Working Class Dogs: Meet Some Fabulous Pups With Important Jobs to Do

Jack / Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

 

It’s a July afternoon in Arkansas, and hot. Austin Thomas, a game warden of five years with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, is putting K9 partner Jack through some easy paces for a photo shoot. Even though it’s a short demonstration, both officers have had a long day training new recruits. The heat is oppressive, yet neither misses a step.

 

When it comes to the call of duty, man and dog are always there to answer.

 

“When you’re talking about K9s you’re talking about drug dogs and bite dogs or apprehension dogs,” said Thomas. “Our dogs are not bite dogs. We don’t put our dogs in harm’s way to apprehend a suspect. Our dogs’ job is to find what is on the end of that track and when they do, they’re going to get rewarded.

 

“Labradors, like Jack, have got an outstanding nose to be able to smell all the different articles and put them all in the different situations.”

 

The duo, which are assigned to an area around Yell County, have been together for a little over a year, 10 weeks of which were spent in intensive training, learning the art and science of tracking through a variety of conditions.

 

“During training, we introduce the dog to tracking and also introduce the dog to article searches,” Thomas said. “I had to do a report on every track and every article search, and we did 145 tracks over a 10-week span and then about 160 article searches over the 10-week span.

 

“We start out in a short grass setting, which is like a soccer field, and we’ll get the canine used to tracking. Then we’ll move into the woods and harder terrain and going from short grass to knee-high grass to woods. At the end, we’ll come together and mix everything up, what’s called an exceptional track. I’m assigned to Central Arkansas, so I have a bunch of woods but we have some areas in east Arkansas where they have nothing but dirt and stuff like that.”

Thomas, a native of Dover and a former Marine, had his eye on the AGFC K9 corps since he became a game warden, but how he and Jack found each other was a matter of happenstance.

 

“As the K9 handler, it’s really the luck of the draw,” he said. “As soon as we got to our school, it was basically, ‘Hey, this is your dog.’”

 

Though the animals are technically owned by the Commission, they live with their handlers thereby continually reinforcing the connection between the two.

 

“[The dogs] come home with us, they stay with our family,”  Thomas said. “If we have other pets, they stay with our other pets. The agency provides everything for the canine, but we spend 24/7/365 with the dog.”

 

This close contact serves a professional purpose beyond the usual affinity most people have for their non-working pets. Thomas said the more he and Jack learn each other’s habits and mannerisms, the better they perform on the job.

 

“Whenever I’m on a lead, I have full control of the canine and I’m reading the dog,” he said. “Every dog has a certain tell; they might snap their head or they might have their tail in a certain position. Those are cues that he’s on a track, he’s not on a track, if he finds something, if he doesn’t find something. When Jack started doing article searches and what we call backtrack where he’s off-lead, he’s on his own trying to figure everything out. That’s the hardest part for both of us.”

 

Out of the field, Jack’s got another important responsibility, to act as a goodwill ambassador for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

 

“When we do PR events, I take him into schools and we let the kids play all over the dog,”  Thomas said. “Every time I go to a school I kind of do a demonstration, but none of the kids want to see that. All they want to do is pet the dog.

 

“That’s another thing about Jack; as a Lab, he’s a family-oriented dog, per se, and I think that is why we use them. They do their job on tracking, article searches and evidence recovery, but they also have that aspect where you can take them into a group of kids, and he’ll just lay on his back and just take all the lovin’ he can get.”

 

Augie & Winston / Methodist Family Services

 

What Augie the long-haired dachshund lacks in size, he makes up for in the ability to calm and cheer the people around him. The six-year-old pup has been a therapy dog for years now, leaving a long trail of good vibes behind him in the family tradition set for him by 12-year-old Winston, his dachshund brother from another mother.

 

Like all therapy animals, Winston and Augie completed intensive training to learn the ropes of their vocation. But as their owner Margaret Strickland will tell you, the best therapy dogs are as much born for the role as trained to do it.

 

“A dog has got to like what they do, or they will never be a good therapy animal,” Strickland said. “You can have a dog that is compliant, has all of the skillset. But if he isn’t happy, he’s not going to sparkle and he’s not going to connect.”

A lifelong animal lover, Strickland has been volunteering since a friend, who was already into therapy dogs, mentioned Winston had the markings of a great therapy animal.

