pet connection

Aiii-yeeee! October is going to be a busy month!

Oct. 1 is the official release date of “The Ultimate Dog Lover” and “The Ultimate Cat Lover” (”The Ultimate Horse Lover” launches on Nov. 1). Our Dr. Becker will be on “Good Morning America” on Oct. 8 to officially unveil the first two books, talking about the exclusive “must-know” information we have in both. He’ll also be celebrating his 11th year as the show’s veterinary correspondent, many congrats!

Our syndicated pet-care feature with Universal Press will have a two-parter (running in our client newspapers the weeks of Oct. 6 and Oct. 13) excerpting some of that information as well. And we’ll have a sampler from each of the books — with some pictures, “must-know” information from top experts and a couple of the stories — up on this Web site by next weekend.

Dr. Becker will pretty much be a non-stop media machine in October, with lots of appearances following the GMA one to talk about the new books.

And then, for whatever crazy reason, I’m going to Phoenix to cover the World Cynosport Games, the international celebration of the very best teams competing in agility, flyball and dock-diving, with exhibitions in many other sports as well. I’m taking along Pet Connection Director of Photography Morgan Ong, so we will have some fantastic pictures as well.

The weekend before that, our book publisher has invited me, racing fan that I am, to be his guest at the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held this year at historic Santa Anita in Southern California. Go Between (owned by our publisher, Peter Vegso) won the big race of the Del Mar meet, the $1 million win-and-you’re-in Pacific Classic. That sets Go Between up for a try at the top race on the BC card, the Classic, where he’ll likely compete again Curlin and possibly Derby-Preakness winner Big Brown. Check out this picture of Go Between winning the Pacific Classic, with top jockey Garret Gomez aboard. I’m trying to get a print, so I can get it signed by everyone except the horse himself. This will be the first time I’ve ever had anything like primo seats for a major event of any kind (with the exception of those I was covering).

Tomorrow, McKenzie and I will be in competition for our first junior hunter leg. Because of my hit-and-miss training schedule — eight books in two years will do that! — the poor girl is not near ready. So wish us luck, because we’ll need it. I’ve got a $50 side bet with Otter’s forever mom as to whose dog will be a junior hunter first. Otter already has her first leg (you need four). Drat, I should have sabotaged that puppy while I was raising her …

Pictured at top: McKenzie, the tennis-ball maniac. Bonus picture below: Welcome to my life. Clara on the dog bed, and McKenzie sound asleep with a tennis ball in her mouth.

Just finally catching up with all of dad’s appearances. He’s hard to keep track of, that’s for sure!

Thought you’d like to know that his segment on foods to beware of is now up on the ABCNews Web site. The piece was shot when he was in New York recently for a “Good Morning America” appearance.

What are the foods to look out for? Avocados and macadamia nuts, to start with. Check out the segment for the rest, and for tips on keeping your pet safe from these hazards.

Update: The video isn’t live yet, but the story with tips is.

Regular readers know Gina has asked me to keep track of my dad’s public appearances, with updates on the ones everyone can catch.

One of those iswastoday (Aug. 12). My dad, Dr. Marty Becker, was on  “Good Morning America” this morning, talking about saving money on pet care, a topic that’s stressing us all in this economy. He offered easy tips for saving money on medications, veterinary care, food and long-term care. You can start saving money today, while still giving your pets the preventive care they need to stay healthy (and save you money) long-term. You can also catch up with him over XM radio for GMA, on channel 155.

He’ll also appear on “GMA NOW” talking about some foods and household products that can make our pets sick or even kill them. Details on pet-proofing homes as well. GMA NOW is available over cable or on abcnews.com, and the segments will be available for viewing one week after filming on Aug. 12.

Also: This morning we had a chuckle because in the TV listings in “USA Today,” dad was listed over Donald Trump! I guess that means pets trump Trump.

Common sense, cleanliness and a few preventive-care health measures for your pet. That’s really all it takes to remove most of the risk of catching anything from your pet. As we mentioned earlier, our Dr. Becker is on ABC-TV’s ‘Good Morning America’ this morning, talking about how to protect yourself:

Many owners consider their household pets family members, but just like their human counterparts, these animals can spread illnesses to people.

Pet-to-human transmission is called zoonosis, and highly publicized examples include disease that’s passed from nonhousehold animals to humans, such as mad cow disease and bird flu.

Here’s the rest, and we’ll link up to the video later if it’s posted. And don’t forget Mikkel’s post on what it’s like backstage.

In other veterinary-related news, Time has an interesting piece on stem-cell therapy. From Time:

Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure — a complete hip transplant — would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months. So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue’s regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue’s pain.

But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue’s hip repair itself. The treatment took just two days last January. Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog’s abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem’s labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue’s failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed. Within 36 hours, Waters says, “Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait.”

Unrelated: Sandy Robins writes about the high cost of moving a pet by air. Woody has flown twice in the last year, and Otter, the puppy I raised for a friend, flew here from Texas and back to Texas four months later. And finally, Ilario came here on a short hop from Oregon a couple months ago.

I can vouch for the price hit of air travel. While Otter’s trips were unaccompanied, Woody flew with me going out and with my friend Mary coming back. Woody’s ride in cargo was considerably more expensive than the ticket for the two-legged half of the travel team, both times. Between the worry and the cost, I’ll be loathe to ship an animal for any reason but the most urgent, that’s for sure.

