(upbeat music) (graphic pops) - Hello and welcome to "Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall.

A familiar face to kids of all ages in the area is Benny the therapy dog.

And now Benny's life adventures are being captured in print with the children's book "Benny's Big Heart."

Joining us are Benny, his owner, Carol Treece, and the author of the book, Susan Montgomery.

And welcome all of you to "The Journal."

Thanks for being here, Benny, thank you.

Carol, talk a little about Benny, because obviously people see Benny out and about all the time.

He's always around helping people.

He's here at the university, he goes all over the place, and is just this big wonderful furry lug of a guy and all of that.

So obviously he's a few years old.

At what point did you start to think, you know, maybe this would be a good thing for him to do?

Is there a point you said he'd be good at this or is it just sort of, did somebody- - It was kind of my dream to have a therapy dog.

But it just kind of happened.

There was another dog in town, his name was Walter way back, and he was a therapy dog and big, Bernese Mountain Dog.

And so I thought my next dog is gonna be a therapy dog.

So when we got Benny, that was my goal, to make him a therapy dog.

But he wasn't always perfect.

- [Steve] Well I was gonna say.

Because obviously how do you get him into the mode of being, because a lot of animals are a little skittish around strangers, especially at first, and some of them never really get over that.

So how do you kind of slide him into that mode where he's now this wonderful, just relaxed kind of guy?

- [Carol] Well, he was a typical puppy, and he had a lot of fears, which a lot of Newfoundlands have fears.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

So he couldn't even walk through town.

The trash man was, you know, he was afraid of everything.

So we had to work through all that with friends.

And a lot of the puppies that we played with that we had met, we just went to the dog parks together, and we made sure every day we played together, and then we started training together, and then we all kind of decided we were gonna go to therapy school together.

So probably the five dogs that we played with, probably four of us went to therapy school together.

So that helped.

And then every day we always played, so that helped with energy.

- Now with therapy school, what's the timeframe on that?

How long, how often?

- [Carol] It probably took us a year of training.

- And some dogs probably wash out of therapy training.

It's just not for them?

- [Carol] Well, no.

- [Steve] No, okay.

- [Carol] Therapy school or therapy class, it's only like seven to eight weeks I think.

But you pretty much have to have adult class or canine good citizen.

You have to prove that your dog can be a good dog, yes.

I mean, you can take it and fail.

(laughs) But we had a lot of classes together with our friends, and he did fine, but he outweighed me.

So he was a stinker and not a bad dog, but just because of his weight and outweighing me, it was difficult to train him.

- [Steve] Yeah, because obviously even as a puppy, they're pretty big.

I mean, obviously start out relatively small, but they're not a two, three pounder when they show up.

- [Carol] He's 165 now.

So probably when we were in training, he was pretty close to 150 probably.

So he still outweighed me.

- [Steve] yeah, yeah.

And we were kind of talking a little bit before we started, but obviously we see the finished product here and he's all relaxed and he's fun and he loves the attention and goes over to people real calm with him.

The first time you took him out though, the first time he was like on on the job, did that go relatively well?

I mean, he kind of slid right in and was fine?

- [Carol] Yeah, he was crazy a little bit.

He's always a little nervous, I can't say nervous, but he wants to know everything about a new place that we go to.

And so he's always poking his head into somebody's office or something.

But yeah, he's never afraid of people, he loves people.

He loves the attention, so that helps.

- [Steve] Now obviously, do you have any idea how many therapy sessions he's done for people in the course of his career?

- [Carol] We do keep count because we have to turn in his to the Alliance of Therapy, so that keeps a record.

We keep a record of it, but he's had like 425 visits now.

- [Steve] Oh my gosh.

- [Carol] And I was telling Susan, I think because we were certified right before COVID, so we had six months in, then we got locked out for a year and a half.

So we pretty much have just like over four years of being a therapy dog.

- [Steve] Now Susan, obviously we're gonna talk a lot about the book.

What gave you the idea, how did the whole idea of just doing a book about a therapy dog and Benny in particular come about?

Whose idea was it?

Was it your idea?

It was probably Benny's idea.

Came and said "Hey, I think I'm book material.

I think I should get a little more attention."

So how did that sort of evolve?

How did that idea come up?

- Yeah, I think it was both our ideas.

Almost at the same time, I was wrapping up a book inspired by the Cat Cafe.

