1985 caveman diet

the english language containsdozens of words that describe the dog yet none alone seemsentirely adequate loving, loyal, devoted,amusing, spirited, tireless how they enchant us,delight us, brighten our days and how they work for us down through history no other animalhas served us in as many ways called by one philosopher "the noblest beast god ever made,"the dog is at work on farms and in pasturesaround the world...

across the forbidding reachesof the frozen north... as comrades on thebattlefields of war... seeking even the faintestscent of a buried victim of disaster... or a hiker whohas lost his way and he is the devoted servant of he ill,elderly, and handicapped we will never knowexactly how this unprecedented partnershipcame about or when but one story tells us:"in the beginning

god created man,but seeing him so feeble he gave him the dog" every year since 1877 a stylized ritual has beenrepeated in manhattan the westminster kennel club dog showthe world series of dogdom some 2,600 dogs, all purebredsand prizewinners in other shows will compete. westminsternow welcomes 130 breeds and varieties there are 52 million dogsin the united states while some romp in the yardor sleep by the fire

others are being carefully primpedand primed to take home ribbons "oh, rhye, rhye, rhyeoh, rhye, rhye, rhye what do you think, huh?" "give me another kissgood boy!" "you're a sweetheartaren't you" "that's $50.00 that's a show specialnormally $79.95" "low sodium a diet for your dogsan all natural diet

no added preservativescolorings, or flavorings" "oh, that ought to be great" "okay. try that out on himand if you live in manhattan there's a store that deliversfor you right on the bag" while most showdogs today perform no labor at alloutside the arena historicallytheir ancestors worked side by side with man

in fact, our uniqueand splendid partnership with the dog beganas a working relationship... as long as ten tofifteen thousand years ago over the centuries manyof their jobs became obsolete one that has continuedis tending sheep in new zealand, sheepoutnumber people twenty to one and a saying goes:"no dog, no shepherd no shepherd, no sheep no sheep, no wool or meat"

with dogs at their side new zealand farmersnow rank second in wool exports and are near thetop in meat products some of new zealand'sback country is so remote it is onlyaccessible by helicopter the dogs maynot like the ride but where theshepherd goes so goes his devoted dog grant and robyn calder run a sheep

station on new zealand'ssouth island grant is a championbreeder and trainer of sheepdogs in the tradition of his father andgrandfather before him much of new zealandis mountainous country suitable only for grazing without the sheepdogthis would be wasteland. working their 13,000-acre propertywith no additional hands, the husband-and-wifeteam herd 7,500 sheep. "it's really an unusual partnershipthat a husband

and wife work a farmlike this together but thanks to the dogswe can manage to do it without them,we just couldn't do it "a useless farmer could come on tothis place with my team of dogs and work out how to work themand actually make a living here but if you took my dogs awayand left me on this place we would be broke in 12 months" "here, pup, pup, pup, pup come on,i have to give you a name"

one of the two types of dogs the calders breedis called a "huntaway" grant begins trainingat about three months huntaways work thesheep from behind facing away fromthe shepherd "that's the first signsof a pup starting to work is to go over therelike that and chase those sheep if i put a string on that pup the noise would start coming

and that's the makingsof a huntaway dog "two sheep over there good boy, good boy" even early in the training a simple tug of the stringkeeps this pup facing correctly "good boy. good boy,good boy, good boy" this six-month-oldpup is learning not only when to bark but when to stop once the sheep obey himor the shepherd commands him

