Rocky, a seven-month-old Border Collie puppy, is just getting his paws wet at the art of herding sheep.
So perhaps his owner, Rosalyn Edwards of Devon, England, shouldn’t have been too surprised at what she found inside her home late last month.
“I was in the kitchen and heard a noise,” Edwards told The Telegraph. “I turned around and the sheep were just standing there. There were about nine of them.”
The sight of all those sheep inside her house was pretty hilarious, but the mess they made? Not so much. “There was quite a lot of wee, poo and mud everywhere,” Edwards said. “It took me a little while to clean it all up.”
How did the sheep end up inside her house? Edwards, her husband and her son had gone out into a field, inadvertently leaving a gate open behind them. Being a super smart Border Collie, young Rocky quickly took advantage of the situation and led the sheep into the house through a back door.
Thank goodness for smart phones — Edwards was able to record the video below of the sheep inside her house, which has been viewed more than 92,000 times on Facebook.
Edwards put her children in another room, and she and her husband were able to successfully shoo the sheep out the front door.
As for Rocky, he was very pleased with himself, Edwards said. After all, how many herding dogs have the skills to lead sheep inside houses?
“He brought a whole new meaning to ‘bringing the sheep home,’” she told The Telegraph.
Smiley, a 16-year-old Golden Retriever who spent most of his life inspiring people with special needs, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today.
“Dogs can come back from anything. They forget their past,” his dog mom, Joanne George, a dog trainer who lives in Stouffville, Canada, told CBS News two years ago. “We as humans, dwell on the past.”
The particular dog George she was referring to was Smiley, who spent the first couple years of his life in a puppy mill. If that alone wasn’t bad enough, Smiley was born with dwarfism — and without eyes.
George rescued Smiley when he was 2 years old. “He was very scared,” she told ABC News. “[The dogs] had never been out of that barn.”
Although Smiley initially cowered at the sound of George’s other dog, a partially deaf Great Dane named Tyler, the two became best friends as Tyler helped bring Smiley out of his shell. “Tyler was so bouncy and crazy and happy-go-lucky, and [Smiley] turned into the same dog,” George told ABC News. “He came out from underneath the tables where he was always hiding.”
As Smiley blossomed, George noticed the positive effect he had on people who were naturally drawn to and inspired by her special dog. “I realized this dog has to be a therapy dog — I have to share him,” she told CBS News.
Smiley and George joined the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program in Ontario. Smiley helped children with special needs learn to read through a library literacy program, and also comforted people at funeral homes and nursing homes.
Until Smiley came along, the employees of one nursing home had never seen a mute patient named Teddy express any emotion.
“One day, Smiley put his feet up in front of [Teddy], and he started smiling and making noise,” George told CBS News. “All of the nurses rushed into the room and said they’ve never seen him smile — never seen any kind of reaction.”
Smiley touched hearts around the world when he became a social media sensation, with nearly half a million followers on Facebook and Instagram.
In July, veterinarians found tumors on Smiley’s liver and stomach. As his health quickly deteriorated, George made the difficult decision to end his suffering. “It’s the only way we can repay him for all he’s done,” she wrote on Smiley’s Facebook page yesterday. “He’s had enough.”
Farewell, sweet Smiley. All around the world, many of us are shedding tears for a dog we never had the privilege to meet. My heart goes out to George and her family. How lucky Smiley was to have such a loving and devoted dog mom.
“Please, in honor of Smiley — see the world around you with your ❤️, be kind to others and give back in any way you can,” George wrote on Smiley’s Facebook page today in her announcement of her beloved dog’s death.
A German Shepherd refused to leave the side of her Pit Bull buddy who’d probably been killed by a car on a busy New Jersey highway.
When Totowa Station troopers responded to a call during rush hour yesterday morning about two dogs on the shoulder of Interstate 280, they found the German Shepherd lying beside the Pit Bull — and she wasn’t about to budge.
The troopers “knew they had to get the Shepherd off the highway, but she did not want to leave the other dog’s side,” the New Jersey State Police said in a statement on its Facebook page. “They eventually were able to get her out of harm’s way and into the back of a troop car.”
Back at the station, the troopers gave the German Shepherd water and played a game of fetch with her. An unidentified local animal rescue shelter has taken her in.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of the other dog, but we’re elated that we were able to rescue the Shepherd,” the statement said. Thank you, troopers!
According to a comment on the New Jersey State Police Facebook page, the German Shepherd was microchipped and has been reunited with her owner.
