Andrew “Roo” Yori tamed Wallace with flying-disc competitions; Wallace helped Roo and his wife stay together. (
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Wallace
The Underdog Who Conquered a Sport, Saved a Marriage, and Championed Pit Bulls–One Flying Disc at a Time
by Jim Gorant
Gotham
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The Gift of Pets
Stories only a vet could tell
by Bruce Coston
St. Martin’s Press
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John Unger leads his limping, arthritic 19-year-old shepherd mix toward the waters of Lake Superior.
“Come on, Schoep,” Unger calls, whistling, egging the old dog on.
Reaching the lake, Unger hoists Schoep’s 41-pound frame, which has become slighter in recent years, over his shoulders and walks into the waves.
Unger carefully lowers Schoep into the water, keeping his body afloat with his outstretched right arm, allowing him a moment to float weightlessly and painlessly in the waves.
Schoep was once an abused and feral stray, terrified of all men, Unger included. But that was a long time ago. Today, the dog is fast asleep, utterly content, while resting his head on his owner’s shoulder.
This month, a photo of this scene went viral. To date, more than 2 million people have seen it and thousands have offered up donations to help with Schoep’s care.
“I think it captured something special,” Unger said on the phone from his home in Bayfield, Wis.
“People around the world from all walks of life are drawn together by this.”
The image perfectly encapsulates the feeling that many owners share: Dogs are not just pets.
In fact, over half of pet owners — of the 36% of US households that have one or more dogs — call themselves “mommy” or “daddy” when referring to Spot. An overwhelming majority consider dogs an equal member of the family, a recent Kelton Research survey revealed.
This connection is not frivolous. It’s rooted in biology.
According to recent research from a lab in Switzerland, dogs and humans both release the hormone oxytocin while engaging in friendly interaction. Oxytocin — often referred to as a “bonding” or “trust” hormone — is released by mothers during breast feeding and is key to pair-bonding.
Another study out of the United Kingdom shows that dogs experience the same “left gaze bias” that humans — but no other animals — do. When looking at a face, both humans and dogs tend to look left at the right side of the face first. The theory is that the right side of the human face better expresses emotion, which might explain why dogs are so often hyper-attuned to non-verbal cues.
Owners, too, reciprocate this special relationship, says Virginian veterinarian Bruce Coston, author of two memoirs; his latest “The Gift of Pets,” is out now. In his 25 years of practice, he’s seen innumerable instances of the extreme lengths dog owners will go to help their pets, sometimes at the expense of other humans.
In “The Gift of Pets” he tells the story of a dog named Susan, who is suffering from cancer, and the owner desperate to save her. The problem is that the chemotherapy treatments are expensive — and her husband is undergoing cancer therapy at the same time.
“He’s almost gone anyway,” the owner said, referring to her husband, not the dog. “She’s all I’ve got.”
Then there’s the 12-year-old Yorkie with a face only a parent could love. She’s obese, has periodontal disease, which makes her breath reek, and large warts cover her body. Yet, even after a scary cancer diagnosis, they’re hell bent on treating her.
But for all the selfless devotion Coston’s seen on the human side of the relationship, he says that nothing compares to what animals give humans.
“What we receive is more than what we give,” he said. “The thing that astounds me is a dog’s ability to understand us in ways that goes much deeper than we can even know.”
For example, studies have shown that some dogs can be trained to identify bladder cancer in humans from urine samples alone. Dogs have also been trained to sniff out lung and skin cancers.
There are even more subtle — but dramatic — examples of what Coston refers to as the gifts that pets provide.
In addition to oxytocin, a few minutes of stroking a pet dog is also known to release “happy” hormones like serotonin, dopamine and prolactin, and can even reduce harmful stress hormones like cortisol. The result is lowered levels of stress, blood pressure and even cravings for unhealthy carbs.
It doesn’t end there. Heart-attack survivors who have pets have been shown to live longer after surgery than those without. Dogs help calm patients with Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia and are often used as therapy aids in children’s hospitals and retirement homes.