"will a go, danny will a go good boy,that's good. good boy" the second type working the calders' sheep iscalled a "heading" dog they virtuallynever bark but control the sheep entirelywith their eyes "she tries to mesmerize them she can introduceherself quietly

looking straightinto the sheep's eyes" twice a year the calders round upfrom the high country 2,500 of their sheepfor shearing to send to market, or in this instance to be dipped to protect their wool robyn works on ahigh ridge and grant is lower down as they and their tendogs begin to pull the flock together because sheep in new zealandhave no natural enemies

they have never developeda herding instinct and thereforespread far afield the dogs are tireless and wouldliterally work until they drop it's not unusual in the course of a day for them tocover up to 50 miles over the years, man has channeledthe dog's ancient hunting instincts into herdingand driving behavior ther shepherds command thedogs with words or by whistling "they're just basic commands

a 'run' command (he whistles it) you want him to run slow,you can vary it... "...(he whistles) 'left hand' (he whistles) 'right hand' (he whistles) 'stop' (he whistles)" "when he's finished the job,you have two commands to call him off one's 'well a go' and theother one is (he whistles). well a go" "it's hard to believehow tough dogs are

and on this property they work in extreme conditions inall types of weather even with a dog in thosesort of conditions everything might be against him he might have cut feet' he mighthave snowballs built up on him they will always try and run they will always try theirbest to do and complete the job that you'veput in front of them" like army sergeants on alert,the dogs keep the flock moving

in one week's time the remarkable team of two peopleand their ten steadfast dogs have completedthe roundup "a dog's work is never done and when he finishes on the hill he comes into the real hard workof slogging in the hot yards the hotter it gets, the more the sheep put their heads down and won't go and we tend to only workwith one or two dogs in the yards

so that we can alternate them so that each dog gets a turnbecause it is hot and dry dusty, dirty work" because of the intense heat the tired sheep oftendon't want to move creating traffic jamsin the tight confines of the pen to find the offenders the dogssimply make a sidewalk out of the backs ofthe sheep after a chemical dip for protectionagainst external parasites

the sheep will be set free to wander upto the high country againto graze until the next roundup and then, once more,when the shepherds head for the hills their canine partnerswill be by their sides "for us to spend a dayon the hill horse and dogs the companionship and loveand hard work that they give to us you could never receive fromany other animal in the world" the new zealandfarmer and his dog

have becomea world-famous partnership today, more than200,000 such dogs are on the jobacross the country probably the mostphotographed is this one a public tributeto the dogs that help keep the economyso vital and alive the originsof the domesticated dog lie shroudedin the distant past but it is generallyagreed that the dog evolved from

the wolf or that both sharea common ancestor wolves and dogs havethe same basic anatomy physiology, andpatterns of behavior and underneath the dog'sdomestic facade lie the instinctsof a predatory hunter wolves live and hunt in packs unlike other meat-eaters such as members of the cat familythat ambush their prey wolves stalk chaseafter, and run down prey

howeveras the wolf quickly learns even with thecooperation of the pack he is no match foran animal as large as a bison the mainstay of thewolf's diet are animals the size of deersmall moose, or elk pack behavior isstrictly regulated by a dominance hierarchyunderstood by all members in the dog, pack loyaltyis basically unaltered even after thousandsof years of domestication

the main difference is the doglooks to man as leader of the pack modern-da scientists havepondered why early man himself a flesh-eating hunter would have turned competitorslike wolves or wild dogs into allies animal behaviorist dr. michael fox one of the world's leadingexperts on wolves and dogs has one explanation forhow the partnership may have begun "i feel that dogsand humans came together because of theirsimilarity in lifestyles

to the degree that we huntedin small packs we were gatherer-hunters and the dog-wolf ancestorwas like that too" "and it's quite probable that theearly hunting societies found that dogs were pretty good allies if they were properlysocialized to help locate and even ambush prey" "dogs, in their longassociation with us have powers of manipulation"

