Bingo the Service Dog's "Lick-It List" Goes Viral

It's a "bucket list" for a loyal service dog. Yes, Bingo is heading for the Rainbow Bridge.

For nine years, a Jack Russell named Bingo has had an exemplary run as the service dog to 11-year-old Cole Hein, who suffers from an undiagnosed condition that causes him to stop breathing. Indeed, Cole's parents have "lost track" of the number of times Bingo has alerted them when Cole started gasping. In the probation period alone, beginning when Cole was just 2, Bingo saved the boy three times.

Bingo is a hero dog through and through -- but even hero dogs need help.

Earlier this summer, the 14-year-old dog, afflicted with seizures and failing eyesight, received bad news from the vet: Bingo suffered from cognitive dysfunction syndrome, and the vet gave her weeks to live.

The family was devastated. Cole, who now can cope with his illness without assistance, wanted to send off his friend the proper way -- with a "lick-it list," the canine version of a "bucket list."

“He went to bed that night and I heard him talking,” Cole’s mom, Mandi Hein, told CTV News. “I thought at first he was playing his video games. I listened and he was actually talking with Bingo about all the things he wanted to do with her.”

Among the items on the list:

Dog treats from around the world -- "so that Bingo can 'TASTE' the world."One last visit to Ruckers to play video games.One last walk around the block.A photo shoot with Cole and Bingo.

Mandi Hein posted the list online, where it simmered for a few weeks. Then it exploded, going viral.

The treats began to arrive, first from Canada, and then from places around the world; the dog's Facebook group swelled to 12,000 members; and the story even reached the boozy, fourth hour of the Today show.

Where do those treats go? No, not on eBay. Cole is made of better stuff than that. The boy sends bags full to Winnipeg’s animal services shelter, so other less-fortunate dogs can have nice treats. And the Dog Whisperer's Cesar Milan even stepped in, helping to create the Bingo Hein legacy fund, which will raise money to train service dogs and abandoned animals, according to CTV News.

Cole and Bingo, meanwhile, have been working on that lick-it list.

“There’s still one more thing we haven’t completed on the list," Cole told CTV News. "Her last public outing.”

The pair still have to make that trip to play video games together. 

"It's a bittersweet story. It's taking a negative and turning it into a positive," Cole's mother told the Winnepeg Free Press. "One child, one dog, one world. That's the way I see it." 

If you want to help give Bingo a taste of the world, visit her Facebook page and click on the About link to find a mailing address. 

Via CTV News

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Rapper Young Calicoe Is Suspected of Dog Fighting After Viral Video

"Anyone want to fight some dogs?" Detroit rapper Young Calicoe says at the start of a video that went viral early this week, in which he shows off a number of Pit Bulls in cages at his house. "I hope we don't get indicted for that ... that Michael Vick type s***."

Well, good news: Yesterday his house was raided by Detroit police and Michigan Humane Society investigators, who took the dogs -- and some roosters, according to the Detroit Free Press.

(For some of our coverage of "that Michael Vick type s***," click here.)

In the homemade video, the rapper walks through his backyard and a shed full of cages, pointing out the Pit Bulls, some thin and whimpering, calling them "grand champions" and -- for the pups -- "champions in the making."  Don't forget the roosters.

"We fight them too! That's a grand champ right there," Young Calicoe says, gesturing to an anxious, caged rooster.  

Is Young Calicoe the dumbest rapper ever, posting this video? We don't know yet. The police investigation is ongoing. The video showed no clear evidence of dog fighting, just what looks like a terrible dog owner who keeps a lot of Pit Bulls in cages, doesn't feed or care for them enough (they looked thin and terribly sad), while boasting to America that they are grand champions -- and champions in the making, for the pups. 

Young Calicoe denies he fights dogs. We're not sure we believe him. 

Altered to the possible (probable) dog fighting by half the Internet after the video went viral, the police and Michigan Humane Society finally showed up at his door Wednesday. We're surprised Young Calicoe wasn't waiting on the porch for them. "We did seize a number of the animals from the property. They're being taken to the Michigan Humane Society," said Michigan Humane Society spokesman Kevin Hatman, as reported by the Free Press. "They're going to receive the best quality care that they can be given."

Young Calicoe responded as well. He tweeted: "Now that they have Healthy lovable dogs in custody, I just hope that they find nice homes for each and every one of them."

He also denied he was fighting dogs. Sort of. He wrote this on Twitter:

"If u find a video of me 'FIGHTING DOGS' PLEEEEZE LET ME KNO”

Twitter user @MissyB_06 then asked if the rapper had a video of him fighting dogs.

Young Calicoe shot back: "HELL NAAAW"

Although Michigan Humane Society spokesman Kevin Hatman said it's too early to tell whether Young Calicoe is fighting dogs, the Detroit Free Press hit the streets and started reporting. It found resident Robert Mackert, who said he runs an animal rescue operation nearby. 

