Gerry Harrison
Many of us claim to be animal lovers, but frankly we don’t know the meaning of the term - at least, not when compared to Auckland SPCA’s Gerry Harrison.
Dog Whisperers
How many of you have heard a dog barking for hours on end and wondered what to do?
The Big Nigerian/London or Singapore? Scam!
Be careful when accepting payment by way of an unsighted credit card.
her inspiration
Animal Lover Extraordinaire
Gerry Harrison
What makes a perfectly sane woman abandon a happy life in South Africa to marry a kiwi bloke she doesn’t know very well, spending her life savings on a pet dog in order to do it?
Many of us claim to be animal lovers but, frankly, we don’t know the meaning of the term. At least, not when compared with Auckland SPCA’s Gerry Harrison. This is her story.
New Zealander Don Harrison was buying a boating cap during a trip to Cape Town when he took a shine to the woman who served him. A big shine because, although they talked only a few minutes, he began writing to her when he returned home. Letters turned into phone calls – lengthy ones – and he invited her to New Zealand for a holiday.
During her visit, her long-distance paramour proposed. Gerry accepted and began planning to move to Auckland. But there was a problem, a serious problem – her four-legged best friend, Chanel.
In order to immigrate with Gerry, Chanel had to undergo various health checks and a rabies blood test. Worse, she would have to spend a gruelling four months in quarantine on arriving in New Zealand. Gerry realised that her precious but highly sensitive ‘baby’ simply wouldn’t survive being cooped up in a tiny cell alone for so long. But coming to New Zealand without her wasn’t an option either.
Gerry became increasingly desperate, seeking every possible solution to her dilemma. At the 11th hour, she discovered that New Zealand law allows the quarantine time to be slashed to just one month if an animal has spent at least six months in a country not designated a rabies risk. Gerry decided to spend her life savings and move with Chanel to Germany for half a year.
They both hated it. Gerry didn’t speak a word of German. They lived in a tiny bedsit. It was early winter and freezing cold, and they were both miserable. The six months passed achingly slowly, but finally they were on a jet to their new home. Immediately on arrival Chanel went into quarantine where she pined, refused to eat, and clearly felt lost and confused.
Unable to visit her baby, on the advice of her vet who felt it would only upset poor Chanel even more, Gerry wasn’t much better - even though she had Don and wedding plans to keep her busy. Eventually, Chanel served her time and the two were reunited. To say tears were shed would be a massive understatement.
Today, because of her love of animals and a background in sales and marketing, Gerry is queen of animal fundraising in New Zealand. Surprisingly, perhaps, it began with bears. Gerry was horrified to read about the agonising plight of captive bears forced to dance as entertainment for tourists and, worse, those held in tiny cages and milked for their bile. She decided to hold a fundraising dinner auction for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), which works to free bears and place them in sanctuaries. It sold out and raised the not inconsiderable sum of $30,000.
“I had always been a passionate animal lover and always wanted a job where I could help animals, but my involvement in South Africa had been piecemeal because of my full-time job,” she explains.
Following this first successful foray into fundraising, Gerry decided to do more to help save bears from the appalling conditions they are forced to endure on Asian bear farms. “They spend their entire lives in open-barred cages too small to turn around in, in barbaric conditions that make you weep,” she laments.
She formed a fundraising group to raise the $13,500 it costs to save a bear and re-house it in a sanctuary in Cheng Du, China. Thanks to street appeals and other methods, they raised $16,400 in six months.
“Many people pay lip service to animal welfare, but don’t do anything. I want to make a difference to animals. They are sentient beings who suffer pain, confusion and loneliness just like we do,” she says.
Gerry decided that animals closer to home also needed her help, so she became a volunteer with the SPCA. Her innate sales and marketing skills were obvious and led to her being asked to organise a raffle. No easy task, she nevertheless raised $90,000 for the charity.
“It’s always a challenge to get enough quality goods for a raffle because companies are just inundated with requests. It’s an uphill battle and so competitive,” she declares.
