National Geographic: Those Wonderful Dogs (1989)

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National Geographic: Those Wonderful Dogs (1989)

Post by bunniefuu »

The English language contains

dozens of words that describe the dog

Yet none alone seems

entirely adequate

loving, loyal, devoted,

amusing, spirited, tireless

How they enchant us,

delight us, brighten our days

And how they work for us

Down through history no other animal

has served us in as many ways

Called by one philosopher

"the noblest beast God ever made,"

the dog is at work

On farms and in pastures

around the world...

Across the forbidding reaches

of the frozen North...

As comrades on the

battlefields of w*r...

Seeking even the faintest

scent of a buried victim

Of disaster...

Or a hiker who

has lost his way

And he is the devoted servant of he ill,

elderly, and handicapped

We will never know

exactly how this

unprecedented partnership

came about or when

But one story tells us:

"In the beginning

God created man,

but seeing him so feeble

He gave him the dog"

Every year since 1877 a stylized

ritual has been

repeated in Manhattan

the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

the world series of dogdom

Some 2,600 dogs, all purebreds

and prizewinners in other shows

will compete. Westminster

now welcomes 130 breeds and varieties

There are 52 million dogs

in the United States

While some romp in the yard

or sleep by the fire

others are being carefully primped

and primed to take home ribbons

"Oh, Rhye, Rhye, Rhye

Oh, Rhye, Rhye, Rhye

What do you think, huh?"

"Give me another kiss

Good boy!"

"You're a sweetheart

aren't you"

"That's $50.00

That's a show special

normally $79.95"

"Low sodium

A diet for your dogs

an all natural diet

No added preservatives

colorings, or flavorings"

"Oh, that ought to be great"

"Okay.

Try that out on him

and if you live in Manhattan

there's a store that delivers

for you right on the bag"

While most show

dogs today perform

no labor at all

outside the arena

historically

their ancestors worked

side by side with man

In fact, our unique

and splendid partnership

with the dog began

as a working relationship...

as long as ten to

fifteen thousand years ago

Over the centuries many

of their jobs became obsolete

One that has continued

is tending sheep

In New Zealand, sheep

outnumber people twenty to one

and a saying goes:

"No dog, no shepherd

No shepherd, no sheep

No sheep, no wool or meat"

With dogs at their side

New Zealand farmers

now rank second in wool exports

and are near the

top in meat products

Some of New Zealand's

back country is so

remote it is only

accessible by helicopter

The dogs may

not like the ride

but where the

shepherd goes

so goes his devoted dog

Grant and Robyn Calder run a sheep

station on New Zealand's

South Island

Grant is a champion

breeder and trainer of sheepdogs

in the tradition of his father and

grandfather before him

Much of New Zealand

is mountainous country

suitable only for grazing

Without the sheepdog

this would be wasteland.

Working their 13,000-acre property

with no additional hands,

the husband-and-wife

team herd 7,500 sheep.

"It's really an unusual partnership

that a husband

and wife work a farm

like this together

But thanks to the dogs

we can manage to do it

Without them,

we just couldn't do it

"A useless farmer could come on to

this place with my team of dogs

and work out how to work them

and actually make a living here

But if you took my dogs away

and left me on this place

we would be broke in 12 months"

"Here, pup, pup, pup, pup

Come on,

I have to give you a name"

One of the two types of dogs the

Calders breed

is called a "huntaway"

Grant begins training

at about three months

Huntaways work the

sheep from behind

facing away from

the shepherd

"That's the first signs

of a pup starting to work

is to go over there

like that and chase those sheep

If I put a string on that pup

the noise would start coming

and that's the makings

of a huntaway dog

"Two sheep over there

Good boy, good boy"

Even early in the training

a simple tug of the string

keeps this pup facing correctly

"Good boy. Good boy,

good boy, good boy"

This six-month-old

pup is learning not only

when to bark but when to stop

once the sheep obey him

or the shepherd commands him

"Will a go, Danny

Will a go

Good boy,

that's good. Good boy"

The second type working the

Calders' sheep is

called a "heading" dog

They virtually

never bark but control

the sheep entirely

with their eyes

"She tries to mesmerize them

She can introduce

herself quietly

looking straight

into the sheep's eyes"

Twice a year the Calders round up

from the high country

for shearing

to send to market,

or in this instance

to be dipped to protect their wool

Robyn works on a

high ridge and Grant is lower

down as they and their ten

dogs begin to pull the flock together

Because sheep in New Zealand

have no natural enemies

they have never developed

a herding instinct

and therefore

spread far afield

The dogs are tireless and would

literally work until they drop

It's not unusual in the course of

a day for them to

cover up to 50 miles

Over the years, man has channeled

the dog's ancient

hunting instincts into herding

and driving behavior

Their shepherds command the

dogs with words or by whistling

"They're just basic commands

A 'run' command (he whistles it)

You want him to run slow,

you can vary it...

