Art Smith takes a quick look around Time Out Market Chicago and softly asks: “Do you know what chefs do after they’re 60?”
Smith, the celebrity chef who worked with Oprah Winfrey and has served dignitaries, like President Biden, didn’t expect an answer. Smith posed the question to justify his new rapport with the Chicago Hounds, a professional rugby team founded in 2022 that plays home matches at SeatGeek Stadium in suburban Bridgeview. In February, Smith and the Hounds announced a collaboration in which Smith’s new brand, Sporty Bird, began selling chicken sandwiches and more at the stadium. Over the weekend, Smith also unveiled a Sporty Bird-branded food stall at Time Out Market, the food hall run by the media company.
Beyond his association with Oprah, Smith is known for restaurants like Table Fifty-Two in Gold Coast, a hit mostly known for its fried chicken. Smith is proud of the restaurant (which was rebranded as Blue Door Kitchen & Gardenin 2016) and its alums: “Joe is just killing it here,” Smith says of Joe Flamm, the chef and co-owner of Rose Mary, right down the street from Time Out Market.
Chef Art Smith swears he can cook more than chicken.Sporty Bird/Kim Kovacik
Last year, Smith opened Reunion at Navy Pier and he maintains a residence in Hyde Park. But he still travels. He talked about an upcoming trip to India and meeting esteemed chef Francis Mallmann earlier this year during a visit to an island in Patagonia. Even though he joked about his age, Smith’s star continues to shine, passing through open doors closed to most food hall tenants. Most food halls brand themselves as incubators, taking chances on relatively unproven talent. Smith is the opposite.
Still, the venture with the Hounds is a risk. He touts himself as the only professional chef who owns a professional sports team in America. It’s a claim that’s hard to verify. For example, is a burger cook who works at an Applebee’s and has shares in the publicly-owned Green Bay Packers, considered an owner of a pro team?
Smith wants to bring energy to Time Out (“I want to throw a party,” he says) and sees potential — even as the food hall goes through changes. Smith praised chef Jorge Kaum, the chef behind Gutenburg, a food hall burger stall. Kaum is also a chocolatier and made chocolate-shaped rugby balls in honor of Smith’s opening.
Avli is set to leave the market at the end of the month — they’re going to open a stand-alone location in the area. Evette’s left earlier this year. Of the original lineup from 2019, only chef Bill Kim (Urbanbelly) remains. A few of the restaurants had problems with management and didn’t like the terms of their contracts. Food halls have struggled during the pandemic. Two closed in the West Loop/Fulton Market — Politan Row and Fulton Galley. In March, Time Out brought in a new general manager, Steve Pelissero, to bring in some stability.
Sporty Bird features chicken (“I do know how to cook more than chicken,” Smith says). The spicy nuggets have heat, at least during an opening event last week. But there’s a worry that too much heat will alienate customers in the area.
Jade Court’s Carol Cheung is working with Sport Bird.Sporty Bird/Kim Kovacik
Unexpectedly, the stall has a familiar face behind the counter. Carol Cheung, the chef and the owner behind Hyde Park’s Jade Court, an acclaimed Cantonese restaurant and longtime member of the Eater Chicago 38, is managing operations. As Smith is a Hyder Parker, he befriended Cheung and wants to find a way to revive Jade Court, which struggled at the University of Chicago’s Harper Court development. Time Out does have spaces available.
What gave Smith the idea to partner with the hounds? Last year, soccer legend Lionel Messi launched a fried chicken sandwich in Miami with Hard Rock Cafe. Smith saw the sandwich become a viral sensation, yet he was hardly impressed by the sandwich: “I could do better,” Smith says.
Some vendors have fled, others say they’ve made money at the food hall. Kaum, who also has a stall in Miami, says things are improving in Chicago. Smith is hopeful that Sporty Bird, and perhaps a Jade Court revival, can take advantage. He’s reminded of something his friend Oprah once told him: “You don’t have to be first,” Smith recalls Winfrey saying. “But you do have to be better.”
Neonatal kittens. Bottle Babies. Teeny, not yet weaned. However you describe them, whatever you call them, kittens who depend on humans to make it through their first several weeks of life are some of the cutest souls you will encounter and also some of the most vulnerable.
Austin Pets Alive! is honored and grateful to be considered one of Austin’s favorite
nonprofits and beyond that, to receive outreach from companies in Austin who want to
turn their love and appreciation of APA!’s work into a service-oriented gift. Search
Laboratory is just such a company.
In early 2023, the company reached out to our Marketing team sharing that APA! was
voted as Search Laboratory’s “charity of the year,” meaning our organization would
become their “pet” nonprofit to support in whatever way made the most sense to us. As
a nonprofit, that’s thrilling! We take pride in holding a high score on Charity Navigator,
with a portion of that score coming from how much of our dollars raised goes directly
back into our programming (74% — above industry standard!) The way our teams utilize
volunteer support and generosity of companies like Search Laboratories is a big part of
ensuring every dollar is spent responsibly.
To kick things off on the right “paw”, Search Laboratory pledged $10,000 worth of their
time and talents to help APA! with our digital marketing goals. They’ve worked closely
with our team members to share industry best practices for social media advertising,
website, content, and online PR, providing both knowledge and donating hours to create
content. Our teams have also worked together to streamline processes allowing us to
track results showcasing how our marketing efforts are directly connected to incoming
donations!
Search Laboratory is a certified B-Corporation which means they’re serious about social
responsibility and taking care of the environment. From employee happiness to giving
back to the community, they believe in doing things right and we’ve witnessed that and
benefited from it, first-hand! This company is part of a community of businesses that
care about making a positive impact, and being a B Corp means they can stand behind
a brand that their team, clients, and partners can be proud of.
At APA!, we often say that we do a lot with a little and in this case, that means that our
little marketing team has been able to fly higher in the past year because of a lot of
support from our friends at Search Laboratory!
When a nonprofit serving Los Angeles’ homeless and foster youth applied last year for a slice of billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s latest round of giving, the group hoped to get $1 million.
Instead, the team at Youth Emerging Stronger learned this week it was one of almost 300 community groups nationwide to be awarded $2 million.
“It doubled the amount that we were hoping for,” said Mark Supper, chief executive and president of Youth Emerging Stronger, adding, that they were “a bit dumbfounded by it, but we’re so happy.”
Scott, who co-founded Amazon with her ex-husband, chief executive Jeff Bezos, donated $640 million to more than 350 community groups nationwide, more than doubling the amount she initially planned to give, according to Yield Giving, Scott’s website. Of that pot, $137 million went to 76 organizations that serve Californians. The majority received $2 million, but about 80 organizations received $1 million.
Supper’s nonprofit was among the 25 Southern California groups that shared $47 million.
“For us, it’s really a transformational kind of gift,” Supper said. “It allows us to really think long term in our strategies and our approaches.”