She worked hard to establish herself here, but now has a wide network of like-minded business people. Her outgoing and friendly nature has helped her establish strong friendships with people who also care about animal welfare, people she can call on year after year. Realising just what a treasure they’d found, the SPCA moved to set up a formal association with Gerry, establishing a specific role: special project co-ordinator in 2004.
Two years ago she organised a gala dinner auction which again was hugely successful, this time raising $100,000. Her hard work received further recognition last year when the SPCA named her its Vice Patron. Now, Gerry is working on a new event to raise funds for the SPCA’s animal village and to set up a shelter on Auckland’s North Shore.
By Lynnaire Johnston
Photo: Gerry Harrison with the latest addition to her household, Sienna, a recently rescued toy poodle.
her insight
Dog Whisperers
How many of you have heard a dog barking uncontrollably for hours on end and wondered what to do? Or perhaps you’ve been the red-faced owner of a dog on the loose that simply won’t come to the call. The domesticated dog has well and truly padded its way into our hearts and homes, and along with this loyal canine friend’s company, comes responsibility. Cue: The Dog Whisperer.
Dog Whispering is a loosely used term, and some in the business prefer to be known simply as dog trainers. The point of commonality for dog whisperers lies in the fact that they seek to understand dog behaviour from the dog’s perspective, rather than dominating the dog into compliance. They also tend to use positive reinforcement during their training.
Those in the industry are called upon for a variety of reasons – from working with problem dogs (and owners!) to general puppy training, to more specialised training.
Lynne O’Malley runs Natural Animal Solutions. She gives her take on dog whispering: “Dog whispering is nothing magical. It is simply having the knowledge and ability to work with a dog using gentle and rewarding techniques that the dog is able to relate to and understand. Effective dog whisperers have a thorough understanding of how dogs perceive the environment, how they process information and [how they] are able to learn new concepts.
“A prime example of dog whispering in action occurred with a dog I recently visited. This dog was fearful of life in general and had been that way since her owners had brought her home as a puppy. She had always been petrified of visitors and had never voluntarily approached [them] or let anyone touch her other than her owners. However, by the end of my consultation this same dog was taking treats from my hand, was sitting beside me and licking my face and allowing me to stroke her - her owners could not believe their eyes. By signalling to this dog through my body language and my interactions with her that I was no threat, and in fact was a rewarding prospect to interact with, her fearful responses slowly disintegrated.”
Lynne is passionate about dogs and utilises a broad range of approaches in her business. “My methods are probably a little different from many conventional trainers and behaviourists in that I look at the ‘whole’ animal in a holistic sense, as behaviour problems can come from many sources - emotional, spiritual and physical. I also utilise holistic methods such as bach flowers and t-touch techniques [a form of massage] to help adjust the emotional side of the dog whilst undergoing behavioural modification if I feel this is required.
“Behavioural modification techniques are individualised and based upon rewarding methods, using the dog's natural learning abilities and ways of communicating. I also utilise clicker training which accelerates learning by approximately 50% and dogs love it! The key focus of my work is education. I educate dog owners so they are able to relate effectively with their dog and make positive changes in their lives.”
And while positive change is a key motivator for dog owners to seek out the help of dog whisperers, there are other reasons…
Karen Sadler trains dogs to become movie stars. Her company, Agrade Animals Action Ltd, has grown with demand over the past eight years. Karen’s dogs have gone on to become “obedience champions, wonderful family pets, canine good citizens, and Hollywood movie stars.”
She gives an example of one puppy she worked with: “The dog on
A Bridge to Terabithia was trained by me. I met Paddy when he was 4 months old, and by the time he was a year old he was on the set of a Walt Disney film. He is now just coming up for two and his owners are really happy to have a movie star. But most of all they are happy that they have a dog that comes when called, sits, downs, stays, and retrieves on command - but still has his personality with it all.”
From an industry perspective, she says, dog whispering is growing nationwide. “The dog training industry is getting bigger all the time in NZ, but there are a lot of different trainers out there and people need to look at what suits them and their dogs. Positive reinforcement methods are the most common these days, but experience counts for a lot in this industry.”
