Al Younger says he connects better with dogs than he does with humans. He doesn’t know how or why, but he is able to communicate with dogs. He understands them and knows how their minds work.
If you ask him, he says he has just been blessed to have this skill and be able to put it to use to help others and make a living. But there are many in Carroll County who believe him to be a miracle worker, not only with dogs, but with children as well.
Younger is an unassuming man who lives on 17 acres off Old Westminster Pike in Westminster. You cannot enter his house without being greeted by his nine dogs and a new litter of puppies he is preparing to sell.
Younger breeds German Shepherds, offers in-home dog obedience training, and has more recently started working with local families to help turn their family pets into service dogs for children with special needs.
Earlier this year, Jacy Haas, who lives in Keymar, was looking for someone to help train her Golden Retriever, Honey, to be a service dog for her autistic son, Charles. She wanted a dog that would help Charles socialize and take on some responsibility.
“When I spoke to Al,” Haas said, “He told me that he had not worked with children with autism, but he took on the challenge and has been amazing.
“Being able to connect with Honey is really building Charles up. He’s not in his shell so much. HeÔs becoming more independent and more responsible because of the chores involved with having a dog.
“He’s already come a long way. We have a ways to go, but the progress we’re seeing is too awesome to stop.”
Sharon Noble, who lives in New Windsor, is the mother of Brian and Bobby, twin 12-year-old autistic boys. She said they got their 80-pound black lab mix, Buddy, at the SPCA several years ago to help Brian sleep better at night. He felt safer with the dog in the room and Noble thought it would be a great idea to train Buddy to be a service dog.
But when she looked for service dog training, nearly all of the organizations she spoke with wanted to sell her one of their dogs. Either that, or the service dog organization wanted too much money (in the ballpark of $3,000 – $5,000) to train a dog that already lived with the family.
“We would have gone to the poor house if we decided to go this route,” said Noble. “And Buddy was the family dog, it just had to be Buddy. Then when Jacy Haas told me about Al Younger [Their sons attended the same school.], I felt like whatever help he could offer would be a plus.”
Younger worked with Brian and Bobby Noble three or four times before falling ill and taking time off to recuperate. But Noble said that she saw amazing results just from those few sessions together. She was impressed by how patient Younger was with her children and his willingness to work with the whole family.
Noble said that one day her son Bobby, who does not have strong social skills, took the initiative to ask a group of children in the neighborhood if they wanted to see his dog do tricks. Noble said that she could hardly keep herself together when her son returned home and said, “Mom, I have friends.”
“It was the first time something like that happened,” said Noble. “For typical parents this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but to me it was everything.”
Although she does have some things in mind that she would still like to accomplish in training Buddy, she said that her boys can now walk and control the dog.
“Al has a natural connection with dogs,” said Noble. “On the first day he was here, I was amazed at what he accomplished in minutes.”
Younger said that once he has a child’s attention, the training is easy. He said that he gets great pleasure out of watching kids find success in working with their dogs.
“When I give the kids the keys [signals and commands] to the dog, and the dog responds, the kid’s eyes light up,” Younger said. “They get a sense of accomplishment and control that I don’t think they get to experience very often.”
Younger grew up with a foster family who instilled in him a love for dogs. In his 20s, he worked at a kennel in Anne Arundel County and it was there that he got a feel for different breeds and kinds of dogs. He then started working construction jobs and said that he would take his dogs with him on site.
“I was doing a lot of rehab work in the city [Baltimore] and people never bothered me if I had a dog,” said Younger. “If I had a dog sitting in my truck, my tools never disappeared and no one ever messed with me.”
Younger has no “formal” animal training, although he does have ample experience as an owner, a kennel worker and an avid observer. According to Younger, “any understanding I have of dogs is simply from observation.”
For Younger, the dog business was just something he did on the side for enjoyment and some extra money. But several years ago he found out he had cancer.
“When I found out I had cancer, I decided that I only wanted to do what makes me happy. I decided to pursue the dog business on a full time basis,” he said. Since then, he and his dogs have been very busy.
In addition to his work as a breeder and obedience trainer, Younger is an instructor and evaluator for the Baltimore Special Police Federal Protection Agency. He and his wife Wanda take their dogs to elementary schools and fairs to teach children about dogs and what to do if they should encounter an aggressive animal. But it is not all grueling work; two of Younger’s dogs performed as wolves in a production of Wagner’s Die Walkure at the Kennedy Center with Placido Domingo.
“The dogs were treated like regular cast members,” he said.
“They had their own dressing room,” added Wanda. “They attended the cast parties, and they were listed in the program.”
Younger continues to recover from a bout with pneumonia, likely a result of the chemo treatments he endured for so long. The silver lining about the pneumonia is that the scan that allowed the doctors to find the pneumonia also revealed that the cancer is essentially gone. Younger said he can’t wait to continue his work with the dogs.
“If anyone is contemplating getting a service dog for their child with special needs, don’t hesitate,” said Haas. “It is just too awesome to not consider doing.”
Those who wish to contact Al Younger can call him at 410-840-0771.
