>>Can anyone tell me
what a Golden Doodle
might be mixed with?
>>A Golden Retriever
and a Poodle.
>>That's right.
And Riddle is what we call at
Green Dogs a Foster Success,
which means that he
was our foster dog
and then we fell
in love with him
and we couldn't give him up,
which is kind of one of the
fantastic ways to get a dog.
>>Today we're going to
learn about an organization
that focuses on
rescuing, rehabilitating
and training animals in
need to provide therapy
for people in need.
Join us as we visit
with Erica Proctor,
Director of Green Dogs
Unleashed. Come on.
(dog barking)
>>This is how you're always
gonna greet another dog,
you're never gonna have
him greeting head on,
we're never gonna
have them face to face
'cause that's very threatening.
Green Dogs is a special
needs animal rescue.
We rescue deaf and
blind, mostly, dogs.
When we rescue them we
bring them into our program,
put them into foster homes,
rehabilitate them, vet
them and place them
with loving forever families.
We also are a therapy
dog organization
and the ones that
come into our program
that are suitable
candidates for it
will then go on to
therapy dog training
and then they give
back to the community.
>>What happens to the
dogs that are adopted
but then it turns out
they're not really suitable
to be therapy dogs?
>>So, yeah we have
a lot of those guys.
It takes a very
special personality
and the dogs that aren't
suitable candidates
for our therapy program become
beloved furry family members.
So they get adopted
into families
where they're just gonna live
out their life being a happy,
well-loved cared for dog.
We're very careful about
where we place our animals,
we screen, we have an
extensive application process,
home study, reference
and vet checks.
We really keep in touch.
By the time a family adopts
from us they're family.
>>Oh, I love that.
Talk about first, let's talk
about the whole rescue mission.
Tell us Riddle's story.
>>Riddle has bone
spurs on his shoulder
so he had to have a
major surgery last summer
and he was on house
arrest for nine months.
He also has limited hearing
which is due to ear infections.
So he does not
hear out of one ear
and he only has limited
hearing out of his other ear.
>>Wow. So when you're
rescuing the dogs
where do they, where
are they coming from?
>>They come from all over
the country and Canada.
So what happens is a shelter
or private individual
might reach out to us
and have a deaf or blind
or a deaf and blind dog.
Shelters typically
won't adopt them out
because they take, they require
some specialized training
and then once they contact us
if they are a suitable
candidate for our program
then we work to transport them
from all over the country here.
We've had basically relays
where people volunteer
to drive a leg and a dog might
go through 12 or 15 handlers.
And then they get to us.
>>How many dogs do you
all rescue per year?
>>Last year we had
about 350 come through.
>>My little dog here is Loki.
He is our new family member.
He is deaf. We hope to
train him as a therapy dog.
He's just doing the
basic dog training 101.
I did lose my sister
and I do have PTSD
so that would be something
that would help me
and we already have this bond
that I don't think is breakable.
And other people
just love his face.
I mean look at him.
He's just so cute.
>>Dogs are such wonderful
creatures for people.
They help them, they
make them feel good
and that's why I
wanted a therapy dog.
And the training,
we learn as people
what to expect from
going into nursing homes,
going into hospitals,
going into schools
and the dog learns not to
be afraid of wheel chairs,
knocking on door, something
that's thrown down.
And the other thing is you
have to teach them to leave it,
which means that if somebody
drops a pill on the floor
they're not gonna grab
it and try to eat it.
And so there's a lot
of training involved.
>>So when we
approach the elevator
we're gonna approach it
just like we would any door.
We're gonna have them
right here next to us.
We're gonna have a treat.
We're gonna lure them on and
then as soon as they get in
we're going to turn them around
so that their tail is facing
the back of the elevator.
That way we don't
have an accident
with the door grabbing
onto their tail.
So I'm gonna demonstrate
it with Riddle.
We're gonna walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk into the elevator,
turn around and sit.
>>Tell us what the
dogs have to go through
and who works with them?
>>The process takes
about six months
if they've already had
basic obedience training
and we get to know the
handler as well as the dog.
At Green Dogs we feel
very strongly that
it's a team effort.
So it's not just the dog
that needs to be suitable
to be doing therapy work,
it's also the human being.
And we work as a team.
>>So give us an example,
sometimes they're on
the Downtown Mall.
>>Yup, sometimes we go
to the Downtown Mall,
last week we went to Lowe's.
They were kind enough
to open up to us.
We teach them all about noises
and things that might
startle them, sounds,
carts been pushed around.
We take them to a power
plant, the local power plant
where we have sirens.
We'll take them to the rescue
squad in Fluvanna County,
they've opened up to us and
they'll turn on the sirens
for fire trucks
and rescue trucks.
>>So they can adjust to that.
>>They can adjust to the noises.
We get them involved
with the machine
that would be beeping if
we go into a hospital.
At our training facility in Troy
we work with wheelchairs
and crutches,
all kinds of things, IV
poles that might fall.
