Harmony the Mountaineering Dog Animals at Work

Welcome to another great episode.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

All over the planet, there are millions of animals that have jobs.

Ahh!

We bring you the funniest, coolest and most bizarre...

..animals at work.

Coming up...

Harmony the wonder dog makes the journey of her life.

It's snowing and it's wet. SHE WHINES

This stubborn Shire horse is on a mission to prove old ways are best.

-Does she work instead of a tractor?

-Yes.

And the Fanimals have a dilemma that's causing a stink.

Pooing.

But now it's... Show time!

Hi, I'm John Barrowman, the best presenter in the universe

and this is Animals That...

Poop. What?

Hi, I'm John Barrowman, the best presenter in the world, and this is Animals Go...Berserk.

Hey, this is Animals Go Nuts. Oh!

Hey, welcome to Animals Gone Wild! No.

Welcome to the show! Nailed it! Got it right! Yes!

What are you looking at me like that for? I didn't take a long time!

And now we're off to Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Meet Sally.

Along with 100,000 other people in the UK,

Sally has multiple sclerosis,

a condition which means she has difficulty moving her body and can get tired very easily.

Before MS, Sally conquered mountains all over Scotland.

She even climbed all the way to Everest base camp.

But due to her condition,

Sally thought her mountain climbing days were over.

Until, that is, a very special someone stepped in.

Meet Harmony - Sally's personal assistant.

Harmony is the best personal assistant you can have.

Two-year-old Harmony has completely changed Sally's life.

And now she wants to climb mountains again.

Harmony was the inspiration that I can actually,

and I really believe, I can get to the top of a mountain.

Before Harmony came along, things were pretty tough for Sally and her family.

Due to her disease, Sally can't do all the things mums normally do.

But now Harmony acts as her limbs,

giving her a set of healthy arms and legs

which helps Sally conserve energy so she can feel better.

Oh, you're so good at that!

Harmony has changed my life because she has allowed me

-to be a mum again.

-You name it, Harmony does it.

TELEPHONE RINGS

-She answers the phone.

-Good girl!

She helps Sally with her chair and clothing.

-She can even take money out of the cash machine.

-Good girl!

Harmony does the little tasks that we were having to do and they make such a difference.

Bring it here!

Amazing Harmony's abilities go way beyond household chores.

She even helps Sally play hide and seek with her youngest daughter Melissa who suffers from autism.

Shh! Go hide.

-Go find Melissa!

-And Melissa appreciates it very much.

She's a very nice dog. And she's special.

One reason that makes Harmony so special is her breed.

Being a Labrador Retriever makes Harmony perfect for her job.

Many of them work as assistant dogs thanks to their intelligence

and gentle dispositions.

-You are my best friend!

-What Harmony does is clearly amazing.

Though not quite as amazing as her next challenge -

as a mountain climbing dog!

Sally has so much confidence in her canine companion, she aims to,

one day, climb the highest mountain in the British Isles for charity.

-Hmm?

-Don't worry, Harmony. First things first.

To help you on the road to the top,

you're going on a training run to Arthur's Seat.

But that's going to be a major challenge in itself.

Arthur's Seat is the main peak of a group of hills

standing 251 metres above the city of Edinburgh.

SHE WHINES

Harmony has never climbed a mountain.

So she's really got her work cut out.

To pull this off, Harmony will to have to draw on all her training and experience

and pay special attention to all Sally's commands in an unfamiliar environment.

If she's not up to the job, then quite simply,

Sally's dream of one day reaching the top of Ben Nevis, is in tatters.

Harmony's never let Sally down before

but will she be able to rise to this challenge?

-Later...

-It's snowing and it's wet.

Harmony takes on her uphill battle in the worst of conditions.

And now it's those kids who love animals.

-It's the...

-Fanimals. Yes!

Let's meet the Fanimals - our animal detectives.

Elif, Mia and Louis.

Today's challenge...

ALL: "Which animal could work in a paper factory?"

Here are your candidates - Tania the Elephant...

-Pooing.