The news of the massive donation is still only days old, and Supper said his team is still working on specific plans for how to use the money. But he said the group will definitely focus on expanding housing and mental health services for the vulnerable youth, ages 12 to 24, whom it serves.
Supper said his nonprofit was notified recently that it was among the finalists from Scott’s open call — which got more than 6,000 applicants — for “community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles.”
“We’re just so pleased that they saw the value of our work,” Supper said. “It’s a critical age bracket that I think a lot of people don’t spend a lot of time on when we look at the unhoused issue.”
“We were just jumping up and down with joy when we heard this was happening,” said Carmen Ibarra, the chief executive of Achievable Health, based in Culver City.
“It comes at just the right time,” she said, as the organization’s community health center is working on plans to expand to provide services to more people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who she said are “often underserved and overlooked in healthcare.”
“We’re limited right now in terms of our capacity, mainly around space,” Ibarra said. “We will be expanding our services, expanding our site, expanding the staffing that we have to be able to serve more patients in the community. … This really is jumpstarting those efforts.”
This round of donations follows many others from Scott, who has pledged to donate more than half of her wealth, which is estimated at about $32 billion, according to Forbes. Scott has typically given to organizations without an application process, but this time she worked with philanthropic group Lever for Change to analyze the thousands of applicants.
“Grateful to Lever for Change and everyone on the evaluation and implementation teams for their roles in creating this pathway to support for people working to improve access to foundational resources in their communities,” Scott wrote on her website Tuesday. “They are vital agents of change.”
The team gathered at 4th and Crocker streets and headed south, into the blue-tented netherworld of social collapse, armed with life-saving drug-overdose kits and injectable, long-acting anti-psychotic medication.
“We’re trying very aggressive treatment on the streets,” said Dr. Susan Partovi. “Housing definitely saves your life, but there’s a small sub-group of people who won’t accept housing because of their mental illness.”
She figures that if she administers medication that lasts a month and can help stabilize patients — with their consent — they’ve got a chance.
“They don’t think there’s anything wrong, and they think they don’t need housing,” Partovi said. “They don’t think rationally, and so once you treat their delusions and their irrationality, they start to realize, ‘Oh, I do need resources.’ ”
California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults.
Partovi, who began practicing street medicine in 2007 in Santa Monica, has never been shy about her lack of patience with the official response to the entrenched humanitarian crisis. In 2017, I shadowed her as she walked through Skid Row with County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, advocating for broader authority to assist those in obvious acute mental and physical distress, even if they refused help, and despite opposition from civil rights attorneys and others.
By administering long-acting meds, Partovi—author of the just-published “Renegade M.D.: A Doctor’s Stories From the Streets”—is once again pushing boundaries. She’s acting out of a belief that her approach is medically sound, and with frustration sharpened by her street-level view of the countless bureaucratic cracks and canyons in the system. She’s driven, too, by an uncompromising compassion for homeless people who are so sick, she can sometimes predict who will die next.
Critics might say a person in the throes of impairment isn’t competent to give consent for a month-long dose of medication, and that such meds are neither a panacea nor a substitute for intensive ongoing case management. But to Partovi, the slow pace of intervention — along with multiple daily deaths on the streets — add up to a human rights violation and a moral failure, so she’s stepping into the breach.
But she’s not a psychiatrist, and her street medicine team’s approach is not fully embraced by the L.A. County Department of Mental Health. DMH has psychiatric street medicine teams operating in several parts of the county. The Skid Row unit —which is led by Dr. Shayan Rab and injcludes psychiatric nurses, social workers and addiction counselors, and sometimes conducts sidewalk court hearings for those who resist treatment — was featured in a September 2022 article by my colleague Doug Smith.
Dr. Susan Partovi, left, and Dr. Steven Hochman talk to a woman during their medical outreach.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Dr. Curley Bonds, chief medical officer of the department, says DMH psychiatrists first establish a working relationship with the client and invest time in determining a clinical history, including prescribed medications and dosage. It can be difficult, he said, to distinguish between psychosis and the effects of street drugs like methamphetamine, but trained psychiatrists have an advantage over doctors with other specialties. Treatment would ordinarily begin with short-term oral medication, Bonds said, to establish the “efficacy and tolerability of the agent.”
Only then would long-acting injectables be an option, he continued, but even then, the civil rights of the patient would have to be a consideration.
“We are more cautious about making sure there is informed consent and … we really want to respect a person’s autonomy for decision-making,” Bonds said. Despite procedural differences and quibbles over the Partovi team’s approach, Bonds added, “I don’t want to put us at odds with them … because what they are doing is important work.”
A glance at the reality on the streets of Los Angeles makes clear that far more help and substantially greater urgency are badly needed. And Partovi is not alone in practicing what she calls “low barrier bridge psychiatry.”
Dr. Coley King, director of homeless healthcare at the Venice Family Clinic, is not a psychiatrist, either. But as a street medic in L.A., the national capital of homelessness, he works in what is essentially an outdoor mental hospital, with tents instead of beds. King treats mental illness and whatever else he sees — and what, often, no one else is treating.
He told me he has used both short-term and long-term anti-psychotics, depending on the situation. The risks posed by medication are not as great, he said, as the risk of being homeless, sick and untreated.
“The need is so dire, and the patients are dying at such a young age, and the lack of available psychiatry is so marked,” said King, who leads a street medicine team through Westside streets four days a week and often works with a psychiatric nurse practitioner. “We’re not doing this in any sort of cavalier fashion. We’re doing it very thoughtfully with a mind to knowing our medications and knowing our diagnosis and treatment are based on a ton of experience and a lot of exposure to working side-by-side with psychiatrists in the field.”
In 2020, I wrote about a formerly homeless Santa Monica woman whose life had been turned around after King treated her for her addiction and physical and mental ailments. The treatment included a long-acting injection the woman agreed to, and when I met her, she was living in a hotel before moving into housing arranged by the outreach team.
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When I met with Partovi last month on Skid Row, her team consisted of Dr. Steven Hochman, an addiction specialist; David Dadiomov, director of USC’s psychiatry pharmacy program; and social worker Sylvia Meza. It was Meza who established this nonprofit outreach team — it’s called SUDIS, for Substance Use Disorder Integrated Services — and brought in Partovi as medical director last year.
Overdose bags contain Naloxone — a medication designed to reverse an opioid overdose — fentanyl strips to detect the presence of fentanyl and reading materials about avoiding overdose.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
As someone who works the aging beat, I was struck by how many of the people we encountered were late middle age and beyond. Partovi estimated that about 50% of the people served by the team are 50 and older.
“They got caught up in Skid Row when they were young and were never able to get out of it,” Meza said. “Skid Row is like bondage. People are trapped in there. They have this poverty mentality where they feel like they can’t get out, but they can. It’s just about motivating them to see the cup as half full and not half empty.”