"in one sense we havedomesticated them but they have domesticated us too we have the situationwhere the dog will come up and just look at you and look atyou and you have to feed it the dog knows howto touch your heart they have a power in the eye" "some people think thattheir dogs have esp that they know whatyou're feeling and thinking but they are acute observersof our body language depressed happy

or anxious and readingall that all the time... "...because that's how theycommunicate with each other too" in finding out about each otherand the rest of the world smell is thedog's primary tool it is said theirability to smell is at least 500 times greaterthan our own their hearingtoo, is better than ours but they see lesswell and are colorblind there are 350 recognizedbreeds of dogs in the world

regardless ofoutward differences they are all the same species,canis familiaris their wide diversityin appearance can often be explained by thework humans have bred dogs to do in the language ofhis native germany dachshund means "badger dog" his short, stubbylegs and narrow body made him ideal for squeezinginto burrows after prey terriers, too, were bred smalland low to the ground

so they could plunge into dark holes in pursuit of rats or foxes the name terrier comes fromthe latin word terra, or earth whippets and greyhoundsare long-legged and sleek because theywere bred for hunting and racing firehouse mascots today dalmatians were companionsto charioteers in ancient times in elizabethan england theygained fame as coach dogs with a calming effect on the horses

the regal chow chow boasts a2,000 yearhistory in china as hunter and guard for centuries dogshave helped man hunt today, we have madethem highly specialized pointers only point nose high,body frozen in place and retrievers only retrieve joyfully leaping into even frigid waters to bring back their quarry from predatory

wild animals we have created regardless of breed the most adaptable and sociable of all domesticated animals it is not precisely known whenwe first put dogs to work as entertainers but one of the most famous adored by countless millions, is lassie bob weatherwax,son of the original lassie trainer

is no preparing the seventh generation lassie for an upcoming television series to get the seven dogs who haveactually appeared on the screen bob and rudd weatherwax had tobreed more than 200 collies to get just the rightcoloration, intelligence and temperament on screen, the lassie characterhas always been a female but in reality all lassies havebeen male collies because males tend to have a moreluxuriant coat and greater stamina

the lassie legend began in the 1940swith a dog named pal "originally lassie... mgmhad their own collie to do lassie it was a female dog, which is whateric knight wrote the story around because it had tohave puppies and my father's dog washired as a double dog and it was a malecollie called pal "and i think he knew that the other dog couldn't do this performance..." "...and they had a spot wherelassie had just

come from scotland back to england and he had to cross a river,and it's a nice scene" the genius of rudd weatherwax camethrough in this scene in which he taught lassie to looknaturally exhausted as if it weren't a trick at all "come on, crawl" the mind of the dog,no mater how bright he may be cannot conceptualize "look tired" but the dog can obey a series ofoff-screen commands

given in a specific order that result in the tired look the audience sees "speak. stay, stay.that's the boy. stay" compared to many dogs that bring a large measure of instinct totheir work dog actors startout as a blank slate because they are intelligent they are capable of learning the motivation to learn

the willingness to behavein such un-doglike ways is based simply on thedog's desire for human praise "dog is man's best friend'i figure the most domesticated of all animals and they wantto please us they want to be with man it's like a for effort'they'll give you that effort "all right, come on!up! up! all right come on over here,come on all right, take a bow"

the earth's ice-locked polarregions could never have been explored without dogs in the early 1900s sled dog teamsbrought peary to the north pole and amundsento the south when northern regions were settled dogs became an essential part of life until the advent of airplanesand snowmobiles dogs alone transported mailand supplies pulled sleds, took huntersin search of prey

today in alaska, the pioneeringspirit of that earlier times is celebrated in a grueling1,100-mile race beginning in anchorageand ending in nome it covers a distance roughly the same as from seattle to los angeles lts name, iditarod, is said to comefrom the trail that was once the lifeline linking far-flungvillages in the interior two-time champion of what is called the "last great race on earth" is33-year-old susan butcher

a world-class athleteand now a celebrity she is going for an unprecedentedthird consecutive win she hopes to beat her 11-day record and take home the $30,000 first prize "five minutes until we drop?yeah." "i've been racing in theiditarod for ten years now and i think over all the yearsi've been basically in the top ten and i think that all comesfrom my training ability with the dogs and the timethat i spend with them

and the conditioningthat i put on them and then the rest hasto be up to the dogs i've got good dogsand i bred them and raised them purely for long-distance racing" many observers feel that the timesusan spends with her dogs and the affection she lavishes on themare key elements of her success fifty-three teams will leaveat two-minute intervals "ten, nine, eight, seven, six,five, four, three, two, one, go" "all right"

