Transcript
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If you're a dog lover, you know the joy and comfort that dogs bring us every single day.
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Well, for veterans and first responders who have served our country and our communities, service dogs can mean the difference between a life of physical limitations, isolation, depression and even suicide, and a life full of hope that's worth living.
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On today's episode, we're going to learn about one organization that's providing service dogs to our heroes in need.
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Stay tuned for an inspiring and informative episode of Starlight Pet Talk.
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You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk, a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets.
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We also share inspiring rescue and adoption stories from people who've taken their love of pets to the next level by getting involved in animal welfare.
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My name is Amy Castro and I'm the founder and president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue and a columnist for Pet Age Magazine.
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I've rescued thousands of animals and help people just like you find the right pet for their family.
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My mission is to help pet parents learn all the ways that they can care for, live with and even have fun with their pets so they can live their very best lives, and their pets can too.
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Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk.
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I'm your host, amy Castro, and my guest today is Joe Gianti.
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He's the founder and CEO of an organization called Canine Heroes for Heroes.
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Their mission is to provide service dogs to veterans and first responders at no cost to the recipient.
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Their motto is an interesting one.
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It's healing is healing, and if you really kind of play with that, you know healing like a dog.
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Healing with you is healing.
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You know having that dog by your side and what it can do for veterans.
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The motto is coined by their head trainer, travis Lloyd of American Canine Dynamics, and they believe these service dogs have true healing powers.
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So, joe, thank you so much for being here with me today.
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I'm honored and blessed to be here.
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Thank you for having me on.
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So, of course, the first.
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The first thing I always want to ask people who have started a nonprofit organization is why?
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Because, as somebody that has one as much as I truly believe in the mission of Starlight Outreach and Rescue, it's a lot of work and for not necessarily always a lot of return for you personally.
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So what made you decide to do it?
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Growing up.
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You know I'm a lifelong martial artist.
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My instructor was a police officer, my dad was in the army, my father-in-law was in the National Guard.
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You know I spent some time at the Virginia Military Institute, so a lot of the guys I went there with ended up going in the service and then just the love for the dogs as well and seeing what these dogs are capable of doing is amazing and I have such a love and admiration for anybody that has chosen to put on this nation's uniform or to be a first responder Because they're not getting paid enough.
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We all know that they're putting their lives on the line, oftentimes for people who don't appreciate what they're doing, but I want them to know there are people out there like myself, other civilians who are veteran and first responder support organizations that are truly here for them and what I've seen Loki, as people that follow Kenan Heroes for Heroes.
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You've seen a lot of Loki.
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I know what he does for me and I know we don't compare traumas that's not something you want to do but I haven't been through anything compared to what our first responders and veterans have been through, and I know what he does for me.
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I want that for all of them.
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I want them to be able to get back out in society like they would like.
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And that really touches my heart too, as a veteran, and I do have such a soft spot for that.
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Thank you for veterans and first responders.
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I was actually reading an article earlier today that was talking about how many veterans you know, when they get out of the military, then become first responders.
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So these are people who give and give and continue to give, and we really need to do our best to support them when they have some type of a need.
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So what exactly does your organization do, like you know?
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Who does it help?
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How does it help?
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So our organization is set up to provide service dogs to these veterans and first responders.
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So it is anybody who has falls under the first responder category or honorably discharged veteran we will provide this service, for they can reach out to us a multitude of ways, but the goal is to put these dogs in their hands.
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Now.
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It's an extensive process.
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There's an application that goes along with it.
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They have to fill out, meet some requirements, because we want to make sure not only are they deserving but they're capable of taking care of a dog, because we don't want to put a dog out there that is eventually going to come back and it will happen.
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It does happen.
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You know may not be a right fit for one reason or another, but we want to do our due diligence and making sure that we get them in their hands.
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And the blessing is we're building that network of service dog companies throughout the country.
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So I always say and I may be getting ahead of myself here, but I always say I don't have to be the person to provide all the dogs, but I want you to have one.
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So if somebody from we're in Northeast Ohio, so if somebody in California or Texas reaches out, it's going to be a little difficult for me to get them that job, but I can refer them to someone closer to them that is reputable and that might be able to get them the dog even faster than I could.
