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August - September 2021 August - September 2021 6 7 boatingonthehudson.com For Annie Wasserman and Robert Hewitt whose love of dogs really has become their “way of life” dogs form the basis of their daily lives! Annie will tell you that she has always loved dogs. As a teenager, when she mentioned to her mother that she was going to make a living raising dogs, her mother just said, OK, OK and went on with her daily routine.. Then it happened! A moment in your life that changes everything! For Annie it was thirty years ago and her first “gig”, a contract to use her Rottweiler in A New York City Park Event, ‘Shakespeare InThe Park’, where her then love of her life, her Rottweiler,”Shayna”played a thirty minute part in the play, “Titus Andronicus”, the bloodiest of all the Shakespeare plays. It allowed Annie to be at the Central Park event every night it ran. Not only getting paid 300 bucks a night but enjoying all the back stage hoopla that the event engendered! That did it for Annie, she was “hooked for Life”on this life style. On top of the notoriety this particular dog became famous in the Rottweiler world for her acting and was pictured in Rottweiler books and on the cover of the Atlas Of Dog Breeds Of TheWorld. While her first interest in dogs was training, Rottweilers and Golden Retrievers Annie also focused on marketing her dogs through agencies that specialized in hiring dogs for events,magazines, and any other reason that someone might hire her and her dogs for. By John H. Vargo, Publisher Some People Really Do LiveTheir Dream How do you tie dogs, boats, fun, making money and enjoying yourself on the Hudson River all in one lifetime? Read on, here’s how... The pugs worked the 2018Grammy Awards where they were handed out as consolation gifts as a joke to some very famous comedians including Jerry Seinfeld. Annie Wasserman: So here is just a small sample of how the dogs earn their keep and more! LOL they are on many Avanti greeting cards and Merchandise. They do print ads and commercials. They did a parody for a few years for Nickelodeon Jr. Called the Loud House Pug House. They are on Saturday Night Live for NBC a lot, in fact our white pug Shiksa has been on 13 times including 5 very famous skits, 2 with Scarlett Johansson as the “Trump Dog.” Seth Rogen and Kevin Hart. They also did a skit in SNL called Pug Wigs were they used 8 of Meshuga Dogs pugs. Simcha who was in the Tina Turner wig now has her own GIFs on the Internet as do many of our other pugs!The pugs were also hired for the 2018 Grammy awards were they handed puppies out as consolation gifts as a joke but the pups went to some very famous comedians including Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and JimGaffigan. Seinfeld received Chutzpah and wanted to buy her after the Grammys but I was already too attached to sell her. The dogs also have a big presence on social media. One video of Chutzpah jetskiing on the Hudson by herself had so many hits that Viral Hog bought the rights to it. Bar Stool Sports has also had them on where they gathered 2 million likes in a few hours!! Then there is the part of Annie’s life that makes all the other work a pleasure, taking the dogs out on the Hudson River, either on their boat or on their heavy duty Kawasaki Jet Ski’s. Being big time boating and jet skiing enthusiasts whenever Bobby and I had a free moment we used to head to the Hudson River. Problem was we had to leave the dogs behind who love doing things with us. So we thought of the idea of buying a bigger boat and bigger jet skis! Thus the Pug-boat was born! At one point in her life, she began breeding and training Labrador Retrievers and Pugs. The pugs have become a favorite on shows such as Saturday Night Live. I was very interested in understanding how Annie trained her dogs and she replied: “Training a dog to do something over and over again is easy once you have the dog doing a command on cue verbally or with a hand signal you practice, practice, and more practice with a lot of distractions not just in your home but outside at a dog park in a grocery store parking lot, ETC! I teach them a new trick or action then go to my bank lobby and Tractor Supply where there is a lot of dog and people traffic. If they listen then you have it made. To get them to like what they are doing with everything else in life you have to make it enjoyable! Enjoyable for a dog is lots of treats and praise as a reward! This way they want to do it! Here is Shiksa practicing in Tractor Supply a few days before going on Saturday Night Live, where since she is live on camera there is no room for error! I made her sit and stay on a cart dolly on top of a box with a little fireman hat on for about 6 minutes to Mimic what she could expect on SNL. I ended up sitting under the front camera 20ft away and since it’s live I could only give the sit and stay command by hand signal She was so good that Martin Short, and Alec Baldwin came looking for her backstage to meet her! LOL” Training Shiksa to stay