K9 Heroes 4 Heroes: Transforming the Lives of Veterans and First Responders with Service Dogs

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you're a dog lover, you know the joy and comfort that dogs bring us every single day. 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. On today's episode, we're going to learn about one organization that's providing service dogs to our heroes in need. Stay tuned for an inspiring and informative episode of Starlight Pet Talk. 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. 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. My name is Amy Castro and I'm the founder and president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue and a columnist for Pet Age Magazine. I've rescued thousands of animals and help people just like you find the right pet for their family. 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. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, amy Castro, and my guest today is Joe Gianti. He's the founder and CEO of an organization called Canine Heroes for Heroes. Their mission is to provide service dogs to veterans and first responders at no cost to the recipient. Their motto is an interesting one. It's healing is healing, and if you really kind of play with that, you know healing like a dog. Healing with you is healing. You know having that dog by your side and what it can do for veterans. The motto is coined by their head trainer, travis Lloyd of American Canine Dynamics, and they believe these service dogs have true healing powers. So, joe, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Speaker 2: 1:58

I'm honored and blessed to be here. Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1: 2:03

So, of course, the first. The first thing I always want to ask people who have started a nonprofit organization is why? 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. So what made you decide to do it?

Speaker 2: 2:23

Growing up. You know I'm a lifelong martial artist. My instructor was a police officer, my dad was in the army, my father-in-law was in the National Guard. 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. 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. You've seen a lot of Loki. 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. I want that for all of them. I want them to be able to get back out in society like they would like.

Speaker 1: 3:29

And that really touches my heart too, as a veteran, and I do have such a soft spot for that. Thank you for veterans and first responders. 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. 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. So what exactly does your organization do, like you know? Who does it help? How does it help?

Speaker 2: 3:59

So our organization is set up to provide service dogs to these veterans and first responders. 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. Now. It's an extensive process. There's an application that goes along with it. 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. It does happen. 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. And the blessing is we're building that network of service dog companies throughout the country. 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. 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.

Speaker 1: 5:11

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. 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. 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. And it had not even thought about that aspect.

Speaker 2: 5:48

One of the things that comes up often because again, people see a lot of videos and pictures of Loki. Are they all German Shepherds? 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. A German Shepherd is a very high drive working dog. You can't get that to a low drive person, or person doesn't have much mobility. It's just recipe for failure and that's not what we want to do. And I love the rescue work that you're doing and other organizations are doing and we get asked do we use rescue dogs? At this stage of the game? No, we do not. 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. 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. But we like to provide the puppy or the relatively young dog. 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. So again, we're going from the puppy stage. 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. And that's one of the questions on the questionnaires Do you have other dogs in the home? Do you have children in the home? Again, we're going for that best fit. 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. So there's a lot of caveats to it. 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.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Yeah, because you're looking for a lifelong commitment and a lifelong fit. Ideally, certainly, that's what we're all shooting for in this kind of work where you're putting animals and people together. 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?

Speaker 2: 7:59

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. 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. I'm like, how can I do my part? I'm too old to serve now in any capacity as far as military first responder. I'm, you know, 55 years old. I'm not serving. This is how I can give back.

Speaker 1: 8:33

You're younger than me.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Okay, well, you've already served.

Speaker 1: 8:38

I did my thing in my 20s. I'm done.

Speaker 2: 8:41

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. 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. 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. You know as well as I do. 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.

Speaker 1: 9:23

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. 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.

Speaker 2: 9:46

It is and it's funny, as you were talking, Loki just walked by so I've got a little pet. It's the simple things that just that pet. 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. Our head trainer you mentioned. He coined our motto, travis Lloyd. 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. 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. It chokes me up just talking about it. 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. 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. 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. You see it as well as I do, and the dogs you work with and and the dogs, even just the pet dogs. So it's it's an amazing partnership.

Speaker 1: 11:33

It really is and it's. It's an amazing thing to see when it's like you said you know, when you've got that that good fit going. You had said you know. As far as getting dogs from the time that they're a puppy, how do you select dogs for the program? Because I would assume in any litter of puppies there's going to be one that you can tell you know. 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.

