pet connection

Um, maybe the thousands of people whose pets were killed in 2007, that’s who.

From the without-peer Elizabeth Weise, of USA Today:

Reports in Chinese newspapers say that Chinese infant formula has been linked to kidney problems in babies there because the formula contains melamine — the same industrial contaminant that poisoned thousands of dogs and cats in the USA in 2007

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that no U.S.-approved baby formula is manufactured in China. However there is a “grey market” for Chinese-made formula that is sometimes sold in Asian markets in the United States, says the agency’s Siobhan DeLancey

Melamine is a by-product of plastic manufacturing. It can be used to mimic high-protein additives such as wheat and rice gluten.

This story is still developing.

People do all kinds of things for money and for fame in the world of reality TV. They get in vats of worms, spend weeks on an island eating insects, and live in a big house with a bunch of people with deep psychological issues. Watching those shows isn’t my favorite form of entertainment, but hey, to each his own, right?

Until you get your dog involved, that is. Then, I have issues.

Which is the case with a reality competition series called “Greatest American Dog” that’s been airing on CBS for the last six weeks. Twelve dog owners and their dogs take up residence in a mansion, dubbed the “Canine Academy.” Each week they compete in challenges to earn the title “Greatest American Dog” and a $250,000 prize. The challenges test the human/dog teams’ ability to work with each other, along with the dogs’ obedience, trainability, and agility, and the owners’ skill.

The challenges are judged by a team of experts, comprised of British celebrity trainer Victoria Stilwell, Dog Fancy editor Allan Reznik, and Wendy Diamond, founder of Animal Fair magazine. Each week, they single out a winner and three losers, and send the bottom contestant, and his or her dog, home.

Of course we all have to jump in here and explain how we would never watch reality TV and we don’t watch this show, but we just caught a few minutes and happened to see… and of course, I believe you. I believe you all. And yet… there are some beautiful moments on GAD, such as pretty much every single scene showing the rough-hewn Bill and his Brittany, Star, who have one of the loveliest dog-human relationships I’ve ever seen. Watching them work together is worth the price of admission for any loss of urban street cred I’m going to suffer from admitting I’ve been watching this show.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been pretty. Which is what my column is about on SFGate.com this week:

(T)he challenge was this: Each handler was given a word and told to train his or her dog to express that word in some way. At the end of the training period, they’d have one hour with a professional pet photographer to capture the results of the training on camera. Some handlers were given words such as “lazy” or “joyous,” but contestant Teresa and her border collie Leroy got the word “angry.”

Now, border collies are the most intelligent of dog breeds. That might mean they’re not the best family pets, because number one, they need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation to keep them occupied, and number two, it can be demoralizing to have a pet who is smarter than you. But trainable? Look up the word in the dictionary, and you’ll see a picture of a border collie.

Which makes it hard to understand why Teresa didn’t realize she could have spent her two days of training time teaching her dog to look angry on cue for the upcoming photo shoot instead of actually trying to piss him off. I do know that not even a quarter of a million bucks could have induced me to do what she did, which was to repeatedly spray lemon juice in her dog’s face and then shove a dryer hose into his mouth until he bit her. Then she had the nerve to call him “you bastard,” and comment that she expected more cooperation in the future: “You just bit me; I would think I deserve a little more from you.”

Things went from bad to worse, including a little bit of extremely upsetting Stockholm Syndrome action when Leroy sought comfort from Teresa for what Teresa was doing to him. I admit I was traumatized. But what I really couldn’t understand was how the judges let her get away with it. They’d been really good at pointing out far less upsetting handler mistakes, and warning the contestants when they were doing things that might create problems with or for their dogs.

So I contacted CBS and asked to interview judge Victoria Stilwell, host of the BBC series “It’s Me or the Dog,” and an adamant proponent of positive training. I also interviewed famed positive trainer Terry Ryan, and the folks at the American Humane Association’s Film and Television Unit.

The article is here… let me know what you think CBS should do next.

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.

Disturbing story from the Northern California, of a sick jerk who was breeding and selling Cane Corsos (apparently mixed with Labs and Rotties):

Robert Brunette, 45, of Boulder Creek is wanted for cruelty to animals after they removed 38 emaciated dogs and puppies from his property Saturday finding many locked in small cages without food or water and covered in their own feces and urine.

Brunette, who denied access to the property Friday and fled when authorities returned with a search warrant Saturday, apparently returned to the ramshackled house and left more dog remains. Animal services officers caught two more dogs Tuesday and placed live traps for what they believe are eight more adult dogs roaming the more than 3-acre property in the heavily-wooded remote area near Bear Creek Road.

Brunette was nowhere to be found but they are looking for and believe they have probable cause to arrest him for crimes against animals.

Environmental health officers were also on hand Tuesday surveying the property littered with old vehicles, trash, makeshift pens, feces and dog kennels. Much of the property was also surrounded by an electric fence used to keep the dogs in place.

More details, many graphic, here. Sad to say, we don’t link to many hoarding or animal-cruelty stories because they’re just so common. But this case is something else, cruelty of a Michael Vick level.

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.)