If it’s true that this devoted dog is back at home, hopefully her owner will ensure she never ends up on a busy highway again. This is not the first and won’t be the last true tale of how amazingly loyal dogs are, in life and death, to their four-legged and two-legged companions.
If you’re like me, the big game you really look forward to every Super Bowl Sunday is “Puppy Bowl” on Animal Planet. Next year, we dog lovers are in for a double treat: To bring attention to older pups who need forever homes, Animal Planet is adding “Dog Bowl” to its game-day lineup.
Like “Puppy Bowl,” the players in the hour-long “Dog Bowl” will be pooches from shelters and rescues across the United States, The Wrap reports.
“‘Puppy Bowl’s’ goal is to promote animal adoption so as many animals as possible can find their forever homes,” Patrice Andrews, general manager of Animal Planet, told The Wrap. The same will be true for the network’s new competition.
“Dog Bowl” will air on Animal Planet prior to “Puppy Bowl XIV,” during the show “Road to Puppy Bowl” hosted by animal advocate and bestselling author Jill Rappaport.
The players will be “going nose to nose for touchdowns, furry fumbles and ultimately the win,” according to Animal Planet. “After the game of tail tugs and ear pulls is over, they all end up winners as they find their forever homes.”
It’s a little early, but mark your 2018 calendars for February 4. In the meantime, enjoy some of the greatest moments in “Puppy Bowl” history.
Over the past few years, service dogs who accompany students and teachers to school have earned their rightful place among the class photos in yearbooks. This really cool trend continues this year with Alpha, the service dog for Andrew “A.J.” Schalk, a junior at Stafford High School in Falmouth, Va.
Ever since Alpha was only 4 months old, the black Lab, now 3, has been assisting Schalk as a diabetes detection dog.
“The amazing thing about Alpha is that he knows 20 to 40 minutes before my blood sugar actually does go low or high due to his amazing sense of smell,” Schalk, who has type 1 diabetes, told Buzzfeed News. “He has saved my life multiple times already, by waking me up in the middle of the night to extremely low blood sugars, which are very dangerous.”
Schalk asked the yearbook staff if his lifesaver’s photo could be included, and they were all totally on board with it. So Schalk brought Alpha along when he got his own picture taken.
“The only thing they changed was the camera height,” he told Buzzfeed News. “They just had to lower it a little, ha ha.” (Maybe next year they can lower it just a little bit more, LOL.)
“Where you see A.J., you see Alpha, and he’s just one of the gang,” the school principal, Joseph Lewis, told NBC Washington.
“He has been a great companion and added a lot of happiness to my school’s environment,” Schalk told Buzzfeed News. “It brightens people’s days seeing him in the halls or in my class and I love being able to have that effect on people.”
Class of 2016
Last year a photo of Presley, a 5-year-old Goldendoodle, appeared next to that of Seph Ware in the yearbook for Good Hope Middle School in West Monroe, La.
Ware, now 15, has had Duchenne muscular dystrophy since he was 3 years old and is confined to a wheelchair. While Ware was attending middle school, Presley helped him by picking up things he dropped, turning on lights, opening drawers and performing other tasks in the classroom and at home.
School officials came up with the idea of including Presley’s photo in the yearbook.
“Seph says that it took about 10 minutes to get Presley to look at the camera — and who knows how many shots,” his mom, Lori Ware, told AL.com.
After Presley’s yearbook photo was shared on Facebook, it went viral.
“We’re kind of stunned at all the attention,” Lori Ware told FoxNews.com. “It’s humbling. I’m glad Presley is making the world happy.”
Caramel is a service dog belonging to Rebecca Thomas, who is hearing impaired and teaches American sign language at Blaine High. For the previous 10 years, Caramel had joined her in class.
Dakota, a certified therapy dog, belongs to Vicky Camancho, who teaches a special education class at the school and brings in Dakota once a week.
“The students love seeing the service dogs in the yearbook,” Thomas told Yahoo Canada.
Including the two dogs in the yearbook started in 2013, when Dakota’s photo was taken for an identification badge on class picture day.
“When we got the disc of student and staff photos, we automatically flowed the pictures into the yearbook page sections,” Faculty Adviser Jill Farrell told the Star Tribune. “The editors and I giggled like mad when we saw that a picture of Dakota was included in the images.”
Lynn Florman, head of the special education department, told Yahoo Canada the photos send a positive message.
“Sometimes the unique services they provide are not understood or valued by others, so seeing them recognized in such a public and memorable way as a yearbook sends a strong message to all that they are an integral part of the team that supports our students,” Florman said.
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