Speaker 2: 12:00

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. That aspect as well you can tell. You know, are they flighty? Is the least sound going to set them off or a quick movement going to set them off? So you're doing that temperament testing, you're just seeing how they react in various situations and then you can gear them towards. 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. So maybe this dog becomes an emotional support animal and this one is a service dog. So it's, it's a lot of that temperament testing, just seeing how they react to various situations. 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. 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.

Speaker 1: 13:15

I was wondering how early does this whole process start?

Speaker 2: 13:18

Oh, it begins immediately now. I got Loki at seven weeks old and the next day we were in Walmart. 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. 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. Some, we know, aren't real service dogs.

Speaker 1: 13:54

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. But what I?

Speaker 2: 14:04

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. 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. 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. But it's just draw attention to the business so that people do come up and ask me hey, what's this all about? 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. 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. 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. So that's why I tell people you know, there's oftentimes I'll ask people, though you know.

Speaker 1: 15:08

Oh, hi, you know, hi, puppy, and I'll ask you know, could you please ignore my dog?

Speaker 2: 15:12

You know that would appreciate that. 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. When that vest goes on he knows he's working. We made a big deal out of it when we first started training that aspect, because that's another part of the training. 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. So if I say harness, he dips his head into his harness. We lock it up and you know we go about our business. So it's a never-ending process of training. 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.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Hey, good luck.

Speaker 2: 15:49

Hope it all works out. 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. 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.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Yeah, no kidding, yeah, even with, just, even with just pets. It's like most definitely no, yeah, the stuff that you see, people, people do. I actually went to. 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. 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. And then the other piece is we talk about the tail wagging the dog. It's the dog Dragging the person. You know, it's like the dog is determining where we're going. The dog is. 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. It's like I could even hold that dog my 10 year old child if I had one good old. You know, it's just amazing, the things that people don't know about their own dogs.

Speaker 2: 17:14

Yeah, that gets me as well, people. What people don't realize is dogs want a purpose, they want a job to do.

Speaker 1: 17:20

We want to stimulate them mentally and physically.

Speaker 2: 17:23

You know Loki comes from a working line of German shepherds. He's not just a pet shepherd, he's a working line, which means he's bred differently. So people have seen he goes on the treadmill. I live in northeast Ohio. It gets cold in the winter.

Speaker 1: 17:38

I don't want to go outside, but he still needs to work.

Speaker 2: 17:42

So he goes on the treadmill for half hour, 45 minutes or maybe. 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. I think most people's issues with their dogs in their homes is the dog's bored. It's not getting enough exercise, not getting proper nutrition and there's just no stimulus. He's bored. I'm going to eat your couch because I don't have anything else to do.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Yeah, we've done a couple of episodes that have hit you know. We did one about the importance of play and mental stimulation. We've done that a couple of times. We've done several episodes on nutrition. So much of it. It goes back to what you said in the beginning. 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. 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. I saw that in a movie. Or my neighbor has one of those and it's really well trained. So when I get one it's miraculously going to be just like my neighbors, but I don't bother train it. 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. And we've got been trying to bang that into people's heads because they just don't get it.

Speaker 2: 19:05

We do the same thing as well. That you know. The blessing is American Canine Dynamics, our partner. They do pet obedience to our service dogs too. They have some police dogs on the street so they're seeing every gambit. But people often, you know they make that comment oh Loki, so well behaved. I said I work with him every day. We're doing something. Even if it's five, 10 minutes, we're doing something. And one of the tidbits that I like to tell people that I learned because Travis is my mentor. 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. You want to make them short and you want to make them positive and end on a high note. We all I'm been guilty of it working on something with Loki, let me just get one more rep. 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. We want to make this experience for the dogs positive. You look at police dogs. You look at military working dogs. What are they working for? A ball, a Kong, a treat. You know they're going out and catching the bad guy, putting their life on the line. 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.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Yeah, if only we all could make everybody that happy with just a Kong, we'd be good, good, good to go. Where do you get the dogs that you get? Do you get them from a particular breeder? Do you get them from a variety of breeders? Do you breed them yourself?

