Welcome to Shore Service Dogs

CALLING ALL ANIMAL PAINTERS (Animals painting that is, not painting animal pictures)!

I wanted to thank everyone that's sent me links on the various elephants and other animals that paint. Please keep sending them as I'm going to put together a page of painting animals. But before fussing at me about not knowing, please know that I didn't say that quote, I said that I didn't think there were any other DOGS out there that painted with a paintbrush.

I've actually seen quite a bit of video (unfortunately not anything in person... yet) of a number of different species that paint with paintbrushes. Some of the elephants I've seen doing work is astounding and if I didn't see it happening, I'd have been very skeptical that they didn't have some "help" (sorta like Jay Leno's cat). Those other animals were my inspiration to train the puppers. So yes, yes, yes... I do know about other artistic animals but please send me the links as I always enjoy seeing the incredible artwork that can be made by other than humans! ::chuckling:: At least I can understand their artwork. There's some human artwork out there that I'll never figure out.

UPDATE - 07/06/07, 12:30 AM

Ahhhh... the best laid plans of mice and men. Loved the book it came from, hate the phrase. So often lately that seems to apply to my schedule of "plan to do".

Things have been wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful, in that the French news TV TF1 came over from their USA headquarters in Washington DC to do a feature segment about the Doggie Da Vincis and shadowed the puppers during a day of demonstrations. Frustrating, in that my arm is not healing fast enough and I had a relapse that caused me to have to stay away from the computer for a while (not a good thing when you have a ton of work to do on it). Fingers, eyes, arms, knees, legs, and any other body part that can be crossed, I'll be finishing those emails and getting the paintings loaded up by the end of the weekend.

On a good note (pun intended), the notecards are back into production and hopefully by next week they'll be available again. Just in time for you to see them online. Yay! On a FANTASTIC note, we've had another bid on the painting donated to the Zoo. Thank you Cynthia!!

Well, time to call it a day. Hope everyone in the States had a great 4th of July and that all around the world are safe and well!

Mary

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AS SEEN IN PRINT, IS IT TRUE??? DID MAJOR MAKE LENO??? LOOKS LIKE HE MIGHT BE SEEN JUNE 22ND ON THE TONIGHT SHOW!!!

UPDATE ON THE LENO CLIP...

JAY HAD A BRIEF CLIP OF SAMMY'S 1ST PAINTING VIDEO THAT'S ON YOUTUBE, AS PART OF HIS MONOLOGUE. ALTHOUGH I WAS DISAPPOINTED JAY DIDN'T MENTION THAT THE DOGS AREN'T JUST ONE TRICK WONDERS BUT ARE MORE IMPORTANTLY SERVICE DOGS IN TRAINING THAT CAME FROM ABUSE & ABANDONMENT, HIS PIECE WAS STILL FUNNY TO WATCH AND I GOT QUITE THE CHUCKLE FROM IT. THAT'S ONE TALENTED CAT HE HAS. WE SHOULD HAVE AN EXHIBIT OF THE WORKS OF HIS CAT & THE SSD DOGS. WE'D TAKE THE ART WORLD BY STORM!! HOPE Y'ALL GOT A CHANCE TO SEE IT AND ENJOYED IT AS MUCH AS I DID! THANKS JAY!!

I haven't been able to totally verify the final date but according to a blurb our local paper wrote to let their readers know about the Morning Show's interview, apparently Maj's video of his Salisbury University Atrium Art Gallery opening day demonstration is to be shown on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Here's what the Times said...

"A video of Major shot by The Daily Times, is also expected to be used on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on NBC on Thursday or Friday evening, a show researcher said."

After talking to the writer at the Daily Times, it looks like they're shooting for Fri. night, June 22nd. Make sure to check it out!

BREAKING NEWS!!! CNN'S COVERING THE DOGGIE DA VINCIES JUNE 22ND @ 3:55 PM EASTERN!!!

UPDATE ON CNN... THE PIECE AIRED BEFORE 3:55 PM. DRAT!!

MY VCR WAS SET FOR THE 3:55 THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD AIR. YET AGAIN I MISS WATCHING THE WONDERFUL PIECES THAT ARE COMING OUT ABOUT THE PUPPERS. I'M SEEING IF IT WILL AIR AGAIN & IF IT DOES I'LL POST THE TIME IMMEDIATELY. KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR THE LATEST NEWS ON THE NEWS!!

Exciting news!! Just received a call that CNN will be doing a short piece on the PAWblo PAWcassos of Shore Service Dogs today. My mind is now officially blown! It is amazing as to how much humanity around the world has empathized with the inspiring story of these pupperdogs overcoming their terrible pasts to become not just Puppy Picassos but more importantly, Service Dogs and Therapy Dogs. Make sure to tune in to CNN and watch their piece!!

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Thurs. 06/23/07, 3:00 am

MAJOR BECOMES A STAR WITH HIS
NATIONAL TELEVISION DEBUT ON
FOX'S MORNING SHOW WITH MIKE AND JULIET

If the video doesn't automatically start, just press the play button
on the lower left corner of the video console to begin the clip.
Or you can go directly to Fox's Morning Show site...
http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/doggie-painter/

Well after a grueling 24 hours of travel, Major and I are finally back home. Whew!! What a wild ride! We rolled hither, thither, and yon with the punches to make this interview a success and Major achieved that fantastically. I am so, so, so proud of the boy. He's a trooper that lived by the phrase, the show must go on!

