January 28, 2025 • 50 mins
🐾 The rescue world can be as heartbreaking as it is rewarding.
This week on Straight Up Dog Talk, Em sits down with Bridget from Wild Wolfe Pack Treats to talk about the raw truths behind rescue work—overpopulation, tough decisions, and the emotional cost of caring deeply.
✨ In this episode, we explore:
What no one tells you about animal rescue
Why compassion fatigue is real and valid
How Bridget prioritizes self-care in a world that never stops needing help
Tips for protecting your heart while staying committed to the cause
Whether you're a rescue volunteer, foster, advocate, or supporter—this conversation is your reminder that you matter too.
Follow Bridget on Instagram @wildwolfepacktreats
Stay Connected: Follow Straight Up Dog Talk for more insights and updates on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.
#animalrescue #selfcarematters #mentalhealthawareness #rescuedogs #straightupdogtalk
This episode is proudly sponsored by our partnership with Wild Wolfe Pack Treats. Use code SUDT to save 10% today and donate to dogs in need!
Follow them on Instagram: @wildwolfepacktreats
Shop their natural, high-quality treats: https://wildwolfepacktreats.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:14):
Welcome to straight up dog talk.I'm em and we're back again this
week with Bridget from wild WolfPack treats and hey, good dogs.
How are you doing tonight, Bridget?
Hey, I'm doing. Great.
How are you? Thanks for having me.
Absolutely you are a fan fave. Your episode has so many listens
and everybody I think who has ever gotten your treats for
(01:35):
their dogs knows first of all how passionate you are about
rescuing dogs. And just dogs in general.
But also how important quality and nutrition is to you as well.
The last time we had a really talked about your treat business
and how it got started. But everybody's journey changes
(01:56):
and different things happen and you're different advocating
space now. So I just wanted to give you an
opportunity to come on here and tell everybody what you're doing
now and update us on all of the things.
Sounds great. Well, like you said, things
change like happens on my advocation journey with rescue
and animal welfare in general has really changed over the last
(02:19):
couple years. I talked a little bit about the
business back when we reported last time and I was a stay at
home mom at the time and I wanted to get my identity back
doing something that I was passionate about.
But I really only had night timeto do that.
And so I started this dog treat business.
I have three dogs myself. When I started it, I think I
just had two and then adopted Susie from the shelter that I
(02:40):
was at. But I really wanted to start
making dog treats because I havea dog who has pretty severe
allergies to food and environmental.
And so it it started really quiet and small and I really
didn't know what I was doing. And it has evolved into making
sure that I use the best qualityingredients.
(03:01):
I recently bought a roller so that all my treats are actually
rolling the same height, which is really cool.
Before I just hand rolled everything and it was
inconsistent. But it was a labor of love and I
hope people realize that it was me doing everything by hand.
And it's not a manufacturing situation, that's it's me.
Business has really evolved overthe years.
(03:22):
And of course it's tricky because I still use natural
human grade and pet safe ingredients and I use only
citric acid as my preservative. And so unfortunately, I'm at the
mercy of the post office and theUSPS.
And so like, of course they can get moldy if they're not stored
properly or if they don't arriveto the home in time.
And so that's something I'm still dealing with.
(03:43):
But I don't want to get away from the quality that I have set
out from from the very beginning.
My business kind of runs two different passion, passion for
loving on and foiling dogs. Because I truly love dogs with
all my heart. They are my favorite animal.
I love all animals, but I would say dogs are definitely my
favorite. And so I want to soil animals
(04:04):
and dogs as much as I can, but also I wanted to be able to give
back in a way that monetarily I wasn't able to do because I
don't work. My husband is our kind of
breadwinner because I was a stayat home mom.
And so that was my focus. And so I really wanted to be
able to donate as much as I possibly could, but also
sustaining the business. And so I donate 50% of all the
(04:25):
sales and I have from the beginning and I haven't done an
updated in the last couple weeks, but the last time I
updated, we've been able to donate $13,000, which is
absolutely insanity. I never could have imagined.
Doing that. And I think if I trying to
donate that much money of our own money, my husband would say,
excuse me, ma'am. So it's been really nice to be
(04:45):
able to give people really high quality products for the animals
and dogs that they love so, so much, while also, you know,
giving back to causes that are really incredible and doing the
hard work that I can't do right now.