Speaker 2: 20:39

Well, we have a variety of breeders Now. Travis has had several litters with his Malinois. 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. So that's different. But we work with several other breeders for whether it's labs or whether it's retrievers or shepherds. Yeah, we've got quite a few that we can reach out to. And the blessing is I've had so many people offer me puppies. 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. So I can't accept them all. 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. But fortunately he knew somebody local that he was able to give that dog to where he was. So yeah, I appreciate all the, all the people reach offering these dogs, but it's not free. 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. even though they give us a drastic discount on our services, it still costs money.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Yeah, I just thought of something as far as the process, like does the chicken or the egg come first? Is it like I've identified five veterans and now I'm going to train dogs for them? Or am I training dogs Because I know that you know, this is how many I can manage at any given time, and then there's just a plethora of veterans that I probably could match them to?

Speaker 2: 22:09

It's kind of a combination of both, you know right now. We've had, we have three dogs being trained to service dogs. We have one veteran right now. The other two are unidentified. I've got a few applications out just waiting for them to get back. But they're all going to get that general basic foundation. So it's going to be a foundation dog. It's going to have, we're going to teach it all the basic obedience but then we're going to give it some tasks Because no matter who you are or what your disability, I whatever terminology, the best terminology you use is what you need that dog for these three tasks. We're going to teach it a block and a cover where the dog's going to be behind, cover my back, or in front, covering my or blocking my front. And we're going to teach it deep pressure therapy, which you're probably familiar with. That if the veteran, the first responders starting to have let's call it a, an episode, you know, maybe their hand twitches or they lock up, we're going to teach that dog that signal and then the dog will come over, either lay across the individual's lap, nudge them, start breaking their focus so that the individual has to concentrate on the dog. So they're all going to get those kind of basic foundational training and then, if we get a veteran identified, then we'll start asking more questions what do you need? What are some of the other things? Because then we can start gearing it towards them and the training varies, or the length of training varies depending on what you're asking that dog to do. The more tasks you're asking the dog to do, the longer the training is going to take, the more the cost of that dog. So yeah, it's a little of both you know, if we have a veteran that we already know, we can gear it immediately. If we just have some dogs in our in the kennels that we're trying to train, we're going to give them all that foundational training.

Speaker 1: 23:45

So it sounds like it's very customized. You know, beyond the basics, it's going to be very customized to the needs of the recipient, which is yes, and they're obviously involved in that part of the process, probably pretty heavily right.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Once they're identified and once we pick the dog, then we'll start bringing them out to the training center and they'll start getting the handler training, because we had said earlier that's the most difficult part is the handler training. They've got to know the right commands, the right tone of voice. One of the things that we joke around. In several of the seminars I've been to, the instructors will tease the guys that telling their dog come here, you know what. Who wants to come to that? You've got to get in touch with your little feminine side.

Speaker 1: 24:24

If you're a guy, come here, you know, make that dog want to come to you or whatever you're doing.

Speaker 2: 24:28

So sometimes it's teaching people the right tone of voice. You want to stay calm, unless if you're not capable of staying calm, then we need to teach the dog that that is their normal tone. That's how these things are going to happen. You know it's not going to be that calm Maybe. Maybe one of the things is you do raise your voice and that's the trigger to the dog that, okay, I need to come over there. One of the veterans we're working with right now. She's just in the beginning stages of our service dog training and she sent a note to the head trainer. She had woken up with kind of the night terrors and the puppy was right beside her. So that was, I mean, it was just instinctual, along with what you know. Travis and his other trainers had been working with the dog on, but it was. It was awesome to see that and to know that the dog is already seeing the cues and knowing what to do.