-Yeah.

-Phil the Lemur...

-He's a kind of monkey, yeah.

And Mavis the Meerkat.

-A little bit small.

-Also, their arms are too small as well.

Working in a paper factory is a very important job.

A good paper maker needs to be intelligent, flexible and creative.

It's either between the lemur or the meerkat.

Hey, hey! Don't answer just yet. Let's check out their skills.

Paper maker candidate one is Tania the Elephant.

An elephant's trunk is very flexible.

It has over 40,000 muscles in it, but it's not all about the trunks.

Don't forget those tusks.

An elephant uses its tusks for a variety of tasks,

including lifting, digging and fending off enemies.

But could tusks help with paper making?

Probably lift about 200 papers in their trunk.

But they might blow it if they sneeze.

SNEEZES

Elephants are big animals.

In fact, they're the largest land animals in the world.

So it probably comes as no surprise that they eat a lot.

The average elephant puts away up to 300 kilograms of food a day.

That's over 50 Christmas turkeys.

Could this get in the way of paper making?

Do they have to go to the toilet a lot?

They might use the paper that we write on as toilet paper.

But could all of that poo be of any assistance in making paper?

Could it?

Onto candidate number two - Phil the Lemur.

-He looks fun.

-Like most primates, lemurs have opposable thumbs.

This means that they're able to pick things up.

Surely when it comes to paper making, this is a good thing, right?

-His claws might cut the paper.

-Yeah.

But if he goes mad in the factory and he starts ripping everything up.

You're right, that might be a problem.

But Phil's tail could make up for it.

A lemur's bushy tail can be used as a balancing tool.

Let's say he's got lots and lots of paper.

One on this hand, one on this hand, and one on his tail.

-He could carry it through the factory.

-Lemurs love to sunbathe. They gather in open sunny areas

and sit in yoga positions facing the sun.

But could this be a distraction from getting all their work done? Hmm...

Last it's candidate number three - Mavis the Meerkat.

Meerkats are clever, sociable animals who live in colonies.

A group of meerkats is called a mob, gang or a clan.

A clan will often contain approximately 30 meerkats.

So if Mavis got the paper-making job,

she'd have to bring along all her friends.

Would this be a problem?

It would be too much to pay the meerkats

because there would be so many of them.

Mavis and other meerkats are able to stand on their hind legs

so that they can keep a better look-out for enemies.

An advantage to this is that it leaves their hands free.

Could that be handy in a paper factory?

-They can try and control the machines.

-And be a good driver.

BRAKES SCREECH

Meerkats have the ability to survive without drinking water.

Instead, they get the moisture they need by eating roots from the ground.

That means they could work all day.

They wouldn't need to go to the toilet.

We wouldn't need a cafeteria. They could just work. That would be good.

So, Fanimals, have you made your decision yet?

Who'd be the best paper factory worker?

-ALL:

-We think it's the meerkat.

Oh, nice try, but you're wrong.

-Oh, it's not the meerkat.

-The best paper maker is...

..Tania the Elephant!

At the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre,

there are over 50 elephants producing

50 kilograms of poo per day.

That poo goes through a special process

to be turned into environmentally friendly paper.

So, Fanimals, what do you think of Tania the paper factory worker?

ALL: Well done, elephant.

Oh, that's nice. I think she's proud of her poo.

TANIA SOUNDS HER TRUNK

Now we're off to the West Midlands in Great Britain.

Ah, a 19th-century farm. No noisy tractors, nor modern machinery.

Mm, meadows and gentle rolling fields.

This is the picturesque Acton Scott farm.

But this isn't the 19th century, it's the present day

and this is Tory, the shire horse.

She's the sort of main work horse that we actually own.

-She's a great heavy horse, big backside.

-Big bottom?!

That's no way to talk to a Victorian laydee!

Great big feet.

Even though it's the 21st century,

Tory's determined to prove doing things the old-fashioned way's best,

so her job is to teach horsey history lessons.

So she can prove life was better in Victorian Britain,

for shire horses anyway.