And that kind of tip toes into our abdication section of a good
Dogs, which is a page that I started.
It was a different name previously and it was a way for
(05:07):
me to advocate for the dogs thatI was volunteering with at the
shelter that I was at. I'm no longer there.
And that's something that I had to close the chapter on.
It was heartbreaking and sad, but these things happen.
And so my advocation journey hasreally shifted and changed
because I'm not physically volunteering anywhere.
I do have some dogs that I know very well and that are in foster
(05:27):
homes or that I've interacted with, with a shelter that I
actually do help out and do social media for and have been
there a handful of time. So I used that platform to
advocate for those dogs. But I really wanted to have a
space kind of like you do here with straight up dog talk to
open people's eyes a lot more towhat is happening in the animal
rescue world. And I firmly believe that there
(05:49):
are so many things in this worldthat are really hard and
challenging and a lot of people treat it as out of sight, out of
mind. So it's not something that
you're experiencing on a regularbasis.
You really don't understand or grasp the gravity of it all and
that it can be true for human trafficking or foster kids or
the drug problem or homelessness.
(06:11):
There are so many hard things that are happening in this world
and I think it's important that everybody find their passion and
something that they want to channel their love and their
interest into. And previously for me, that was
foster kids because I was socialwork.
But now that's too hard for me because I do have two kids of my
own. And so I need to understand my
(06:31):
boundaries and what I'm able to withstand.
And animal welfare has kind of become my passion project.
And so I'm trying to find my place still.
I've leaned more heavily on my business in the last probably
six months or so because I'm notphysically volunteering.
And so it's a little bit trickier, but I can spend my
time making these dog treats andhelping the organizations that
(06:53):
are physically doing so much good every single day.
And so that's kind of where where I'm at right now.
And I'm sure it will just continue to evolve, I think.
What you're doing is really coolbecause one, it gives you the
ability to kind of hyper focus on certain dogs, which doing
that gives them a better chance of getting adopted or put into a
(07:14):
foster home. That is a safer situation for
them. You're also donating a lot of
money, which is incredible. Not everybody has the ability to
do that or the time. I think that anything that you
can do to help make your business run a little bit
smoother is the best thing that you can do for your business.
And so if you have to get something that makes.
(07:35):
All of the dough. And even level, I am all for
that. I know that we've had other
people talk about equipment thatthey've had to buy.
They make their own dog treats or they make their own dog food
and they have a dehydrator for this and they have a dehydrator
for that. And they have all these things
and quality of food and should be.
That's always going to be an issue if your product is
(07:57):
actually healthy and safe and human grade.
And those are, I think, risks that people have to understand
that they're taking quality. I mean, when your cookies get
here, they just they go half of them go in the freezer usually
because I want them to be aroundfor a while.
And I also want to be able to keep them fresh.
And I like that I can separate them out and use them later down
(08:21):
the road because my dogs love them.
And we always have cookie testing going on in this house
because Fitz, I've said that he's a picky eater.
And I realize that it's not justthat he's the picky eater, it's
also that the quality of the food wasn't good or he was not
feeling well because of the certain brand of food that we
(08:41):
were feeding him or, or, or. And now we finally have landed
on Sundays for dogs for him, which I mean is a bit more
expensive, but he eats every single bit of it.
And he's on the pet Matrix supplements.
And I see my dog becoming healthier.
I see both my dogs becoming healthier.
And to me, it's worth it. And I like that the expiration
(09:02):
date on my food is much smaller.The previous brands that we were
buying before because somewhat of don't have expiration dates
for like years. And that to me is just wild.
I think that a lot of people aremuch more interested in
nutrition for their dogs now than they used to be even 10
years ago, which is very cool. And I like to see that because
(09:25):
that leads to healthy, happier dogs that live longer, better
lives. So I think that it's really
incredible that you're part of that movement.
And I think that it's also really incredible that you're
part of the movement that is doing everything they can to
save dogs lives. Because the euthanasia toll is
high. It is so high, it is too high.
(09:45):
And until we get a grip on how we stop the backyard breeding
and we stop. Just.
Churning out of puppies in puppymills we just don't have choice
but to just continue doing what we're doing and I agree with you
it is definitely an out of sight, out of mind thing,
especially for people who don't have dogs, don't want dogs,
(10:05):
don't know anything about dogs, don't understand that their
neighbor with like 3 kiddie pools full of puppies in their
backyard. It's a problem and that's why we
have to talk about it, unfortunately.