"(...he whistles)

'Left hand' (he whistles)

'Right hand' (he whistles)

'Stop' (he whistles)"

"When he's finished the job,

you have two commands to call him off

One's 'Well a go' and the

other one is (he whistles). Well a go"

"It's hard to believe

how tough dogs are

And on this property they work

in extreme conditions in

all types of weather

Even with a dog in those

sort of conditions

everything might be against him

He might have cut feet, he might

have snowballs built up on him

They will always try and run

they will always try their

best to do and complete

the job that you've

put in front of them"

Like army sergeants on alert,

the dogs keep the flock moving

In one week's time

the remarkable team of two people

and their

ten steadfast dogs have completed

the roundup

"A dog's work is never done

And when he finishes on the hill

he comes into the real hard work

of slogging in the hot yards

The hotter it gets, the more the sheep

put their heads down and won't go

And we tend to only work

with one or two dogs in the yards

so that we can alternate them

so that each dog gets a turn

because it is hot and dry

dusty, dirty work"

Because of the intense heat

the tired sheep often

don't want to move

creating traffic jams

in the tight confines of the pen

To find the offenders the dogs

simply make

a sidewalk out of the backs of

the sheep

After a chemical dip for protection

against external parasites

the sheep will be set free to wander up

to the

high country again

to graze until the next roundup

And then, once more,

when the shepherds head for the hills

their canine partners

will be by their sides

"For us to spend a day

on the hill

horse and dogs

the companionship and love

and hard work that they give to us

you could never receive from

any other animal in the world"

The New Zealand

farmer and his dog

have become

a world-famous partnership

Today, more than

are on the job

across the country

Probably the most

photographed is this one

a public tribute

to the dogs that help

keep the economy

so vital and alive

The origins

of the domesticated dog

lie shrouded

in the distant past

but it is generally

agreed that the dog evolved from

the wolf or that both share

a common ancestor

Wolves and dogs have

the same basic anatomy

physiology, and

patterns of behavior

and underneath the dog's

domestic facade

lie the instincts

of a predatory hunter

Wolves live and hunt in packs

Unlike other meat-eaters

such as members of the cat family

that ambush their prey

wolves stalk chase

after, and run down prey

However

as the wolf quickly learns

even with the

cooperation of the pack

he is no match for

an animal as large as a bison

The mainstay of the

wolf's diet are animals

the size of deer

small moose, or elk

Pack behavior is

strictly regulated by a

dominance hierarchy

understood by all members

In the dog, pack loyalty

is basically unaltered

even after thousands

of years of domestication

The main difference is the dog

looks to man as leader of the pack

Modern-da scientists have

pondered why early man

himself a flesh-eating hunter

would have turned competitors

like wolves or wild dogs into allies

Animal behaviorist Dr. Michael Fox

one of the world's leading

experts on wolves and dogs

has one explanation for

how the partnership may have begun

"I feel that dogs

and humans came together

because of their

similarity in lifestyles

to the degree that we hunted

in small packs

we were gatherer-hunters

and the dog-wolf ancestor

was like that too"

"And it's quite probable that the

early hunting societies found

that dogs were pretty good allies

if they were properly

socialized to help locate

and even ambush prey"

"Dogs, in their long

association with us

have powers of manipulation"

"In one sense we have

domesticated them

but they have domesticated us too

We have the situation

where the dog will come up

and just look at you and look at

you and you have to feed it

The dog knows how

to touch your heart

They have a power in the eye"

"Some people think that

their dogs have ESP

that they know what

you're feeling and thinking

But they are acute observers

of our body language depressed happy

or anxious and reading

all that all the time...