Tory's history lessons are as practical as she is.

She literally re-enacts the work

her ancestors would have done in Victorian times.

And it's a pretty heavy-duty job, let me tell you!

But not for our Tory, who is as tough as they come.

Ha-ha, who needs modern, new-fangled machinery?

Especially when you're a shire horse.

The shire horse is the biggest of the horses found in the UK.

The breed is also known as the Gentle Giant.

Good girl.

It's no wonder shire horses did all the ploughing work

that a tractor would do these days.

If she ever found out how big she really is,

I would be in a great deal of trouble!

Yes, Simon, you would be in trouble

if you tried to stop Tory from proving her point.

Stubborn Tory also wants to show off her shire horse history.

The shire horse first came to England in 1066

with William The Conqueror.

They were used in battles, quite literally,

as a living armoured tank

because of their enormous capacity for pulling weight.

And today on the farm,

it's this strength that Tory insists on using to do her job.

Tory, a lot of the time, does everything on this farm.

We don't have any tractors,

we don't have any machinery

other than the stuff the horses pull around.

In a nutshell, they rely on Tory's horsepower.

Tory is so convinced old is better,

even in her leisure time she ensures where she lives is authentic.

A classic carriage and horse stable,

it has big wooden arches and cobbled floors.

She's even recruited her colleagues to live her dream -

Captain, Clumper and Dusty.

If you're wondering, Dusty's not a small shire horse, she's a donkey.

It's now time for Tory to prove her point.

Come on, Tory, strut your shire horse stuff.

There's an audience waiting to see your horsepower!

Can you prove you aren't all talk and NEIGH action?!

Neigh!

Tory would much rather stand and chat and be stroked and petted

than actually be out there working.

Come on, Tory, you can do this - prove Simon wrong.

There's no time for all this horseplay.

You got a list of Victorian horse duties to show off.

First up, it's rolling the land to get rid of the stones.

This requires an old-fashioned contraption

called a Cambridge Roller.

And we're ready for the off.

These days they'd use something much noisier.

These stones that are in the field, especially when it's a bit wet

like it is now, we pull this over it

and it squashes the stones into the ground.

Thanks to the Cambridge Roller, when it comes to planting the hay,

Tory doesn't have to listen to loud engines and inhale fumes,

and the land is still made nice and smooth.

The next historical job of the day

is harrowing the soil,

which requires an implement known as a chain harrow.

Sounds like a complicated piece of equipment, doesn't it?

It's actually a poo rake - urgh!

Are you ready, girl?

This spreads the manure around the field

allowing the animals to graze,

safe in the knowledge that they won't tread in or, worse,

eat a cowpat, or any kind of pat for that matter!

Away, girl.

And last job of all - it's more poo.

They're off to the tip cart to move some -

well, a quarter of a tonne of the stuff.

That's 110 chickens -

EGG-cellent fact for you there,

and EGG-cellent work, Tory!

Tory's life as a Victorian working horse and historian

does look hard.

But she doesn't like to take the modern day option,

Tory likes to live life the old way.

Has Tory proved she can do it all without the aid of modern machinery?

What have the visitors learned from her history lessons?

She does lots of stuff that helps with the machines.

-Does she work instead of a tractor?

-Yes.

-Horse!

-Horse, yeah. Is she soft?

Good job, Tory. I think you've convinced at least one person

that a shire horse is much better than a tractor.

We're about ready for the next load I think.

And now we're off to Singapore in Southeast Asia.

This is a turtle museum,

it's a lush, spacious resort which plays home

to over 50 different species of tortoise AND turtle

who live without a care in the world.

My tortoises do whatever they want to do.

They go anywhere they want to go.

In the mix are lots of interesting folk.

You've got the pig-nosed turtle, an alligator snapping turtle,

and the Indian star turtle.

But there's one resident who's especially out of the ordinary...

he's got possibly the most important job of any tortoise or turtle

in the whole world!

Meet Salcuta, the Tortoise Ambassador.

An ambassador is an official

who acts as a representative on behalf of a group of people.