And I think that you're doing such an amazing job of that.
I would like you to talk about arecent adventure that you've had
(10:26):
with a dog. Will you talk about Banana
Slipper? I just think her story is so
great. And if she doesn't have a home
by the time this episode comes out, hopefully somebody will
want to give her a home because of this episode because what an
insane story. So will you please share that
with the listeners? Yes, I.
Am the type of person if I see any animal frankly I'm going to
(10:47):
do anything in my power to reunite them.
Honestly. A couple weeks ago there was a
vulture in one of my my neighbors backyards, but it was
a house that had been up for sale.
And she was so concerned about this poor vulture.
And so being the person I am, I get a bunch of food for my
fridge and I put a box out and this vulture cannot fly.
So he's obviously hurt. And Long story short, he
(11:10):
actually got hit by a car, whichis devastating.
But that's the type of person I am, right?
So I will go out of my way at myhusband's disdain sometimes
because he's like Bridget, you can't save everybody.
But I'm going to try. OK.
So anyway, the girls and I go onwalks every single morning,
stroller, 3 dogs. I look like a crazy person.
It's fine. And we're walking down the
street and we see this dog, Banana Slipper, and she looks
(11:32):
very sad. I do what I normally do when I
try to approach it. I, I call her first to see what
kind of what we're dealing with.Is that a dog that's aggressive?
Is she going to growl at me at even being, you know, quite a
distance away? Where, where are we at?
And she just looked extremely sad.
She didn't approach me at all. She didn't growl.
(11:52):
She was just sad. And so I said, all right, well,
this is what we're dealing with.I need treats because this dog
is not going to let me approach her.
She's just going to run and that's the last thing we want.
Well, the girls and I went back home and I did a little bit of
digging with my neighbors. What's the deal on this dog?
What's going on? Come to find out, we think she
was abandoned there and she had been there for three days or so.
We don't normally go down that part of my street, and so I
(12:15):
hadn't seen her until that morning.
And so we tried to get close to her.
I got chicken breasts and she finally came up to hand and then
we had a idea, which was really stupid honestly, to kind of like
push her towards my house so we could get her in the backyard,
get her comfortable, get her decompressing safe in the spot
(12:35):
without getting hit by a car or whatever.
And she ran standably so with a very limping back left foot.
And we lost her and I felt awful, but I was like, she's
probably going to go back to where she was because we're
thinking she was abandoned there.
That must have been how well shedidn't.
And every single day I looked from April until May when I
(12:57):
found out that she was actually found 40 minutes away from my
home. And there's really no way that
she could have run 40 minutes away because we live off of a
very busy highway and there's noreal way for her to get where
she was without being driven. So we think she was picked up
and re dumped, which is horrifying and terrible.
So she was finally trapped by Trappers, who is an amazing
(13:18):
organization that works with owndogs that are lost and then
reunite them with their owners and then they also help with a
straight population. And so she was finally trapped
by them, got them in her into a foster home.
I forgot the best part of the story.
So when we first met this dog, Iasked my daughter who's 4, what
should we name her? My daughter's name is Zoe and
she said Banana Slipper. And I'm like, what?
(13:40):
What a random name. And then she tells me it's
because she's slippery like a banana and she gets lost like
your slipper. Her name is Banana Slipper.
That's amazing. And so I just don't.
And she's in an incredible foster home now.
She's had an FHO surgery to repair.
She actually had a completely dislocated hip on her left side.
So the fact that she was runningfor as long as she was insane.
(14:03):
She had a stomach full of rock. And honestly, she looks pretty
good. She didn't look completely
emaciated. Her coat was pretty beautiful.
She didn't look like she had been mistreated, but we found
out that she was adopted a couple days before she showed up
in my neighborhood in April. She was on euthanasia list.
She got adopted and then she wasnamed Jimbo.
She's a female. So anyway, it's a very insane
(14:25):
story. She is in a foster home now.
She's doing incredible. He is still a little bit timid
at times. Loud noises really are her a
little bit still, but she is thriving.
She loves dogs. So she is actually an anomaly
where most people say this dog cannot be with any other dog and
he's the Unicorn home. She needs to be around other
dogs because dogs bridge the gapwith her with her confidence
(14:47):
between humans and herself. And so she can see another dog
coming up to somebody and getting pets in love and treat.
