Tag: Massachusetts

His first working dog.

I have permission from Jason to republish his post.

When I receive notice that there has been a new follower of Learning from Dogs I go across to their blog site and leave a ‘thank you’ note..

So it was with Jason who, I assume, is a relatively new member of the WordPress club. He has published a blog Life Journeys and Passions. The first post is How I met my first working dog.

As soon as I read it I contacted Jason and asked his permission to share it with you all.

Here it is!

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How I met my first working dog.

April 6th, 2023

Hello, my name is Jason. For as long as I can remember, I have loved dogs. Dogs have been a big part of my life while growing up. They have also been a big part of having a family with kids. 

I am super lucky, because over the last couple of years, I have had the job of my dreams. I get to work with a dog every day. This dog has become my best friend, she has become my work partner, and she has become a very important part of my family.

I am excited to share my stories about this big, floppy eared, wrinkly faced, hard working Bloodhound. Would it surprise any of you that the job that Sophie and I do every day is to help find people that have gone missing?

Her nose, second to none in the dog world, has helped the community where we work to find people in many aspects. We have found criminals that have ran away from law enforcement, we have found missing children that ran away from home, and we have helped look for people that for any number of circumstances were in danger if they weren’t found in a timely manner.

This is Sophie!

I hope to be able to entertain you with stories of this wonderful dog. She’s got a stubborn streak both while working and while at home. She has made life interesting to be sure, and more entertaining and loving than I deserve in a friend and partner. I want to share my story of how I met her. 

Unfortunately, her story wasn’t one without a few struggles of her own. She had to deal with some struggles before I was able to be lucky enough to have her stumble head first into my life. Maybe in some ways though, her and I were better off having to work through some of the repercussions of moving away from multiple families. Maybe because of what she went through, it opened my eyes to the opportunity to train with her in more than just search and rescue type work. 

It’s been a long road from the time that I got her. Trying to help her get through her anxiety and stress that led to her sometimes biting people, dog aggression, and sometimes just not wanting to listen to me at all.

The dog that I live with now is still a working machine. She loves the hunt more than anything else. So much so that if we go too many days without it, she starts destroying my house. Instead of the biting and hating other dogs, she now gets to live with my family of a wife and two children. She has grown to love and co-exist with a stubborn Rottweiler that constantly gives her a run for her money.

I still wonder how I had the opportunity to have a dog that was born and raised in Massachusetts. At least for the first two years of her life.

Her story started with a hound handler that had many years, and many hounds during his time of working with dogs. Sophie was still really young when her handler had an unfortunate thing happen to him. He injured his back to where he was no longer able to run with a hound the same way he had in the past.

With her age, abilities, and ultimately what she was bred for, her first owner decided that he still wanted the world to have the opportunity to have Sophie provide her assistance to a community somewhere.

Across the United States in the state of Utah was a small police department that had been in contact with the organization that Sophie’s handler was part of. The police chief with this department had attended a seminar where this organization presented the abilities and benefits of a hound working for a local police department.

This police chief made quick friends with the people of this organization. He was also invited to Massachusetts where he spent some time watching the hounds work. Learning first hand what these amazing dogs can do to help find missing people.

When this organization realized that Sophie needed a new home, they contacted this chief from Utah and told them of a rare opportunity they wanted to offer him. They told him that they had a hound that needed to be re-homed. That she was a couple of years old, and was fully trained in her abilities. All she needed was a handler and a department willing to use her. The chief of police sent his lieutenant to Massachusetts where he spent about a week learning the basics of how Sophie worked. The lieutenant then drove back to Utah to start a bloodhound unit program with this police department.

A couple of years in of getting this program off of the ground, another incident happened. Sophie’s new handler got injured. For month’s it was thought that the lieutenant would be back to work. He was adamant that he wanted to stay with the department until Sophie retired so he could take her with him. He came to the realization though, that he was going to have to leave before Sophie could retire.

It was rumored around the police department that Sophie was just going to retire with the lieutenant even though she had years left available to keep working and providing for the community. One day, the lieutenant announced that he wanted officers to put in letters of interest to be the new hound handler for the department. He told those interested that there was going to be a panel of three officers, all hound handlers from Utah, that would decide who the best candidate would be for Sophie.