With all his tortoise and turtle friends,

it's easy to work out who THIS ambassador represents!

Yes, Salcuta's on a one-reptile mission

to make people aware of just how brilliant he and his mates are.

There are about 40 types of tortoise

and over 350 types of turtle in the world.

So it's important that Salcuta comes out of his shell

and gets his words heard.

At the grand age of 70,

Salcuta is no spring chick,

but he's got a way to go yet.

Tortoises and turtles have been known to live for over 100 years.

But that's nothing compared to how long turtles have been around for -

try over 200 million years!

They evolved before mammals, birds,

crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.

One of the reasons they've been around so long

is due to their amazing defence systems - their protective shells.

A tortoise's shell is made up of 59 to 61 bones,

covered by plates called scutes.

Turtles' shells are very similar

but are flatter and better for swimming.

Luckily, in many parts of the world, including the UK,

people keep tortoises and turtles as pets.

Generally, this means that they'll be well kept and looked after,

but that's not always the case.

So Salcuta's determined to help people understand

how to care for his kind and to remember little facts,

such as how turtles LOVE clean water and light

and a variety of whole, natural foods,

particularly insects, including grasshoppers and beetles.

And that tortoises like a lot of space and plenty of clean water.

It's also very important that people remember to wash their hands

after handling our shelly friends.

This stops the spread of nasty diseases.

Salcuta's convinced that because they're so special,

spreading the tortoise love helps make the world a better place.

So now that his message has reached you

and Salcuta's won a whole host of new friends,

he's one happy tortoise!

In fact...

this calls for a celebration!

Thanks, Salcuta, and keep up the great work!

# Have you ever seen a turtle get down, get down? #

It's not just today that animals have had jobs,

in fact, history reveals that in the past,

they've had even more amazing jobs than today.

And here are those History's Heroes!

Hello again, Professor John Bumbleman here,

the world's foremost expert on all things animal...

history! Hoo-hoo!

Yes, today I'm talking to you about things from the past

that are fast.

FLY BUZZES A-hem! Zoom! Zooba!

I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's a fly in my study.

It sounds like a joke, doesn't it?

Buzz off! Ha-ha-ha! Well, anyway,

let me tell you about history's fastest heroes!

Zip! Zip! Go on!

Our first speedy employ was Fatehbaz,

the first cheetah to be hired as a hunter by Akbar The Great in 1555.

His job was to hunt deer and blackbuck antelope

for Akbar's lavish royal feasts.

Fatehbaz's amazing sprinting skill was down to his long legs and claws

that gripped the ground, just like the studs on football boots.

This made the hunting job easy-peasy for him.

Akbar The Great was so impressed

he went on to hire 9,000 other hunting cheetahs.

I wonder if Fatehbaz got a bonus?

KER-CHING!

Our next fast critters held down the important job of postman

from 1894 to 1898.

50 pigeons had the exclusive contract for delivering mail

between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles.

They were the only way the islanders could receive

urgent information from the mainland.

Oh, no!

It was such a dangerous job three birds had to carry the same message

as there were hungry predators like hawks lurking in the skies

ready to eat the pigeon postmen.

Obviously, this job required the pigeons to be fast,

and fast they were,

delivering a message from 48 miles away in about one hour!

That's better than what most modern postmen can achieve today.

Wow!

Pretty fast, eh?

Now watch this for speed!

Hyah! FLY BUZZES

Grrr, missed it!

But here's another speedy creature.

Our favourite and final fast worker is Phar Lap,

an Australian racehorse.

Phar Lap deserves the History's Hero accolade

because he just never gave up.

In 1926, on his very first day at work,

poor Phar Lap was skinny and clumsy with a face covered in warts.

He was fired straightaway.

-You're fired!

-Hmmm.

Phar Lap soon found a better boss and started to train and train.

Soon he began to win races,

then he began to win championships, winning them by a long way.

CROWD CHEERS

Phar Lap had become a handsome 17-hands-high, powerful horse.

