BOARDMAN Dogs compete in show for charity

A hike through the park was part of the day's events.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- B.J. Schmitt was proud to have once saved Zoe's life, and to have been able to save a few dance moves for her.
"My uncle's friend was going off to college, and her family was going to put [Zoe] down, so me and my uncle decided to take her," explained B.J., a fourth-grader at West Boulevard Elementary School. "She listens well as long as people are not up in her face."
The 10-year-old Boardman boy and his grandmother Cathy Pokrivnak brought Zoe, a 2 1/2-year-old blue healer and black labrador mix, to Boardman Township Park on Saturday to participate in the Animal Charity second annual Dog Show and Charity Hike. Zoe was one of about 20 dogs to compete in the show, set up to raise money for Animal Charity on Youngstown's South Side.
After a little coaxing and gentle prodding, B.J. got his dog to dance on two legs, to the sound of applause.
Pokrivnak said that having Zoe has reinforced in her grandson the value of responsible pet care and has helped him "with compassion, and has given him a new interest."
Despite a line of heavy thunderstorms that moved through, the fundraiser and 40-minute hike got under way with little delay. The show also featured a raffle in which winners received gift baskets and certificates.
Three judges ranked the dogs for most obedient, biggest, smallest and best in show. First-place winners in each category took home ribbons, certificates and donated gift bags.
When it came to entertaining the crowd, most of the dogs, with varying amounts of encouragement from their owners, displayed their talents. One animal used its hind legs to push a small fire wagon; another selected the correct object out of five with its owner's scent. Others performed hurdle jumps, played dead and obeyed various commands.
There's more
Between the show and judging, several dogs and their owners participated in a hike conducted by Bill Whitehouse, a retired Mill Creek MetroParks naturalist. Whitehouse warned about how easy it is for dogs and cats to get poison ivy, and for owners to get it through contact with their pets.
Whitehouse also pointed out examples of tulip trees, hemlocks, white ash, American beech, bass wood and sugar maples, six varieties he said are the most common types of trees in Northeast Ohio. The wood from white ash trees is used to make baseball bats, he noted.
Jennifer Houser, Animal Charity's program director, said that money raised from the show will go toward the agency's humane and education departments as well as its wildlife rehabilitation and lost-and-found divisions.
The agency relies heavily on donations and grants for funding and gets no money from the state or through taxes, Houser added.
Animal Charity has one full-time humane investigator who addresses animal-abuse cases, among other things, she said.
The agency also offers low-cost, spaying and neutering and other services, explained Nikole Owen, Animal Charity's chief executive officer. The 44-year-old agency's main goals are to end animal suffering and encourage spaying and neutering, she added.
To those ends, Animal Charity visits local schools to "educate kids on proper animal care ... and to respect the environment," Owen said.
The agency features a clinic designed to treat injured wildlife that includes birds, bats, chipmunks and possums. The lost-and-found program seeks to reunite lost pets with their owners, she explained.