And we just kind of thought, oh, wouldn't it be neat to have a book about Benny?

And that just stuck with me and I kept thinking about it and then I couldn't get it out of my head.

- [Steve] Sure, sure.

Now, is this your first book about a dog or a pet or an animal?

- [Susan] About a dog, yes, yes.

- [Steve] Now when you approached the idea, I mean, obviously it sounds like a good idea.

Oh, et cetera.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you say, "Okay, I'm gonna write a book about Benny the therapy dog," what was the first thing you wrote down about him in general?

What was the first line you started to say "Here's my idea"?

- [Susan] Well, I kept getting more information from Carol about his day.

And right away, I saw this neat story unfolding about how he visits the different age groups.

And I thought that would be a really powerful story.

And something really great to show kids that he visits different age groups and his presence is so calming and he's so kind with his time and his presence.

But from there, it just kind of spirals.

- [Steve] How many books have you written before this?

Is this like one long string or you've done a few before this?

- [Susan] I've done a few, this is number nine I think.

Most of mine are about the ukulele.

That's how I started with picture books.

- [Steve] All right.

So it's pretty similar, dog.

Ukulele, I mean, yeah.

Benny says, "Yeah, I would like to play the ukulele" I think he said a moment ago.

And I guess when you think about this as you started to compile things, one of the things that we always find amazing is people that can take an idea like this, Benny the dog, and create a whole story around it.

Now, obviously he's supplying some of the material, but still, to make that entertaining and enjoyable and intriguing to people because you can lay out his itinerary every day and say, "Oh, well here's his schedule of events."

But it's probably more than that.

It's how he interacts and the sort of personal part of it versus, oh this is what he does.

- [Susan] Yes, and I think that's what's so fun about crafting a story because you just have this blank canvas and I knew I wanted it to be a fun read aloud and for kids to be really engaged with it.

- [Steve] And what age group is this aimed at?

- [Susan] Around four to eight and up, you know, all ages.

- [Steve] Everybody can read it and enjoy it, yeah.

Because we talk about it being, I mentioned as a children's book, but we also talk about the fact that Benny goes out and does with people of all ages, not just children, not just college kids, whatever, because he's big on campus.

He's like the mainstay on campus here at BGSU.

- [Carol] We can't even go for a walk without people yelling out the window at him.

- [Steve] Hey, there he is, yeah, yeah.

He's a celebrity.

When we come back, I wanna talk a little bit more about you constructing the story and how it evolved over time and basically how long it took to take it from that first thought or the first discussion you guys had to actually then producing the book that people can read and read aloud to their kids and everything.

Back in just a moment with Susan Montgomery, Benny the therapy dog, and Carol Treece, Benny's owner here in "Journal" in just a moment.

Thanks for staying with us on "The Journal."

Our guests are Susan Montgomery, the author of "Benny's Big Heart," the book we're gonna talk about in a little more detail here in a moment.

Also, Benny the therapy dog himself.

And Carol Treece who's Benny's owner.

Susan, we talked a little bit about the idea for the book and how it came about, but when that idea first came out, how long does it take for you to say, "Okay, here's kind of an idea, where are we gonna go with this?"

And then kind of take us through the timeline from that first initial conversation you guys had to now we've got a finished product that people can read and enjoy and use to provide entertainment for people of all ages.

- Yeah, I think from start to finish, around four months maybe, which is pretty good.

But that's working on it constantly.

And there were so many drafts I went through, and it's amazing how it starts as just one idea.

And it just goes through multiple drafts.

And I always like to, the artist in me is working on the illustrations at the same time too.

So there's a lot of push and pull and give and take, and there's a lot of adjustments to make along the way.

But I knew I wanted it to be a very fun read aloud and something that kids would gravitate towards and just be really accepting of.

And I came up with this really fun repeating line throughout and there's a couple repeating lines with, "Hey, there's Benny" in the book.

And I guess that's what I see people say.

- [Carol] That's what they do exactly.

- [Steve] They see him, wherever you says people recognize him.

He's a celebrity.

Well it's interesting because you do your own illustrations, which a lot of times you'll have people who do their own writing, but they'll have an illustrator.

So you do it all.

Now, does the writing lead you to the illustration?

Or do you draw something and go, "Oh, wait a minute, now I can build an idea around this?"

Does it work both ways?

- [Susan] It works both ways really.

