Monica
05-16-2006, 02:22 PM
Class vows to help dog get needed hip repair
By Kelly Soderlund
The Journal Gazette
Clint Keller/The Journal Gazette
Northrop High School student Jessica Huffman and special education school assistant Barb Schroeder make dog treats to help raise money for Zoe.
Clint Keller/The Journal Gazette
Northrop High School student Sara Snider plays catch with a balloon with therapy dog Zoe. The class is selling dog biscuits to help raise money for Zoe to have hip surgery.
Seventeen-year-old Sara Snider sat quietly in a chair in Northrop High School’s disabilities classroom Friday until a friend showed up.
Three-year-old Zoe, a 120-pound Rottweiler, romped into the classroom ready to play. Zoe’s handler Nan Ashton blew up a red balloon to set up a game between the two friends.
Snider giggled and squealed as she awaited the start. After the balloon was full, Ashton tossed it in the air, and Zoe bumped it with her nose to start the game of volleyball between her and Snider.
But Snider’s friend may not be able to jump in the air for long. Zoe has hip dysplasia and needs a $3,500 surgery to replace her hip.
Ashton, whose husband, Barry, is the band director at Northrop, has been bringing Zoe to the class once a week through Pets Assisting Wellness and Success Inc., and the students have become quite attached to her. To help with the cost of the surgery, the students have been baking dog biscuits, packaging them and will sell them during lunch next week for $1 each.
Four of the nine students were in Northrop’s kitchen Friday rolling the dough and cutting out pieces with a dog bone-shaped cookie cutter, and the other five students wrapped the bones in plastic, tied them with a bow and placed them on a card with the recipe. The students have already made 500 biscuits and will make more if the demand is there.
Special education teacher Melanie Dirig said Zoe’s presence has helped her students in many ways.
“It’s helped them talk more. The students have learned how to take care of her. They’ve learned how to brush her, how to get her water, how to play with her. Some of the kids who were scared of dogs are now more friendly toward them,” Dirig said.
Only two of her students have verbal skills and their disabilities range from physical ailments that keep them in wheelchairs to autism to low IQs. Most of them don’t understand that Zoe is having surgery, and many have a hard time grasping that anything is even wrong with her, Dirig said.
But baking the biscuits and wrapping them has turned into an educational project because students are taught to follow a recipe and do things on their own.
“Our program is to teach our kids how to take care of themselves,” Dirig said. “A lot of skills we try to teach them every day in the classroom we’ve been able to generalize with the dog.”
Zoe’s surgery will tentatively be June 12. That’s when Ashton will take her to a veterinary hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for a consultation, and the doctor will determine whether she is a good candidate for surgery. Zoe has been limping for the past couple of months and her Fort Wayne veterinarian said it’s a wonder she’s still in good spirits, Ashton said.
Zoe has been a service dog for about a year and half after Ashton read a newspaper article that described how they work.
“I was like, you know, she loves to play ball, she’s very social, she loves kids, and she’s very gentle,” Ashton said.
She also brings Zoe to St. Anne Home and Retirement Community near State and Anthony boulevards and said the residents there perk up at the sight of the dog. Seniors who were averse to doing physical therapy were more apt to try it after they knew Zoe was involved, and even patients with Alzheimer’s have made some progress by lifting their arms to pet the dog, Ashton said.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/14569624.htm
Now this is what Rottweilers are supposed to be like. My Buck is sweet and gentle when he plays with me and he's a family pet, not even a trained Therapy dog. I just wanted to post a story that shows rotties in a good light for once. If rotts are viscious and agressive, it's the owner or perhaps maybe the breeder's fault, but not the dog's. Buck was born with a friendly, laid back personality, and we made sure he was treated well as a puppy and he's a very good dog. :)
I hope Zoe gets her surgery and is 100% healthy afterwards. :)
By Kelly Soderlund
The Journal Gazette
Clint Keller/The Journal Gazette
Northrop High School student Jessica Huffman and special education school assistant Barb Schroeder make dog treats to help raise money for Zoe.
Clint Keller/The Journal Gazette
Northrop High School student Sara Snider plays catch with a balloon with therapy dog Zoe. The class is selling dog biscuits to help raise money for Zoe to have hip surgery.
Seventeen-year-old Sara Snider sat quietly in a chair in Northrop High School’s disabilities classroom Friday until a friend showed up.
Three-year-old Zoe, a 120-pound Rottweiler, romped into the classroom ready to play. Zoe’s handler Nan Ashton blew up a red balloon to set up a game between the two friends.
Snider giggled and squealed as she awaited the start. After the balloon was full, Ashton tossed it in the air, and Zoe bumped it with her nose to start the game of volleyball between her and Snider.
But Snider’s friend may not be able to jump in the air for long. Zoe has hip dysplasia and needs a $3,500 surgery to replace her hip.
Ashton, whose husband, Barry, is the band director at Northrop, has been bringing Zoe to the class once a week through Pets Assisting Wellness and Success Inc., and the students have become quite attached to her. To help with the cost of the surgery, the students have been baking dog biscuits, packaging them and will sell them during lunch next week for $1 each.
Four of the nine students were in Northrop’s kitchen Friday rolling the dough and cutting out pieces with a dog bone-shaped cookie cutter, and the other five students wrapped the bones in plastic, tied them with a bow and placed them on a card with the recipe. The students have already made 500 biscuits and will make more if the demand is there.
Special education teacher Melanie Dirig said Zoe’s presence has helped her students in many ways.
“It’s helped them talk more. The students have learned how to take care of her. They’ve learned how to brush her, how to get her water, how to play with her. Some of the kids who were scared of dogs are now more friendly toward them,” Dirig said.
Only two of her students have verbal skills and their disabilities range from physical ailments that keep them in wheelchairs to autism to low IQs. Most of them don’t understand that Zoe is having surgery, and many have a hard time grasping that anything is even wrong with her, Dirig said.
But baking the biscuits and wrapping them has turned into an educational project because students are taught to follow a recipe and do things on their own.
“Our program is to teach our kids how to take care of themselves,” Dirig said. “A lot of skills we try to teach them every day in the classroom we’ve been able to generalize with the dog.”
Zoe’s surgery will tentatively be June 12. That’s when Ashton will take her to a veterinary hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for a consultation, and the doctor will determine whether she is a good candidate for surgery. Zoe has been limping for the past couple of months and her Fort Wayne veterinarian said it’s a wonder she’s still in good spirits, Ashton said.
Zoe has been a service dog for about a year and half after Ashton read a newspaper article that described how they work.
“I was like, you know, she loves to play ball, she’s very social, she loves kids, and she’s very gentle,” Ashton said.
She also brings Zoe to St. Anne Home and Retirement Community near State and Anthony boulevards and said the residents there perk up at the sight of the dog. Seniors who were averse to doing physical therapy were more apt to try it after they knew Zoe was involved, and even patients with Alzheimer’s have made some progress by lifting their arms to pet the dog, Ashton said.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/14569624.htm
Now this is what Rottweilers are supposed to be like. My Buck is sweet and gentle when he plays with me and he's a family pet, not even a trained Therapy dog. I just wanted to post a story that shows rotties in a good light for once. If rotts are viscious and agressive, it's the owner or perhaps maybe the breeder's fault, but not the dog's. Buck was born with a friendly, laid back personality, and we made sure he was treated well as a puppy and he's a very good dog. :)
I hope Zoe gets her surgery and is 100% healthy afterwards. :)