"...because that's how they

communicate with each other too"

In finding out about each other

and the rest of the world

smell is the

dog's primary tool

It is said their

ability to smell is at least

than our own

Their hearing

too, is better than ours

but they see less

well and are colorblind

There are 350 recognized

breeds of dogs in the world

Regardless of

outward differences

they are all the same species,

Canis familiaris

Their wide diversity

in appearance can often be

explained by the

work humans have bred dogs to do

In the language of

his native Germany

dachshund means "badger dog"

His short, stubby

legs and narrow body made him

ideal for squeezing

into burrows after prey

Terriers, too, were bred small

and low to the ground

so they could plunge into dark

holes in pursuit of rats or foxes

The name terrier comes from

the Latin word terra, or earth

Whippets and greyhounds

are long-legged

and sleek because they

were bred for hunting and racing

Firehouse mascots today

Dalmatians were companions

to charioteers in ancient times

In Elizabethan England they

gained fame as coach dogs

with a calming effect on the horses

The regal chow chow boasts a

in China as hunter and guard

For centuries dogs

have helped man hunt

Today, we have made

them highly specialized

Pointers only point nose high,

body frozen in place

And retrievers only retrieve

joyfully leaping into even frigid

waters to bring back their quarry

From predatory

wild animals we have created

regardless of breed

the most adaptable and sociable

of all domesticated animals

It is not precisely known when

we first put dogs

to work as entertainers

but one of the most famous

adored by countless millions, is Lassie

Bob Weatherwax,

son of the original Lassie trainer

is no preparing the seventh generation

Lassie for an upcoming television series

To get the seven dogs who have

actually appeared on the screen

Bob and Rudd Weatherwax had to

breed more than

coloration, intelligence

and temperament

On screen, the Lassie character

has always been a female

but in reality all Lassies have

been male collies

because males tend to have a more

luxuriant coat and greater stamina

The Lassie legend began in the 1940s

with a dog named Pal

"Originally Lassie... MGM

had their own collie to do Lassie

It was a female dog, which is what

Eric Knight wrote

the story around because it had to

have puppies

And my father's dog was

hired as a double dog

and it was a male

collie called Pal

"And I think he knew that the other dog

couldn't do this performance..."

"...and they had a spot where

Lassie had just

come from Scotland back to England

And he had to cross a river,

and it's a nice scene"

The genius of Rudd Weatherwax came

through in this scene in

which he taught Lassie to look

naturally exhausted

as if it weren't a trick at all

"Come on, crawl"

The mind of the dog,

no mater how bright he may be

cannot conceptualize "look tired"

But the dog can obey a series of

off-screen commands

given in a specific order that result

in the tired look the audience sees

"Speak. Stay, stay.

That's the boy. Stay"

Compared to many dogs that bring

a large measure of instinct to

their work

dog actors start

out as a blank slate

Because they are intelligent

they are capable of learning

The motivation to learn

the willingness to behave

in such un-doglike ways

is based simply on the

dog's desire for human praise

"Dog is man's best friend'

I figure the most domesticated

of all animals and they want

to please us

They want to be with man

It's like A for effort'

they'll give you that effort

"All right, come on!

Up! up! All right

come on over here,

come on

All right, take a bow"

The earth's ice-locked polar

regions could

never have been explored without dogs

In the early 1900s sled dog teams

brought Peary to

the North Pole and Amundsen

to the South

When northern regions were settled

dogs became an essential part of life

Until the advent of airplanes

and snowmobiles

dogs alone transported mail

and supplies

pulled sleds, took hunters

in search of prey

Today in Alaska, the pioneering

spirit of that earlier times

is celebrated in a grueling

Beginning in Anchorage

and ending in Nome

it covers a distance roughly the same

as from Seattle to Los Angeles

Its name, Iditarod, is said to come

from the trail that

was once the lifeline linking far-flung

villages in the interior

Two-time champion of what is called the

"last great race on earth" is

A world-class athlete

and now a celebrity

she is going for an unprecedented

third consecutive win

She hopes to b*at her 11-day record

and take home the $30,000 first prize

"Five minutes until we drop?

Yeah."

