of course become my husband, who would also give me a big diamond ring, not too ostentatious of course, and that I would make lots of new friends in Seattle and it would all be awesome!
For better and for worse, things didn’t exactly turn out as I envisioned. Bella immediately put me through my paces as a mom. Within the first three months in Seattle she got thrown out of a daycare after 45 minutes (supposedly she jumped over a wrought iron gate then broke down a metal fence in an attempt to find me after I dropped her off).
daycare that Bella got thrown out of
Bella then attended a training camp for three weeks in which she learned exactly one thing-being at home with mommy was much better being at camp. Bella then had an adverse reaction to calming herbs given to her by the training camp herbalist, and her peristalsis shut down. Food was no longer moving through her digestive track and they performed emergency surgery.
I spent thousands of dollars and weeks in and out of emergency rooms. Dog mommy-hood, like Seattle (my own personal Seattle McDreamy and I broke up) didn’t quite turn out to be the rah-rah good time I was expecting. But even with all of this, I feel blessed. Bella turned out to be the best dog one could ask for.
Me & B
There are many wonderful dogs out there waiting to love you like Bella loved me. If you need help finding the right one for you, email me at betsy@lovethydog.com!
Last night I went to dinner with my friend Lewis at Nate n’ Als in Beverly Hills. As we drove by Cristoni, a nearby Pizza place, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was Mickey Rourke.
Mickey from TMZ
Once we parked, and walked by on foot, I saw that indeed I was correct! Mickey Rourke was having a slice with some buddies. Even TMZ snapped a pic of Mickey at the same time.
While I’m not a celebrity stalker, I had to compliment him on his amazing work on behalf of dogs and get a picture.
In Seattle a dog takes a walk into the woods which turns into a strange trip indeed…
In watching the above video I can see that one-eyed Jack’s parents took him to the same Seattle emergency vet hospital where Bella and I spent countless sleepless nights. When we were living up there Bella developed a severe intestinal problem which required numerous surgeries and, at least at the time, Seattle didn’t have any 24 hour emergency hospitals. During her recovery I would have to pick her up at the end of business day at the regular vet, transport her over to the overnight vet and then pick her back up at 7 am the next day and then take her back to the regular vet and start all over! It was crazy–a different kind of crazy that what one-eyed Jack went through.
In fact Jack is lucky that he has such vigilant owner. Marijuana is toxic to dogs as are a host of other foods and plants. Click here for a complete list.
I am wrapping up my quick trip to Copenhagen– arrived on Saturday at noon and we’re leaving Tuesday morning at 8 am– yes it’s insane, but it has been great.
Tivoli Gardens-Oldest Amusement Park
Aside from seeing all the sites, as the crazy dog person I am, I have been on the hunt to meet as many dogs as I can, and if possible give and get the maximum number of Danish puppy kisses. Clearly I’m a dog addict.
Anyway, thus far I have met about 5 dogs, and seen about 15 or so- that’s restraint I say. When I get home, I will post a picture of my favorite, Sima, a Jack Russell Terrier Rough Coat that gave me lots of kisses. Other than Sima, I saw a Rottie, a Cavalier, a Beagle, a few Goldens, some working Shepherds with police officers, two Labs, a Scottie, a Bernese Mountain Dog, some Poodles, Doxies, Chihuahuas and a Westie. I have to say they were all extremely well cared for which is always nice to see!
Danish Police Dog
I saw most of these dogs by our hotel, the Scandic. The hotel is sadly a little more Soviet circa 1972 than Danish modern chic, but what it lacks in charm it makes up for in location. It’s across the across the street from a jog/walking path that goes along one of Copenhagen’s many water ways. It’s quite picturesque with swans, ducks and a water feature that shoots water into the air.
Waterfront Park
And of course my favorite part was the many dogs I got to see on their daily walks. I even got to see a few of them multiple times as I sat outside and enjoyed the unusually warm for Copenhagen weather.
I will be coming back to the states tomorrow first to Philadelphia, then New York, and then Boston where I plan to continue my intercontinental dog tour!
Last week I was racing back to work after too long of a lunch and saw a gorgeous dog panting away inside a BMW in the hot sun. I was livid, but also late. Painfully ambivalent, I drove past; stopped, started, stopped, backed up, turned around and then parked. I waited for someone to come out hoping someone had just run into one of the houses. No one came out. I started a bitchy note, and headed to the car to check on the dog. Was I going to have to call the police? Animal Control… ugh and I was late!
Just as I was about the put the note on the windshield this ditzy girl emerged from one of the houses. I asked if it was her car and it was. I said oh well I was leaving you a note as it is too hot to leave her in the car. She replied that she was just coming to get her. Believing that you attract more bees with honey than vinegar, and knowing that I was super late, I stopped myself from unleashing a tirade upon this idiot. Besides she knew she effed up and that she was caught.
But it got me thinking what is the right move in these situations? What should you do if you find a dog in a hot car? And how hot is too hot to leave a dog in the car?
The answer to the first question is if you are concerned about a dog’s immediate health, go searching for the owner in nearby houses, restaurants and or shops and ask around if anyone saw who left the dog. If you are unsuccessful call the police and or the local animal control. If you have to smash the window, it will probably be better for you to have phoned the police first.
MyDogisCool.com
Another option is to leave one of these genius stickers made by United Animal Nations available on MyDogisCool.com. And if you have a towel to spare, cover the front windshield which is where a lot of the heat comes from.
And the answer to the second question is that according to a Stanford University test even when it is 72 degrees outside, a car’s internal temperature can rocket to 116 degrees within an hour, even with windows cracked. When it is 85 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car can soar to 102 degrees in 10 minutes and 120 degrees in 30 minutes. A dog can only withstand a high body temperature for a short time before suffering nerve damage, heart problems, liver damage, brain damage or even death.
So if it’s over 65 degrees leave your pooch at home! If you must bring them along, mitigate your quick trips in and out of the car by putting up a sunblocker in the front windshield, and installing car window ventilators. I have not used the ventilators myself so use with caution and don’t expect them to make it icy for your dog, just bearable for a few more minutes.
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Go Mickey!