Speaker 1: 25:37

Yeah, that's. It's amazing how tuned in they can be. So, you, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 25:43

I'll say they. You know they call it the other end of the leash. You know they can feel what's going down that leash. And you know, one of the YouTube or not YouTube is one of the Instagram social media people I follow is called worthless handler because we often joke we're the worthless part of the leash. We know we're not, but it's just a. You know it's a little funny play on on the the connection between handler and dog.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Yeah, that's that we actually. We did an episode on communication and pets and they do feel the energy. That is, that is for sure. I've even seen that with just our pack here in the house and we've got. You know, our pack ranges from my dog, gwenevere, who is, let's see, two thirds English Bulldog, one third American Bulldog, and then down to Tinkerbell, the Chihuahua, who's all of four pounds and so. But it's very interesting to see how they feed off of our energy, how they feed off of the energy of guests and each other as well. You don't have to say a whole lot and there's a lot of communication going on.

Speaker 2: 26:40

Yeah, seems like a fine. Make the slightest move Loki's parking up. What's going on. You know what are we?

Speaker 1: 26:44

doing.

Speaker 2: 26:45

Everything good. You know, sometimes I just want to say relax, I'm going to go get a glass of water. You don't have to. You don't have to jump up yet.

Speaker 1: 26:54

It's kind of like that annoying spouse who every time you get up is like where you going, what are you doing, what are you eating? So in the application I mean, you mentioned an application and I don't want you to reveal any trade secrets or anything but how do you determine whether somebody gets a dog or doesn't get a dog?

Speaker 2: 27:13

So I want to back up just a hair on the application because I have to give a shout out to another service dog company called Muts, with a Mission. They're a very large organization out of the Virginia area. When I started this they reached out and said here's our application. Why should you start over? So it's what a blessing to get this 20 page document and be able to just change a few things and make it ours. But as far as once we get the application back, then myself and the other people on the organization, my wife's part of the organization, our vice presidents out in Kansas City, and then the trainer and a couple other individuals will review the application and see that it meets the requirements that are in there. Again, the big one is honorable discharge from the military. There are people that have had general discharges and things of that nature, but we're not going to be able to satisfy everybody. So we kind of have to stick by our guns. Maybe there was a reason you got that general discharge, but we have to stick with some of the fundamentals because we need to make sure we're being consistent so that nobody feels like we're sliding them for any reason other than they just didn't meet the requirements and unfortunately, some of them won't meet the requirements, but it's a review from our board.

Speaker 1: 28:24

Can you tell us a little bit more about the process, because you had said something about the woman who? The puppy was right there. When you say puppy, are you talking about a little puppy, like a puppy Less?

Speaker 2: 28:37

than a year old German Shepherd. A six month old female German Shepherd.

Speaker 1: 28:42

I can't remember.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Yeah, just a six month old German Shepherd that had been working in the service dog training program under Travis and one of his other trainers, david, and yeah, it's just that process. So she brought that dog in and one of the reasons we accepted that dog is because it was so young. We knew its history. She already had the dog. I had met her at an event we were at. She had come up to the booth with the dog and we got to talking and gave her the application and she filled it out and we all agreed that this would be a good fit, that we really weren't breaking our own guidelines, because the dog was essentially the age we would have gotten one at, if not seven week, anywhere under that year. If we know everything about that dog from one of our reputable breeders, then we'll go that route. So we were very comfortable with that. But other than that, we'll get the dog and we'll start training him up from the puppy and some of them may end up just going as a pet to somebody. But, like we had talked earlier, through that temperament testing and socialization we'll see how they do and then we'll gear them in what direction we think is best.

Speaker 1: 29:52

Okay, and so when you get them to the point, so let's just kind of start at a certain part of the scenario. So you've trained the dog to a certain point, you've identified a veteran and you'd mentioned that they come out to you, like how long is that process? Like they come out, they stay in a hotel or something and then they go to your center every day for eight hours a day. Like how does that give us a little insight? Into what that process looks like.

Speaker 2: 30:14

What we're doing right now is we're getting the local veterans who live in the area, so they would come out. Oh, okay, Great yes several times a week and they would be able to train, do the handler training. The dog would still stay with us for maybe another several months and then we'll start sending the dog home with the individual. So right now we're dealing with local veterans, like I had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1: 30:34

If somebody has the ability, where they could come and live up here for several months? Yeah, because it's a long process.