"over the years i've really seen thatdogs love to race and know what it's all about when they see a team in front of them they'll pick up their paceand want to pass around them and what i found outis they know then when there's no other team infront of them because there's no dog scenton the trail" in 1975 when she moved toamerica's last frontier the adventuresome 20-year-oldfirst lived in a tent

then single-handedlybuilt a log cabin she was 30 miles fromher nearest neighbors 50 miles fromthe nearest road she started out with only three dogs and today has a breeding kennelwith 130 susan raises only alaskan huskies a line bred from eskimo and indian dogs "well, i changed the teamsaround today, david" "susan runs trail breaker kennelwith her husband

david monson,himself a champion racer "i was born in cambridge,massachusetts but i've always felt i was born in the wrong century and in the wrong place and so i kept movingnorth and west and i've always loved animalsand they've been the most important thingin my life and so i was looking toincorporate living in the wilderness and working with dogs

and i found theperfect thing" "how's your baby. how are they?hi, guys. heigh-o" in the early days ofsled-dog racing breeding was often ahaphazard mater but susan butcher knows that good racing dogs don't just happen withoutcareful planning "every summer i raise a number ofpuppies-between 50 and 100 pups and i'll pick out twoof my best dogs usually if i have a very fast dog

but maybe it doesn't havea good enough coat i'll breed it to onewith a good coat "but the most important thingis that they have bred into them the desire topull and the desire to travel" and travel they do every day, with eithersusan or her dog handler these four-month-old pups arelearning that running that running is fun and that beingwith people is fun "there's a lot of mushers that don'treally like

to make their dogs into pet dogs and feel that they have to keep themvery separated to make them a working animal only but i feel that the best thingthat you can do with a dog is to really bond themto yourself so we're just trying to teach them to respect us and trust us and vice versa i have to trust my life in theirhands all the time and they should learn to trust mewith their life

and then when you'reout there racing that trust is what's goingto make you able to win" "are you going to be mynext all-time best leader? are you going to be myall-time best leader?" every night susan and davidbring a few dogs into the cabin for extra attention it's done as part of susan'straining strategy but also because she quitesimply adores her dogs "every fall is a really excitingtime for me and for the dogs

as the temperaturesget colder we just develop a certainexcitement towards winter when it starts to get cold the dogs just startmaking a lot of noise running around their chains;they're just antsy they want to get going they just show me in many waysthat they're ready to roll ready for the racing season" all the adult dogs are run three to

four times a week throughout the year as with all athletes conditioning is vitalto their performance when snow cover is too thinto be safe for the sled the dogs pull an all-terrainvehicle left in neutral gear to some 200 milesof trails, susan adds new ones each year to keep the dogs from getting bored. "a lot of people would look at my life

and think it's a lot of hard work but for me,it's a labor of love i spend all day long withmy dogs and work with them and i'm my own boss; there'sno one telling me what to do or at what time to do i live way out here wherei can go anywhere and do anything at any time of day and i love that freedom" "the best things forlong-distance racing

dogs are a fast trotting speed and then they haveto have good feet and you just want themto have a good attitude their heads are bentand they're just going for it and they're paying attention to you and you're paying attention to them and you just areworking as a team" like a coach withmarathon runners susan gradually increasesthe length of the runs

her goal is 50 mileswithout tiring the dogs, never more happythan when on the trail joyfully oblige twelve to sixteen hours a day the routine seldom varies the culmination in march: the chance to compete in the most punishingrace on earth the mushers, as sled-dogdrivers are called brave temperatures thatcan drop to 40 below