 

“She was at my house visiting and she was playing with Winston,” Strickland said. “She was messing with his ears and picking up his tail and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ She said, ‘Winston would be a great pet therapy animal.’ That’s what made me start thinking about it.”

 

One of the organizations where Strickland and her dogs have volunteered all along has been Methodist Family Health, a Little Rock-based organization that provides outpatient and acute behavioral health treatment for children and youth.

 

“We usually see the teens, ages 11, 12 and up,” Strickland said. “We visit Methodist’s residential facility while there are other dogs that go to the hospital setting in Maumelle.

 

“It’s been a good way to share my pets because I like working with those older kids and being around those older kids. I feel like I have something to offer and even more so, I feel that my dogs have something to offer. Kids are in there who are not there because they want to be and it’s just a little bit of sunshine in their lives to see a dog.”

 

The therapeutic effect of Strickland’s fur babies extends beyond the kids. Staff are also eager to pet the pups as a way to help cope with the difficulties and stresses of their job.

 

“From the time we get to the facility, starting with the lady at the front desk, people are just delighted to see the dogs,” said Strickland, a retired speech pathologist. “We always allow time for staff, and they do seem to really appreciate the dogs. If a staffer is able to find a smile or brightness in their day, then they will be better staff members.”

 

Strickland the dogs have also visited various hospitals through the years, and she saw how the positive effect of the therapy dogs was magnified during the pandemic.

 

“During COVID, when we couldn’t see patients, they had a staff wellness room,” she said. “The dogs would just go and hang out with the nurses as they would come in and they’d love on the dogs because they were stressed. During that time, it was horrid to work at a hospital.”

Strickland only brings one dog at a time to the therapy visits and soon she’ll be bringing just one, Augie, full-time as Winston is getting too old for this kind of work and will soon retire. But whenever that happens, and it comes for all, these good boys have made countless interactions that changed the tone of a person’s day or even the arc of their life.

 

“It’s amazing how things come back around,” Strickland said. “Just today, I was at Children’s Hospital. We volunteer at the ambulatory surgery center where kids walk in and they have surgery like adenoids, tonsils. They have their surgery, parents and siblings wait in the waiting room. We’re just there to help pass time.

 

“This kid came up to me who said, ‘I know Augie. I was at Methodist.’ I recognized her and I was so glad to see her. She said, ‘I’m doing so well. I just graduated from high school and I’m going to vet tech school.’ That’s why I do this, because we made a difference.”

 

Paisley & Scruffy / Tail Waggin’ Tutors

 

Holly Pettit has been a dog owner for much of her life and over the past few years she’s found a rewarding way to channel her love of canines into a volunteer opportunity that helps others. Pettit and her dog Paisley are part of Tail Waggin’ Tutors, a literacy program offered through Central Arkansas Libraries.

 

“For a child learning to read it can be overwhelming and very anxiety-ridden,” Pettit said. “With this program, children come into the room and the library staff has picked out several books they can choose. They come over and they sit next to the dog and they just start looking at the book, reading the book.

“If they cannot read words, they read the pictures they see. We don’t correct them if they say the wrong word or if they don’t get it correct. We just let them read.”

 

Paisley’s whole job is to sit and listen to the child, who is given free rein to work through the story at their own pace. Not only does it help to have the dog “listening” to the reader, the ability to pet the dog while doing so further calms the child.

 

“Therapy dogs are outgoing and friendly animals,” Pettit said. “We want them to be outgoing but they’re not aggressive. They’re very calm and well-behaved and trained to come into a situation and sit there and be petted.

“By petting the dog, it’s a very friendly atmosphere and [the kids] get really relaxed. They’re not being judged on the reading and they really focus on the book at hand and they start reading to the dog. They’re practicing their reading skills and, at the same time, they’re improving their self-esteem.”

 

Paisley, a 12-year-old Maltese, has been part of Tail Waggin’ Tutors for the past four years. She’s joined in the activity by Scruffy, a five-year-old Great Pyranees labradoodle mix, who belongs to Pettit’s daughter, Natalie. Scruffy has been part of the program for two years.

