Rescued Bernese Mountain Dog Rescues Couple Caught in Rip Current

Nico, a 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog recently adopted from a shelter, had probably never been in the ocean before. But when he heard a man and woman yelling for help Thursday afternoon in Ventura, Calif., he rushed in to save them.

The two unidentified swimmers were in a dangerous rip current that makes it almost impossible to swim to shore. The woman was caught in it first, and then the same thing happened to the man when he tried to rescue her.

Nico “went right up to the side of the Boogie Board and swung his body around where they were swimming,” Dan Clarke, his dog dad — who happens to be a former lifeguard — told KTLA.

“I just said, ‘Grab him anywhere you can.’ She put her arm around his chest, and was hanging onto the Boogie Board with one arm.”

Nicole Clarke said she teared up when her husband called her and told her about Nico’s heroic act.

“I know how treacherous it is out here,” she told KTLA, “and what a false sense of security it is to be not that far offshore and just get caught, and nobody’s around to help you.”

The couple Nico saved were extremely grateful — and exhausted — once they were safely back on shore and reunited with their two young children.

“Is that a trained lifesaving dog?” one of them asked Clarke.

“I said, ‘That’s the first time I ever saw him do anything like that,” he told KTLA. “It’s pure instinct.”

Tissue (Box) Alert: ‘Max’ Movie Features Military Dog with PTSD

May 2017 Update: The sequel “Max 2: White House Hero” (affiliate link) is now available on digital HD and DVD.

It’s not just two-legged members of the military who can suffer the devastating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — military dogs are susceptible as well.

The title character of the new movie “Max” (affiliate link) — which Esquire is calling “Hollywood’s dog version of ‘American Sniper'” — is a Belgian Malinois who’s been traumatized by the death of his handler, U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott, who was killed in Afghanistan.

Max is adopted by Wincott’s family and bonds with his teenage brother as they both cope with their loss.

At least 10 percent of military dogs suffer canine PTSD, according to Walter Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine and military working-dog studies at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Dogs and their handlers are trained for all military branches at Lackland, which also has a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital that treats military and police dogs.

Canine PTSD was first recognized as a combat affliction in 2009.

The dogs are “essentially broken and can’t work,” Burghardt told the Los Angeles Times in 2012.

As with humans, the symptoms of canine PTSD vary. Dogs may be afraid of the dark or loud noises, or their temperaments may drastically change. Most of the dogs refuse to perform the tasks they were trained to do.

The treatment for canine PTSD is similar to that for humans. It includes counterconditioning and, sometimes, anti-anxiety medication.

Burghardt estimated that about half the dogs with PTSD can be retrained for “useful employment,” while the other half — like Max — are retired from the military and can be adopted as family pets.

This is a huge improvement since the 1970s, when hundreds of military dogs who served in Vietnam were considered “equipment” and abandoned there when the war ended.

“Max” was directed and co-written by Boaz Yakin (“Remember The Titans”) and stars Josh Wiggins, Robbie Arnell, Thomas Haden Church and Lauren Graham. It’s coming to a theater near you June 26.

The official trailer was released this week. Grab a tissue or three, and take a look. (The heartbreaking scene at the marine’s funeral is likely based on this real-life incident.)

Photo via Facebook

Judge and Brother Say ‘The Jinx’ Robert Durst Started Out Killing Dogs

It’s a known fact — and great argument for tougher animal cruelty laws — that many serial killers start out by killing dogs and cats.

Among them are Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and “Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo. And now Robert Durst can apparently be added to this list.

As you’ve probably heard, the real estate tycoon and subject of the recently aired HBO documentary series, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” was arrested this week and charged in the 2000 death of his friend, Susan Berman. In the last episode of the series, Durst can be heard confessing to the murders of Berman as well as his wife, Kathie Durst, who disappeared in 1982. “I killed them all, of course,” he said.

Back in 2003, Susan Criss was the judge for Durst’s murder trial for shooting and dismembering a neighbor in Texas. The jury believed Durst’s story that he did it in self defense, and he was acquitted. Criss told “Inside Edition” today that after the trial ended, “a perfectly clean and preserved cat head, cut up by someone who knew what they were doing” was left on her porch.