except for one mandatory24-hour rest stop they may sleep only anhour or so each day and only after the dogsare tended and fed the route can be potentiallytreacherous at every turn in 1985 a mooseattacked susan's dogs forcing her out of the race on the last leg of the racealong the frozen bering sea mushers encounter themost severe weather it is susan butcher'stenth day out and

she is trailing as she has formost of the race now, a violent storm has forcedtemperatures to plunge and swirling snow has obliteratedmuch of the trail both susan and the dogs are pushed to the limit of their endurance the storm has thwarted her nearestcompetitors who have stopped to wait it out undaunted,susan butcher charges on in nome expectantcrowds gather

the ham-radio operator at thelast checkpoint has reported that the first musher might reachthe finish line at any time in 11 days, 11 hours,and 42 minutes a jubilant but exhausted susanbutcher becomes the first person ever to win the iditarodthree consecutive times susan is a full 14 hoursahead of any other musher some will not cross the finishline for several more days amazingly, susan could have made even better time than she did ifshe had wanted

but she put the safety and well-beingof the dogs above all else "it was a matter of either go for a record competing againstonly father time and no other musher and possibly take more out of the teamthan i like to or just to take good care of the team and be well satisfied with a victory and i thought thatsounded a lot safer" susan and racing enthusiastseverywhere know

the real tribute belongs to the bravery love, and indomitable spiritof these magnificent dogs on an ordinary street in anordinary california town a drama anything but ordinaryis quietly unfolding seventeen-year-old mike knowltonwas born with spina bifida a disabling birth defect of the spinethat occurs in one to two out of every thousand babies bornin the united states. "good girl. hi, girl. yeah" mike must be caredfor by his parents

joy and dale knowlton for he is totally paralyzedfrom the chest down mike walked on his ownfor many years then, without warning,his condition worsened "the last time he was walkingwas right about here" "at that point in timehe had to have support from one of us to move his legs" "when we were told he was paralyzedand a wheelchair was going to bewith him the rest of his life..."

"michael went into a depressionfor about two years it was very hardfor him to adjust" now a dog has come into mike's lifeand the depression has lifted her name is zest "zest has made a major change if i didn't have her i don't know whati would do" "she just reallyhelps me a lot" a unique organization calledcanine companions for independence

or cci,brough mike and zest together using dogs to guide the blindis a well known success story cci pioneered the idea that dogs could also help the wheelchair-bound during an intensivetwo-week training program students master 89 commands for their safety as well as the dogs'and the public's they must gain total control over theanimals' actions cci instructors have spentsix months training the dogs

"all right. good boy.good girl. get happy everybody" one of the most importantjobs is retrieving "look. get it.bring it here. good girl" keys are especially difficultbecause of their uneven edges and dogs dislikethe taste of metal "all right!good boy!" because they will be going hometo very diverse environments the teams are put into as manyreal-life situations as possible during the two-week course

today, on a college campus the dogsencounter some other dogs that at first they think are real "these are the kinds of things youguys need to anticipate know that it'sgoing to come up these things happenall the time" some in the class have driven in vans equipped with electronic lifts but none has had prior experiencewith a bus. for the dogs too, this is a first

"remember, this is as new forher as it is for you and even thoughit's new for you you have to portray to herthat you're confident" "yeah. okay, zest" "the most frustrating part washaving them tell me to have the dog do something and the dog wouldn't do it and they wanted to tell mehow to get the doh to do it but my biggest thing was wouldi be able to make it

through the two weeks becausei kind of had doubts" "no, zest. zest.come on" "she should come to you not go around behind there she doesn't understandthat concept" "okay, well,what do i do to get her to..." "you need to do what you need to take care of yourself and your dog" "i'll start over again"

the sheer physical exertion would cause some to simply give up but mike is determined finally,he and zest are successful even for those withthe use of their arms fatigue is a major factor thatoften keeps them housebound dogs are a wonderful solutionfor they will pull tirelessly at the end of the two weeks, the last hurdleis the final exam