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And I'm glad to hear you say that, because I hadn't even thought about it, which is terrible, because in rescue all we worry about is, you know, getting and I always refer to it as the right fit.
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You know, it's not about you being a good person, a bad person although there are bad people and we screen those out but sometimes we have somebody that is a good fit to have a pet, but not this particular pet and even in the pet world.
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And so now, when you're talking about somebody who not only is their life on the line in relying on that pet, the animal's life is on the line relying on that human and you have responsibility to both of them.
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And it had not even thought about that aspect.
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One of the things that comes up often because again, people see a lot of videos and pictures of Loki.
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Are they all German Shepherds?
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No, not at all, because, like you said, it's got to be that fit and I need to fit the dog to the person.
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A German Shepherd is a very high drive working dog.
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You can't get that to a low drive person, or person doesn't have much mobility.
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It's just recipe for failure and that's not what we want to do.
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And I love the rescue work that you're doing and other organizations are doing and we get asked do we use rescue dogs?
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At this stage of the game?
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No, we do not.
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Being a small startup nonprofit, I need to make sure I'm putting the best dogs out there, that I know their whole prominence, that I know their background, their history and that when I place them there's no triggers, at least that we can think of at the time, that may make that match not successful.
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So there are service dog companies that do rescue dogs and God bless, and maybe someday, as we get bigger, we'll get into that as well.
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But we like to provide the puppy or the relatively young dog.
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We have evaluated a few veterans, existing dogs, and it's hard to tell somebody their dog is not suited to be a service dog.
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So again, we're going from the puppy stage.
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We're going to take that dog, we're going to buy the dog, we're going to train it and know everything about that dog.
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And that's one of the questions on the questionnaires Do you have other dogs in the home?
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Do you have children in the home?
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Again, we're going for that best fit.
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So it's hard to tell a veteran or a first responder I'm sorry, your dog's not cut out for that and we can't place one with you if that dog is there.
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So there's a lot of caveats to it.
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But again, the goal is taking care of them and taking care of the dog, because we need to know that both are taken care of.
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Yeah, because you're looking for a lifelong commitment and a lifelong fit.
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Ideally, certainly, that's what we're all shooting for in this kind of work where you're putting animals and people together.
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So what was the and I don't mean like the legal process as far as paperwork or filing for your 501C3 or anything like that, but what was your process from the time that you said this is something that I want to do, or this is something that is needed in this world, to where you are today?
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Yeah, so you know, it started out just with the love of the dogs and quick story, you know, my son was an MMA fighter and one of the fighters he trained with was a veteran who was a dog trainer and he and I started talking.
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I had a shepherd a different shepherd at the time and again it goes back to that just admiration and love for anybody that put on a uniform.
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I'm like, how can I do my part?
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I'm too old to serve now in any capacity as far as military first responder.
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I'm, you know, 55 years old.
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I'm not serving.
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This is how I can give back.
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You're younger than me.
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Okay, well, you've already served.
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I did my thing in my 20s.
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I'm done.
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So this is how I decided I wanted to give back, so reached out to some other trainers I had worked with and told them what my thoughts were and how I wanted to make this happen.
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I was able to attend some canine conferences, meet other individuals, and it just lit that fire that this is how I can make a difference and that's what I want to do.
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I want to be a resource and we'll get into this a little more, but not just the dogs, but a resource for many other things as possible.
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You know as well as I do.
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We are talking because I might call over lie and what he is trying to do with dogs, just in a different realm, but expanding the network so that we can help as many people as possible.
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Yeah, and I think you know it shows because, because of so many of us being involved in this type of work, you know, kind of goes back to your motto the healing is healing.
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I mean how, the healing power of dogs and it's not always dogs, I mean, we do a lot of cats, but you know but animals and the role that they play in our lives and how important that is to so many people, it's, it's a very powerful, very powerful thing.
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It is and it's funny, as you were talking, Loki just walked by so I've got a little pet.
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It's the simple things that just that pet.
