

	Featured Story		Dog of the Day

Bernie Williams Jr.

Please Note: The dog in the accompanying photograph is the subject of the story, but the child or teenager pictured is probably not the patient in the story.

Bernie Williams Jr. is a Spanish Water Dog. The breed dates back to the 1100's in Spain, but the dogs have only been popular in the United States for the last 25 years. The breed is considered a working breed. Since these dogs are herders by nature, they enjoy having a job, and Love on 4 Paws is Bernie's job. Spanish Water Dogs are very active and very loyal, and they don't shed! Bernie Williams Jr. was named after her owner's all time favorite N.Y. Yankee, Bernie Williams, and Bernie carries her namesake's baseball cards in her therapy dog vest to share with the kids she visits at CHLA. Bernie has been a therapy dog for about 2 years now, and she loves every minute of it. Every time she sees the “green” (the LO4P’s uniforms: my shirt, her vest, and my green sneakers), she runs in circles around the house, encouraging me to leave as quickly as possible.

The other day when we went to CHLA for our weekly visit, we met a little girl named Kate. Kate was very excited to meet Bernie Williams. She thought it was strange that a girl dog had a boy’s name and found it funny when she heard that Bernie was named after a baseball player. Kate didn't know much about baseball but liked the baseball card Bernie shared with her. Kate LOVES all dogs, and she missed her own dog very much. She told Bernie all about her dog at home, Elsie the Weimaraner. Kate invited Bernie up on her bed and showed Bernie all the different places Elsie likes to be petted. It turned out that Bernie likes them too.

After about twenty minutes of snuggle time, Kate wanted to see how well Bernie was trained. So Bernie got off the bed and demonstrated how much she knew. Kate put Bernie through her paces --- sit, stay, down, and shake. Next Bernie demonstrated her one other skill --- doggie "push-ups". This trick made Kate and her mom both laugh. After all that work, Bernie posed for a photo with Kate, and Kate told Bernie this was the best day she had had in the hospital. Bernie and I left Kate's room pretty certain that she will be the next Cesar Millan!