of the more than 300 teams that have gone through cci since it began in 1975 90% of dogs andhumans have passed with well-deserved pride the class arrivesfor graduation threshold to theirnew independence "as you can see,this is quite a loving team and throughout their lives there's always going to bea lot of love

and commitmenton the part of these two mike worked very hard inthis class and so did zest and congratulationsto both of you" "ladies and gentlemen,mike and ziggy" the diplomas, appropriately are inscribedwith both names student and dog alike "mike and zest" today mike is ahigh-school senior

having zest has helped mikevastly broaden his horizons and now for thefirst time he is considering goingon with his education a vocationalschool where he thinks he might studycomputer science whenever mike is working zest has been trained to rest quietly by his side and not disruptthe classroom but at those momentswhen he needs her help

zest knowsit's time to work "she does things like picks up papers or pens and makes me feel independent like i don't alwayshave to ask somebody i can just go tozest and tell her" all cci graduatesreport a dramatic rise in self-esteem becauseof the dog's role as icebreaker people who normally feel awkwardapproaching a person in a wheelchair do not feeluncomfortable in the presence of the dog

"i'm real shy and the last couple of months it seems like it's easier to go up to people because most of the timepeople come up to her and i kind of getinto the conversation it helps me toget to know people" "we didn't realize that kind of a bond could be betweena dog and a person it realy gives us adifferent perspective"

"we didn't realizethat a dog could do as much for michael's emotionsas this dog has done" "okay, zest come here up switch,zest good dog that's it good girl okay, zest

come on a boy needing helpand a loving canine at his side perhaps nowhere isthe age-old covenant between man and dog more poignantly felt than here in northern california one manremembers a partnership with dogs that many peoplehave never even heard of for the 13 months he servedin europe during world war ii oe simpson foughtalongside a dog "atta girl, heel"

they were one of the earliest teams in what was known as the k-9 corps "in 1942 the k-9 corpswas formed by a group of civilians from the newengland dog training club" "and dogs for defense wasformed at the same time and they picked 14 gisout of 5,000 volunteers and fortunately,i was one of the 14 icked not because i knew anythingabout dogs necessarily but because i was inthe horse business

and this is how i gotstarted in the k-9 corps" patriotic familieseverywhere across america volunteered their dogs to helpthe war effort rovers, spots, and fidosof al descriptions were sent off to an uncertainfuture in the army, marines or coast guard like their human counterparts all dogs wereexamined for fitness "any new man thatcame in got a new dog

and they taught us tomake the dog heel sit, and down, and stay and all theobedience commands "and these dogs then went throughthe training with the master and then whenthat was through certain ones that werefit for attack training if they had enoughaggressiveness in them were put into attack classes and the dogs that were better

for messenger workwere trained for that some dogs were trainedfor pack dogs so it was quite a course" in europe dogs wereused in world war i but this was our firstuse of them in combat some 10,000 servedin many of the bloodiest battles across europeand the south pacific "if you needed to send a message backto the forward outpost we had a messengercollar that we'd put the

message in and put it around the dog and the dog had to learn thatwhen this collar was on him he was to run as fast as hecould back to the other master" messenger dogs had to developequal loyalty to two masters because they worked by goingfrom one to the other to ignore thenoise and flames from exploding shellswas hardest to teach "the dogs didn't haveto reach up and tap us on the shoulder to tell us thatthere were some germans over there

we knew by watching our dogand being able to read the dog this is very importantwith anyone working a dog if you canread the dog then you'll know what the dogis trying to tell you" "and i owe my life to my dogand i'm sure a lot of the otherhandlers would say the same thing." joe simpson was one of many who brought their dogshome after the war intensive demilitarization programsretrained the animals

before they were allowed to returnto civilian life as the gentle and loving pets theyhad originally been one phase of training similarto that for war dogs is used insearch and rescue work more than 70 such groups nowexist across the united states all volunteers they work alongside lawenforcement teams in wilderness rescues and the aftermath of disasters "go through.no, no, no. no cheating"

it takes hundredsof hours of training before a team can be sent on a mission "go through" early on a dogoften needs to be coaxed "okay try that way again? want to go through?" go.all the way good girl!good girl!"