She said she “strongly believes” it was Durst who did it.

Durst had seven Malamutes, all named Igor, upon whom he practiced dismemberment techniques, according to both Criss and Durst’s brother, Douglas Durst.

“They all came to some unnatural deaths. Some very bizarre, unnatural deaths,” Criss told “Inside Edition.” “He practiced on those dogs, and that’s where he got some of those skills at cutting people up.”

Douglas Durst told the New York Times in January about the seven Malamutes.

“They all died, mysteriously, of different things, within six months of his owning them,” he said. “We don’t know how they died, and what happened to their bodies. In retrospect, I now believe he was practicing killing and disposing his wife with those dogs.”

Criss and Douglas Durst said “Igor” was Robert’s code word for “murder.”

“When he was in jail in Pennsylvania, he was recorded saying, ‘I want to Igor Douglas,’” his brother told the New York Times.

Robert Durst is currently in an acute mental health facility in St. Gabriel, La., waiting extradition to Los Angeles.

Photo via Facebook

Dog Digs Hole to Save Puppies from Chile Forest Fire

As a forest fire raged last weekend in Valparaiso, Chile, a very smart stray dog managed to save her nine puppies’ lives by digging a hole under a large metal container.

People living near the area told firefighters they saw the black dog leading the 2-week-old puppies away from the flames and burying them. The mother dog didn’t crawl into the hole, but instead stayed in a “protective corner,” Telemundo reports.

As news crews gathered, paramedics and volunteers dug out the puppies. The pups and their hero mom, who’s been named Negita (“Blacky”), “were all alive and healthy,” one of the rescuers told Telemundo.

The family is now being cared for by volunteers. Local residents have been asking to adopt the puppies as well as their mom.

The fire, believed to have started at an illegal landfill, killed one person and seriously injured five firefighters. Earlier this week, National Forestry Corporation Director Aaron Cavieres said it had been “pretty well contained,” according to the BBC.

Photos via YouTube

Good News for Homeless Woman and the Abandoned Dog She Rescued

“My name is Joey. I am looking for a home. Please take care of me!!” The handwritten plea was on a note attached to a Pointer mix who’d been tied to a light post March 1 in a San Pedro, Calif., park.

Lisa Snyder, who, with her three rescue cats, had been living in her van in the parking lot of Point Fermin Park, decided to heed the note and take care of Joey. She grabbed hold of his leash after he broke free from the light post.

“He was scared,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles. “He was snapping. And growling. And trying to get away from people. He was just scared.”

Since her cats are not dog friendly and she couldn’t keep Joey, Snyder walked him around the park, trying to find someone who would give him a home. She found no takers.

Snyder decided to take Joey to the nearest animal shelter. It was cold and raining, and Snyder has to use a cane, but she managed to walk Joey to the Harbor Animal Care Center, three miles away.

“I got to thinking, If I had left him out here with all that wind coming off the bluff and all that pouring rain and no shelter over there at all, he would have ended up sick, maybe dead,” she told CBS Los Angeles.

When Lorna Lee Locke Salem heard about Snyder’s good deed, she started a gofundme.com campaign to raise money to pay for repairs to Snyder’s van.

“She opened her heart. Let’s open ours and help her,” Salem wrote.

The initial goal was $500. After Snyder’s story made the news, contributions reached a grand total of $3,590.

Rami Packer, owner of Butch’s Auto Repair in San Pedro, heard about Snyder and offered to repair the good Samaritan’s van.

There’s good news for Joey, as well. After his 10-day holding period ended, Barbie Icaza of Forte Animal Rescue sprang him from the shelter.

“He has had his first bath and is settling into his foster home,” Forte Animal Rescue wrote on its Facebook page Sunday.

Hopefully Joey will be in a new forever home — with extra emphasis on forever — very soon.

“I hope he finds a good family. A forever home. He needs one. He deserves one. He’s a good dog,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles.

“Our pass it forward has gone full circle,” Salem wrote in an update today on the gofundme.com page. “Lisa Synder helped Joey in his time of need. Rami of Butch’s Auto Repair helped Lisa with her failing van. Barbie of Forte Animal Rescue took Joey to make certain he gets a forever home.

“And they all lived happily.”

Photos via gofundme.com

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