Speaker 2: 30:40

It sounds like yeah, that's okay, yeah it's a very long process, so that's why, when I receive requests from somebody not close to us, I try to find another service dog company.

Speaker 1: 30:49

That's right. You said that, yep.

Speaker 2: 30:51

Yeah, because not everybody can take several months off of a job or drive two, three hours a week because you're going to go out there two, three, maybe more times a week, if you can, to get your handler training, so that when you take that dog you're good to go, and then we want to refresh your training. Now, if we give a dog to somebody and they move away, we'll find hopefully find another service dog company that can help them continue on with their maintenance training because we want to make sure. Like you and I spoke earlier, it's a lifelong process for the dog. Most likely we're going to outlive the dog and that's sad for all our aspect, but these dogs are aren't around as long as we would like them to be. I can't remember the name of the author, but I'm reading the forever dog book because I want Loki to be around for a very long time and I can. I'm not looking forward to that day. I'm going to. I'll be a wreck, I have no doubt, but yeah, so we bring them in. We start training the handler and the team in American Kingdom. Dynamics is phenomenal, I told you, that's great, you look at one of their trainers dogs. People see how well Loki is and what his obedience is. I said well, this guy's dog makes Loki look like he has no obedience, it's so well trained. There's nothing I love more than seeing a well trained dog like you alluded to earlier these people that dogs are dragging them around. Oh, that drives me insane, because it's a simple, relatively simple thing to fix.

Speaker 1: 32:14

Yeah, you just have to put in. You have to put in the time, and that's what people don't. You know the colors?

Speaker 2: 32:20

right, you know, right, right, right equipment. Yeah, it's. It's not a hard thing to do and I I've been guilty of being that guy to say hey, can I give you a piece of advice? if I'm out and see somebody walking their dog and it's just yanking them all over it, it was successful here in my neighborhood A woman was walking her dog and while the dog was walking her and I gave her a few tips and now I see the dog walking all the time off, we doing exactly what it needs to do, so it's nice to see that.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Yeah, it's interesting how people, you know there's that fine line between whether people get offended by that or whether they're appreciative of it, and I think it's how you approach it. You know, asking somebody, hey, would you mind a piece of advice? Versus hey, you shouldn't be doing this. You know, that's what you know. But when I was and I wasn't even that much younger, but I was a lot thinner and I used to go to the gym like seven days a week, two hours a day, and it's like I don't need some guy I don't know what mosey and over and trying to tell me how to work out, you know I could say, ok, fine, in my condition. Now maybe you feel like you're just getting a little bit more comfortable, maybe you feel like you're justified to do that, but I knew what I was doing back then and it's like I know I don't, I don't need your, your lessons. Thank you very much. But if you ask like hey, you know, would you mind if I shared something? I've been doing this a long time then I might be a little bit more open to it. You're giving me the option, not just jamming your advice down my throat.

Speaker 2: 33:34

Yeah, I do the same thing. Ask in a very polite manner.

Speaker 1: 33:37

And along those lines.

Speaker 2: 33:38

I often get you know all your dogs too skinny. And the nice person in me is like no, he's, you know, he's the perfect weight, and here's why. And I explained. But the in my, my, in my, in my head voice is no, you're used to seeing fat dogs.

Speaker 1: 33:53

That's really what your dogs aloof?

Speaker 2: 33:55

Your dogs aloof, yeah, now, if I'm talking to, somebody and we've started to build a rapport and they do have their dog there and the dog is overweight.

Speaker 1: 34:03

I will say something because it's not good for the dog. Yeah, exactly, I wanted to ask you about the whole maintenance, because that's something I never really thought about. I kind of figured the dog gets whatever training it is and the handler is the one that's maintaining it. So the maintenance is that for you to just tune up, is it to make sure the handler is keeping up with it, or the dog hasn't forgotten something Like whose fault is it? If you need more maintenance than somebody else, well, honestly, I would say it's the handler.