"I've been racing in the

Iditarod for ten years now

And I think over all the years

I've been basically in the top ten

and I think that all comes

from my training ability

with the dogs and the time

that I spend with them

and the conditioning

that I put on them

And then the rest has

to be up to the dogs

I've got good dogs

and I bred them and raised

them purely for long-distance racing"

Many observers feel that the time

Susan spends with her dogs

and the affection she lavishes on them

are key elements of her success

Fifty-three teams will leave

at two-minute intervals

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one, go"

"All right"

"Over the years I've really seen that

dogs love to

race and know what it's all about

When they see a team in front of them

they'll pick up their pace

and want to pass around them

And what I found out

is they know then

when there's no other team in

front of them

because there's no dog scent

on the trail"

In 1975 when she moved to

America's last frontier

the adventuresome 20-year-old

first lived in a tent

then single-handedly

built a log cabin

She was 30 miles from

her nearest neighbors

the nearest road

She started out with only three dogs

and today has a breeding kennel

with 130

Susan raises only Alaskan Huskies

a line bred from Eskimo and Indian dogs

"Well, I changed the teams

around today, David"

"Susan runs Trail Breaker Kennel

with her husband

David Monson,

himself a champion racer

"I was born in Cambridge,

Massachusetts

but I've always felt I was born in the

wrong century and in the wrong place

And so I kept moving

north and west

And I've always loved animals

and they've

been the most important thing

in my life

And so I was looking to

incorporate living

in the wilderness and working with dogs

and I found the

perfect thing"

"How's your baby. How are they?

Hi, guys. Heigh-o"

In the early days of

sled-dog racing

breeding was often a

haphazard mater

But Susan Butcher knows that good racing

dogs don't just happen without

careful planning

"Every summer I raise a number of

puppies-between 50 and 100 pups

And I'll pick out two

of my best dogs

Usually if I have a very fast dog

but maybe it doesn't have

a good enough coat

I'll breed it to one

with a good coat

"But the most important thing

is that they

have bred into them the desire to

pull and the desire to travel"

And travel they do

every day, with either

Susan or her dog handler

These four-month-old pups are

learning that running

that running is fun and that being

with people is fun

"There's a lot of mushers that don't

really like

to make their dogs into pet dogs

and feel that they have to keep them

very separated

to make them a working animal only

But I feel that the best thing

that you can do

with a dog is to really bond them

to yourself

So we're just trying to teach them to

respect us and trust us and vice versa

I have to trust my life in their

hands all the time

and they should learn to trust me

with their life

And then when you're

out there racing

that trust is what's going

to make you able to win"

"Are you going to be my

next all-time best leader?

Are you going to be my

all-time best leader?"

Every night Susan and David

bring a few dogs

into the cabin for extra attention

It's done as part of Susan's

training strategy

but also because she quite

simply adores her dogs

"Every fall is a really exciting

time for me and for the dogs

As the temperatures

get colder

we just develop a certain

excitement towards winter

When it starts to get cold

the dogs just start

making a lot of noise

running around their chains;

they're just antsy

They want to get going

They just show me in many ways

that they're ready to roll

ready for the racing season"

All the adult dogs are run three to

four times a week throughout the year

As with all athletes

conditioning is vital

to their performance

When snow cover is too thin

to be safe for the sled

the dogs pull an all-terrain

vehicle left in neutral gear

To some 200 miles

of trails,

Susan adds new ones each year to

keep the dogs from getting bored.

"A lot of people would look at my life

and think it's a lot of hard work

But for me,

it's a labor of love

I spend all day long with

my dogs and work with them

And I'm my own boss; there's

no one telling me

what to do or at what time to do

I live way out here where

I can go anywhere

and do anything at any time of day

And I love that freedom"

"The best things for

long-distance racing

dogs are a fast trotting speed

and then they have

to have good feet

and you just want them

to have a good attitude

Their heads are bent

and they're just going for it

and they're paying attention to you

and you're paying attention to them

and you just are

working as a team"

