The Midnight Circus and its Canine Stars

While I know I’ve discussed the work of Jeff and Julie Jenkins (and their Chicago-based circus The Midnight Circus) I found a recent page on their website that details something I haven’t talked too much about.

For as long as I’ve seen the Midnight Circus, I think they’ve always had a dog in the act.  It’s been their family dog, which makes great sense, seeing how the Midnight Circus is a family affair- Jeff and Julie headline and ringmaster the show, while their two children perform in it.  It makes sense that their dog would also be in it.  In fact, if they had a parakeet, I’d expect that bird to somehow make an appearance.  (Parakeets did in fact make an appearance in one of their shows, but I don’t think it was their personal parakeet. )

Here’s a video of one of their dogs Lola doing her amazing work. This video is from 2013.

In addition to being a great clown, Jeff does a lot of work with dog training.  He rescues and trains Pit Bulls in the off season, and has created a number of great clown routines for his dogs.

I knew that he’d been doing some work with the Humane Society, but I did not realize the depth of it.  He’s been going into areas of South Chicago, giving free training and working with young kids with dogs to help them train their dogs, and battle dog-fighting where it stands.  As he explains in the video below, if you get to the owners of the dogs, you have a chance to change their social behavior.

Watch this video from the Humane Society, and you can see the great and important social work that Jeff is doing, both with the dogs, and their owners. It’s inspiring.

Find out more about the Humane Society

Find out more about the Midnight Circus and their Canine Stars

Other Chicago-based Pitbull Rescue:

https://peaceforpits.org

http://chicagopitstop.org/

http://foundtrainingcenter.com/

http://www.cbbr.org/