When he died, the doctors found he had a huge heart,

which helped him pump blood around his body to make him fast,

which goes to show you

you can absolutely do anything if you have a big heart.

They're all pretty fast, eh?.

Well, ha, not as quick as... the Bumbleman!

Fly, you are about to become...

SQUELCH! ..history! Ha-ha-ha!

Finally, it's back to Edinburgh in bonnie Scotland.

Two-year-old Harmony works for Sally

who has multiple sclerosis.

This means it's difficult for her to move her body

and she gets tired very easily.

Harmony is Sally's personal assistant, helping her perform

many of the duties that she sometimes finds impossible.

She has changed my life.

There is no "I can't" any more, it's, "I can do everything."

Harmony's had such a positive impact on Sally's confidence

that she's planning on climbing Ben Nevis,

the highest mountain in Scotland!

Harmony was the inspiration

that I could get back into the mountains again.

I can actually, and I really believe I can get to the top of a mountain.

Make no mistake about it - this will be a major challenge for everybody.

Mountain climbing can be dangerous as weather can change in a second,

so this is serious business for Harmony,

who's never climbed a mountain before and needs to prove

that she can handle it on top of her everyday duties.

To find out whether Harmony's up to the job,

Sally has set them a challenge.

They're going to attempt to climb Arthur's Seat,

the tallest of the hills that stands over Edinburgh.

HARMONY BARKS

If Harmony can crack this,

then Sally's on the way to making her dreams a reality.

Failure? Well, that isn't even worth thinking about.

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!

It's the morning of the big climb.

This is the biggest day Harmony and Sally

-have ever had together.

-HARMONY SNORES

-ALARM CLOCK RINGS

-But if Harmony's nervous,

-she's hiding it well.

-Good girl.

-Good girl, Harmony.

-The amazing duo arrive at the base of Arthur's Seat.

The weather's a bit drizzly,

but Sally's wheelchair should be able to handle these conditions.

This is Scotland, though, so let's hope I've not spoken too soon!

Sally's recently got a new special wheelchair

designed to handle off-road trails.

Using mountain-bike technology, she'll be able to take on

the bumps and rough roads.

What does Harmony think of the chair? I think she approves.

Bring on the climb!

# Get your motor running... #

They set off, but immediately they face a challenge.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse

and it's really started to pour down now. How will Harmony react?

Surely this won't put her off?

-Nah, of course it hasn't!

-Good girl. OK, off we go!

She looks as happy as ever.

What a pro!

What about Sally? Is she enjoying her return to the mountains?

-This is fun!

-I take it that's a yes

and Harmony is having a whale of a time!

She doesn't seem to be bothered by the machine at all.

But suddenly there's a problem - Sally's chair has stopped.

There could be something wrong with the engine.

Immediately, Harmony is by Sally's side.

-HARMONY BARKS

-She barks to alert passers-by

that help could be needed.

-This is perfect work from Harmony.

-HARMONY BARKS AND WHINES

WHEELCHAIR ENGINE STRAINS

Fortunately, it's a temporary malfunction

and the chair is up and running again.

The incident has proven that Harmony can be

the true professional she needs to be.

My engine stopped and while I was waiting

to make sure everything was all right, she started to bark.

She came and she was very concerned for me.

-Hey, Harmony!

-There's still a long way to the top, though.

Can Harmony and Sally make it despite the awful conditions?

Listen, do!

I knew it! There's the top!

They've done it!

They've reached the summit!

# Ain't no mountain high enough... #

It's snowing and wet and I haven't been up here for years

and it's fantastic!

It's an unbelievable moment for the two best friends.

Together, they've conquered their challenge.

What can you see? What can you see?

Good girl! That was fun!

An amazing achievement that couldn't have happened without Harmony.

I'd never have done this if it hadn't been for having Harmony.

Now Harmony's proven she's up to it,

nothing stands in the way of Sally's mountain-climbing dreams.

Congratulations to both - you really are one in a million!

Hey, what are you staring at? The show's over.

Huh, cows!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]