Meet the Dogs

Each of the dogs on the NATURE program is extraordinary in its own way. Here’s a closer look at a few of them.

Chip

Chip, a border collie on a farm in England, works for a living — but if you gave him a vacation, he’d be miserable. Chip was born with an instinctive desire to herd sheep. He uses body language to keep the flock under control. Border collies are highly intelligent, and they also have a lot of energy. Chip and seven other border collies sometimes willingly work 16-hour days herding the 2500 sheep on the farm. In fact, if border collies don’t get enough stimulation, they can become hyperactive and snappish. Their herding instinct drives them to run around other dogs, humans, or even kitchen tables, all in an effort to obey their genetic command to protect the flock. Herding comes so naturally to border collies that Raymond McPherson, the farm owner, says he is completely dependent on the dogs to run his farm, especially Chip, whom he calls “the best.”

Cinder

Cinder is a mixed-breed dog who can predict when her handler, Yvonne, will have an epileptic seizure. It is not totally understood how this “sixth sense” develops, but Cinder can somehow sense an oncoming seizure and warn Yvonne by behaving in a certain way. Yvonne knows that when Cinder begins to act that way, it is time to lie down in a safe place and await a seizure. Cinder then protects Yvonne from moving or endangering herself. Cinder was not trained to detect seizures; she simply knows how innately. “It shows the amazing talents dogs have,” says EXTRAORDINARY DOGS producer Hildy Rubin. “It wasn’t just that this dog predicted seizures, but the two of them had an incredibly strong bond even though they had only known each other for three weeks.” Harnessing Cinder’s natural ability, Yvonne taught her how to act when someone is having a seizure. Then, Cinder was placed with someone who needed an alert dog and Yvonne began training another candidate.

Hasty

Hasty, a Golden retriever, is involved in a different kind of rescue: he locates avalanche victims. It takes months of training to teach Golden retriever puppies how to zero in on skiers buried in the snow and lead the rescue team to the right spot. But to the dogs, it all seems like play. Once trained, these dogs help ski patrol teams find unlucky back-country skiers who become trapped under the snowpile of an avalanche. Hasty’s keen sense of smell is a powerful search tool, locating skiers who may be buried beneath 6 feet or more of heavy snow. Since someone buried in snow may have only 30 minutes’ worth of air, Hasty’s trainers drill him constantly to cut his response time.

Molly and Scooter

Molly and Scooter are ordinary dogs with a lot of love to give, which makes them perfect therapy dogs. Their job is to do just what comes naturally: offer love, unconditionally — in this case to hospital patients in need of cheering. Once a month, Sue, their owner, takes them to a local hospital in Maryland, where they visit children who are very ill. Using nothing but their tongues, furry bodies, and considerable charm, Molly and Scooter do a lot to lift the kids’ spirits.

Twany

Seeing-eye dogs have been assisting the blind for nearly 80 years. Today, dogs also perform many other services for people with disabilities. Chad is a teenager with cerebral palsy. While most of us take for granted things like opening doors, getting food from the refrigerator, or turning on the light, for a person with a disability, these can be momentous tasks requiring someone else’s help. For Chad, that help comes from a service dog — a German shepherd named Twany. Twany was trained by the Prison Pet Partnership Program, in which prison inmates work with dogs rescued from shelters to train them as service dogs. She goes everywhere with Chad, even taking the bus to school with him every day. As for Chad, in addition to the increased freedom from his disability, he now has a devoted companion and the good feeling that comes from taking care of someone who needs him.

A Second Chance

Chad, a teenager with cerebral palsy who lives near Seattle, relies on Twany, his German shepherd service dog, to help him get through the day. But Twany didn’t train herself. She came to Chad after graduating from the Prison Pet Partnership Program. As seen on NATURE, this is a Washington State project in which female prison inmates train dogs rescued from shelters.

For the inmate trainers, working with dogs has been an education in the benefits a canine companion can offer anyone. Under the direction of Jeanne Hampl, this nonprofit program, based at a corrections facility for women in Washington State, has trained service dogs for people with disabilities since 1982. Hampl rescues good-natured dogs from pounds and introduces them to their new trainers — felons who volunteer to teach the dogs service skills and who must qualify for the program by showing model behavior. The dogs live in the inmates’ cells with them while the dogs are in training.

During that time, the dogs learn how to perform tasks — opening doors or turning on lights — that their future owners cannot do by themselves. According to Hampl, there is a waiting list of about 20 people eager to have service dogs of their own. Like Chad, they know that the assistance of a service dog can make a huge difference in their lives. The dogs themselves, saved from a grim fate, become true companions, best friends, and helpmeets to their new owners. The third part of the equation is the prisoners. Hampl must choose carefully, matching dogs not only with their future owners but with inmates suited to the task. Many of these women emerge from the experience transformed: they gain confidence, important job skills, a sense of accomplishment, and best of all, the unconditional, life-changing love of a dog. The program’s effects foster cooperation and camaraderie throughout the prison. Hampl speaks of an “amazing change” that comes over the inmates. “None of the trainers is allowed to have a major infraction,” she says, “and they know they have a lot to lose if they screw up.” An inmate stays on her best behavior in the knowledge that her hard work will mean a better life for another person, a dog, and perhaps even herself.

Capable Companions

Papillon alerts an infant’s mother that the baby is choking; Hasty sniffs out skiers buried under 6 feet of snow; Molly and Scooter cheer up an entire ward of children in the hospital; Twany helps a boy with cerebral palsy get through the day. Are these doctors, emergency workers or therapists? Actually, they’re some of the dog stars of the NATURE program Extraordinary Dogs. These loyal, helpful, and courageous canines show that any dog — even a seemingly ordinary one — can be a hero. Dogs’ sense of duty, desire to please, willingness to follow commands, and strong bond with their owners make them good working partners as well as loving companions. According to Hildy Rubin, co-producer of Extraordinary Dogs with Allison Argo, these traits are what make all dogs outstanding in their own way.

“We were looking for dogs that do incredible things,” says Rubin. “And I came to see that one of the incredible things about dogs is not just the tasks they do, but the emotional bond they form with people.” Molly and Scooter, the therapy dogs on the show, cheer up hospitalized children not by performing tricks, but by showering the patients with the abundant, unconditional affection for which dogs are famous. Dogs can perform astonishing feats, like Cinder the alert dog, who warns her epileptic owner of oncoming seizures. By using their natural affinity for pleasing people, we harness dogs’ otherwise untapped potential.

But many dogs don’t require special training to excel at their tasks. Some dogs, like Chip the border collie, are genetically programmed to help humans with jobs like herding. If you have a dog, you may be surprised at what he or she is capable of achieving. “We were trying to get people to see that there is probably much more to their dogs than they realize,” says Rubin. She reports that interacting with these amazing canines has affected her deeply. She now volunteers as a dog walker at two New York animal shelters, and has contacted guide dog and service dog centers to become a trainer. “They have long waiting lists,” she says, “but now I want to help dogs and help people at the same time.”