She can kind of think in her brain, OK, that is a safe
situation that I would love to be a part of.
So she is still looking for a home.
We would love to find her a really perfect home and it needs
to be perfect because she's beenthrough too much to get re
traumatized. Adopted and then dumped again
(15:09):
like a euthanasia Listed. Adopted, dumped again, and then
she is a slippery little banana.Goodness gracious.
Yeah, and that kind of goes to, I had a breakthrough with my
husband, I want to say 8 months or so ago, where I was just down
in the dumps about the state of animal welfare.
And I get down in the dumps about a lot of things because
(15:31):
the world is a dumpster fire. But he kind of sat me down and
had a really good heart to heartwith me.
And he basically said you're notgoing to be able to help people
if you were in such a sad state.You're going to just sit in it.
You're not going to be to project positively about the
situation. You're probably not going to
want help because you're going to be so drained by it.
And so I had to really start putting the boundaries for
(15:53):
myself and for the work that I'mdoing.
And part of that was because I wasn't hands on volunteering and
I couldn't see it with my own eyes physically.
Of course, you still see terrible things every day on
social media, but it's putting that boundary up and trying to
educate. That goes to show Banana
Slipper, she was adopted and then completely mistreated and
(16:15):
that just goes to show take careof your own dog.
It's really hard to think about stopping backyard breeders,
stopping that kind of thing because that's going to take a
lot of time. Legislation, a lot of laws need
to be put in place for that. But what can we do on a very
personal individual level? I have three dogs that I can
take really good care of and I can teach my friends and my
(16:35):
neighbors to take really good care of their dogs because
honestly, there are situations where a rehoming is absolutely
necessary if there is a safety concern.
If your life completely, completely changes and there's
no possible way for you to keep an animal, it does happen.
I don't want to be judgmental tosay that how dare you should
keep your dog. But financially, it's so
expensive to own and properly take care of animal.
(16:58):
My dogs have cost a lot of moneyin the last couple months and
it's just routine care. Routine care is incredibly
expensive. So I had to keep asking myself
how can I help this big problem because it feels so heavy and I
don't feel like I'm doing enough.
And then I had to tell myself, Ihave 3 dogs here that I have
promised that I will take reallygood care of.
And so I reprioritized and of course I take great care of my
(17:21):
dogs on daily without really having to think about it.
But taking care of them is goingto hopefully project to the
outside world what it looks liketo be a good dog.
And I think that can help make waves, right?
Because if we show people what kindness looks like and proper
animal care, proper people care how to be kind to others, it can
really make a ripple effect thatisn't so daunting.
(17:43):
And how do I get in touch with alawmaker or a judge or somebody
to really make a massive impact in the animal?
Because that that's daunting. So what can we do individually
every single day to make an impact?
And that's something small, but it really can help a lot.
I completely agree. And I mean I think that is a
boundary that a lot of small business owners realize that
(18:06):
they have to come to at some point.
We all realized, okay, I'm here and this is what I'm advocating
for, but it's to only be like within this limitations and what
I do for the podcast is different than what I do for dog
training. But I like for them to overlap
if they can. We've just kind of, I've gotten
to the point where I have realized that it's better to
(18:29):
speak to the people who understand what I'm saying than
trying to get people to understand what I'm saying.
Because I can talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk
and talk. All I need to talk about
training, reactivity, enrichment, muzzle training, all
things, right. But if I'm not speaking the
language that somebody is looking for, I'm not speaking to
(18:51):
anybody. And I think that's where social
media fails us because it does really categorize everything so
deeply and it niches us down so hard that it's very difficult to
say, well, I'm here for all dogsbecause we can't really be here
for all dogs. Because if we say we're here for
all dogs and we're not helping any dogs, we're not even helping
(19:12):
our own dogs or ourselves. And I think that it's really
healthy mental health. This a big platform for me.
I like to talk about how taking care of ourselves is paramount
to taking care of our dogs. If we're not feeling well, our
dogs are probably not doing so great either.
We had a Saturday a couple weekends ago.
It rained all day, all day. And I said fine, put my phone on
(19:35):
mute and we watched movies all day and we did not get out of
bed. We went outside to go potty and
that was it. And amazing.
It was amazing. It was awesome.
I felt great the next day. It rained the next day, and Fitz
was like, no, again, no, we're not doing this again.