Speaker 2: 34:31

I always say if Loki is doing something that I don't want him to do, or I'm asking him to do because I improperly trained him on how to do that. I failed to show him what I needed. So the maintenance training is to make sure that we're keeping up with everything. I've heard of incidences where the service dog goes home with the individual and they don't do it. It just turns into a house pet and then it's not alerting to whatever they need it to alert to.

Speaker 1: 34:54

It's not a shape.

Speaker 2: 34:56

So yeah, it's a little bit of both, like when I go and work with Travis, when he's working with Loki, he's fine, tuning me, maybe present this way a little bit different, or maybe his head, because we do again. Loki does things outside of a normal service dog. So maybe position yourself this way, so that he's positioned this way, so he's fine tuning me, so that then I can in turn fine tune Loki and it's those subtleties. They perceive the most subtle things that we don't even realize we did, and we have to be aware of those cues we're given, which is what makes them so successful as a service dog, because they can see that little twitch of the hand or feel the tension and know what they're supposed to do next. So that's one of the great things about their, the capabilities that they have.

Speaker 1: 35:43

Yeah. So what's been, do you think and I'm sure you've had a lot of rewarding moments and rewarding incidences Is there anything in particular that kind of stands out in this journey that you've been on since you started the organization?

Speaker 2: 35:56

Well, I think, since we're so young and so new to this, the one of I told you, the female veteran whose puppy just plopped right up there and knew what to do, she had sent it to Travis and he had sent it to me, and it just brought such a huge smile to my face to know that she is starting to see the fruits of her labor, and that was huge you know, to know that this woman is now going to be able to go on and begin to live the life that she deserves and move forward with that. And then the other is just the humbling experience of standing beside our veterans and hearing their stories and hearing what they've gone through and then seeing I was down in Tennessee about a month ago, harding Hog's veteran barbecue camp. A Marine veteran started this barbecue camp to bring in veterans, teach them how to barbecue and bring back that camaraderie of being around other veterans. We were invited down as a veteran support organization and there was another or there was an individual there with his service dog and I was able to talk to him, find out where he got his dog trained. So that added that company to our database. But seeing what this dog did for him, just the comfort and relaxation it had given to him. So that kind of leads into what I want people to really know is there are so many individuals out there like myself and canine, heroes for heroes. We may not be veterans, but we're here for you. You may not have been what you've been through, but we're here for you. I always tell people I can be that ear to listen. You can let me know whether you want me to be an active participant in the conversation or if you just want me to listen. So one of the things we're trying to do is, yes, we're a service dog company, but we want to go beyond that. The connections we've had with Michael now that's going to expand our reach. Dealing with other individuals that are training emotional support dogs, that's going to expand our reach. So anything we can do to help the veteran and first responder community, that's what we want to do. We want to be there as a resource to help them. I'm going to be heading out to Kansas City on. Thursday to visit our vice president out there and participate in an event at the Veterans Community Project out in Kansas City. So again, it's just expanding that reach and being there for this community.

Speaker 1: 38:09

That's great. How does all this get paid for Acquiring the dog, medical care for the dog, food for the dog and then paying the trainers? How does that get funded Right? So?

Speaker 2: 38:20

we're completely funded through charitable donations, so we've got some merchandise that we'll sell at different events. We've got a fundraiser going on right now I'd love to talk about it's in honor of military working dog Benno. Benno was part of the 75th Ranger Regiment and was killed on his final deployment in Afghanistan. His handler is allowing us to use Benno's name for a fundraiser. When we hit that goal, we'll name a dog Benno and give it to a veteran. So it's through merchandise. Some people have just donated directly. What we're really hoping to find is some corporate donations, philanthropic individuals, but it's just all through donations and me pressing the flesh for a lack of a better word shaking hands, getting out in front of people, letting them know what we try to do, collaborating with individuals like yourself and some of the other podcasts I've been on just to get our name out there and let people know we're here. But we can't do it alone. We need their money. You're anywhere $15,000 to $30,000 for a dog. It all depends on what you're asking the dog to do, but that's kind of the range we give for the cost of a service dog. Yeah, you figure like you said it's buying the dog, the gear, the veterinary care, the food. Once the dog is placed, that care falls onto the veteran. But if they get strapped, of course we're going to see what we can do to help them. But that continuation training is the maintenance training. That's a cost as well. So, yeah, it's completely funded through charitable donations, so I'll take any form of payment.