A gray-haired man crossed the street before us, and just up ahead, 63-year-old Israel stood near a tent, not far from a woman named Diane, who said she was 60 and was caring for her two cats, Gold and Silver, along with two dogs owned by a woman who’s in jail.
“That’s French Fry,” Partovi said as one of the dogs, a white terrier, crossed the street.
She knew the dog’s name because that’s how outreach works— you get to know people, their routines, their histories, even their pets. Neither Diane nor Israel was interested in medication on this day, but a connection was made, the first step in building trust.
Hochman spoke to Israel in Spanish and English, letting him know he’d be back again, and that medication was available. He told me the outreach team tries to determine a patient’s medical history, and at times does prescribe short-term medication if there are concerns about tolerability. But people often lose their daily medication, Hochman said. Or they forget to take it. Or it gets stolen, or swept away in storms or street-cleaning sweeps. A month-long dose can up the chances of turning things around.
On Crocker Street, where the team distributed Narcan kits to slow the epidemic of overdose deaths, Meza was joking with a 68-year-old man when we noticed that Partovi, a half block away, was waving for the team to join her.
Dr. Steven Hochman, left, Dr. Susan Partovi and Sylvia Meza check on the well-being of a man in downtown Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The doctor had spotted a woman she thought would be a candidate for an injection. Amanda, 51, said she had been diagnosed with two psychiatric conditions. She listed her most recent medications and said she wanted something to treat her depression.
Partovi asked several questions, including whether Amanda had a history of adverse reactions. Partovi has a network of psychiatrists she can consult, but she didn’t think she needed to in this case. She informed Amanda that with the injection, she’d be medicated for a month. Amanda gave her approval.
“I’m gonna hold your hand,” Meza said as Partovi rolled up Amanda’s sleeve and poked a syringe into the soft tissue of her right shoulder.
“We want to do this every month,” Partovi said as Amanda grimaced from the sting.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, almost done,” Partovi said before adding: “OK, now you’re good.”
Partovi said that in the best scenarios, the “word salad” dissipates, patients express themselves more clearly, and they make better decisions about recovery. “In my experience, once they get their mental health stabilized, then they want to work on substance abuse,” she said.
I asked how she can distinguish between mental illness and the effects of drug use.
“We’re not treating a diagnosis,” she said. “We’re treating symptoms. If someone is having psychiatric symptoms, the literature shows that whether it’s meth-related or organic schizophrenia, the anti-psychotics are going to work. That’s been my experience as well.”
Among the homeless people of Skid Row or anywhere else, the back stories are usually long and messy narratives involving childhood trauma, domestic abuse, sexual assault, chronic disease, poverty, incarceration, a lack of affordable housing, mental illness and self-medication with increasingly dangerous street drugs.
Amanda said she’d been homeless since 2017 after doing some jail time and that she couldn’t recall having a place of her own. Meza promised Amanda she would investigate options for housing and other services.
“Do not lose my number,” Meza said, handing Amanda her business card. “This is my personal cell number.”
They posed together for a photo, and then the team kept moving, getting approval for injections from two more clients over the next 20 minutes.
I first connected with Partovi many years ago, after I’d met a homeless Juilliard-trained street musician whose career had been derailed after a diagnosis of mental illness. In full disclosure, at her request, I interviewed Partovi about her work and “Renegade M.D.” at her book-launch party last month.
In the book — a compelling and personal front-lines look at who becomes homeless and why, complete with triumphs and tragedies and an unflinching examination of a fragmented system that is a often a barrier to recovery — Partovi says that as a Westside teenager, she traveled to a leprosy clinic in Mexico with a Christian service group and medical team. She knew then what she wanted to do with her life.
“I made the commitment to become a doctor and focus on patients who experience the worlds of poverty and injustice,” she writes.
In 2007, while working as a street doctor in Santa Monica, she came upon “a woman who looked to be in her 80s but was probably younger. Living on the streets ages people quickly.”
She thought of her own grandmother, who had passed away in her 90s.
“If my grandmother had wanted to panhandle on the Promenade in her flannel nightgown, I would have picked her up … and thrown her into my car. … I would never allow my family member to live on the streets. … Why do we, as a society, allow it?”
An hour and a half east of San Diego in late October, surrounded by haphazard makeshift tents, an asylum seeker lies in the desert with his leg propped up. Our team of volunteer physicians and medical students learned that he sustained a serious foot injury on his perilous journey to the United States. By the look of his swollen and seeping wound, the antibiotics he has been taking for the last 10 days are not warding off infection. He’s been taking half the prescribed dose of antibiotics because he’s not sure how long he’ll be traveling and doesn’t want to run out.
While we dress his wound, a doctor on our team steps away, motioning for the rest of us to follow. We find ourselves conflicted over the limited options, not knowing when this patient will next access medical care. Moreover, once he is transferred from this site to an official detention facility, his medications, including antibiotics, may be confiscated. After considering these factors, we all come to the same conclusion: If he does not receive proper care, this injury could cause permanent damage, or worse, a fatal blood infection. So what happens next?
For the last two months, we have mobilized local healthcare providers to help asylum seekers in rural San Diego County. A handful of uninhabitable places around the small town of Jacumba Hot Springs have become open-air detention sites for hundreds of asylum seekers. Migrants wait in the desert to be transferred to an official detention facility for processing. While some are transported within a few hours, many spend days without consistent access to food, water or medical care, with no shelter from increasingly harsh environmental conditions.
Migrants have been told by Border Patrol agents that if they leave the sites to seek medical care, their asylum process may be significantly delayed or endangered. Yet since Jacumba is not an official detention center, these asylum seekers are denied the basic resources and services required by Border Patrol policy for those in custody.
We see a medical crisis unfolding. People are suffering from deep tissue infections and ulcers, acute appendicitis, seizures, heart attack symptoms and pregnancies with complications. We provide services with whatever donated supplies we can get our hands on. We wash dust-filled eyes with saline, hand out Vaseline for cracked skin and provide face masks to limit the spread of upper respiratory infections that overwhelm the sites. Plastic spoons serve as splints for broken fingers, children are examined in makeshift tents and cough drops are handed out by the hundreds.
On any given day, volunteers in different fields are providing critical services for hundreds of migrants in Jacumba, supported by donations, mutual aid groups and nonprofit teams including Border Kindness and Al Otro Lado.
As temperatures approach freezing and winter rains fall, we are increasingly concerned about frostbite, hypothermia and exacerbations of chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes. At least one preventable death has been reported at an open air site along the border. We fear that the next one could occur in Jacumba.
International and U.S. laws recognize seeking asylum as a human right. We have a responsibility to provide safe conditions for migrants when they exercise that right.