You know, we have days where we have to sometimes play in the
(19:56):
rain and when it gets too muddy that he walks.
Like, I don't know how to explain how he walks, but he
picks up his feet like, weird. He waddles because he doesn't
like the mud between his toes. It's so funny.
I'm like, OK, I think it's outside and he's like, well, OK,
never mind, this sucks. And then he comes inside and he
just acts like a Tasmanian. Devil.
(20:17):
This is why I educate on these topics, because he's not
perfect, but we don't have perfect days.
That one day when we can get Fitz to take it is a huge day
for everybody in this house because Toby loves it and I love
it. And Fitz is like, all right, we
can chill for a day because the next day is that way too.
We're all going to pay for it, totally.
(20:39):
I do even more to counteract thethe lazy chill, yeah.
Yeah, it's so funny because thissummer I am so disheartened with
the weather and everything is just like not looking forward to
winter. It's getting dark.
It's like 5:30 at night and in the summer from the time I get
(21:02):
home from work or if I'm workingfrom home, we're taking breaks
and we're outside until 9:00 at night when it's dark.
Now it's like 530 and it's dark.And if it's is like excuse me, I
still have the ball in my mouth.Excuse me, it's a four leg.
You'll hear. Well, then what the heck, We're
not done yet. And when you have a dog that
averages between 6:00 and 9:00 miles a day, wow, in Flay,
(21:28):
that's not even taking a walk. If we take a walk or if we go
for a car ride or if we go on anadventure or whatever, that's
just extra steps, right? But on average, 7 miles a day
for one dog, it's a that's amazing.
It's a lot. It is amazing, but sometimes it
makes me. Tight, which you can earn as
that energy and like put it in like, all right, that's this
(21:50):
energy. Let's go.
I know sometimes I sort of got him out in the backyard having
dance parties, doing jumping jacks.
I'm sure all of my neighbors arelike, she's doing that again.
And the best thing is, is that we live right next to a church.
I have never been inside of the church, but I can see that it's
like a conference room or a gathering room or something and
(22:10):
there's two big huge windows. I know they have KA meetings
over there and they have worshipnight and they have some kind of
kids group and they have dance routines.
The kids are doing dance routines.
So I don't know if they have like church plays or what going
on over there, but something. So there's always people in that
window. So I know for sure that
everybody in the church is probably like, there's that Lady
(22:31):
with her dogs again. Maybe we should give her a card
so she could come join us. They have.
They have come over and like, given us.
Invitations to the church before.
Oh, that's allure, Yeah. When you're a content creator
and you're filming all of it anyway.
So it's definitely a learning journey and of all of these
things as to be kind to ourselves, we have to be
(22:52):
authentic and got to remember, just pretend that the camera
isn't there and, and do what we would normally do.
Because I do want people to see what our life is really like.
And I'm, I want people to see that it's not pretty and it
doesn't have a bow and all thesethings.
Because Instagram is so bad about the perfectionism.
(23:14):
Here's the before, here's the after.
Nobody shows the middle. I'm trying hard to show the
middle. And that is kind of where you're
at too, because you are showing the middle of we rescued this
dog and now it needs a home. These are all of the things that
we're doing. We're providing surgeries, we're
providing spays and neuters. We're providing healthcare
vaccines. We're giving them freaks when
(23:36):
they get adopted. We're making sure that we put
all this time and energy into finding them the perfect tones.
And I think that a lot of peopledon't realize how much happens
behind the scenes and this kind of stuff.
We're working at rescue is a lot.
It is a huge emotional toll because 1, you want to take all
(23:56):
of the dogs home and you change.And two, you have all of these
dogs and all of these different situations that have come from
all of these terrible situationsand they're just trying to make
it. And unfortunately, that kind of
just feels, like you said, the way the world is, the dumpster
fire, everybody is just trying to make it right now.
And it sucks that we have basically had to
institutionalized dogs in order for them to be able to keep
(24:20):
their lives and then not even really be able to keep their
lives because we've maxed out capacity and we're constantly
maxing out capacity between Texas and California.
The rescue world, the numbers are so heartbreaking.
And it's I'm surprised you Iowa's usually in the top 5% for
puppy mills because farm state barns people do all of that
(24:43):
wonderful stuff here. And you have an Amish community
that they help with that whole situation, backyard breeders,
puppy male situations, and have friends who have found litters
of puppies dumped in their fields or the neighbors.