I was about two years into my career as a law enforcement officer at this same police department where Sophie worked. When I first started in law enforcement, my goal and biggest dreams were to work with a dog in some capacity. When I heard that they were looking for people that wanted the position, I didn’t think much of it. I was newer, other more experienced officers were putting in for the position, and I didn’t know if I wanted to run a tracking/trailing dog. I had always dreamed of having a dog that helped find drugs or had a more known job as a police officer.

I was called by my lieutenant shortly after the position to be Sophie’s handler opened up. He was aware that I have always wanted to be a K9 handler. He knew that I spent a lot of time working with another officer with the department that has a dog used to find drugs. He told me that he wanted me to put in for the position.

I wrote my letter of interest, then started the process of getting ready to interview. I had a small amount of experience with training a dog that I had previously that had behavior issues. My experience was no more than working with a company that helped with behavioral modification for my dog that had health and anxiety issues.

During the interview, among many questions, I was asked what experience I had working with dogs. I shared the small bit of experience that I had. Among all the other questions that stood out to me was asking if my family was prepared for the time and energy it took to be a police K9 handler. I was able to explain to them that my wife was very aware that having a dog in a working capacity has been a dream of mine even before meeting her. That I probably have no idea how big of a commitment this really was, but if given the opportunity, I would give it my all and put forth all the effort I could to succeed.

Hours after the interview, my lieutenant called me and one other officer that made it to the final interview process. The call was to announce to the two of us who had gotten the position. I expected this other officer, almost a 20 year veteran officer, to get the position. Well, I was pleasantly surprised and shocked that my name was the one called to be Sophie’s next handler!

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I hope you read it completely through because you would agree with me that this is most interesting. Hopefully, Jason will be publishing more posts.

Beyond the Call of Duty

A little coyote pup is rescued by a policeman.

I am republishing a post from The Dodo. It is dated May, 2019 but the actions, feelings and results are timeless.

Have a read of it yourself.

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Kind Cop Goes Above And Beyond For A Lonely Little Coyote Pup

He found a friend when he needed it most ❤

By Stephen Messenger

Published on 5/9/2019

Stop in the name of the awww.

This week, a Massachusetts State Police trooper did just that — coming to the aid of a helpless young coyote pup who’d been found stranded all alone along a busy roadway.

MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE

Seeing that the pup’s mother was nowhere in sight, trooper Carlo Mastromattei contacted Lisa Cutting, owner of Ocean View Kennels, for help in safely removing the animal from that perilous spot.

The pup was now out of immediate danger, but Mastromattei’s kindhearted actions didn’t end there.

MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE

At that late hour, all nearby wildlife rehab facilities were apparently closed. So, the trooper then decided to go above and beyond his call of duty in order to keep the little coyote safe until morning.

Mastromattei brought the pup home, where he and his girlfriend kept him cozy and fed through the night.

MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE

The next day, Mastromattei brought the coyote to the Tufts Wildlife Clinic for a checkup. Fortunately, he was found to be in good health — thanks in no small part to the trooper having rescued him in time.

MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE

According to the Massachusetts State Police, the young coyote has since been placed under the care of a wildlife rehabilitator. With any luck, he’ll continue gaining his strength until he’s old enough to be released back into the wild to live life as nature intended.

For their efforts, those involved in the pup’s rescue are getting some much-deserved praise from police officials, who wrote in a post:

“The Department offers its sincere thanks to Trooper Mastromattei, his girlfriend, Ocean View Kennels, and Tufts for their compassionate care for this beautiful little creature.”

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I would like to bet that Carlo Mastromattei has a dog at home. For this compassion shown by Carlo Mastromattei is surely brought about by having a dog or two in his life.

I guess we will never know but my bet stands.

Rebooting an inmate’s life

This is no conundrum: a direct contrast to yesterday.

The benefits of having a dog or two (or nine) are boundless and have been documented for thousands of years. Indeed, a quick web search revealed that Alexander Pope, the 18th-century English poet, is the attributed author of the quote, “Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”

Nevertheless, it was still a joy to come across the documentary film Dogs On The Inside.

Filmed in a Massachusetts prison, DOGS ON THE INSIDE follows the birth of a relationship between abandoned rescue dogs and prison inmates as they work together toward a second chance at a better life. Giving a voice to a forgotten dog and a forgotten man, the film is a life-affirming testament to the power of second chances.

The film was released in February 2014, and here is the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ZjxPqL_EQ

In general, it seems to have gathered good reviews with this one from Amazon being typical of what I have seen.