Like a coach with

marathon runners

Susan gradually increases

the length of the runs

Her goal is 50 miles

without tiring

The dogs, never more happy

than when on the trail

joyfully oblige

Twelve to sixteen hours a day

the routine seldom varies

The culmination in March: the chance to

compete in the most punishing

race on earth

The mushers, as sled-dog

drivers are called

brave temperatures that

can drop to 40 below

Except for one mandatory

they may sleep only an

hour or so each day

and only after the dogs

are tended and fed

The route can be potentially

treacherous at every turn

In 1985 a moose

att*cked Susan's dogs

forcing her out of the race

On the last leg of the race

along the frozen Bering Sea

mushers encounter the

most severe weather

It is Susan Butcher's

tenth day out and

she is trailing as she has for

most of the race

Now, a violent storm has forced

temperatures to plunge

and swirling snow has obliterated

much of the trail

Both Susan and the dogs are pushed

to the limit of their endurance

The storm has thwarted her nearest

competitors

who have stopped to wait it out

Undaunted,

Susan Butcher charges on

In Nome expectant

crowds gather

The ham-radio operator at the

last checkpoint has reported

that the first musher might reach

the finish line at any time

In 11 days, 11 hours,

and 42 minutes

a jubilant but exhausted Susan

Butcher becomes the

first person ever to win the Iditarod

three consecutive times

Susan is a full 14 hours

ahead of any other musher

Some will not cross the finish

line for several more days

Amazingly, Susan could have made even

better time than she did if

she had wanted

but she put the safety and well-being

of the dogs above all else

"It was a matter of either go for a

record competing against

only Father Time

and no other musher and possibly

take more out of the team

than I like to

or just to take good care of the team

and be well satisfied with a victory

And I thought that

sounded a lot safer"

Susan and racing enthusiasts

everywhere know

the real tribute belongs to the bravery

love, and indomitable spirit

of these magnificent dogs

On an ordinary street in an

ordinary California town

a drama anything but ordinary

is quietly unfolding

Seventeen-year-old Mike Knowlton

was born with spina bifida

a disabling birth defect of the spine

that occurs in one to two out of

every thousand babies born

in the United States.

"Good girl. Hi, girl. Yeah"

Mike must be cared

for by his parents

Joy and Dale Knowlton

for he is totally paralyzed

from the chest down

Mike walked on his own

for many years

Then, without warning,

his condition worsened

"The last time he was walking

was right about here"

"At that point in time

he had to have support

from one of us to move his legs"

"When we were told he was paralyzed

and a wheelchair

was going to be

with him the rest of his life..."

"Michael went into a depression

for about two years

It was very hard

for him to adjust"

Now a dog has come into Mike's life

and the depression has lifted

Her name is Zest

"Zest has made a major change

If I didn't have her

I don't know what

I would do"

"She just really

helps me a lot"

A unique organization called

Canine Companions for Independence

or CCI,

brought Mike and Zest together

Using dogs to guide the blind

is a well known success story

CCI pioneered the idea that dogs

could also help the wheelchair-bound

During an intensive

two-week training program

students master 89 commands

For their safety as well as the dogs'

and the public's

they must gain total control over the

animals' actions

CCI instructors have spent

six months training the dogs

"All right. Good boy.

Good girl. Get happy everybody"

One of the most important

jobs is retrieving

"Look. Get it.

Bring it here. Good girl"

Keys are especially difficult

because of their uneven edges

and dogs dislike

the taste of metal

"All right!

Good boy!"

Because they will be going home

to very diverse environments

the teams are put into as many

real-life situations

as possible during the two-week course

Today, on a college campus the dogs

encounter some other

dogs that at first they think are real

"These are the kinds of things you

guys need to anticipate

know that it's

going to come up

These things happen

all the time"

Some in the class have driven in vans

equipped with electronic lifts

but none has had prior experience

with a bus.

For the dogs too, this is a first

"Remember, this is as new for

her as it is for you

And even though

it's new for you

you have to portray to her

that you're confident"

"Yeah. Okay, Zest"

"The most frustrating part was

having them

tell me to have the dog do something

And the dog wouldn't do it

and they wanted to tell me

how to get the dog to do it

But my biggest thing was would

I be able to make it

through the two weeks because

I kind of had doubts"

"No, Zest. Zest.

Come on"

"She should come to you

not go around behind there

She doesn't understand

that concept"

"Okay, Well,

what do I do to get her to..."