And there's 3 or 4 puppies and not sometimes a mom and
sometimes not a mom. And it's just, it's just so sad.
(25:04):
People don't give any validationto the fact that these are
living, breathing creatures thatneed care and that we're just
pumping them out for dollars andnot understanding that this is a
commitment. If we could get people to
understand that maybe not every dog is right for their wrong and
instant gratification should definitely not be a thing when
(25:25):
it comes to puppies. But if we could get that same
thought into people's head aboutyou don't just have a child to
fulfill a need in your brain. You shouldn't just get a puppy
to fulfill that need in your brain either.
Because unless you're prepared for that responsibility, you're
setting yourself up for failure and all kinds of, you know,
behavioral issues and financial.Issues.
(25:46):
There should be some kind of class or.
Something that you have to take before you can adopt A dog or
breed a dog or anything, but I don't know.
It's like multi, multi layered. For the people that do have
dogs, do do they know the gravity of having a dog?
Taking care of a dog properly and fulfilling that animal in
(26:08):
all of its needs emotionally, physically and enriching them.
Understanding that there are people on financial strain and
there is going to come a time where taking care of humans
needs to come alongside animal welfare, right?
There needs to be putting humansat a higher level and taking
really good care of them so thatthey can take better care of
(26:30):
their animals. There's a cultural discrepancy
where they're in some cultures, dogs are not pet, they are
outside, they are protection. It's not something that they
think about. And so it's challenging because
obviously there are those of us who are in different cultures
and different upbringings that do value animals and dogs at a
(26:50):
very high level. And so to us, it's super
frustrating and horrifying when we see someone just chaining a
dog up. But to them, they might not
understand that that is a cultural different, that that's
not how most people might take care of an animal.
So that's the challenge. Challenging part is trying to
figure out how to come to a mutual understanding by helping
(27:13):
people and not being judgmental about it.
And because I guarantee you there are some people out in
this world that are backyard breeders, quote, UN quote, who
are struggling and maybe don't know how to get a proper job or
they just have been doing this for so long.
They don't really understand that there is a better way.
And maybe they do need to spend some time volunteering in a
(27:35):
shelter to really graph how massive this issue is and their
ability to make it worse. Right.
Because one female I read the other day can have 10 litters or
more. And that's hundreds of dogs from
one ma. And imagine if that mom has a
bunch of girls, right? It's just perpetuating it again
and again and again. And so I'm always in a mindset
(27:57):
of trying to give people the benefit of the Dow.
And maybe that's something that we need to shift is meeting
people where they are and havingthese conversations and
educating and helping them. Because why are they feeling
that they need to breed these dogs?
What is going on in their lives that are that is making them
feel like this is my only option?
How can we help you? So that isn't your only option
(28:18):
because if you help the people, hopefully you can not just stop
that dog and rescue that dog from being bred again.
But it stopped the person from breeding altogether.
They might have 10 dogs that they're breeding.
What a massive thing. It's like teaching a man to fish
instead of just giving him a fish.
So it's, it's really hard and itfeels like you're in a tiny
little pond and you're trying tomake these massive wave.
(28:40):
And sometimes it's who you know,not what you know, and that
could benefit and make a bigger impact.
But I hope that doing something little with the barriers that I
have right now in my life can hopefully down the road, make
some bigger ways because eventually my goal is to start
my own rescue. I have gone through so many
(29:01):
experiences with different organizations and rescues, and
I've seen some pretty horrific rescues that have been run.
I don't know. If you follow Becca on
Instagram, she works with Yaqui.She kind of busted open the
Chandler 55 case in Arizona. And so there's people that are
doing terrible things in the name of rescue.
And I would love to be somebody that does things the right way
(29:23):
and helps as many animals as I possibly can without stepping
over to like the boarding situation because it happens.
There are people that want to help so desperately that they
kind of jump over the line and become a hoarding situation and
then it's more than they can handle.
And it's really sad theory because their heart was in the
right place, but they got too big for their bridge.
(29:44):
That's my long term goal. I think that's an awesome long
term goal and I think that starting your own small business
and doing the advocacy work before starting the rescue, kind
of getting to know all of the facets of how everything runs is
probably the best way to do thatin a very successful manner
because you do experience all ofthe things that you don't want
(30:05):
to see in your rescue. So that gives you, you know, a
good learning curve. I agree with you.