I had tears in my eyes during several segments of this film. Such a lovely connection between the rescue workers and the dogs. Then, the inmates and the dogs. And, finally, the photos of their forever homes and families. Bravo to all at Don’t Throw Us Away. People like you, who work to save and rehab these animals, are amazing.

You are also recommended to read the review that is on the Ecorazzi website. Here’s a flavour of that review:

Two parties neglected and forgotten become the powerful emotional center of an uplifting new documentary, Dogs on the Inside.

We’re taken to Massachusetts, where there exists a unique, mutually-beneficial rehabilitation program that finds rescue dogs paired with prison inmates.

This documentary, from directors Brean Cunningham and Douglas Seirup, follows a handful of inmates at a correctional facility involved in Don’t Throw Us Away, a program that partners them with neglected dogs. For the animal, benefits include exercise, attention, and care while shelters remain crowded. For the prisoners, they have a chance to form connections and work towards parole.

It’s fascinating throughout watching both sides – scared dogs and (emotionally) guarded inmates – warm to one another, seemingly leaving their past behind.

That’s at the heart of this illuminating, heartwarming film: second chances. Early on, it’s easy to see the parallels between these two groups – with the comparisons handled tactfully throughout a film that never strays from its simple, honest goal. Dogs never preaches or calls for political or social change; it more so asks the viewer to be willing to forgive and welcome in those which have been cast aside. When an inmate says, ‘they come from a bad life, they haven’t seen love in while,’ he isn’t necessarily talking just about the dog.

Let me close with this heart-stirring photograph that was included in the above review.

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So much to learn from our precious, gorgeous dogs!

Help stop this cruelty to dogs and cats.

A recent petition from Change.org

I subscribe to Change.org and recently this came into my email in-box.

Tell Veterinarians: Devocalization is Mutilation!

Started by: Sue Perry

It’s hard to believe, but some vets actually cut the vocal cords of dogs AND cats just to suppress their voices. We know because it happened to our dogs before we adopted them. They’re two very different breeds—a Newfoundland and a Chihuahua—and we live in two different states.

We joined with Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets, which led the successful campaign to ban devocalization in Massachusetts, to make sure no other dog or cat anywhere suffers as ours have.

But until the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) changes its position on devocalization, countless other dogs AND cats will be subjected to this inhumane, unnecessary surgery.

Though devocalization is so cruel it is illegal in many countries, the AVMA continues to condone it as a “final alternative” to manage barking.

That leaves animals vulnerable to and legitimizes devocalization. Here’s why:

No vet can possibly know if devocalization is a “final alternative,” and some won’t ask. Even receipts from a trainer or behaviorist don’t mean the advice was followed consistently or at all; devocalization is easier for lazy or impatient owners.

And just as devocalization didn’t keep our dogs from becoming homeless, it hasn’t prevented the abandonment and euthanasia of countless other dogs and cats.

HOW AVMA’S POSITION HURTS ANIMALS

Massachusetts currently has the only enforceable state devocalization ban in the US. Other state laws protect owners and vets but not animals, who are subjected to a dangerous surgery they don’t need but are helpless to refuse: http://cprpets.weebly.com/loopholes-that-hurt-animals.html

We wish veterinary associations had supported legislation that truly protects animals by prohibiting vocal cord surgery except to treat a physical illness, injury or birth defect.

Instead, these associations have opposed enforceable humane laws, using the AVMA’s “final alternative” position to justify cutting an animal’s vocal cords just to deal with barking or meowing.

Why would any vet condone such cruelty? It’s obvious that some devocalize dogs and cats because it’s profitable. Others won’t devocalize but oppose banning it anyway. It could be they fear these laws would lead to prohibition of other unnecessary, mutilating surgeries like declawing, cropping ears and docking tails.

HOW DEVOCALIZATION HURT OUR DOGS

Please meet our dogs in the video on this page.

Though an experienced vet devocalized our gentle giant, Porter, in the least invasive way, scar tissue formed in his throat, making it hard for him to breathe and swallow; he rasps, coughs and gags throughout the day like a chain smoker. Because devocalization permanently damaged his larynx too, he’s at great risk for inhaling food, liquids, even vomit into his lungs.

Tiny Lola struggles to force out a bark and doesn’t always succeed. Like other devocalized animals, she coughs and gags a lot. One day, she may have to face the same $2,000 surgery Porter needed to save his life after he was devocalized.

That’s brutal punishment for the “crime” of communicating!