Overall, a pet owner tends to be fitter and healthier than their dog-less counterparts with lower cholesterol levels and fewer minor ailments.
A dog can even save a marriage.
Wallace — a white and brown spotted pit bull — who became a world champion in flying-disc tournaments, not only overcame the stigma attached to pit bulls in general, but also helped mend his owners’ flailing relationship. Wallace’s story is the subject of a new book by Sports Illustrated editor Jim Gorant, out later this month.
Wallace was abandoned as a puppy and taken in by a Minnesota shelter, where Clara and Andrew “Roo” Yori often volunteered.
From the moment he arrived, he was trouble incarnate. He was erratic, a nipper and hyperactive. The shelter deemed him “unadoptable” and discussed putting him down — though Clara and Roo believed it was because of his breed, not his behavior.
“Saving Wallace became a mission,” the book says. Eventually, the couple took in Wallace as a foster, hoping to improve the pup’s behavior.
It was never smooth sailing. Wallace was impossible to calm and required constant stimulation. Eventually, with a friend’s guidance, they channeled his energy into Frisbee catching.
But in the beginning even Roo was unsure about Wallace’s pro flying-disc prospects. A pit bull had never won a major title — and were hardly, if ever, seen in the tournaments.
Still, they pressed on, practicing new tricks every day. He had a determination and a grace that fit the sport perfectly: Roo could throw it under his leg, behind his back, over his head, and Wallace caught it almost every time.
They added jumps and vaults, where a dog uses the human body as a launching pad to grab the disc in the air.
“It was simply Wallace and Roo,” the book says, “and Roo felt that connection, that whole body-and-mind engagement not only with what he was doing, but with Wallace as well.”
Meanwhile, Clara and Roo’s relationship was growing colder. They hit financial straits; Clara’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and she slipped into a deep depression.
The once happy couple found they had little to talk about — except Wallace.
Wallace prospered, racking up titles, and getting better at almost every outing. By 2006, Wallace took top prize at Cynosport, considered the “Olympics of the canine disc world,” and got No. 1 again at the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge the next year.
Despite her depression, Clara devoted herself fully to Wallace, fixing him home-cooked meals because of his allergies and learning massage to deal with muscle atrophy that had developed in his back.
“Wallace always gave us common ground to connect on,” Roo said. “I like to think that we would have figured it out without him, but he definitely helped us through.”
Clara was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which can cause symptoms of depression among other things, and since then the marriage has returned to the happy, loving one it once was.
Wallace, now 10, stopped competing in 2009. Now he mainly relaxes on the couch.
“I was inspired by Wallace,” Roo said. “He’s been an reminder that if we go after stuff with everything we have, think of things we would be able to accomplish.”
While Wallace saved a marriage, the 19-year-old shepherd in Lake Superior can do him one better. Whether Schoep knows it or not, he saved his owner’s life.
When Schoep was just 3 years old, John Unger was suffering. A long-term relationship had ended, he doubted his self-worth and contemplated suicide.
On a blistery winter’s day during a walk with Schoep near their home in Milwaukee, Unger found himself compelled to walk to Lake Michigan.
He headed toward the end of a concrete walkway leading out onto the dark, dangerous breakwaters below. He felt the wind whip off the waters and saw the lights in the distance beckoning in the few boaters still out. He prepared to jump.
“It is time,” Unger thought. “I am going to do it.”
But, then, he noticed Schoep.
“He looked at me with this look that I never saw before or have seen since. It was a look of concern, if you want to humanize it, a furrowed brow, a confused look,” Unger recalled.
“Immediately, I knew that I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t leave him.”
Unger left the concrete walkway with Schoep following close by. He says that he has not thought about ending his life since.
“Whether you’re hurting physically or mentally, an animal of any kind can relieve of you of that, take you out of that world of pain,” Unger said. “That’s what dogs do for me.”