| New Labrador documentary released
|
Issue: 23/02/2024
A new feelgood documentary has been released which follows the story of a litter of Labrador puppies who were stricken with paralysis but thanks to the care and determination of their owners were able to walk, work and win prizes.
Puppy Love is about a healthy litter of puppies who suddenly become paralysed and vets advised their owners to put them to sleep. However, a courageous band of women decided to fight for their dogs and with a mixture of homespun recipes and hard work they get them back on their feet.
The movie was shown at a special presentation on February 20 at the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in New York. It is available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. They are hoping the film will be able to get wider distribution.
Gail Gilbert, the director, told OUR DOGS, ‘I really wanted one of my cousin’s Labradors. She was a breeder, 15 years older than me. So, the whole time I was growing up I just wanted one of her dogs. She always told me “No, you are too busy. You’re too focused on your life. Too self-centred.” She always had a reason why I couldn’t get one of her dogs.
‘Then one day she called me up and said, “I think I’m going to have my last litter and I’ll save you a yellow male if there is one.” I was so excited that I couldn’t believe it. I went out to look at him a couple of times when he was just a week old, when he was three weeks old and finally took him home at eight weeks old and then a week later, he just became a blob on the ground and he just couldn’t move at all.’
‘I was too terrified to call my cousin and let her know because I thought for sure she would have thought I had ruined her dog. So, I took him to the vet and to a neurologist and he had all these tests done and nobody knew what to do. They all just said, “We have never seen this before so go ahead an put him down if he is not better in a couple of days.’
NO CAUSE
She then called her cousin and she informed at the whole litter “were all down” and that she should take the dog, who Gail had called Scout, over to her house and this is where the story started. They are not sure what caused the paralysis but the dogs had received a vaccination the week before.
‘The idea I could put down the dog I had been waiting for 40 years for was beyond my comprehension. My cousin was the same way and she had friends who happened to be really into these puppies as they knew it was her last litter. When they all became paralysed, they all jumped in and it was really the five of us who spent a year bringing the dogs back.’
Gail, who is a filmmaker, started off by just recording their progress on her phone but after a week she asked her assistant, who had a new camera, to film, but she got involved with the dogs so, a friend of hers, who is a cameraman, took over.
‘Everyone in it had her own approach. One woman really into Chinese herbs, so she visited a Chinese herbalist and got a whole slew of things we had to give our dogs. A friend of my cousins was a Chiropractor and she worked on the dogs two or three times a week.
‘One of her friend’s daughter was just getting out of acupuncture school, for canine acupuncture, so she worked on the dogs a couple of times a week. Another one, was just into straightforward physical therapy, putting the dogs on a ball. Making sure they were always moving, making sure they were always rotated, separating their legs, pulling their toes, massage.’
As they got further on, they used an underwater treadmill once they could ambulate to strengthen them.
‘The big thing was the nutrition, they needed a lot of protein. Two of them couldn’t open their mouths or do much so we had to syringe food into their mouths. It started out as sugar water and I thought that was ridiculous so I started making chicken broth.
‘We would syringe chicken broth into them and they started eating the chicken and once they started eating the boiled chicken from the chicken broth that is when they started getting their energy back and they could walk again.’
The dogs recovered at different rates with one dog recovering within three months and the last dog recovering with nine months.
‘In retrospect it was kind of crazy but at the time when you are involved you are all in. You don’t really think about it.
‘We all hoped it was going to work. My assistant asked one of the women, “Are these dogs going to be normal dogs?” and she said “I don’t think so.” The original reason I got the cameraman out, I honestly thought they were going to die and I just needed a record of the dogs and all we were doing.
‘Every time I got a phone call from my cousin, I just had to take a deep breath, say a prayer, and hope she wasn’t calling me to let me know one of the dogs had died.’
Interestingly, only the males in the litter were affected. There were two females in the litter who weren’t affected. It is thought because happened so early in their development, female puppies develop quicker than males, so the immune system was more developed in the females.
‘It’s a movie about women saving a bunch of male dogs!’
The dogs would go on to win awards with in tracking, agility, obedience and Scout has won blue ribbons in Conformation and Rally Excellent.
‘I hope the film spreads a message of hope, commitment and the power of the human canine relationship and that it gets seen. I believe in its story and I believe in its message. It’s not just a piece of entertainment it is a powerful message.’
To find out more go to - https://puppylovefilm.com