what handlers look foris not the breed itself many breeds are usedbut qualities like intelligence, curiosity,and self-confidence the dogs must betaught agility so they can safelynegoiate boulders and other obstaclesin the woods as well as pilesof disaster rubble "climb.good girl" shirley hammond is botha handler and a trainer

"what we do is we startthe dogs out very young if we can althoughwe can start older dogs teaching them onan agility course "we do a lot of ladderclimbing with the dogs and this teaches themto use their back feet their back feet just normallyfollow their front feet and they do not developa knowledge of back feet unless they're taught to dosomething feeling what they're putting it onand feeling for stability with it"

"good dog,tasha good girl!good dog!" this 12-week-old puppy confrontsa ladder for the first time in addition to theobstacle course they train on a rubble pilethat simulates a disaster area the uniform and helmetsignal to shirley's dog cinnamon thatnow they are working trained not to follow her instinctsto jump off the unstable boards cinnamon zigzags across the rubblein what is known as air-scenting

trying to pick up the victim'sscent on the air currents she has been trained to coverthe entire area thoroughly once the victim,in this case a volunteer has been found the dog's job isto scratch and bark to alert the handler to thearea with the most intense scent "put that one back there oh, look what did you find, cin?"

finding the victim is thedog's primary reward it is essential thatphysical contact be made so the dog knowsshe's done her job well "good girl,you found him you've got himwhere you want him now yeahl've gothim where i want him did you find him, huh?" in 1985 shirley andcinnamon were one of 13 u. s search-dog teams that madea vital contribution in a real

life disaster thedevastating earthquake that wracked mexico city the soft sub-soils underlying the city and inadequate building codeswere blamed when hundreds ofbuildings collapsed thousands were injured thousands more left homeless as many as 10,000 died "it was really hardto believe because

there were buildingsstanding with glass and beautiful structuresthat were just... "...pancaked to the floor this is a buildingthat was 11, 12, 14 stories suddenly,it's down to 10, 20, 30 feet high because some of them actuallysank down into their basements they went that far down" "can you jump? up, up.in you go"

twelve hoursa day for a week the teams searched throughthe twisted rubble hundreds of people surely lay trappedbut where? and could the dogs findany of them in time? "cin, stay, stay" "they cock their head and listenwith their ears as if maybe they might evenbe able to hear the victims after they would bark as if they were kind of callingto them by their barking"

"and the other side of that coin,of course is when they did locate someone buried under the rubble thatas gone, deceased it was a verylow-key reaction just a little pawingand a little whining" amazingly,even at week's end victims were foundstill clinging to life "agua, agua" only hours oldwhen the quake hit

this baby was trappedfor nine days doctors cannot easilyexplain her survival others see it simplyas a gift from god "the mexican people were just wonderful to us and it was a warm, warm feeling they were so... "...appreciativeof our being there and it was really avery unqiue position to know that you were doingsomething that was helpful

and that your dogwas able to do it it's a feeling that saysthis is what we've done it for all the times we've been wet,we've been cold... "...we've been tired,we've been hot this is real and it'sso exciting so exciting" many thousandsof years ago some long-forgottencaveman welcomed a wild animal into his home to sharehis fire and food through the centuriesthe dogs that

evolved have remainedour enduring helpmates and unfaltering friends our own success as a speciesis due in no small measure to the fact that acanine partner has been by our side intelligent and loyalbeyond measure dogs ask little from us in returnfor their unquestioning devotion in fact most dogs do not seework as work but thrive on serving us simplyfor the praise of a job well done

"give. good girl yeah, good girl" in commenting onthis age-old partnership one author has written:"we give them the love we can spare

1985 caveman diet,the time we can spare,the room we can spare in return dogs have given ustheir absolute all it is without a doubt thebest deal man has ever made"