"You hear dogs all through the night. We've made numerous police reports," Mackert told the Free Press. "It's an absolute nightmare around here." He said he also found dog carcases around the neighborhood, which he believes were victims of dog fighting. 

Fortunately, the police action on this has been pretty strong, because of the clamor over the viral video. It looks like a dog fighting operation, but appearances can be deceiving. If looking like a guy who fights dogs raises your stakes in certain dark corners of the rap world -- and don't think it doesn't -- then you can bet there's more than a few rappers are boasting about owning "grand champions" and "future grand champions."  If that was Young Calicoe's game, it worked. He's bigger than ever.

But be suspicious. We are. 

According to WXYZ-TV, Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee said, "I want to thank the media for the attention that you brought to this because the humane treatment of animals ... is very important to us, and some of the conditions that we saw, without going into detail, gave a lot of credence to support what, I think, is going to be a prosecutable case going forward."

Let's hope so. 

See the full video here. Caution: Crude language.  

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Viral Video We Love: Double-Dutch Dog Blows Your Mind

A single jump rope isn't enough for this incredibly coordinated and energetic rescue dog.

How many tricks or commands does your dog know? I'm proud that Jake can sit, lie down (usually), stay, come, and react to "Out of the garbage!!!" pretty quickly. He doesn't really know tricks, because we taught him the shake-paws business, and he almost blinded people by offering his paw constantly in all the wrong situations. (For instance, you'd be lying on the couch, almost asleep, then a paw with stout nails comes scraping across your face. It basically meant "I want, please!" and he wanted all kinds of things -- always food-related -- and had no compunctions about showing it.) Untraining him was far more of a trick, but he eventually cooled off on the paw business.

When I saw the video below, however, Jake's repertoire suddenly seemed very minuscule. Check out this amazing dog who seems to absolutely love doing double-Dutch jump rope. (Some YouTube viewers have complained about the music. Just turn it down if you don't like it, because the doggy is great without it, too.)

I always like to know how dogs learn things like this, since my dog's "tricks" can fit into the palm of his scratch paw. Fortunately, the dog's owner, Samantha Valle, who travels around North America with Stunt Dog Productions, tells about the trick and the dog on her YouTube page:

"The dog is Geronimo and she's a two-year-old cattledog mix. I pulled her out of a pound in Missouri while I was performing there two summers ago. She was three months old. Mo's specialty is tricks. She loves to train tricks, but also has a knack for agility and frisbee. I have seven dogs total, all mixes of herding dogs, which are my favorite.

"This trick took five straight weeks until it was perfect for me to call complete. I practiced it every single day, several hours a day. Now, there are a lot of hours in a day, folks, and I like frequent breaks, although Mo wonders why we are stopping and not jumping all day long. ;) Mo will work all day, she loves to EAT!!

"This is the first time I've trained this specific trick, so it was all trial and error. There were no specific steps I really took that made a huge difference. All I can really remember doing is trying a bunch of different things, rewarding her small successes until the trick was complete.

"This trick is so amazing because of all the things going on at once. Think about it: She has to find that 'sweet spot' in the rope where she can jump in, wait for the perfect time to jump in, watch the board on the floor and the ropes at the same time so she knows where and when to jump in, then she must time the jump perfectly, land, and immediately find the rhythm of the ropes and jump. She's just not running and gunning it. She waits for the right time (which through hours of practice, she has figured out) and jumps in. The stick is there to keep her in the middle of the ropes. As i found out by teaching my other dogs to jump with just one rope, they all want to jump right on top of you or into you really closely.

"My vision for this trick is exactly how you see it now: A dog that runs and jumps into two ropes while staying in the middle as if she were jumping like a human. I'm happy with the end result. Mo is happy to jump, and I hope you all are happy to view her video and watch her having a good time."

Hey readers, we needed something like this today after yesterday's two downer news stories. At least I did.

Hope this helps you jump into your Tuesday with a smile on your snout!

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Viral Video We Love: Tom the Helter-Skelter Dog

Just a little something to help you start your weekend with a wag.

Dogs rule. If you didn't already know that, check out this video of a very happy British dog named Tom as his fellow cheers him on toward the slide (or helter skelter, as they call it in the UK). Tom picked up the habit on his own, when a loved one went up without him.

And no worries about the dog being off leash at a playground: His owner says he is very good off leash, and of course, there were no children there at that time.

P.S. Anyone catch what his owner was saying around :07? "One goal, mind"? "One gold mine"? "Juan, go mind!"?

Look at his happy, smiling face afterward! Gotta love him! Tom's video has only been making the rounds since March 12, and already it has close to 200,000 views!

After the slide. Tommy = happy.

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