To ensure that no further harm is done, local, state and federal authorities need to stop utilizing loopholes, or sidestepping legal responsibility, to detain migrants in “unofficial” camps where they are experiencing dehumanizing, preventable suffering. If hundreds of people are being kept by our country at a site, that location should be acknowledged as a detention center with the obligation to meet detainees’ basic needs.
As our day at the site comes to a close, we rejoin the migrant with the leg infection and our colleagues who have finished changing his dressing. We share our concerns and coach him through communicating with medical staff at his next destination, most likely an official detention center. A minute in, we pause — this is too much information to remember. Someone produces a marker, and one physician begins writing on the waterproof tape. She scrawls out a note to Border Patrol and instructions for the next medical team, signing her name at the bottom as she would a prescription. Right now, this is the best we can do out here.
Sadie Munter and Karyssa Domingo are second-year medical students in San Diego, where Weena Joshi is a practicing pediatrician.
New Dodger phenomenon Shohei Ohtani played Santa for a fellow player’s family Friday, gifting a new sports car to Ashley Kelly for her tongue-in-cheek campaign to lure him to the Dodgers by offering Ohtani her husband’s jersey number.
Kelly is married to relief pitcher Joe Kelly, who wore No. 17 — the same number Ohtani wore in all six years of his Major League Baseball career with the Angels, where he earned two American League MVP awards and became a two-way phenomenon as a pitcher and a slugger.
As Ohtani mulled his free agency decision earlier this month, Ashley Kelly launched a humorous social media crusade to bring the Japanese superstar to the Dodgers by assuring him that he could continue to wear No. 17 as a Dodger.
Using the hashtag #ohtake17, the former UC Riverside women’s soccer player posted a video on Instagram in which she promised Ohtani not only her husband’s jersey number, but all of the family’s gear bearing it — even the ones that also feature Joe Kelly’s image and/or name. After Ohtani signed with the team, Ashley Kelly followed up with another video, this time celebrating Ohtani’s agreeing to a 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers. In it, she gleefully tosses all the No. 17 items onto the family’s front lawn while blowing them goodbye kisses.
Her campaign paid off, at least for her. On Friday night she posted a video showing her apprehensively peeking out her front door at the sports car parked in front of the Kellys’ house.
“It’s yours,” a man’s voice says, “from Shohei. He wanted to gift you a Porsche.”
Jersey numbers are semi-sacred in baseball tradition, so it’s common for new players coming to a team who want a number already worn by another player to offer that player something of value for the number. The most prominent player typically has the most leverage, and Ashley Kelly’s playful campaign acknowledged there would be no dispute over who got to wear No. 17 next season.
Ohtani may still reward Joe Kelly in other ways for handing over lucky 17. Meanwhile, the reliever who was part of the Dodgers’ 2020 world championship team will wear No. 99, which was last worn by pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu.
Times staff writer Chuck Schilken contributed to this report.
When Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani joined the Angels in 2018, my cousins and I made a bet. How long until he leaves Orange County to join the Los Angeles Dodgers?
We knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
Not just because the Blue Crew is one of baseball’s marquee franchises, while the Halos are as respected as a soul patch. Or because Angels owner Arte Moreno makes Ebeneezer Scrooge seem as free-spending as, well, the Dodgers, who just signed Ohtani to the richest contract ever in professional sports, at $700 million for 10 years.
Nah, we knew Ohtani was fated to leave because he’s a young, talented person — and folks like him usually get the hell out of O.C. the moment they can.
We saw the best minds of my generation flee for Austin, Texas, Chicago, New York, the Inland Empire, but especially L.A. — the place our elders taught us to fear as full of crime and liberals. Our friends and relatives left to find opportunities that were impossible in staid, conservative, expensive Orange County. They rarely looked back. When their new neighbors asked where they were from, most would demur and say “Southern California” or “near Los Angeles.”
City, civic and county leaders didn’t care about this exodus, since O.C. was never meant to be cool. We were the spot where people moved after they made it. Orange County was aspirational, and if you couldn’t afford to hack it here, good riddance and don’t forget to take along other underachievers like you.
This thinking went on, unchecked, for decades. But it’s finally dawning on the lords of O.C. that losing our young to Los Angeles and elsewhere portends doom.
Fans line up to enter Angel Stadium in 2021.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Orange County has shrunk in population three out of the last four years — a once-unthinkable development in a region that has always bragged about its growth. O.C’s median age has gone from 33.3 years in the 2000 census to 39.5 years in 2022, a rate of aging that has outpaced the nation. About 17,000 people between the ages of 20 and 35 left in 2016 and 2017 alone, according to the Orange County Business Council’s most recent Workforce Housing Scorecard, which called the youthful exodus a “troubling trend” and a “drain on the county’s future workforce.”
Like Orange County, the Angels have historically preferred established and over-the-hill players and barely blinked when homegrown prospects left for better opportunities. The team rarely invests in its farm system, the way Orange County cities have never really cared about creating affordable housing, good-paying jobs or other necessities that would help to keep young people here. Ohtani, like so many of the smart people who have left O.C. in my lifetime, finally got fed up with his situation — and could you blame him?
This is an apples-to-oranges comparison, of course — or rather, Dodgers-to-Angels. The 29-year-old Ohtani, unlike most millennials, is a once-in-an-epoch phenom with enough money to buy a series of homes from Angel Stadium to Dodger Stadium. But his departure means the Angels are now staring at years of irrelevancy if Moreno continues his youth-averse ways.
That’s where Orange County finds itself today.
It’s sad to say this about a place where I was born and raised and plan to live my entire life, because heaven knows, people outside of the power structure have tried to stop this brain drain. From the late 1990s through the 2010s, I followed and eventually wrote about those who were trying to make O.C. a cool place, one we could proudly proclaim to be as hip as L.A. Homegrown stars shined in clubs, restaurants, galleries, fashion and other culture scenes. Cities like Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Santa Ana became creative hubs that — gasp — even Angelenos would visit.
No one exemplified this creativity more than Gwen Stefani, Orange County’s most famous musician and someone whom the Board of Supervisors included this month as an inaugural member of the Orange County Hall of Fame. She and her band, No Doubt, became global stars with their breakout album “Tragic Kingdom,” a title that was a play on Disneyland’s nickname and meant to reflect how people of Stefani’s generation hated boring, old Orange County and were committed to do something about it.
When I joined The Times five years ago this month, I had spent my career almost exclusively covering Orange County. I wanted to show the rest of the world that my homeland was worthy of respect and to highlight those battling against the forces that kept driving out too many talented people.
I planned to continue focusing on O.C. in my new job. Once I began to cover Los Angeles, that changed. I quickly discovered an excitement and energy to L.A. that doesn’t exist in Orange County and can’t be replicated elsewhere, that intoxicates you and makes you wonder what took you so long to get it.
