MUSEUM CAMPUS — The Shedd Aquarium next month will spotlight four of the animals who call the facility at 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive home — and they won't need a fish tank to do it.
Shedd residents Dory, Coral, Bruce and Marlin will be the guests of honor at "Dog Days at the Shedd" Sept. 21, a three-hour dog-centric festival showcasing how the aquarium's animal training principles can be applied to terrestrial mammals, including the four mutts the aquarium has adopted from shelters since last summer.
The Shedd's dogs make daily cameos in the marine mammal show "One World: Make a Difference," and often greet visitors waiting outside when the admission line gets long.
"It's hard for us to take any of our fish or other animals out to greet people, so he's a great ambassador for the aquarium," Ken Ramirez, vice president of animal care and training, joked during a recent training session with recent adoptee Marlin. Shedd staffers work with the dogs several times a day.
Lizzie Schiffman explains how the dogs became a part of the aquarium:
While they may seem out of place surrounded by aquatic life, Ramirez said including dogs in the Shedd family is a logical choice.
"We have a lot of rescued animals here, and our dogs are a great way for us to talk about our rescue program," he said. "And of course training is a big part of what we want to do, so we like people to see that the same training we do with our dolphins and whales, they can use with their pets at home."
Ramirez said people tend to connect with dogs "differently than a dolphin or a shark or a sea lion or a seahorse."
Although only one of the four dogs makes just a brief appearance in the aquarium's daily aquatic show, "you'd be surprised at the number of people who, one of the things they remember most was the dog portion of the show," Ramirez said.
"Here at the Shedd, part of our mission is to promote the conservation of the aquatic world," Ramirez said. "Sometimes the way you do that is by connecting people other animals that they're interested in ... Anything we can do that inspires people to care about animals, we're going to utilize that to our advantage."
Brindle pitbull Bruce was adopted first, from the Chicago Animal Care and Control through Safe Humane Chicago after he was rescued from an abusive home where he was being trained as a fighting dog. Later, shepherd mix Dory from the Anti-Cruelty Society and Coral, an Airedale mix from the same shelter as Bruce, joined the family.
In February, the aquarium adopted Marlin from Chicago Canine Rescue. They suspect he's mostly a chocolate Lab with a touch of boxer or Great Dane.
The aquarium previously had six temporary dog residents in 2008 and 2009 while the aquarium's Oceanarium was being renovated. The dolphins and whales stayed off site during construction, so the half-dozen shelter dogs filled in to perform training demonstrations.
When the aquatic mammals returned and it was time to find them permanent homes, Ramirez said there was a waiting list 30 people long.
Dory, Coral, Bruce and Marlin may be adopted out some day, Ramirez said, but he doesn't suspect that will happen anytime soon.
"If one of them turned out to be a one person-type dog, we might adopt them out at some point, but that's not our plan," he said. "They seem to be doing really well here, the public seems to like them here, so this is home for them."
"Unlike living in a family home, here they have care around the clock," Ramirez said. "The kind of care, the kind of love they get is similar, but there's more of it at Shedd. I think it's a pretty nice place for them to get to live, because they get so much attention. I think they have a terrific life."
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