What with the loss of his specialized easel, paintbrush, and paints; his first plane ride to a big city; dealing with the stresses of the hustle and bustle of NYC; an appreciatively loud audience, not to mention being petted by every dog lover there; and having to quickly learn how to hold a difficult to grip brush and use an unfamiliar easel in less than an hour... he just wagged his tail, set his mind to it, and created another beautiful PAWtographed masterpiece like it was child's play. And I was even able to be coherent with only 9 hours of sleep over the past 4 days. Not sure which was the more miraculous, his demonstration, or me making sense.

Either way, we had a wonderful time and more importantly, thanks to the people at Fox's Morning Show, we were able to get the word out to their viewers about how rescued dogs can rise above their difficult pasts to become successes not only with a paintbrush, but more importantly with the wonderful work of helping those in need of a helping paw. Many thanks to all those with the show that made that possible!! Spreading the word can be just as important as the work itself and all of you helped make a difference to so many lives.

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Wed. 06/20/07, 2:30 am

As a very famous comic strip cat has been known to say.... ACK!!!!! (without the hairball, or possibly with, who knows). At this point I feel like adding a few more ACKs!!!! for good measure.

Boy, never a truer phrase was there than "Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it."!! I just didn't quite envision it all happening at once, silly me. To say that the past several days have been ummmm... hectic?.... nah... not strong enough.... chaotic? nope, still not right. Mind blowing? yeah that might work... is the understatement of the century. Cloning is looking preeeeeety dern good to me right now. Oh that's right, we're not there yet. DRAT! Volunteers are definitely much needed right now.

Let's see.... since 6:30 am Mon. morning when the Vienna Austria newspaper Heute called, I have done a bazillion newspaper/magazine/TV interviews (1st TV interview today was at 7:00 am, last was at 3:30 pm), back to back radio talkshow interviews, answered a gazillion emails (or at least it felt like it) and still not made much of a dent in the responded "pile", and later today Major and I fly up to New York City to do a live painting (and Service Dogs tasks) demonstration the morning of Thurs. June 21st on Fox's Morning Show with Mike & Juliet. Yes I know a bazillion and a gazillion are not the true count but there have been times as I've multi-tasked that it certainly seemed like that high a number.

I keep waiting for the dogs to pitch in and help on these interviews and emails but all of a sudden they get stage fright and can't muster a single "WOOF!". Figures!

So to all who have emailed Shore Service Dogs about the paintings, I will get back to you! Promise!

To answer the most common question, yes there are more paintings available to choose from. I'm feverishly toiling away on getting them formatted and uploaded to the Painting Gallery and the notecards information update is right up there on the list too. While the dogs make the paintings look effortless, their support staff (me, myself, & I) are finding our jobs posting their works fast enough for their fans isn't quite so effortless.

Yep... definitely be careful what you wish for, even if it's for greater public knowledge of how wonderful Service Dogs are for people in need of them and how you never know just what that "thrown away" pet can become if given that 2nd chance. You may find yourself working 20 hour days (and about dying in the process... so much for gradually getting back into the work routine after my surgery... HA)!

Mary

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K-911!!!! DOG DOWN, DOG DOWN!!!

Well, it's been a horrendously rough past half year at SSD on the major medical front for both Kaynie and his trainer (me). This week is actually the first week in over 3 months that I've finally been able to type with 2 hands on the computer rather than pecking ineffectively with my left hand.

On Dec 1st 2006, the day before a big presentation of the dogs at our local mall, Kayne went down, literally! Needless to say the demonstration didn't occur. That was the start of a string of debilitating and life threatening illnesses that happened one after the other to both of us, boom boom boom. Kayne had half a week in the Annapolis Vet ER ICU for his full paralysis, almost 2 months intensive physical therapy at home to regain his ability to walk, then close to 2 1/2 weeks in the University of Penn's Ryan Animal Hospital ICU for his bladder and urethra stones that required 2 laser surgeries totalling over 6 hours to finally get him fixed. Then.... just 2 weeks after he came home from his surgeries in PA, I went into Johns Hopkins for my own major surgery where I had a severe allergic reaction to a pain medicine (wasn't previously allergic to it as a pill but in IV form it was a totally different story). That surprising event shut down my airway and I almost had some not so happy endings. After that exciting incident, I went on to 3 months of intensive physical therapy to get me on my road to recovery. I'm still on the on that slippery steep ramp for that road. Hopefully soon I'll actually be making some headway on that recovery destination. It's been fun... ummmm... NOT!

At this point we're both pretty dog tired from overcoming our health issues (he's doing much better, I'm still not quite there yet) and are fervently praying for a cease fire on more medical catastrophes for at least a while! Over the next couple of weeks as my arm gets stronger and lets me type more, I'll be creating the Dog Blog page with a chronicle of our tribulations and successes. Make sure to check back to keep abreast of the days of the lives of the SSD puppers and their oh so tired trainer!

Mary

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