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You know they, I know they've done studies and I'm not going to quote them accurately, but just the dopamine releases from petting a dog or a cat or things of that nature and what they're capable of doing.
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Our head trainer you mentioned.
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He coined our motto, travis Lloyd.
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He is an amazing individual that spent a significant amount of time in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, building forward, operating basis, things of that nature, and he credits his service dog was saving his life, and you know he was.
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He was there for almost 10 years and being in that atmosphere, right beside the guys in the service multiple country services knowing that that dog is why he's still here today, that's enough for me.
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It chokes me up just talking about it.
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Yeah, because you see the distress in these individuals at times and I'm truly humbled by the veterans I've met and the first responders I've met, because most of them are just so humble and they just want to help and continue to serve.
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Like you were saying, a lot of them get out of the military and end up becoming first responders, because that sense of duty and service doesn't end just because they took off one uniform.
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So seeing that and seeing the comfort and joy that these dogs can provide, the security they can provide, not physical security, not protection dogs, but just the security and knowing you can go out in public again or go to a family function again and you're not going to be overwhelmed so it's, it's, it's truly amazing what these dogs can do.
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You see it as well as I do, and the dogs you work with and and the dogs, even just the pet dogs.
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So it's it's an amazing partnership.
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It really is and it's.
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It's an amazing thing to see when it's like you said you know, when you've got that that good fit going.
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You had said you know.
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As far as getting dogs from the time that they're a puppy, how do you select dogs for the program?
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Because I would assume in any litter of puppies there's going to be one that you can tell you know.
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I don't know one that you can tell like has it, and then someone that's going to end up more of a pet dog because they don't have it.
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There's temperament testing you can do and before the dog enters into a full-service dog program They've going, they're going through the general obedience, the down, the sits, the stay, the retrieves, things that nature we're taking out in public trying to socialize them, see how they react out in public to various situations, see how they react with other dogs and you kind of weed them out by that.
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That aspect as well you can tell.
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You know, are they flighty?
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Is the least sound going to set them off or a quick movement going to set them off?
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So you're doing that temperament testing, you're just seeing how they react in various situations and then you can gear them towards.
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Okay, this maybe you know, maybe this is going to be an emotional support dog which we just came in contact with a company yesterday called pause for Patrick, who we're going to talk a little more with about Emotional support dogs were on the service dog in but not everybody's going to need that service dog.
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So maybe this dog becomes an emotional support animal and this one is a service dog.
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So it's, it's a lot of that temperament testing, just seeing how they react to various situations.
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One of the neat things is Travis's Malin wall had a litter of puppies, and one of the things I loved is he was Desensitizing these dogs.
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These dogs aren't, you know, a couple weeks old and they're eating while they're standing in a puddle of water, or eating while they're standing on bubble wrap or things of that.
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I was wondering how early does this whole process start?
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Oh, it begins immediately now.
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I got Loki at seven weeks old and the next day we were in Walmart.
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So Loki's mind, loki's the face of the business, because people would rather look at Loki than me and I don't, so when we go out and about, we've been doing it since since he was a puppy.
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He goes to church with me, he's flown on several occasions, he's been around gunfire and fireworks, so it's just that process of making him comfortable wherever we're at and the nice thing I'd like to see Is service dogs are becoming more prevalent out in the public.
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Some, we know, aren't real service dogs.
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Some are, but what I like here did a whole episode on that, by the way, sorry, you're gonna say no, no there's no central governing body for service dogs.
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But what I?
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what I like hearing now is you know, we'll walk by a Parent with their small children, mommy, daddy, you know, look, it's a canine.
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Well, they're all canines, they think police dogs and that here the parents say, well, you can't pet him, that's a service dog and he's working.
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So it's nice to start to hear that that people are starting to understand these dogs have a job and You'll see oftentimes in some of the videos, loki does some things a normal service dog wouldn't.
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But it's just draw attention to the business so that people do come up and ask me hey, what's this all about?
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And then I can explain about Canine heroes for heroes and service dogs and and one of the things I've been educating a lot of people on and In a way I was a little surprised they didn't quite understand it.
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But I shouldn't be, because they're not in the dog world is why you don't pet, talk to or interact with a service dog and I tell me that dog has a job.