Ohtani will soon experience that for himself. That’s why I don’t blame him for leaving the Halos, as cool as it would have been to see him in Orange County for the rest of his career. He and too many others before him saw no future down here, especially once they realized there are far more welcoming places out there.
To paraphrase a famous World War I song, how ya gonna keep us down in Anaheim after we’ve seen the City of Angels?
Multiple groups of college students sit together at tables studying in Baltimore, Maryland. Courtesy … [+] Eric Chen. (Photo by JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images).
Getty Images
Whether you’re starting out in real estate, or have been involved in your profession for decades, the reality is that errors will happen. Part of growing both personally and in your line of work involves making mistakes. It’s often what happens after a misstep that is most important. If you can reflect on the event and learn from it, you’ll gain valuable insight that will help you as you move forward.
Use these guidelines to learn from your mistakes and get back into the game as a better player.
1. Recognize What The Mistake Was
A couple of years into my career in brokerage, I came across what I thought was an incredible opportunity. One of my existing clients was ready to put up the family jewel. It was a larger property, and if I could help them to sell it, the transaction would become my largest to date by far.
I was invited to meet with the client and talk to them about the opportunity. I had already carried out work for them—in fact, I had just sold a smaller property of theirs and knew I had done an exceptional job. I was sure I would get this next deal, and so I walked into the meeting overly confident and assuming they were going to take me on as the broker in the sale.
Later I learned that I was only one of several professionals the client had met with to discuss the sale of the family jewel. What’s more, I realized I hadn’t done nearly as much research as the others who interviewed for it. I was less prepared and as such, I didn’t get the deal. It went to someone else who had come in with stronger information and selling points.
2. Find the Lesson in the Misstep
It was a massive disappointment to get passed over and lose out on the largest sale of my career up to that point. However, it did teach me an incredibly valuable lesson that has stuck with me ever since. I learned the importance of always bringing you’re A game to every situation. You don’t know when it will count, so it’s best to always be prepared.
I also learned to not assume that past experiences will be enough. Just because you’ve done an outstanding job in the past doesn’t mean that you can ride that wave into the next opportunity or project. This can help you avoid being overconfident and missing details that could be essential to win the business or get the next contract.
3. Look to Move Up
While it’s natural to want to avoid mistakes, they are often part of reaching toward the next level or branching into new territories. To grow in your career, it’s good to push yourself to positions that are outside of your comfort level. You can apply the lessons you learn along the way to avoid the same mistake twice.
As you move up and take on more responsibilities, you may find yourself in the role of a manager who oversees several others or a team. When this happens, you’ll want to support those at the junior level to learn from their mistakes. It can be easy for those you are supervising to look to you to have the final say in everything. If you give them a certain amount of autonomy, you’ll be giving them the chance to make their own decisions. This will give them a chance to grow as well.
Missteps are an inevitable part of any career path, and they tend to show up as we branch into new endeavors. Rather than the mistakes made, it’s the lessons learned that will help propel you toward success. Having an attitude that looks to continually improve can help you move along the journey—and encourage others to build their own careers too.
In the early 1950s, the Cincinnati Reds became the Cincinnati Redlegs after the team found their name entangled in the political tensions of the era.
As America’s fear of communism grew, particularly during the Korean War, the Reds decided to change their name to the Cincinnati Redlegs between 1953 and 1959. This decision wasn’t about sports; it was a move to distance the team from any communist associations, a concern amplified by the rise of McCarthyism.
Historical Roots and Political Pressures
The original name, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, dates back to 1869, becoming the Reds in 1881. However, the post-World War II era marked a period of heightened suspicion towards communism, often referred to as “The Red Scare.”
Senator Joseph McCarthy’s public witch hunts for communist sympathizers cast a shadow of fear across America. The term “Reds” became uncomfortably close to “Reds,” a common term for communists.
To avoid unwanted connections, the team opted for “Redlegs,” a nod to its historical roots and a safe distance from political controversy.
The Cincinnati Redlegs and Uniform Changes
During this period, some of the team’s most celebrated players, including Frank Robinson and Joe Nuxhall, played under the Redlegs banner. Despite the official name change, the team’s jerseys still sported the word “Reds,” and fans and media often continued to refer to them by their original name.
In 1956, an attempt to further avoid the “Reds” association led to jersey modifications, including a season featuring a Mr. Redlegs logo. However, these changes were short-lived.
Senator McCarthy’s influence dwindled following his senate censure in 1954 and his subsequent death in 1957. With the decline of McCarthyism, the climate of fear surrounding communism receded. By 1959, the team reclaimed its original name, the Cincinnati Reds.
The word “Reds” reappeared on their uniforms in 1961, a year marking their return to the postseason as National League pennant winners. Interestingly, the team experienced limited success as the Redlegs, with only two winning seasons during this period.
Reflections on the Reds’ Name Change
The story of the Reds becoming the Redlegs is a fascinating example of how sports can intersect with politics. It reflects a time when fear and suspicion influenced various aspects of American life, including the world of baseball. The Reds’ decision to change their name was a response to the prevailing political climate, a move to safeguard the team’s image amid national paranoia.
While the Redlegs name was relatively short-lived, it remains an interesting chapter in the team’s history. It signifies how external factors can impact sports teams and their identities. The era also reminds us of the power of names and symbols in representing and reflecting societal values and concerns.
Today, the Cincinnati Reds are firmly established with their original name, with the “Redlegs” period serving as a historical footnote. The team continues to build upon its rich history, contributing to the dynamic world of baseball while staying clear of political controversies that once led to a significant, if temporary, identity change.
The Los Angeles Rams will move their practice facility to Woodland Hills next season as part of a large-scale real estate development planned by owner Stan Kroenke that could help give the car-centric Warner Center district a more urban feel.
The Rams officially announced the long-expected move Tuesday at an outdoor shopping center that Kroenke bought earlier this year as he assembled a 100-acre parcel for future development that will include a new headquarters for the Rams.
The move will center the Rams, now based in the city of Agoura Hills, in Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills neighborhood. The team plays at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on game days, but spends most of the year at its headquarters and practice facilities.
“It’s important for us to have a foothold in L.A.,” said Kevin Demoff, chief operating officer of the Rams.
A temporary practice facility similar to the one the team now uses at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks will be built on what is now a parking lot next to an unoccupied office tower the Kroenke Group bought in Warner Center in 2022.
Kroenke plans to build a more permanent and expansive training facility and team headquarters on the site in the future, part of what is expected to be a sprawling mixed-use complex that may include stores, restaurants, hotels and residences.
The parking lot at the former Anthem building in Warner Center will be the new location of the Los Angeles Rams practice facility.
(Los Angeles Times)
Work will start shortly on the temporary football compound at Erwin Street and Canoga Avenue, Demoff said. Asphalt and two one-story buildings will be removed to make way for two practice fields and a network of temporary modular trailers that will be similar to the setup the team uses at Cal Lutheran.
