A touching way to help pets: Therapy that feels good & helps heal - by Amy Sacks, New York Daily News - Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc. - Working with the City of New York to promote dog and cat adoption and spay and neuter programs to make New York a no-kill city.

Home > The Alliance in the News > 2007 Alliance News Items > Camp trip to beat dog days: Training, compassion keep these collies' tails wagging

Camp trip to beat dog days: Training, compassion keep these collies' tails wagging

by Amy Sacks, New York Daily News

Saturday, July 7, 2007

As avid agility competitors, Merrydyth, Abygayl and Vivyan are used to frequent road trips, but nothing quite gets their tails wagging like the annual drive to summer camp.

"As soon as we get close to the farm, I can hear their collars jingling from excitement," said Wendy Donoghue, a Manhattan resident who is returning for the fifth time with her three gorgeous Border collies to the Canine Country Camp in upstate New York.

Donoghue says she has traveled the world but rates her annual six-day getaway amidst the rolling hills and Hemlock forests at Glen Highland Farm, located in Morris, Otsego County, as her best vacation ever.

"It's 175 acres of totally the most beautiful trees and trails, and a beautiful river with places for the dogs to fly off the banks into the water and swim," she said.

Donoghue, and the other two dozen or so guests, sleep in bunks with their dogs, attend classes and workshops about animal communication and massage therapy, learn agility training, and roam the nature sanctuary alongside their unfettered canine companions.

Her three Border collies, ages, 11, 6, and 18 months, get to play with other dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes, in addition to the 45 rescued Border collies that live on the farm at any given time.

Proceeds from the adventure camps underwrite the Sweet Border Collie Rescue sanctuary and adoption program at the farm, co-founded and run by former television producer Lillie Goodrich and her husband John Andersen, a former CEO.

Inspired by their first Border collie, Luke, who was abandoned at a N.Y.C. shelter, the couple is dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and finding appropriate homes for the misunderstood breed. Too often the intelligent and highly energetic dog, with an instinct for herding, ends up in the wrong hands, Goodrich says, and is not recommended for New York City apartments.

"There must be a commitment to weekly agility training and excessive exercise," Goodrich said. If not, many of the dogs will end up in a shelter.

The couple's commitment to help needy beings extends to at-risk kids.

Each August, 30 inner-city children, ages 10 to 14, are invited to spend two weeks on the bucolic farm, where they live in bunks without electricity, cook over a campfire and learn to appreciate nature.

Each child is partnered with a rescued Border collie to discover a gentle, positive approach to handling and training, and help make the animals more adoptable.

"A lot of these kids have never dealt with dogs trained for anything other than fighting," said Andersen, who created and runs the Camp Border for Kids program.

There, the campers learn to understand how to care for and love a dog that clearly will love them back if treated properly.

During their stay, Andersen asks the campers to respect all living farm critters, and to avoid stepping on spiders, ants and insects.

"It's about learning compassion and patience for all living creatures," he said.

For both the campers and rescued dogs, it's a win-win situation.

The program helps build confidence in shy or abused Border collies, mentally stimulates those dogs that are highly focused and need work, and gives the dogs a purposeful experience of bonding with the children.

Andersen says a high percentage of the dogs in this program are adopted into homes. "Working with these kids really helps make them more adoptable."

For more information about one of the getaway camps, to inquire about adopting a Border collie, or to donate to the Sweet Border Collie Rescue, call (607) 263-5415; write Lillie Goodrich at 217 Pegg Road, Morris, N.Y. 13808; or visit www.glenhighlandfarm.com.