In other words, Air Woody will be limited to the altitude he can gain on his own. Actually, given the state of air travel, I’m not exactly looking to fly much myself. (Pictured: Air Woody)

What are you doing tomorrow? I hope you’ll be watching my dad, Dr. Marty Becker, as he goes live with a “Good Morning America” segment on how to protect you and your pets from diseases that can pass between animals and people. They’re called “zoonoses,” and as my dad will show, it’s pretty easy to protect everyone with some common-sense measures.

Not only will he be appearing live on “GMA” in the morning, but he will also be featured on the GMA Radio show on XM radio, Channel 155. In addition to all the live stuff, dad will be taped interviews: “The Top 10 Tips For Traveling With Your Pets” and “Breakthroughs in Feeding Your Pet,” both of which will later air on the ABC’s all digital GMA NOW program; which is an extended version of GMA offered to viewers through cable, broadband and cell phones. (For for more details go to GMA NOW.)

If you think that’s a lot of running around and talking about pets, you’re right. But my Dad always comes back from New York to our Idaho home tired but happy. Tired is obvious, but happy because he loves what he does and feels blessed to be given the opportunities to help people get the information they need to care for their pets the best way possible.

This time, I want to give you a behind the scenes look at what a day at “Good Morning America” is like for my dad, both what his taping schedule is like, and the observances I have made watching him the day of the show.

Going on the show takes weeks of preparation. Not only does Dad need to make sure he has the absolute latest and greatest information on the topic before the show and practice his delivery, but he also has to contact numerous manufacturers to have product samples sent to the studio. These products can range from a half-ton hydrotherapy treadmill to the Tootsie Rolls he’ll have on hand for the tomorrow’s show. Why Tootsie Rolls? They make excellent stand-ins for cat poop in litter box demonstrations. (Always one to coin something corny, Dad calls the fake doo “Cat Man-Made Doo,” like Katmandu. Get it? At first I didn’t either and I have 22 years of experience deciphering his “jokes.”)

Dad also needs animals to use for the show. For most shows, Dad uses “borrowed” dogs and cats from the Humane Society of New York. It’s good for the group and the pet, too: The HSNY gets airtime on national TV and the pets always end up with hundreds of people wanting to adopt them. The last time I went to watch Dad on GMA, the shelter animals that day were a Pug and a gray kitten. As Dad was practicing before the show aired, I was given the joyous job of being the official pet-sitter. I sat in the back corner of the studio on the opposite side of the live audience, as the two animals played happily on my lap. All the things I see when I am in New York, and these two pets remain one of my most precious memories.  I know they had no idea they were stars that day, and I love thinking they wenr to great forever homes.

On the the day of the show, Dad gets a wake-up call at about 5:15 a.m.  (the equivalent of 2:15 A.M. back home in Idaho). He has to be at the studio at 6 a.m.  to rehearse before the show starts at 7 a.m.  He’ll practice the segment in the area of the stage with the props set up. Someone, usually his producer, will play the part of the GMA hosts  — Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo — for the rehearsal. During the rehearsal, the camera angles are all practiced and assigned, lighting is adjusted if needed, props are rearranged, and the segment is timed to make sure it will fit within the time that has been allotted for it, usually between 4-5 minutes.  A few minutes before the segment goes live, the host will come down to do a quick run-through, with the camera operators and executive producer making the final adjustments.

The pet segments are so popular that they’re usually held for the end of the show, to help keep viewers all the way to the final credits. Because of this, there’s always a lot of waiting around, since Dad gets there at 6 a.m. and does go “live” until 8:30 a.m. The waiting time is spent in the Green Room with the guests, and that’s pretty interesting, too, since the guest list on any given day can range from the biggest names to everyday people who are in the news for some reason.  He’ll spend some of this waiting time in the radio room, where they broadcast   GMA on XM show. Usually the interview is around 10 minutes long, and both audio and video versions are prepared, so people can listen or watch on the Internet.

About an hour before Dad’s segment, GMA will begin showing what is called either “bumpers” or “teasers,” small clips they usually take before the commercial break to show what is coming up in the next hour and keep viewers wanting to watch. Usually the clips picture Dad handling one of the shelter pets of that day, with the host saying something like, “Coming up is Dr. Marty Becker talking about diseases you can catch from your pet.” Usually one to three bumpers are shown before Dad’s segment.

You’d think it would all be pretty calm after all the waiting, but there’s always a rush and scramble just before the pet segment to make sure everything is right: GMA staff make sure Dad’s hair and make-up. TV folks have to wear gobs of make-up, and with Dad, they have to work a little extra because of his squinty eyes!  While that’s going on, other folks are checking  the pets and props.

The segment only lasts a few minutes which always seems kinda odd when you consider all the weeks of work that go into those few minutes. It’s pretty exciting, though, because it’s live!

Even after the airing, my Dad’s job is rarely done. The GMA staff has a one hour break, and then they come back to tape longer pieces (about 7 minutes), which will air on the GMA NOW show. These are usually taped pieces, which are more in depth, longer, and more casual than those on the live show.

One more aspect of the show Dad does is a written piece with more information on his topic, and that gets posted on ABCNews.com after GMA has been seen in all four  time zones. The written piece is a combination of Dad’s own expertise on the topic, in-depth interviews with experts, and is co-written by both my Dad and a writer from ABC.

Jeez, that’s a breath full just trying to explain what one day for my Dad with GMA involves. I hope I’ve shed some light as to what goes on behind the camera!

(Pictured: Dr. Marty Becker on the GMA set, top, and Mikkel Becker Shannon pet-sitting with a kitten who later got adopted.)