Yeah, I usually start with the idea, but sometimes, like this new project I'm working on sometimes starts with the illustration style.

And then I think, oh, what direction can I go in with this?

- [Steve] Now when obviously she's writing the book, you were making suggestions or hey, here's an idea, here's a scenario, here's something that happened, here's something he did, here's something.

So how did you go about saying, "Hey, here's a great idea, put this in the book."

I mean, you guys obviously- - [Carol] I think we were just talking mostly about what he does and then I would send her pictures like, here's tonight at the public library.

Or something silly would happen, or him at the park.

And pictures from campus.

- [Susan] Pictures, yeah, pictures helped a lot too, with just forming how he looked in the book.

My first drafts, I did not have his nose right at all.

(group laughing) So she kept sending me the right pose I needed for his nose.

- [Steve] Because he is very distinctive obviously.

And you want to get it.

And obviously too, you want him to look mostly like he does, but then obviously too, it's an illustration.

It's a book.

It's supposed to be, there's some literary license allowed there to make it work all that well.

Did you guys ever have a discussion where like, well, you would write something and Carol might say, you know, didn't agree with it.

Or maybe any dissension like that at all?

Because a lot of times, people, an idea will come up and say, it sounds good.

And then you put it right and goes, well maybe that's not such a great idea after all.

But nothing like that, huh?

- [Carol] I think we kind of messed around with a couple different scenarios.

Like your illustrations, what to put and what not to put.

- [Susan] Yeah, and at first the story, I had a couple different drafts of the story itself.

One didn't rhyme at all.

One rhymed throughout, and one just had part of it that rhymed.

So it took a while to figure out which was the strongest story.

- [Steve] The route to take for the whole entity.

Because obviously you start in one place and as you're going along, you do a little of this along the way to find and get to the destination, go okay, yeah.

Now, one of the things that's interesting, obviously Benny deals with people of all ages.

Was there any concern about telling the stories?

I mean, obviously they're fairly generalized, I'm assuming, there aren't names being named and things like that.

But was there any concern that someone might recognize themselves in the book and go, "Wait a minute, that's me.

They didn't ask me if I could be in the book."

Anything like that?

I mean, because books we take for granted that books are just produced, but people sometimes don't like the way they're portrayed sometimes.

This is obviously not that kind of book.

But did anybody say, "Gee, I didn't know I was gonna be in the book"?

- [Carol] They're kind of in the book, but.

- [Steve] They're not specific to a- - [Susan] Yeah, and I don't know exactly who he visits, just because I'm so removed from exactly what he does and who he visits with.

- [Susan] I'm sure they would know who they are.

- [Susan] Yeah.

- [Steve] That'll be the follow up book about the people, the stories behind the story kind of thing okay, good.

- [Carol] I know like one of the pictures is a little girl in the library and it looks nothing like her.

But we told her mother that basically she was the reason.

- [Steve] This anecdote's gonna be in the book.

- [Carol] This is basically you.

- [Susan] Inspired.

- If it looks familiar, sounds familiar.

Well people are probably flattered by that, aren't they?

I mean, they're probably, oh wow, I didn't know, yeah.

Yeah, just an encounter with Benny, and then it's like suddenly it's been immortalized and then put in place forever.

Now you talked about some of the other books you've written, and this is the first one about a dog.

Does that create any challenges, any difference in approach or not?

- [Susan] Well, not really.

My last one was about cats.

So I was used to fur, expression, you know.

So I just wanted it to be very playful, and I think playful and with a good message in it too.

- [Steve] Yeah, because one of the things I know that, yeah.

And we see a lot of social media, his appearances, especially he's a big star on campus, the university of students just love him.

Everybody loves him.

But he's at a lot of events and it never gets old for people.

They love to see him.

- [Carol] Yeah, they do.

It's kind of funny.

- [Steve] And he loves to be out obviously because I know the one thing you see is he's very active all the time.

I mean I obviously he sleeps occasionally, but the reality is - [Carol] He seeks people out, they love people.

Newfoundlands are gentle giants.

They love people, like Nana in "Peter Pan" was in Newfoundland.

But yeah, they are definitely people lovers.

He'll look for eye contact or someone to just say hey, and he's there.

- [Steve] Yep.

Well he immediately came over this morning when he came and he immediately went over and sampled the coffee that was available, making himself at home, which is okay, that's a good thing.