 

Pettit said her decision to get the animals involved in volunteer therapy work is an extension of her desire to serve others, which she does in her work as a nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

 

“I’ve always loved having a dog and taking care of people,” she said. “That’s kind of a calling for me, being a nurse for 30 years. My husband gave me Paisley 12 years ago and a physician friend had a dog that was part of the therapy program through Therapy Dogs International. He knew Paisley and myself and thought we’d be a good fit.

 

“We went through six weeks of training and you have to pass a national certification test. It doesn’t cost anything to do the training program; they just ask that you volunteer somewhere with the dogs and there’s different places you can do that. We just started volunteering.”

 

To date, Paisley and Pettit have volunteered at Baptist Rehabilitation Institute, Presbyterian Village and Parkway Village senior living and the Patrick Henry Hays Senior Center during its health fair. They’re also regular Sunday greeters at Pinnacle View United Methodist Church.

 

“It just brightens people’s day,” Pettit said of the experience. “If we go to Baptist Rehab, [patients] may be there for a short time, but they miss their dogs and it gives them something different during their daily routine. If we go to a nursing home, they may not have a dog anymore but they remember when they had a dog and what joy that dog brought. They just love it. They don’t want us to leave and they always ask when we can come back.”

 

Pettit also said it’s easy to tell how much Paisley and Scruffy enjoy the experience as well.

 

“Dogs are attention-seeking, and they know they’re being praised and they see the joy as they’re getting petted and loved on,” she said. “When it’s time to go do a program, we’ll say, ‘We’re going to work,’ and we put their bandanas on, brush their teeth and brush them out really good. They know when I put that bandana on what they’re about to go do.

 

“They’re real excited when we get to where we’re going and by the time we leave, they are so relaxed. They’re almost in a trance and they come home and they sleep. I think they get a lot out of it.”

 

Baron / Duck Retriever

 

Anne Marie Doramus has spent a lifetime in the woods and on the water of The Natural State. And during Arkansas’ famed duck season each fall, her earliest memories are conjoined between the greenheads she bagged and the four-legged companions that brought her quarry in, like her Labrador, Baron.

 

“I named him Baron because of my love for aviation,” Doramus said of the seven-year-old. “I have always loved aviation, and I wanted him to have a special name. So, Beechcraft Baron it was.”

The hunting culture is one of traditions held and respected over time. Thus does an ordinary rifle become an heirloom and grandfather’s shotgun a piece of living family lore. Perhaps nothing embodies this ethic more than the lineage of dogs a family owns over time, in Doramus’ case, always black Labs and always christened with a “B”.

 

“Our very first black Lab, his name was Bobo,” she said. “He was a mediocre retriever, to say the least. He didn’t like to listen very well, but he would get the job done. That’s really where my love for dogs began when I was a little girl.

 

“My second one was another black Lab named Boomer that my dad surprised me with the spring before eighth grade. I got to pick him out of the litter and he was trained in Little Rock by a dear friend of ours. Every Monday my dad would take me to guitar lessons and after that we would go see Boomer and train with him and play with him and work with him. It was the highlight of my week. That was a very, very special time.”

 

Boomer and Doramus forged a tight bond that went well beyond duck season until the prized retriever succumbed to cancer in 2016. Doramus called a breeder she knew to let him know she was in the market for another retriever, while checking out the latest litter on the guy’s website.

 

“I’d been following along for a while and the one in the green collar just happened to have my eye,” she said. “One gentleman got to pick ahead of me and I really hoped he’d take the one in the orange collar because I really like the one with the green collar. [The breeder] texted me, ‘You got him!’

 

“My then-boyfriend, now husband, Joe, and I and his dad drive over there and we pull up to the house and lo and behold, the dog with the green collar just starts running towards me. So it was all meant to be.”

Baron would train under the same trainer as Boomer before him, augmented by the puppy games Doramus would introduce him to that gave him an early start.

 

“I remembered all the tips and tricks from when Boomer was a puppy,” she said. “We’d get in a hallway, get a plain sock and tie a knot in it and just toss it down the hallway to make retrieving fun and cheering the dog on. Honestly, you look really silly when you’re doing it, but you throw it a couple feet and you want the dog to like retrieving; you want it to go pick it up and bring it back to you.

 

“We did that every single day and by the time I sent him to school he at least had a little bit of the basics down. I taught him how to sit, he was retrieving, so we’re off to a good start.”