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If I let you pet him and I let that person pet him, they're gonna look externally for sources of comfort and joy and play, when the service dog should be focused on the handler.
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So that's why I tell people you know, there's oftentimes I'll ask people, though you know.
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Oh, hi, you know, hi, puppy, and I'll ask you know, could you please ignore my dog?
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You know that would appreciate that.
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And one of the things I've made abundantly clear to Loki is he knows the difference between when he's working and when he's a puppy.
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When that vest goes on he knows he's working.
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We made a big deal out of it when we first started training that aspect, because that's another part of the training.
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That vest goes on, it's like when a soldier puts on his uniform or a police officer puts on his uniform, their mindset changes.
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So if I say harness, he dips his head into his harness.
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We lock it up and you know we go about our business.
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So it's a never-ending process of training.
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Even when we give him to the veteran or first responder, we don't just give him the dog and kick him out the door.
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Hey, good luck.
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Hope it all works out.
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You know we're gonna continue with maintenance training or refresher training, if whatever word you want to use, to make sure they're good to go, because we will have the dog trained very well before they meet their first veteran.
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When they meet the veteran, the first responder, now it's time to train that person and the hardest part about training any dog is training the person.
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Yeah, no kidding, yeah, even with, just, even with just pets.
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It's like most definitely no, yeah, the stuff that you see, people, people do.
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I actually went to.
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I won't name the event, but I went to this big dog related event this weekend and there were a couple of things that were quite evident and one of them was that People, just in general with their pet dogs, need to do a better job.
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If you know, if you plan on ever taking your dog out in public, you need to start doing that early and do it on a regular basis, you know, and because there were some dogs that were just not feeling it and not really appropriate to be in the environment that we were in.
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And then the other piece is we talk about the tail wagging the dog.
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It's the dog Dragging the person.
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You know, it's like the dog is determining where we're going.
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The dog is.
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It's just amazing to me to like see a grown man be dragged by a dog that I know he can Get under control.
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It's like I could even hold that dog my 10 year old child if I had one good old.
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You know, it's just amazing, the things that people don't know about their own dogs.
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Yeah, that gets me as well, people.
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What people don't realize is dogs want a purpose, they want a job to do.
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We want to stimulate them mentally and physically.
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You know Loki comes from a working line of German shepherds.
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He's not just a pet shepherd, he's a working line, which means he's bred differently.
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So people have seen he goes on the treadmill.
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I live in northeast Ohio.
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It gets cold in the winter.
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I don't want to go outside, but he still needs to work.
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So he goes on the treadmill for half hour, 45 minutes or maybe.
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When it's time to eat, I hide the food throughout the house so that he has to find it and again you're stimulating them mentally and physically.
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I think most people's issues with their dogs in their homes is the dog's bored.
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It's not getting enough exercise, not getting proper nutrition and there's just no stimulus.
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He's bored.
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I'm going to eat your couch because I don't have anything else to do.
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Yeah, we've done a couple of episodes that have hit you know.
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We did one about the importance of play and mental stimulation.
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We've done that a couple of times.
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We've done several episodes on nutrition.
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So much of it.
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It goes back to what you said in the beginning.
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When you've got a dog that has a certain drive and then you've got a person that's not, you know it's that fit thing, you know you don't whether it's a pet or a service animal.
00:18:32.750 --> 00:18:40.740
Too many times when people even just in selecting a pet they go based on I like the way that that looks or that's really cool.
00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:42.067
I saw that in a movie.
00:18:42.067 --> 00:18:44.599
Or my neighbor has one of those and it's really well trained.
00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:50.647
So when I get one it's miraculously going to be just like my neighbors, but I don't bother train it.
00:18:50.647 --> 00:19:00.019
Or I am a couch potato and I don't get it any exercise and it's like you've really got to not be swayed by the trends but by finding a pet that is a right fit for your lifestyle.
00:19:00.019 --> 00:19:04.692
And we've got been trying to bang that into people's heads because they just don't get it.
00:19:05.661 --> 00:19:07.007
We do the same thing as well.
