Saturday, January 11, 2014

Lucky Dog

A new show by CBS takes on a topic we'd like to see more of in network TV: shelter dogs. In Lucky Dog, airing Saturday mornings and premiering this weekend, animal trainer and behaviorist Brandon McMillan, the host, visits his local shelter to rescue "hard-to-love, out-of control, untrained, and unadoptable dogs." Then he takes the dog back to his ranch for training before finding each one a home.

This doesn't seem to be a shoddy operation. According to his bio, McMillan trained as many as 10,000 dogs for television, movies, commercials, videos, and people before he started visiting shelters to rescue dogs, train them, and find homes for them.

"Over 1.5 million dogs are euthanized every year in America because they can't find homes. I'm just doing my part," he says on the show's website.

For the show, he spends each week at a shelter, evaluating dogs before picking one for the episode. Ultimately, he'll save 22 dogs in 22 weeks during the run of the show.

"I can only take one out. That means I have to walk by 99 I can't take. All 100 are very trainable, very place-able, and just as smart as the next dog. Often the one I choose just comes down to one I make a connection with," McMillan told the AP.

***

Any videos online?

Not on hulu.

Here's a promo.  And a short segment.  And more short segments from the cbs website. And a longer segment from Brandon McMillan (he trains wild animals too, like tigers, elephants, bears, etc.)  And the facebook page.

*** [9/10/14]

I see the episodes are on the CBS app on my ipad, but oddly not at cbs.com.  Wait here it is on cbsdreamteam.com.

*** [9/13/14]  Hey, I see Lucky Dog is on Hulu too.  Maybe it was there for a while, but I never took notice.  Actually now I see it's on Hulu Plus, but not on Hulu (the opposite of Good Dog!)

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