Because yeah, that's what I do.

That's what I do.

We come back, we can talk because obviously we can talk in detail to some degree, but you don't wanna give it all away.

But there's a trail that kind of winds its way through this book.

And we can talk a little about that as well.

Back in just a moment with Susan Montgomery, the author of "Benny's Big Heart," Carol Treece, the owner of Benny, and Benny the therapy dog here on "The Journal."

Back in just a moment.

You're with us on "The Journal."

Our focus today is talking about the book "Benny's Big Heart."

We have Benny the therapy dog, the author, Susan Montgomery, and Carol Treece, Benny's owner.

Susan, one of the things that winds through the book is sort of this adventure trail.

We've kind of followed Benny through a day kind of, or through basically one of his paths as he goes about being Mr.

Therapy Dog.

So talk about that.

Kind of go through that with us a little bit.

- Sure, I wanted to show him just traveling through our city, and at first I did not, I had kind of generic library, and then it became clear that I wanted to make it very real.

So I used our real library, our real courthouse, and worked on the illustrations that way.

And I just thought that that would mean so much to the story if I put it in there that way.

Because it's really honoring the community that welcomes him so much too.

- [Steve] Because it works both ways.

That's a good point.

Good point, yeah.

So it kind of follows him through and people say, "Oh wait, look," they recognize all these basically touch points along the way and say, "Oh, I understand now about that."

And they can see themselves in that.

So that's good.

That's good.

Now one of the things, obviously Carol, we've seen Benny's always on his good behavior for us.

He's always whatever and just an all around good guy.

But obviously he has his moments probably where he's maybe not exactly following direction real well because animals have their own way of going about things.

So what's the darker side of Benny?

I'm sure it's nothing.

- [Carol] Ahhh..nothing terrible, but he is really stubborn.

- Ah, okay.

- [Carol] And his size.

I know.

If we are wanting to go somewhere and he doesn't wanna go, we're not going.

- [Steve] It takes a while.

- [Carol] I know, and if I get a little upset, then he's like this.

- [Steve] Does he come up and say, "I'm ready to do this" and let's do it or not?

- [Carol] Usually like when it's time for a visit and I get his backpack out or get his bib out, he's like really excited.

Can't wait to get in the car, get ready to go.

- [Steve] He's ready to go.

- He loves to work.

- [Steve] Well I know sometimes, I've seen him on a boat.

You guys have a boat, and I've always joked about the fact that one day he'll get on the boat and basically take it out on the lake by himself.

Like, okay, you guys are late, I'm leaving, see you later.

And would do that, wouldn't you?

You probably would.

But he looks right at home sitting on the boat like, okay, I'm ready, where are you guys?

- [Carol] He has a seat on the boat.

Yes.

And I'm not allowed to sit there, and he waits for the boat rides.

Whether we're going or not, he's waiting.

But yeah, he loves boat rides.

- [Steven] And as you said, he decides if he's going to do something sometimes or not, and that's just how that is and eventually comes around to your way of thinking though.

No doubt about that.

- [Carol] Right.

He does.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

Now, have there ever been any instances where people have not been comfortable with him, because obviously he's incredibly friendly, but he is a big dog and his presence is pretty, you know when he's in the room.

- You can pretty much tell by eye contact, like when we go to hospital or even the libraries, if people look and they'll just kind of like look away, you can tell, you just stay away.

And I think they sense that too.

Even when we went to the cancer center before COVID, you can tell by their look whether they want, hey, come on over, or they just kind of give you the.

- [Steve] Because some people just in general aren't fond of dogs, it's not anything about- - [Carol] My own mother was not fond of, I mean, she liked him, but she didn't want him close to her.

- [Steve] Yeah.

So obviously he's got a schedule of events.

What are some of the general things he's got lined up in the next month or so?

How far out is he booked generally in case somebody wants to have- - [Carol] I know some of the events at the university are regular for the semester.

And then other times they're just like events that come up because of like exam week or whatever.

- [Steve] Things like that.

- [Carol] But every week, we always go to the public library on Tuesdays, and we do the rec center at the university on Mondays.

And then we have study drop at the Jerome Library on Wednesdays.

So those are pretty regular, and then the hospital every other Thursday.

- [Steve] So yeah, he covers a lot of territory.

