Leveraging Farm Dog Fame for a Good Cause

The winner of the 2024 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year, Skippy, and her owners, Donald and Laura Adams, are leveraging the award to bring awareness to a special role working dogs can play on farms across the country.

This comes after a major event five years ago that changed the Adams’ life and farming operation.

In 2019, Donald was working with his son on the farm when a hay bale weighing several hundred pounds bounced the wrong way. It struck him in the head, resulting in a broken neck and spinal cord injury. This injury left him completely paralyzed from the neck down.

Following his accident, Donald was at Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation facility specializing in spinal cord and brain injuries. It was there that he and Laura were introduced to AgrAbility, a program dedicated to supporting farmers, ranchers, agricultural workers and their families living with disabilities. It was also during this period that they met Kyle Haney, field services coordinator for AgrAbility in Georgia.

By the time Donald left Shepherd Center after several months, he had made progress in his recovery and could move with the help of a walker. However, returning to farm work required more than mobility alone. Haney was instrumental in securing the tools and resources through AgrAbility that were necessary for Donald's return to the farm.

Haney's support went beyond securing equipment. While at Shepherd’s, he connected Donald and Laura with P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting farmers with disabilities by providing specially trained farm dogs. These dogs are trained to perform tasks that assist farmers with their daily operations on the farm, including managing livestock, retrieving or picking up dropped tools, opening latch gate systems, carrying buckets or running for help when needed.

Donald and Laura began conversations with Jackie Allenbrand, the founder of P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA, in hopes of being paired with a match. Their dreams were realized in October 2022 with the arrival of Skippy, their farm dog companion.

P.H.A.R.M. Dog Trainer Don McKay spent three days helping Skippy adjust to 200 beef cattle on pasture and worked closely with Donald and Laura to familiarize them with Skippy's trained commands. Since then, Skippy has been crucial in helping the couple operate the farm. Her primary role is to help move cattle, including cows and their calves, between pastures for grazing.

“Because we have Skippy to help us, everyday we’re doing something,” said Donald Adams. “If it wasn’t for her helping us with the cows to keep me busy, things might not be as good as they are now.”

Skippy had been a major component in Donald's return to the farm and Haney recognized this impact. He called Laura and suggested they enter Skippy into the Farm Dog of the Year contest sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation with support from Nestlé Purina PetCare.

Laura carefully answered questions, gathered photos and submitted Skippy’s Farm Dog of the Year nomination in summer 2023. In January 2024, Skippy was named the Farm Dog of the Year at the AFBF Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah.

While the couple was excited about Skippy winning the 2024 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year award, they never expected where it would lead.

"I figured we’d be in a couple of magazines,” said Laura. “I never expected the Skippy train to keep going.”

Since winning the award, Laura has used every opportunity to highlight the potential role properly trained farm dogs can play in assisting farmers with disabilities. Her efforts have gained widespread media coverage and invitations to numerous speaking engagements.

Through each of these interactions, Laura has focused on three goals. Her first goal is to shine a light on P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA and offer support in the same way the organization has supported her family.

“One thing I want to happen out of all of this is to motivate people to help Jackie,” said Laura. “[I want to] help Jackie get corporate sponsors.”

Her second goal is to write a children’s book to help others understand farm dogs' jobs.

“We didn't know anything about farm dogs. I thought like everybody else, what do farm dogs do? Herd cattle, right?” said Laura in her speech at the 2024 AgrAbility National Training Workshop. “They do so much more than that.”

Her third and final goal is to help someone get off the couch. Skippy has helped her husband to return to the farm, and it's her mission to raise awareness of ways that others affected by farming accidents or living with disabilities can do the same.

Kylie Schakel was a summer 2024 intern in the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Communications and Executive Departments. She is a senior at Kansas State University.