We also teach them that
they need a command
in order to take
something from somebody
because you never know.
When we go to an
assisted living facility
people try to feed them
things they shouldn't have.
So we do advanced
"leave it" training.
And we do elevator training
and escalator training.
We work with the sliding doors,
the automatic sliding doors,
we teach them how to
appropriately get up onto a bed.
Some of them, our
little ones are lifted
onto a bed so they could
snuggle with someone
but dogs like Riddle are
too big for us to pick up
so they learn to get up
onto a bed one paw at a time
very, very slowly so as not
to make too much commotion
on the bed.
>>Talk about who they're helping
and how they're helping them.
>>Well, we have a number
of different programs.
So, some of our dogs visit
assisted living facilities
where they might
visit seniors, elders,
some of them visit
the hospitals,
some of them visit schools.
We have a reading program
where kids can come in
and sign up to read to the dogs.
>>So that's Tales
for Tails, right?
>>That's Tales for
tails. That's right.
>>"It's hard to be a verb,
my knees start itching,
my toes start twitching,
my skin gets jumpy,
others get grumpy when it
comes to sitting still."
>>I think she loves all of us.
she comes by and comes
over to everybody
and she wants to be petted
and cuddled and
she just loves it.
And I think it's good
for the residents to that
'cause the dog seems
to calm them down,
makes them feel happy inside
and they forget about
their troubles and stuff.
Just for a little while, while
Noli's here
and it's really good for them.
>>I think it's fantastic
that Noli comes
and visits everybody.
We all love her
and we have a lot of
fun when she comes here.
>>I think it's a huge
bright spot in Noli's day
to come here.
She's one of five
dogs at our house.
So her day is spent you
know with other dogs
and she loves human attention
and this is just the
most undiluted pure
attention and love.
She just takes it all in
>>Somebody can have the
worst day of their life
and they smile
when they see him.
When we go into some of
the memory care units
it brings back memories,
somebody could just
be sitting there
and all of a sudden
they come alive
and they may start
talking about a dog
that they had in the past
where they don't talk normally
so it's very rewarding to
see the change in people
and he loves it too.
As soon as I get his
backpack and his vest out
he's like, "where are we
going? I'm ready let's go."
>>I always say that Riddle
has to be a therapy dog
because there's no way we
could give him enough attention
on our own.
We have a saying that says,
"a therapy dog is not made,
a therapy dog is born."
And it's a special personality
that you can see
usually from puppyhood;
just a desire to really
be close to people
but not so over the top
that they'd clear
off a coffee table
when they walk into the room.
The people that we visit
benefit tremendously.
We also have a veterans program,
our wounded warrior program
where they visit veterans.
And we also have started
training with veterans
with their own dogs to
offer some therapy services.
It's not the same
as a service dog
but they do offer some comfort;
appropriate enough
to help the veteran
that they live with to
lead a more fulfilled life.
>>Completely separate you also
have a transporting program.
Tell us a little about that.
>>So, we are small
rescue and we recognize
that we can't help
as many animals
through our program as
we really would love to.
So what we've done
is we go to local,
and sometimes not so local,
but mostly local shelters,
and we pull dogs that
pass behavior evaluations,
and get vetted and send
them to other rescues.
So we facilitate all
of the logistics.
And we have a van.
And they all come
to our facility in
Troy on transport day
and get loaded into the van
and get taken to the rescues.
And the majority of
them have an average
of seven day turnaround.
So dogs that have been in
shelters here for a year
or two years, in one case
three and a half years,
have been adopted in three days.
>>No so why is that?
>>I think it's sometimes it's
a matter of changing audience.
Sometimes they sit in a shelter
and people might be
coming in and looking
and just not seeing them.
They also can get
depressed in shelters
so when they're sitting
in a run for a while
they have no desire anymore
to come to the front
and wag their tail.
But another big reason,
we send a lot of hounds
and a lot of beagles to rescues
in New Jersey and New York.
And hounds and
beagles are fantastic,
fantastic family pets.
And here I think a lot of
them are used for hunting,
as hunting tools.
And when they stop hunting
then they're given up.
And all they wanna do is
retire to be somebody's lap dog
and house dog and beagles
do fantastic in apartments.
So the smaller spaces are
looking for the smaller dogs
and they go up and
people line up and wait
for our transports
to get up there
and the dogs go
home the next day.
>>Oh, see that is so
great. That is so great.
All right, so if people wanna
get involved and either help
or become a handler or adopt
an animal what do they do?
>>So, the best way to
get in touch with us
is to go on our website
or on our Facebook page.
The website is
greendogsunleashed.com
and it's Green Dogs
Unleashed on FaceBook.
And we're always looking
for more volunteers,
we're always looking
for more people
that have a dog the
might be suitable
because we always have need
and we don't have enough,
we never can have enough
dogs to fill that need.
so we'd love it. We'd love for
more volunteers to come out.
Here we go good job and Noli.
(instrumental music)