The trailers will include office space and meeting rooms for coaches, players, scouts and staff, along with a weight room, a training room, a locker room, a media room and a meal room.
City Councilman Bob Blumenfield called the facility “a great use that brings a lot of value” to the neighborhood and “not much traffic.”
The 13-story tower on the site that was formerly home to health insurer Anthem Inc. may be part of the future mixed-use campus or could be eventually razed to make way for other uses.
Kroenke Group is working on a new land-use design for the site that also includes the former Woodland Hills Promenade, a largely inactive shopping center built in 1973, and the thriving outdoor mall Topanga Village built next to the Promenade in 2015. The move was announced at the Village, which will remain a cornerstone of the Kroenke complex that could take many years to complete.
Los Angeles city officials are encouraging dense mixed-use development in the Warner Center neighborhood that could include new housing, offices, shops, restaurants, hotel rooms and entertainment venues.
The planned building boom may help Warner Center finally achieve its original purpose. In the early 1970s, planners decided that the west San Fernando Valley land, once the site of movie mogul Harry Warner’s horse ranch, should be turned into a “downtown” for the Valley.
As it developed, however, Warner Center bore only passing resemblance to the densely built urban districts people associate with that word.
Today, the neighborhood is mostly a mix of office towers that jut up from a sea of cookie-cutter, low-slung office buildings served by acres of surface parking lots. Apartments and stores are mostly isolated in discrete blocks, and the whole expanse is cleaved by wide, fast-moving streets that flow to freeways.
Kroenke’s $325-million purchase of the Village in January further signaled the billionaire businessman’s intention to build a sports-centric development like the one around SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
In Inglewood, Kroenke controls nearly 300 acres surrounding SoFi Stadium, in what was formerly the Hollywood Park horse racing venue. When the Inglewood complex is completed, it will be 3½ times the size of Disneyland and contain a performance venue, hotel, stores, restaurants, offices, homes and a lake with waterfalls.
With the additional 100 acres in Woodland Hills, Kroenke is now one of the largest real estate developers in the Los Angeles region, Demoff said. His company could build and operate as much as 7 million square feet of property in Woodland Hills as envisioned under the city’s Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan.
“Stan and everybody else is a believer in the potential of Warner Center,” Demoff said. “Everything keeps growing here.”
The Kroenke Group owns and operates shopping centers in 39 states with a combined total of 40 million square feet, the company said.
APA!’s National Shelter Support team was working at a partner shelter location when they first laid eyes on sweet Darla. With legs too scared to walk, the 8-month old Golden Retriever was being taken to the euthanasia room in a wheelbarrow when a member of our team intervened.
Jordana Moerbe urgently shared Darla’s story with rescue partners throughout the country in hopes of getting a shelter to accept her into their care; a “yes” from a shelter would mean a ticket onto the upcoming lifesaving transport flight.
“We had to pull her, we had to save her,” Moerbe said. “We hope that she’s able to come out of her shell and be the happy puppy she deserves to be. It’s what every one of the pets in the shelter deserves, and that’s what we’re working so hard for.”
Mile High Lab Rescue in Denver accepted her into their care and when this deserving dog landed in July of 2023, she went straight into a loving foster home, where she was given the time and space to gain confidence to become a wiggly puppy.
Katie Archibald helps Great Britain to first world women’s team pursuit gold since 2014; victory hugely poignant for Archibald following death of partner and fellow cyclist Rab Wardell after cardiac arrest last year; para-cyclists Sam Ruddock, Blaine Hunt and Jaco van Gass also win gold
Last Updated: 05/08/23 10:57pm
Josie Knight (left) embraces Katie Archibald (right) after Great Britain’s first women’s team pursuit world title in nine years
Katie Archibald and Great Britain celebrated an emotional victory in the women’s team pursuit at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.
Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris won gold with a time of four minutes 8.771 seconds, more than four seconds ahead of New Zealand, as they scooped Britain’s first world title in this event since 2014.
Archibald’s fifth world title was hugely poignant with the 29-year-old’s late partner and fellow cyclist Rab Wardell dying of a cardiac arrest as he lay in bed last August.
The rider was given a tremendous reception from the crowd and told BBC Sport: “It is all coming out now with this event.
“Someone was talking about imposter syndrome the other day and you almost have it the other way round.
“We almost see ourselves as the best in the world but we have not been on the top step since 2014. So to have that feeling validated feels good.”
Archibald, Anna Morris, Elinor Baker, Megan Barker and Knight (left to right) pose with their gold medals
‘Archibald phenomenal – I don’t know how she does it’
Knight, who shares a house with Archibald, said of her team-mate: “I see her ups and downs every day. She’s had a really tough couple of weeks. I know her prep hasn’t been quite what she would have wanted.
“Usually she’s the real hero of this team. We’ve had to adapt and I’ve tried to step up, take that role on. But she is phenomenal. We all stepped up. And we’re world champions.”
Barker added: “Katie’s unbelievable. It’s really hard to summarise the year that she has had, how she feels about it, how we feel about it.
“Just the fact that she is here, it’s insane. I don’t really know how she does it, to be honest.”
Archibald and Barker were both part of the team when Britain last won the women’s team pursuit world title nine years ago, going on to enjoy Olympic glory in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 before taking silver in Tokyo at the following Games.
There were also more gold medals for Britain’s para-cyclists.
Sam Ruddock successfully defended his men’s C1 kilo title before Blaine Hunt took the C5 crown, with Jaco van Gass then beating team-mate Fin Graham to win the men’s C3 scratch race and his second rainbow jersey in as many days.
Four years ago, Zeus was surrendered to the city’s municipal shelter, after living the first two years in a yard, largely left alone. And in 2021, he was pulled into APA!’s care so that the Dog Behavior Program could help support Zeus who was struggling with behavioral challenges that were causing him to be overlooked. Since that time, he’s gone in and out of foster care. The behavior team, along with his circle of friends, have continued to work with him, offering tools to navigate his world and giving him time and space to build his confidence. Zeus has plenty of love to give and he so deeply deserves a home to call his own.
Zeus is not a difficult dog. He has behaviors that can be difficult if not approached appropriately, but APA!’s Dog Behavior team, paired with Zeus’ best friends (staff and volunteers) work to break down the barriers of how people interact with certain behaviors while also working to understand what the dogs are trying to communicate when they showcase those difficult behaviors. Zeus struggles with “stranger danger” and can also act out when over-aroused. This boy has a whole team of friends who have stayed by his side, offering him tools to help manage those behaviors to help him find a loving home.
Not all dogs get excited and wiggly to meet new people. Zeus needs new people to go slowly with him. We use treat tosses to build up trust, and watch for his body language to relax and for him to show consent before getting too close and offering any pets. A dog’s body language is an important part of their communication! With time and patience, Zeus will build enough trust to let you into his circle! Our team of staff and volunteers, will work with potential fosters or adopters to ensure they have the right tools to successfully become a Zeus BFF!
