Westminster Show Dog Works to Help Special Needs Children

He may be a top dog at the Westminster Dog Show in New York in February, but Wyatt is already a winner in the hearts of kids with special needs. The Rhodesian Ridgeback with the sixth sense for kids is officially known as Ch. Rambo's Gunfight at the OK Corral, and he is competing at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for the second year. When she isn't showing him, Janice Wolfe, founder of Merlin's Kids, and breeder from Wycliffe, N.J., also works with Wyatt to help assess the individual needs of autistic children and others. Yahoo! News caught up with Wolfe and Wyatt in New York during a flurry of photo shoots and interviews.

Q: Janice, Wyatt was just a baby last year when you showed him at the WKC dog show. Isn't it unusual for a dog that young to be eligible?

Janice: You're right, only dogs who are champions of record with the AKC are eligible for the Westminster. Wyatt has already won a Eukanuba championship. He is now only two, but it runs in the family. His mom, Willow, won at Westminster in 2007. She was the No. 1 Ridgeback in the country in BOS. (Best of Opposite.) Wyatt is crazy young, not even full grown, but gorgeous to watch move.

Q: Tell us about Wyatt's other career as a service dog helping special needs children. Did you train him to do this?

Janice: I didn't have to. He has an intuitive ability to sense what the kids need. He has always been drawn to children, and elderly, people in need. I remember picking him up when he was born and feeling a kind of energy from him I haven't seen in other dogs. One autistic child we visited spoke his first word after spending time with Wyatt. Somehow the kids feel his acceptance, and they become calm, unafraid, more confident. With a low functioning child, it takes a dog like Wyatt because he is a natural protector who will keep a child safe, keep a child from running away, from jeopardy of any kind. Wyatt will alert a parent if a seizure is coming, or blood sugar goes crazy, or even if there is cancer or infection, it's not just autism.

Q: So Wyatt is also the Spokesdog for Merlin's Kids, the foundation you started? What's that about?

Janice: Merlin's Kids rescues dogs from shelters, some pure bred, some mixed. We rehabilitate them and train them as service dogs. There are plenty of amazing dogs in shelters, dogs that are going to be killed or live their lives behind bars if not rescued. Some have behavior issues. In New Jersey, I'm known as the Lady Dog Whisperer, and I can fix these dogs.

Q: How do families of special needs kids find you to get help? What's the process?

Janice: They go to MerlinsKids.org or the New Jersey Dog Whisperer and let us know they're out there. I don't even put them on the waiting list until Wyatt and I evaluate them. Then I go to shelters to look for specific dogs for specific children. We have an extremely low percentage of dogs that don't make it as service dogs.

Q: That must cost a bundle. How can families afford this?

Janice: It's free. There is no charge for service dogs or training. It's all funded by donations. Each dog I train and put in a home probably costs me $6 to $8,000. That's why Merlin's Kids always needs sponsors and donors so we can help more kids. I've placed at least a hundred service dogs, but I have a waiting list of 74 kids. There is so much need.

Q: Janice, you breed these beautiful Rhodesian Ridgebacks, you rescue and train service dogs and match them with special needs kids, you have a private practice as the Lady Dog Whisperer, you and Wyatt travel the country on speaking engagements, and you raised Wyatt to be a champion at dog shows like the Westminster. When do you sleep?

Janice: I don't!