Please don’t let this brutality continue. Tell the AVMA: There is no ethical reason to cut vocal cords just to stifle an animal’s voice—ever. Devocalization is an act of cruelty that no animal deserves, no vet should perform, no veterinary association should sanction, and no civilized society should allow.

Click here to sign Sue Perry ‘s petition, “Tell Veterinarians: Devocalization is Mutilation!”.

Please, also, go to the petition page on Change.org here.  Thank you for helping.

Why we have cats and dogs!

Author Sue Miller perfectly articulates our relationship with dogs and cats.

As a rest to the number of non-fiction books that I have been reading over the past few months, Jean recommended a novel she recently finished, While I Was Gone, by Sue Miller.  It’s featured on Oprah’s Book Club, from which I quote,

About the Book

A decade ago she put a face on every mother’s worst nightmare with her phenomenal best-seller The Good Mother. Now, Sue Miller delivers a spellbinding novel of love and betrayal that explores what it means to be a good wife.

In the summer of 1968, Jo Becker ran out on the marriage and the life her parents wanted for her, and escaped–for one beautiful, idyllic year–into a life that was bohemian and romantic, living under an assumed name in a rambling group house in Cambridge. It was a time of limitless possibility, but it ended in a single instant when Jo returned home one night to find her best friend lying dead in a pool of blood on the living room floor.

Now Jo has everything she’s ever wanted: a veterinary practice she loves, a devoted husband, three grown daughters, a beautiful Massachusetts farmhouse. And if occasionally she feels a stranger to herself and wonders what happened to the freedom she once felt, or how she came to be the wife, mother, and doctor her neighbors know and trust–if at times she feels as if her whole life is vanishing behind her as she’s living it–she need only look at her daughters or her husband, Daniel, to recall the satisfactions of family and community and marriage.

But when an old housemate settles in her small town, the fabric of Jo’s life begins to unravel: seduced again by the enticing possibility of another self and another life, she begins a dangerous flirtation that returns her to the darkest moment of her past and imperils all she loves.

While I Was Gone is an exquisitely suspenseful novel about how quickly and casually a marriage can be destroyed, how a good wife can find herself placing all she holds dear at risk. In expert strokes, Sue Miller captures the precariousness of even the strongest ties, the ease with which we abandon each other, and our need to be forgiven. An extraordinary book, her best, from a beloved American writer.

Have to say that even though there’s an obvious gender difference between me, the heroine and the author, I found the book tough reading , as in emotional, from time to time.  Especially, the euthanasia of Arthur the dog towards the end of Chapter 7 – Jo is a vet.  A few paragraphs I just couldn’t read .  But then on page 137 in Chapter 8, comes this,

Pure bliss.

I stood in the center of the yard for a moment and tilted my head back to let the soft snow touch my face.  The dogs pranced and rolled for pure joy in the pale, gray-brown light.  They chased each other wildly.  I made snowballs and threw them; the dogs leapt and bit at where they’d disappeared.  As they played, their muzzles whitened, their paws pilled up.

I left them reluctantly and came back in.  Watson trailed me around as I did my chores, watching me soberly.  I shut him out of the cat room, where we had only two boarders.  I let one of them out to roam and use the litter pan while I checked its cage.  I put more food down.  Then I went back out and worked my way through the dogs’ cages.  Two of them had had accidents, so I cleaned up and changed their bedding.  Several of them had their own food, in cans – those dishes needed to be washed.  Water refreshed, kibbles set out for the others.

I went to the cat room, put the first cat back and let the other one out.  Then I called the reluctant dogs in.  Watson greeted each one like a tiny worried mother, licking at their snow, fussing about how they smelled.  Slowly I recaged them.  I released Lucky and let him go outside for his solitary run while I refilled his food and water dishes.  Three dogs needed medications.  I put the last cat back in, called Lucky inside, locked up.

And while I did all this, I thought only of them, of the dogs and cats, of their requests for affection, of their comical or passionate relationships to one another, of the performance of their bodily functions.  I was taken up by them and their life and energy, by what they needed and asked of me.  I let go of everything difficult or complex in my life.

It reminded me of my days at Dr. Moran’s, caring for the dogs and cats he boarded and treated.  It reminded me of what a comfort it had been to me, even just physical escape into the lives of animals.  As I was driving home, I thought of all this, and it seemed to me that I’d chosen work which offered me daily the presence of pure innocence, a forgiveness for all my human flaws.

the presence of pure innocence, a forgiveness for all my human flaws Impossible to add anything; so I won’t!