 

Such was the beginning of a long and close relationship Doramus shares with Baron, no matter the season. And while Baron doesn’t replace Boomer, and isn’t meant to, he shares the same joy as his predecessor, reminding his owner that the magic lies in the experience of the hunt much moreso than the outcome.

 

“Baron is really laid back and I like that about him. That’s why he and I are meant to be,” said Doramus, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioner. “When I go hunting, I could care less about even shooting sometimes, because I’d rather work the dog.

 

“The worst thing about having a dog is that they’re not here for long enough, of course. But you know what? I’ll put myself through that pain over and over again because I love them so much. That short time they’re here, we are their whole lives. And to watch them do what they love is one of my favorite pastimes.”

 

Kana / BowWow Buddies

 

Of all the things travelers remember about their visit to Little Rock, the airport hasn’t traditionally been one of them. Nice as it is, Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport is seen the same way by most: as a means to an end, a way to get to the people, places or appointments they’ve really come for. Often rushed and frequently weary, travelers pass through every day without so much as a sideways glance.

 

But that was before management implemented BowWow Buddies a few years ago, a pet therapy program that utilizes dogs to give travelers a way to de-stress and receive a unique welcome, courtesy of the hounds and their handlers. And in the case of retired Little Rock physician Dr. Kimo Stine and his six-year-old Portuguese water dog Kana, it gives the volunteers a purpose as well.

 

“About 2007 we got our first Portuguese water dog, and you have to be careful with them. Instead of you training them, they’ll train you,” he said. “We learned very quickly that they needed work, they needed a job.”

Stine and Kana began when the program started in 2018 and with the exception of COVID restrictions, have continued to show up at the airport, once or twice per month, ever since. Over their roughly 90-minute shift, the tandem meanders throughout the concourse, ticket area and baggage claim to introduce a little happiness into travelers’ day.

 

“It’s really neat to see the reaction of people when they see you walking with your dog and then they see the vest that says ‘Pet Me,’” Stine said. “They’re used to seeing dogs with vests that say ‘Do Not Pet Me,’ ‘Service Dog ’ or whatever, so when they see ours, as the handler, you begin to recognize people’s body language. I’ll say to them, ‘Hey, would you like to pet my dog?’ People love it, especially the kids.”

 

“The teams make the beginning of a passenger’s journey more enjoyable,” said Shane Carter, Clinton National Airport director of public affairs and governmental relations. “Not everyone comes to the airport for happy circumstances, while others may have anxiety about flying. Time spent with these remarkable dogs lowers stress and helps the passenger relax.”

“The program is remarkable, and it certainly shows by the smiles on so many faces. We’re so appreciative of the volunteers who give a tremendous amount of their valuable time.”

 

In addition to their airport duty, Stine and Kana are familiar sights at other locations around town including hospital visits and day camps. Stine’s wife Christy and her dog, a bearded collie named Maile, have also made the rounds at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and other locales.

 

“We try to go to the airport as often as we can,” Stine said of he and Kana. “If there’s a special program, say there’s a Make-a-Wish kid that’s going out or they have a program for their employees or there was an airline celebration or something like that, we get invited to come out and be a part of those celebrations and let people hang out with the dogs.”

 

Given their experience, Stine and Kana make the job look easy and natural. But even a seasoned pro like Kana has to undergo preparation before doing his job as different rules from different organizations take both time and effort in order to comply. And as much as Kana enjoys it, the work takes a lot out of a dog.

 

“There are a lot of rules for the safety of the dog and the people around them. For example, they have to be bathed before they can come out,” Stine said. For some dogs, that’s easy. Some dogs are wash and wear, right? Other dogs are a little bit more cumbersome in that regard. Portuguese water dogs can be bathed and blow-dried but it takes me about an hour and a half to two hours to get him ready.

 

“To be honest, my dog can’t go much past an hour and a half. It’s a lot of work. They’re basically ‘on’ that whole time. If you’ve been around dogs you know that they like to nap a lot, so it’s a lot of work for them to be constantly loved on and to walk around. The airport’s been really busy lately, so they’re constantly keeping their eye on all the people walking by them. They’re on alert. They come home, and they’re pretty worn out.”

 

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