00:19:07.007 --> 00:19:07.710
That you know.
00:19:07.710 --> 00:19:10.765
The blessing is American Canine Dynamics, our partner.
00:19:10.765 --> 00:19:13.740
They do pet obedience to our service dogs too.
00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:16.569
They have some police dogs on the street so they're seeing every gambit.
00:19:16.569 --> 00:19:20.510
But people often, you know they make that comment oh Loki, so well behaved.
00:19:20.510 --> 00:19:22.912
I said I work with him every day.
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We're doing something.
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Even if it's five, 10 minutes, we're doing something.
00:19:26.768 --> 00:19:31.366
And one of the tidbits that I like to tell people that I learned because Travis is my mentor.
00:19:31.366 --> 00:19:38.672
I compared to him I consider myself a very novice trainer, so I'm constantly learning when I'm out with him is these training sessions.
00:19:38.672 --> 00:19:42.892
You want to make them short and you want to make them positive and end on a high note.
00:19:42.892 --> 00:19:47.332
We all I'm been guilty of it working on something with Loki, let me just get one more rep.
00:19:47.332 --> 00:19:54.088
And you just can't get that good last rep and you're like, oh, now I'm ended on a negative so you know we want to end on a positive.
00:19:54.128 --> 00:19:56.920
We want to make this experience for the dogs positive.
00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:58.262
You look at police dogs.
00:19:58.262 --> 00:20:00.048
You look at military working dogs.
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What are they working for?
00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.426
A ball, a Kong, a treat.
00:20:03.426 --> 00:20:06.521
You know they're going out and catching the bad guy, putting their life on the line.
00:20:06.521 --> 00:20:23.887
Well, they don't realize they're putting their life on the line, but they're out there for their teammate and all they want is that toy whatever it might be, I'm going to jump through this fence and catch this bad guy and you're going to give me my Kong, and I'm a happy camper, so you know dogs are simple in that way.
00:20:24.388 --> 00:20:29.369
Yeah, if only we all could make everybody that happy with just a Kong, we'd be good, good, good to go.
00:20:29.369 --> 00:20:32.808
Where do you get the dogs that you get?
00:20:32.808 --> 00:20:34.900
Do you get them from a particular breeder?
00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:37.955
Do you get them from a variety of breeders?
00:20:37.955 --> 00:20:38.740
Do you breed them yourself?
00:20:39.701 --> 00:20:41.926
Well, we have a variety of breeders Now.
00:20:42.307 --> 00:20:45.823
Travis has had several litters with his Malinois.
00:20:45.823 --> 00:20:53.369
But those, most of those are going to either working, going to be working dogs either in the sport world or in the first responder world.
00:20:53.369 --> 00:20:54.334
So that's different.
00:20:54.334 --> 00:21:00.336
But we work with several other breeders for whether it's labs or whether it's retrievers or shepherds.
00:21:00.336 --> 00:21:03.185
Yeah, we've got quite a few that we can reach out to.
00:21:03.286 --> 00:21:07.078
And the blessing is I've had so many people offer me puppies.
00:21:07.078 --> 00:21:14.080
Now I can't take them all because even though your puppy is being offered as a donation, I still have to have the money to train that dog.
00:21:14.080 --> 00:21:15.893
So I can't accept them all.
00:21:15.893 --> 00:21:24.114
And you know, we had a good friend reach out and said, hey, I've got this dog, you want it, it's a great dog and we just weren't ready for we just didn't have enough money to train that dog.
00:21:24.114 --> 00:21:28.807
But fortunately he knew somebody local that he was able to give that dog to where he was.
00:21:28.807 --> 00:21:34.628
So yeah, I appreciate all the, all the people reach offering these dogs, but it's not free.
00:21:34.628 --> 00:21:42.688
You know American Cane Dynamics again, they're a partner kennel but they've got to pay their employees, they've got to keep the lights on and you know we've got to cover those costs.
00:21:42.748 --> 00:21:46.924
even though they give us a drastic discount on our services, it still costs money.
00:21:48.268 --> 00:21:53.685
Yeah, I just thought of something as far as the process, like does the chicken or the egg come first?