Another of Zeus’s quirks is the behaviors he exhibits when he is over stimulated. He may hump, or give “leg hugs” as his friends jokingly call it! Zeus does this when he is happy and excited, but we also know this isn’t exactly a desirable behavior. This is easily managed with treat tosses down and away or redirecting his behavior with a toy. He also loves to give little “pibble nibbles” when giving kisses. While he does this out of affection, not all people want face nibbles. Luckily treats and toys and appropriate chews and toys help redirect Zeus when he’s getting too excited!
This silly pupper also has a number of behaviors that we love to see! Zeus enjoys carrying one of his beloved toys whenever he goes on walks. Not only is it adorable to witness, having a toy in his mouth is a helpful tool to combat stranger danger, too! Zeus loves to go on adventures, whether that be to a local park or going to a friend’s house with a swimming pool. And afterwards, he turns into a snuggle bug — by cozying up on a couch with his best bud by his side.
Zeus has waited for his family long enough — let’s get this boy home! His ideal home would be low-traffic without small children. He could live in either a house or apartment. Zeus goes to playgroup at APA! and would be best suited to live with a similar-sized dog who has the same play styles. Our teams are happy to help assess a potential friendship and facilitate a meet and greet! Most importantly, this deserving dog is looking for someone who will trust the process, be patient as he warms up to a new human and new surroundings and pledge to love him for the good boy he is!
Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) fosters perform a vital role for all of the animals, but especially help improve the lives of dogs with behavioral challenges. During the dog’s time in a foster home, the foster can observe behavior, take notes and implement training and behavior modifications under the guidance of APA!’s Dog Behavior Program team to help these pets find adoptive homes.
Finding an adoptive home other than hers didn’t quite work out for APA! volunteer, turned foster, Alexandra Bobbitt, who experienced “failing in love.” Her foster, Girly, was already in her adoptive home the moment she stepped into Bobbitt’s world.
“I first met Girly at APA! when I brought my dog Bela, short for Beleza, to meet potential foster dogs. Several people mentioned Bela resembled Girly. Everyone talked about how lovable Girly was,” Bobbitt said.
She was intrigued immediately and visited Girly in the kennel. “As soon as I laid eyes on her sweet face, and saw how much she looked like Bela, I felt compelled to foster her!”
It soon became very apparent that the two pups created a loving duo that were stronger together than apart. “When you find a dog that fits with you, it’s difficult to let them go. Both Bela and Girly were like that. I couldn’t bear to part with (either of) them.”
The journey wasn’t easy for the three of them at first, but fortunately Bobbitt had the ongoing support of APA!’s Dog Behavior Team. Girly, for example, struggled with “stranger danger” and behavior issues while on the leash, which stems from her anxiety. If left unaddressed, the behavior could escalate to defensiveness.
“To address this, the APA! Dog Behavior Team introduced us to various training techniques and with the team’s continued support and supervision Girly has made significant progress,” she said.
One of those techniques is something called B.A.T., or Behavior Adjustment Training. This is often used by the APA! Behavior team as an alternative for the typical “leash reactivity training,” especially if the dog requires a greater threshold due to fear and anxiety.
“Now, friends can come over and within seconds she becomes their best friend,” Bobbitt said. “She has also become calmer on the leash.”
Since adding Girly to her home with Bela, Bobbitt continues fostering other pups to help them find their adoptive homes. There’s been Georgie, Chilli, Cruzito and most recently Cash who is currently still in APA!’s care. “Seeing the overwhelming number of overcrowded shelters across the country broke my heart, and I wanted to help in some way, so I decided to make a difference by fostering another pup and giving another deserving dog a chance.”
While Cash was in Bobbitt’s home as a temporary foster, the detailed observations she took while fostering him helps APA!’s Dog Behavior Program appropriately adjust his customized training program that focuses on offering him and his future person tools to lessen, adjust or all together remove any undesirable behaviors. Giving Cash this guidance helps make him that much more noticeable to potential adopters and will support his success in a future foster or adoptive home.
In the shelter, Cash has displayed a bit of separation or storm anxiety, but given space and decompression in her home, Bobbitt noticed that he no longer exhibited those anxieties! The behavior team can use those observations to help Cash’s future adoptive or foster home recreate that same relaxed behavior. He also has some trouble with his leash skills and in particular, becoming a bit reactive when on leash. With the behavior team’s guidance, patience and trial and error, Bobbitt and Cash found a method that works for Cash — always having a trusty toy handy (or in Cash’s mouth!) when on walks.
“Cash just wants to be a person’s best friend. He may be a bit hesitant on walks, but with consistency, I can tell he will gain confidence and become more comfortable, “she said. “Within just two weeks, he showed noticeable improvement.”
The APA! Dog Behavior team works closely with adopters and fosters alike to ensure that both people and pets are able to communicate, working together to find solutions. APA! intakes the animals that are at risk of euthanasia; when a dog becomes at risk at another shelter due to behavioral struggles, our team steps in. By taking some time to understand a dog’s behaviors, we can introduce tools and techniques that offer a harmonious life to both the dog and his or her future loving home.
Tom Pidcock on Tour de France descents after Gino Mader’s death: “That was pretty hard hitting. I didn’t see a single rider take any risks on the stages after that. What hit me was it happened descending, which I love. Things can happen when we’re riding down a descent at 100kph”
Last Updated: 29/06/23 8:41am
British cyclist Tom Pidcock says the recent death of Gino Mader will likely see descents at the Tour de France tackled differently
Britain’s Tom Pidcock said Gino Mader’s death during a high-speed descent in Switzerland less than two weeks ago could result in riders being more cautious at the Tour de France.
Swiss rider Mader died aged 26 due to injuries suffered when he crashed into a ravine during the Tour de Suisse. Pidcock’s Ineos Grenadiers team mate Magnus Sheffield crashed separately at the same corner, suffering concussion and spending three days in hospital.
Descending is one of Pidcock’s strengths but the 23-year-old, who won an iconic Tour de France stage at L’Alpe d’Huez last year, said Mader’s death may have an impact on his style.
“I think especially for everyone who was at the race, that was pretty hard hitting,” Pidcock, who was also competing in the eight-stage race, told reporters on Wednesday.
“I think I didn’t see a single rider take any risks on the last two stages after that incident. Personally, one of the things that hit me was it happened descending, which is something that I love.
Gino Mader died aged 26 following a fall at the 2023 Tour de Suisse earlier this month
“It showed me what the consequences can be when it goes wrong. I don’t take unnecessary risks but things can happen when we’re riding down a descent at 100kph in Lycra.”
Mader’s death raised questions about rider safety and triggered calls for safety nets in the most dangerous downhill sections but Pidcock said risk will always be part of the sport.