"You need to do what you need to

take care of yourself and your dog"

"I'll start over again"

The sheer physical exertion would

cause some to simply give up

But Mike is determined

Finally,

he and Zest are successful

Even for those with

the use of their arms

fatigue is a major factor that

often keeps them housebound

Dogs are a wonderful solution

for they will pull tirelessly

At the end of the two weeks,

the last hurdle

is the final exam

Of the more than 300 teams that have

gone through CCI since it began in 1975

humans have passed

With well-deserved pride

the class arrives

for graduation

threshold to their

new independence

"As you can see,

this is quite a loving team

And throughout their lives

there's always going to be

a lot of love

and commitment

on the part of these two

Mike worked very hard in

this class and so did Zest

And congratulations

to both of you"

"Ladies and gentlemen,

Mike and Ziggy"

The diplomas, appropriately

are inscribed

with both names

student and dog alike

"Mike and Zest"

Today Mike is a

high-school senior

Having Zest has helped Mike

vastly broaden his horizons

and now for the

first time he is

considering going

on with his education

a vocational

school where he thinks

he might study

computer science

Whenever Mike is working

Zest has been trained to rest quietly

by his side and not disrupt

the classroom

But at those moments

when he needs her help

Zest knows

it's time to work

"She does things like picks up papers

or pens and makes me feel independent

like I don't always

have to ask somebody

I can just go to

Zest and tell her"

All CCI graduates

report a dramatic rise in

self-esteem because

of the dog's role as icebreaker

People who normally feel awkward

approaching a person

in a wheelchair do not feel

uncomfortable in the presence of the dog

"I'm real shy

and the last couple of months it seems

like it's easier to go up to people

because most of the time

people come up to her

And I kind of get

into the conversation

It helps me to

get to know people"

"We didn't realize that kind of a bond

could be between

a dog and a person

It really gives us a

different perspective"

"We didn't realize

that a dog could do as much for

Michael's emotions

as this dog has done"

"Okay, Zest

Come here

Up switch,

Zest

Good dog

That's it

That's it

Good girl

Okay, Zest

Come on

Good dog

A boy needing help

and a loving canine at his side

Perhaps nowhere is

the age-old covenant between man

and dog more poignantly felt than here

In northern California one man

remembers a partnership

with dogs that many people

have never even heard of

For the 13 months he served

in Europe during World w*r II

Joe Simpson fought

alongside a dog

"Atta girl, heel"

They were one of the earliest teams

in what was known as the K-9 Corps

"In 1942 the K-9 Corps

was formed by a group of

civilians from the New

England Dog Training Club"

"And Dogs for Defense was

formed at the same time

and they picked 14 Guys

out of 5,000 volunteers

And fortunately,

I was one of the 14 picked

not because I knew anything

about dogs necessarily

but because I was in

the horse business

And this is how I got

started in the K-9 Corps"

Patriotic families

everywhere across America

volunteered their dogs to help

the w*r effort

Rovers, Spots, and Fidos

of al descriptions were sent off

to an uncertain

future in the Army, Marines

or Coast Guard

Like their human counterparts

all dogs were

examined for fitness

"Any new man that

came in got a new dog

And they taught us to

make the dog heel

sit, and down, and stay

and all the

obedience commands

"And these dogs then went through

the training with the master

And then when

that was through

certain ones that were

fit for att*ck training

if they had enough

aggressiveness in them

were put into att*ck classes

And the dogs that were better

for messenger work

were trained for that

Some dogs were trained

for pack dogs

So it was quite a course"

In Europe dogs were

used in World w*r I

but this was our first

use of them in combat

Some 10,000 served

in many of the bloodiest

battles across Europe

and the South Pacific

"If you needed to send a message back

to the forward outpost

we had a messenger

collar that we'd put the

message in and put it around the dog

And the dog had to learn that

when this collar was on him

he was to run as fast as he

could back to the other master"

Messenger dogs had to develop

equal loyalty to two masters

because they worked by going

from one to the other

To ignore the

noise and flames from

exploding shells

was hardest to teach

"The dogs didn't have

to reach up and tap us on the

shoulder to tell us that

there were some Germans over there

We knew by watching our dog

and being able to read the dog

this is very important

with anyone working a dog

if you can

read the dog

then you'll know what the dog

is trying to tell you"

"And I owe my life to my dog

and I'm sure

a lot of the other

handlers would say the same thing."

Joe Simpson was one of many who

brought their dogs

home after the w*r

Intensive demilitarization programs

retrained the animals

before they were allowed to return

to civilian life as the gentle

and loving pets they

had originally been

One phase of training similar

to that for w*r

dogs is used in

search and rescue work

More than 70 such groups now

exist across the United States

All volunteers

they work alongside law

enforcement teams in wilderness

rescues and the aftermath of disasters

"Go through.

