By Frank Lovece – Newsday
A Long Island service dog trainer is among the spotlighted humans in the new Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which premiered last Friday.
For more than 20 years, Alexandra “Alex” Hutchinson has worked training service dogs that help the disabled, law enforcement and search-and-rescue teams. Like seeing-eye dogs, service dogs perform specific tasks, from opening doors and picking up dropped objects for people in wheelchairs, to sniffing for people trapped in rubble, to interrupting PTSD night terrors by pulling blankets off a bed and nudging their human.
While the documentary ranges far and wide to universities and other locales, speaking with scientists about recent findings on canine brains, the nitty-gritty of turning a puppy into a partner takes place in Medford, at the Northeast Training Center of the 49-year-old nationwide organization Canine Companions.
“Originally they had two short days that they wanted to shoot,” Hutchinson, 51, says of Red Rock Films, a veteran nature documentary company for Discovery, Disney+, Nat Geo Wild and others including Netflix, for which it did “Inside the Mind of a Cat” (2022). “Somewhere along the way, after being here and meeting everyone, they decided to expand their time here and do a little bit more filming with us. So it ended up being about eight days.”
Hutchinson — who was raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills and now lives in Queens but spends months at a time living at a Canine Companions dorm when in the midst of training — appears prominently in the 75-minute documentary.
One of the few nonscientists who speaks directly to the camera, she also is seen working with dogs at the center and taking them on training trips to a supermarket (CTown, in Farmingville), a restaurant (The Oar, in Patchogue) and an amusement park (Adventureland, in Farmingdale) — all places where service animals, unlike untrained “emotional support” pets, are allowed under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I sat down to watch the documentary with friends I’ve known forever, who know what I do,” Hutchison says puckishly, “and they said, ‘Wow, I had no idea!’ I said, ‘You’ve known me for how long?’ ‘Yeah, but we didn’t really know what it was like, what you do!’ ”
Born in Germany, the youngest of four daughters of a U.S. Army father and a German mother who came to America when Hutchinson was a toddler, the trainer grew up with a “best friend” dog. While earning a communications degree at Robert Morris University outside Pittsburgh, she started volunteering at dog shelters.
As a career, Hutchinson became a flight attendant. “But I always knew I wanted to end up helping people” — which she has done as a nonmedical volunteer with the nonprofit Surgicorps International, similar to Doctors Without Borders. “And if I could merge people and dogs together? Wow.”
She began at Canine Companions in 2003 “as someone who just cared for the dogs and groomed them and things like that,” followed by years of three levels of apprenticeship as a trainer. After that came certification as an instructor. But, says Hutchinson, she was on-and-off with the organization while also working as an assistant to New York Jets Pro Football Hall of Famer Curtis Martin — “We grew up together and are great friends,” she says — and so far has not completed the final step, called Presentation.
Yet, she jokes of her documentary appearance, “I’ve got lots and lots of witnesses that I have presented!” — adding jocularly, “Guys, can we just check that box?”