- [Carol] He does.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Now, Susan, obviously you're writing this book, and you talked about trying to make it real for people at the same time, of course, keep it this sort of thing that everybody can see themselves in.

At what point when you're writing do you say, "Okay, this is the final version," or we've come to the conclusion, we've started, here we are, we've got all the parts in there.

How does that come about?

Because obviously you're writing a book and ideas keep coming in, keep coming in, and as you said, you kind of move around a little bit.

At what point do you go, "Okay, this is the final product?"

- Yeah, it comes really close to the end before publishing.

And once I do the proof copy and can see everything in print and read it out loud a few times.

And I share the story too.

I shared it with Carol all throughout the process.

And I share it with a little team of early readers.

And kind of get some feedback of whether something's not landing right or something just didn't quite get the right tone I wanted.

So that's really helpful.

But it takes a while to get it just right, and you just kind of know when it's done.

Yeah, it's like another read through and then you're like, "Yes, this is it."

- [Steve] And you kind of anticipated my next question about other people looking at it because obviously when you're working on a project, you can get really close to it and maybe as you said, not see, oh that looks like that's gonna work perfectly.

And somebody goes, "What was that about?

I don't get, what are you going for there?"

And you're like, oh, well it seemed obvious.

So you do have other people that kind of weigh in a little bit and say, "Yeah, that worked," or "We're not sure what you meant by that" or "What's that in there for," that sort of thing.

- Yeah, I do that with all my books now.

Try to have a early team of readers because like you said, when you're so close to a project, you just don't see other things that other people might see.

And that can be true with the illustrations too.

So yeah, it's very helpful to share.

- Now how did you get into the business sort of of writing and illustrating, is that something you thought about from you always wanted to do it?

Or did you kind of just work into it from some other direction?

- It actually started during the pandemic.

And I started self-publishing books about the ukulele, music books specifically.

And then I just found that publishing books was fascinating.

I just love creating something out of nothing and I could do whatever theme and topic I wanted.

Like this was great.

So I kind of wrote books on different genres and themes.

And then a couple years ago is when I started the picture books because I realized there weren't many books about the ukulele.

And I thought, well this is such a fun instrument that a lot of kids are learning about, so let's write some stories.

- [Steve] Yeah, and adults too for that matter.

It's sort of like a universal instrument in a way, so yeah.

Well really, do you have something on the burner right now, a project that's in the works or projects that are in the works?

- [Susan] I have a couple different directions I could go in, and I'm not sure which one is gonna gonna go first, yeah.

- [Steve] That's just part of that.

So you have a lot of different recipes on the table all the time and you're just kind of going through them.

Well this is a great book.

Now, where can we find the book, and how easy is it to track it down?

Is it available on- - It's on Amazon, yep, on Amazon.

And soon, it will be available locally.

I'll have copies at the library event too.

So that's on Monday, May 12th at 5:00 PM.

- [Steve] So people can keep an eye out for that.

And you'll be there making an appearance and doing all that stuff and, yeah.

Will Benny be there too?

- [Carol] Yes.

- [Steve] Benny will be there.

He'll be signing be, he'll be signing copies, yeah, yeah.

Okay, good.

- [Carol] I think the background too, like we're both teachers, I mean she was a teacher, so I think that helps kind of.

- [Steve] Well yeah, so you're used to weaving stories and being able to figure out how to reach people.

- [Carol] Thinking about what would work and what wouldn't.

- [Steve] Nice.

Nice.

Yeah, that's a good aside as well.

Well Benny, thank you so much.

Appreciate your comments today, and keep them- - [Carol] Thank you for having me.

- [Susan Yes, thank you so much.

- [Steve] Thank you, yeah, and thank you so much for putting this together because it's such a great idea to follow him and like you say, put him in this place now where people can read about him as well as experience his presence all the time.

So very good, good.

One real quick aside here, this is a kind of a bittersweet moment for us on "The Journal."

It's the last program of the semester, which means a lot of the people who have worked on the program, a lot of our students will be done as of today.

They might have some other projects here at the station, but we're gonna lose a lot of good people.

If you watch the credits, you'll see the names of the students who have helped us all through the semester.

So keep in mind they help all of this work just like you do as viewers.

So we appreciate that very much.

That being said, you can check us out at wbgu.org and of course you can watch us each week on WGBU-PBS at 8:00 on Thursdays.

We'll see you again next time.

Good night, and good luck.

(upbeat music)