No, no, no. No cheating"

It takes hundreds

of hours of training

before a team can be sent on a mission

"Go through"

Early on a dog

often needs to be coaxed

"Okay

Try that way again?

Want to go through?"

Go.

All the way

Good girl!

Good girl!"

What handlers look for

is not the breed itself

many breeds are used

but qualities like intelligence,

curiosity,

and self-confidence

The dogs must be

taught agility so

they can safely

negotiate boulders

and other obstacles

in the woods

as well as piles

of disaster rubble

"Climb.

Good girl"

Shirley Hammond is both

a handler and a trainer

"What we do is we start

the dogs out very young

if we can although

we can start older dogs

teaching them on

an agility course

"We do a lot of ladder

climbing with the dogs

And this teaches them

to use their back feet

Their back feet just normally

follow their front feet

and they do not develop

a knowledge of back feet

unless they're taught to do

something feeling

what they're putting it on

and feeling for stability with it"

"Good dog,

Tasha

Good girl!

Good dog!"

This 12-week-old puppy confronts

a ladder for the first time

In addition to the

obstacle course

they train on a rubble pile

that simulates a disaster area

The uniform and helmet

signal to Shirley's dog

Cinnamon that

now they are working

Trained not to follow her instincts

to jump off the unstable boards

Cinnamon zigzags across the rubble

in what is known as air-scenting

trying to pick up the victim's

scent on the air currents

She has been trained to cover

the entire area thoroughly

Once the victim,

in this case a volunteer

has been found

the dog's job is

to scratch and bark to alert

the handler to the

area with the most intense scent

"Put that one back there

Oh, look

What did you find, Cin?"

Finding the victim is the

dog's primary reward

It is essential that

physical contact be made

so the dog knows

she's done her job well

"Good girl,

you found him

You've got him

where you want him now

Yeah I've got

him where I want him

Did you find him, huh?"

In 1985 Shirley and

Cinnamon were one of 13 U. S

search-dog teams that made

a vital contribution in a real

life disaster the

devastating earthquake

that wracked Mexico City

The soft sub-soils underlying the city

and inadequate building codes

were blamed

when hundreds of

buildings collapsed

Thousands were injured

thousands more left homeless

As many as 10,000 d*ed

"It was really hard

to believe because

there were buildings

standing with glass

and beautiful structures

that were just...

"...pancaked to the floor

This is a building

that was 11, 12, 14 stories

Suddenly,

it's down to 10, 20, 30 feet high

because some of them actually

sank down into their basements

They went that far down"

"Can you jump?

Up, up.

In you go"

Twelve hours

a day for a week

the teams searched through

the twisted rubble

Hundreds of people surely lay trapped

but where?

And could the dogs find

any of them in time?

"Cin, stay, stay"

"They cock their head and listen

with their ears as

if maybe they might even

be able to hear

the victims after they would bark

as if they were kind of calling

to them by their barking"

"And the other side of that coin,

of course

is when they did locate someone buried

under the rubble that

as gone, deceased

it was a very

low-key reaction

Just a little pawing

and a little whining"

Amazingly,

even at week's end

victims were found

still clinging to life

"Agua, agua"

Only hours old

when the quake hit

this baby was trapped

for nine days

Doctors cannot easily

explain her survival

Others see it simply

as a gift from God

"The Mexican people were just wonderful

to us and it was a warm, warm feeling

They were so...

"...appreciative

of our being there

And it was really a

very unique position to know

that you were doing

something that was helpful

and that your dog

was able to do it

It's a feeling that says

this is what we've done it for

All the times we've been wet,

we've been cold...

"...we've been tired,

we've been hot

This is real and it's

so exciting so exciting"

Many thousands

of years ago

some long-forgotten

caveman welcomed a wild animal

into his home to share

his fire and food

Through the centuries

the dogs that

evolved have remained

our enduring helpmates

and unfaltering friends

Our own success as a species

is due in no small

measure to the fact that a

canine partner has been by our side

Intelligent and loyal

beyond measure

dogs ask little from us in return

for their unquestioning devotion

In fact

most dogs do not see

work as work

but thrive on serving us simply

for the praise of a job well done

"Give. Good girl

Yeah, good girl"

In commenting on

this age-old partnership

one author has written:

"We give them the love we can spare

the time we can spare,

the room we can spare

In return

dogs have given us

their absolute all

It is without a doubt the

best deal man has ever made"
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