“I guess unless we all want to race round the motor racing circuits, then we have to accept that we will be racing down descents,” he told the Telegraph.
“I think risks are involved in cycling and sometimes – it doesn’t happen often – it can go wrong. I guess we do what we can to mitigate those risks but they’ll never be gone.”
Pidcock, who is also an Olympic gold medallist in cross country mountain biking, will lead Ineos at the Tour, which begins in Bilbao, Spain on Saturday.
Dogs are social animals. Typically they love the company of other dogs, are comfortable around people, adapt readily to various situations and eagerly await at the door to welcome us home.
These social skills are learned and dogs benefit from practicing them. Unlike people, pups only have body language and barking to communicate how they are feeling and misreading these cues can lead to serious misunderstandings of what the animal is trying to tell us, often resulting in pups being deemed “Behavior Dogs.”
Austin Pets Alive! Is leading the charge to save this vulnerable subset of the shelter population from euthanasia by providing behavioral modification training, dog socialization playgroups, and adoption follow-up services to help place these pups in loving homes.
Understanding a dog’s body language is paramount to supporting their behaviors — whether, correcting a behavior, enhancing a behavior or simply letting the dog know that you’re on their side. Reading these behavioral cues are critical to understanding a pet’s needs and in the shelter environment, can be the difference between life and death.
Ruthie is a great example of a life saved thanks to APA!’s Behaviorteam taking a moment to read between the lines. The 5-year-old black mouth cur mix, originally came to APA! as a puppy, ill with parvovirus. She was treated and adopted, but four years later she was returned to APA! due to some developed behavioral quirks such as displaying some pretty severe separation anxiety and resource guarding.
That’s when former Dog Behavior Team member and current APA! Data Engineer, Ellis Avallone took her on as their “special project.” Initially, staff members had trouble determining if Ruthie was showing signs of aggression. She can be a tough “read” in her kennel — throwing “very large and jarring tantrums. She is a big dog with a big bark,” Ellis recalls “She doesn’t have a bite history (but when she doesn’t get what she wants), she’ll bark, show teeth, and lunge.”
Putting their dog language know how to use, Ellis leaned in to “hear” what Ruthie was trying to communicate.“The biggest misunderstanding about her behavior is that she isn’t trying to hurt anyone when she throws her tantrums. She’s just upset and doesn’t know how to express it.” Taking Ruthie to their home for a sleepover allowed Ruthie’s BFF the opportunity to get a better understanding of exactly what her separation anxiety looked like. While working on separation anxiety can be a bit difficult while a dog is in shelter, this first hand experience allows our team the ability to have more productive and knowledgeable conversations with future fosters or potential adopters on what to expect and ways they can begin addressing the behavior.
With the support of the dog behavior team, APA!’s Flight Path Program, a program that utilizes volunteers to support a pet’s mental wellness and behavioral progress, and Ellis’ faithful friendship, Ruthie continues to show great improvement, such as a displaying reduced resource guarding. She primarily guards “high-value” treats such as bully sticks or peanut butter. Ellis has worked to lessen this behavior of Ruthie’s with a specialized feeding program in which Ruthie is receiving positive reinforcement as food is being tossed to her bowl and conditioned to feel calm built through respectful trust.
“Being friends with Ruthie has been the best part of working and volunteering at APA!. I love how excited she gets when she sees me and how she instantly turns into a wiggle machine when we leave for campus field trips. If you need a dog to pick up on emotions, she’s your girl.”
Our staff is keenly aware that each dog is an individual and that some pups may not be ready for placement initially but through training, behavior modification, and taking the time to understand what an animal is communicating, we can help a misunderstood dog like Ruthie, realize their full potential!
Dogs are social animals. Typically they love the company of other dogs, are comfortable around people, adapt readily to various situations and eagerly await at the door to welcome us home.
These social skills are learned and dogs benefit from practicing them. Unlike people, pups only have body language and barking to communicate how they are feeling and misreading these cues can lead to serious misunderstandings of what the animal is trying to tell us, often resulting in pups being deemed “Behavior Dogs.”
Austin Pets Alive! Is leading the charge to save this vulnerable subset of the shelter population from euthanasia by providing behavioral modification training, dog socialization playgroups, and adoption follow-up services to help place these pups in loving homes.
Understanding a dog’s body language is paramount to supporting their behaviors — whether, correcting a behavior, enhancing a behavior or simply letting the dog know that you’re on their side. Reading these behavioral cues are critical to understanding a pet’s needs and in the shelter environment, can be the difference between life and death.
Ruthie is a great example of a life saved thanks to APA!’s Behaviorteam taking a moment to read between the lines. The 5-year-old black mouth cur mix, originally came to APA! as a puppy, ill with parvovirus. She was treated and adopted, but four years later she was returned to APA! due to some developed behavioral quirks such as displaying some pretty severe separation anxiety and resource guarding.
That’s when former Dog Behavior Team member and current APA! Data Engineer, Ellis Avallone took her on as their “special project.” Initially, staff members had trouble determining if Ruthie was showing signs of aggression. She can be a tough “read” in her kennel — throwing “very large and jarring tantrums. She is a big dog with a big bark,” Ellis recalls “She doesn’t have a bite history (but when she doesn’t get what she wants), she’ll bark, show teeth, and lunge.”
Putting their dog language know how to use, Ellis leaned in to “hear” what Ruthie was trying to communicate.“The biggest misunderstanding about her behavior is that she isn’t trying to hurt anyone when she throws her tantrums. She’s just upset and doesn’t know how to express it.” Taking Ruthie to their home for a sleepover allowed Ruthie’s BFF the opportunity to get a better understanding of exactly what her separation anxiety looked like. While working on separation anxiety can be a bit difficult while a dog is in shelter, this first hand experience allows our team the ability to have more productive and knowledgeable conversations with future fosters or potential adopters on what to expect and ways they can begin addressing the behavior.
With the support of the dog behavior team, APA!’s Flight Path Program, a program that utilizes volunteers to support a pet’s mental wellness and behavioral progress, and Ellis’ faithful friendship, Ruthie continues to show great improvement, such as a displaying reduced resource guarding. She primarily guards “high-value” treats such as bully sticks or peanut butter. Ellis has worked to lessen this behavior of Ruthie’s with a specialized feeding program in which Ruthie is receiving positive reinforcement as food is being tossed to her bowl and conditioned to feel calm built through respectful trust.
“Being friends with Ruthie has been the best part of working and volunteering at APA!. I love how excited she gets when she sees me and how she instantly turns into a wiggle machine when we leave for campus field trips. If you need a dog to pick up on emotions, she’s your girl.”
Our staff is keenly aware that each dog is an individual and that some pups may not be ready for placement initially but through training, behavior modification, and taking the time to understand what an animal is communicating, we can help a misunderstood dog like Ruthie, realize their full potential!
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