Sally (not her real name) has been involved in the industry for twenty-five years. She identifies some of the challenges of dog whispering: “It’s difficult to fully support myself as a dog trainer in New Zealand; most dog trainers diversify and do other work as well. I used to do dog grooming on top of training.
“As a dog trainer you have to be constantly upskilling. I’ve already spent thousands on my training and I’m now feeling the need to do more training. It’s only that it’s not financially realistic. The industry doesn’t support people to upskill; the local council won’t either, which is a pity for them really. Upskilling keeps every body safe.”
Sally asserts that there is a huge safety factor with dog training. “I have to be very careful in my work, especially when we’re dealing with dogs and kids in this political climate. I don’t want to end up on the front page of the paper because a dog I’ve been working with has bitten a child. I know in my heart of hearts that this is really the responsibility of the owner, but when you take on the responsibility of dog training, people seem to think you have a magic wand - and if something goes wrong, they blame you.”
Sally has trained in Dog Whispering in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Though she is trying to retire, she finds it hard to turn dogs and their owners away. “Local vet clinics keep sending people my way.”
By Charlotte Squire
For more information, visit:
www.naturalanimalsolutions.co.nz and
www.agradeanimals.co.nz
her inform
The Big Nigerian, United Kingdom or Singaporean? Scam!
Warning Warning Warning! Please read this carefully if you are at anytime accepting payment by way of an unsighted credit card, either internationally or domestically.
Eftpos New Zealand has a huge problem with international credit card fraud; unfortunately this message is not getting out to their customers! It is vital that you know the rules and regulations surrounding payment by credit cards via the internet, email and over the phone.
When you’re unable to sight the credit card during the transaction, essentially you are unprotected. You will take all the risk if the card has been fraudulently obtained and used. Eftpos New Zealand has up to 300 days, (that’s almost a year), during which they can reverse a transaction against you that is subsequently deemed fraudulent.
Re-acquaint yourself with the MasterCard rules – please get yourself the latest copy and read them carefully.
If your transactions are international like ours were, set up an international bank account, leave this account clear of funds - simply get international customers to pay into this account before you dispatch the goods and check that the funds are clear before the goods depart.
Our story is like many others who have contacted me - sure a lot of this fraud has been initiated out of Nigeria, the perpetrators simply gain numbers from unsecured websites, they don’t get the total number, i.e., it is missing the last three to four digits. They have, however, developed sophisticated programmes to determine what these numbers are most likely to be - The card number we were given belonged to cardholders in South Dakota (USA).
Be aware that communication from these fraudsters is incredibly personal, they form relationships with you, emails are often from hotmail or yahoo addresses, goods may be dispatched anywhere in the world, i.e., we sent our goods to London, Philippines and Nigeria. But given we do this most days in the normal course of business we saw nothing abnormal with these transactions and definitely didn’t think to upskill ourselves on credit card terms and conditions.
Rather than go into a long winded explanation of how it happened as, sure, there were warning signs now that I have reviewed the transactions - the benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing! Our systems, and the size of our operation, meant that we simply went into a perfunctory processing mode and dispatched goods given because payment had been made!
Don’t get caught, simply don’t deal internationally via credit card at any time, it’s not worth it. We are so much better than this as business operators. Let’s not let an international scam destroy our business infrastructures.
Work with the bank to set up an international account and speak up if you have been caught out. You can’t change what has happened to you but you can make some one else’s business stronger!
A domestic warning also - if you are accepting unsighted credit cards, i.e., transactions over the phone, remember you are not guaranteed or protected. If you haven’t seen the card, get the customer to fax it to you, if they can, and make sure you get all their details - home address, phone numbers, expiry dates, etc. Phone them back to verify, and match name and phone numbers in the phone book where appropriate. Protect yourself, you are just as much the victim if you take a fraudulently obtained card, the difference being, that you become the rightful card-holders guarantor.
Don’t put your business in this position - think smart; don’t be outdone by a criminal mind. Review the Eftpos New Zealand website on a regular basis, this is where they post information on fraud - make this part of your weekly procedures. I only hope my mistake allows us all to develop robust procedures, so please don’t tell me my $12,000 loss was in vain.
By Annah Stretton