Speaker 1: 39:47

Yeah, I'm like you. It's like what do you got? I'll take whatever you got.

Speaker 2: 39:51

We've had some people donate gear. I've had some people donate some canals, portable canals, because we want to send that. We want to send the dog with a good canal, a good we call it a climb, but a bed, good harness. The only thing we use the harness force is a placard. It's holding your service dog sticker. We hook up to a collar, not the vest.

Speaker 1: 40:12

So as far as things that we can do, you know listeners are listening to this and saying, hey, this is a worthwhile Organization. We're gonna put some links up and I'll definitely you know I'm assuming there's a place on your website to donate website still under development.

Speaker 2: 40:25

So right now it's Instagram, facebook, linkedin, and then we do have an Amazon wishlist, my Email phone numbers all on any social media site, so people can always just reach out directly. Shoot me a text, you know, shoot a phone call. I recommend texting first because, like everybody else, that I'm always answer a call if I don't know who it is. But she's actually I'd love to talk to you about it. But yeah, they can go to any one of the social media platforms Comment, share or post if you want the fundraiser what we've done with this fundraiser to try to make it a little more enticing as well. We've got different milestones, so every three thousand is a different milestone and in that milestone, if you donate a minimum of $50, your name gets put in for a drawing for whatever that prize is. Now the one right now it's a custom American made wooden flag. It's a custom port 8 by 10 portrait of your, your dog or cat, done by an artist who drew Loki. So you can see that. One couple autograph books on ones on PTSD, from the author and another is from a former Green Beret who lost his leg in Afghanistan but went back to being a fully qualified combat Green Beret. He sent us not a graph copy of his book and then a retired Marine made a I'm gonna call it a shadow box of Loki with LED lights behind it so you can change the color. So that's this milestones item.

Speaker 1: 41:47

I'm not gonna divulge, I only divulge once we hit the next one, because I want you buying.

Speaker 2: 41:52

I want you donating to each one and try to try to get that not waiting on something, yeah. So, yeah, people want to share the link to the fundraiser. It's in pretty much every social media post I put up. That'll help as well. Just get the word out there.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Yeah, I'll definitely grab those links and put them in the show notes for people. Anything else that we didn't cover that you want to share?

Speaker 2: 42:13

I think just the biggest thing is we're all going through something, whether you're military, first responder, civilian, we're all going through something. Don't judge too harshly, you know. Don't. Don't assume that the reason somebody's acting the way they're acting is just because they're not a good person. You know, we don't know what they're going through and and I've been blessed to talk a few people off the ledge, I'm sure you may have as well. Be that ear for them. Be patient. If you're feeling yourself welling up with anger or a stronger emotion than you want, figure out your calming mechanism. Mine, you know I've got a strong family, but always having Loki by my side helps me. Maybe a dog isn't your thing, maybe going to the gym or whatever it may be but but find that and and be patient with each other. You know God put us here for a reason. He put us all in each other's space for whatever time Forever, how long? Just be kind, for a lack of a better word.

Speaker 1: 43:09

Joe, I really appreciate you being on the show here today and Sharing your work and the great things that you're doing for our veterans and first responders and for the dogs that you're serving as well. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 43:22

Thank you. It's my honor and I'm blessed to be able to be on this, and I look forward to many more good things to come with Yourself and the others we've been able to make contact with.

Speaker 1: 43:30

That's great. That's so. Yeah, the more we can do to get the word out there, the better, and Thank you to everybody who's listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. We really appreciate you, and please take the time to check out the links that we're gonna put in the show notes and, if you've got some money to spare, maybe give up that Starbucks for a couple of days, or even just one day. Every little bit Helps for those of us who have nonprofits and donate, because this is a really worthy cause. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk. Be sure to visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom for more resources, and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple, or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk, and if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.