Rottweiler wins ASPCA Dog of the Year

[RottnDogs]

This was taken from the ASPCA's website:


HIP HOP MOGUL, THERAPY DOG & KATRINA ANIMAL RESCUER AMONG THOSE HONORED AT ASPCA HUMANE AWARDS CEREMONY
Last Tuesday, at a special luncheon held at New York City’s historic Rainbow Room, the ASPCA honored both people and animals who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to furthering the human-animal bond. A call for nominations was issued last June, and after sifting through more than 2,000 entries, a committee selected by the ASPCA identified winners for each category. Among those honored:

- Earning kudos as ASPCA Dog of the Year is Bugsey, a trained therapy dog. The two-year-old Rottweiler makes weekly visits to read with first-graders at P.S. 84 in Queens.

For a complete list of winners, please visit ASPCA.org.

[debbiej]

that is wonderful for rottie's rep!! hoorah!

[Ilovemypuppy]

That's just GREAT!!!!!! YEAH for Rotties !!! and that GREAT owner!!

[TR Young]

AMEN to that! I love it when I get to hear a positive story about a Rottie! Our breed gets such a bum rap from the media that it almost gets overwhelmingly depressing. Amazingly enough, I have only had to defend the breed once in the 10 weeks I have had Tara. There was one woman at work who, when I told her I had a Rottie pup, said, "oh... they're bad dogs." Now, I really think alot of this particular woman, but I really had to bite my tongue at that remark. Instead, I let her know how intelligent Rotties are and that they are so smart that they NEED to be trained. Not only do they need training, but they WANT training. When they don't get that training, they 'train' themselves, and with a dog that has one of the most muscular frames and one of the hardest bites in the canine world, that 'self training' is not a pretty sight. She apologized for her comment, but said that she is still leary of them. That was good enough for me, though; you can't change someone's perception of a Rottie in a 10 minute conversation.
Anyhoo, to make a short story long, I want to train Tara for therapy work. My puppy preschool instructor said that Tara has the aptitude for it, but to be certain to take her to the next level in obedience and to keep socializing her, which we are doing!
Thanks for the great story about Bugsey!