I think that going to the root of the issue is probably how we
could fix a lot of these problems.
I think that setting some kind of minimum standard would be
really helpful. The ASPCA still has free
clinics. They still have free spay and
(30:26):
neuter clinics. They have vaccine clinics.
There's been several arguments in the community about homeless
people having dogs and how they shouldn't have dogs.
And I don't necessarily agree with that because that's what
the ASPCA is there for. That's what those free shot
clinics and spay and neuter clinics are for.
And if we could just get it to apoint where we were back on the
(30:48):
spay and neuter campaign becauseI feel like that was really,
really big early in the thousands and I don't know where
it went. I feel like I remember, I know
we've talked about this before, the Sarah McLaughlin commercials
from when we were kids and how emotional those things make us
and how that would get people todonate and all that stuff.
And if we could start focusing on those kindness campaigns
(31:11):
again and educational campaigns again, that we would be in a
better place. Because it's almost kind of like
people forgot. I want to make a they forgot
about Dre reference here right now because people forgot we
have to do these things. That's like the vet tech and me.
It's talking about vaccinations and spay and neuters and all the
things because so many people, so you see that in the clinic
(31:32):
just come in in for a rabies andspay and neuter.
They don't want anything else. And then their dog gets sick and
then they're mad because it was a totally preventable thing that
they didn't pay for for the vaccine.
And now they either want to put the animal down or they want to
reholy animal or they're just going to drop it off at the
shelter and it's sick. And there's so many things.
And I agree with you. Hoarding cases are something
(31:54):
that you can't Unsee. And it's unfortunate that people
do get into that level because Imean, that is a mental illness
at that point. It's something that I'm not
really sure that you can rehabilitate people from border.
I know that they do it on those TV shows all the time.
They help the hoarders change their lifestyle or whatever.
But I don't know, it's a different situation when it's a.
(32:16):
Tricky. The tricky mental space there is
they think they're helping, and so you kind of have to say
there's a level where yes, maybeyou are, but you're not.
When you have so many dogs in a very small state, there's no way
anybody can really do that. And properly emaciated animals,
like all over the property and corpses and freezers and not
(32:40):
just one freezer, multiple freezers and multiple bodies.
And it's just, it's unhealthy physically for the human and the
other animals, but also mentallyand emotionally for the human
and the other animals. So it really is one of those
really sad situations. I definitely think that that is
an area that I think people definitely should be more aware
(33:01):
about because it's not. That's something that we talk
about and shining light in the dark spaces and all of that is
what the podcast is about and talking about this hard stuff.
Well, the frustrating thing, thefrustrating thing with hoarding
cases is that you're thinking these animals have been rescued,
right? They're in a home, they're safe.
No, no, they are actually works off than when they started.
And so now they have to be re rescued, rehabilitated even more
(33:25):
than they were before they were placed in this home.
Becca uses an amazing quote. It's trying to empty it with a
spoon and that's what it feels like is what it feels like.
And so that's why I do have to come back into myself and
realize that I have saved three.I have saved 3 in my own home
and my parents have adopted 2 ofmy fosters.
(33:45):
I speak it often to the people that I love and my circle, how
important it is to adopt. And I post incessantly on my
next door pages and my neighborhood pages so people
know me as a dog person. Everybody in my neighborhood, if
there's a lost dog, if there's anything going on with an animal
in my neighborhood, everybody calls me because they know.
I do want to hope that that willcontinue to make ripples and
(34:09):
that more people will become aware of that.
But in the same breath, I do getthis imposter syndrome because
I'm thinking, wow, I'm so passionate about this.
What about the drug crisis that's happening?
What about the foster kid situation that's happening where
they are in very similar situation where they have so
many children in foster care. And so it's really challenging
(34:29):
to not feel completely bogged down by it all, defeated by it
all. But I also don't think that we
should carry the burden of everyone else not showing up.
If more people showed up and more people put their energy
into doing good then we would probably wouldn't even be in
this situation. I I've told my husband this so
many times. If people stop harming others,
(34:52):
just get burnt out by it. Get exhausted by doing it every
single day. We wouldn't have to continue
picking up the pieces and fixingthe mess of those people.
Everything is kind of a mess right now.
Like we don't really get into politics a whole lot on this
podcast, but in general, just being nice to other people.
You'd think that that would be easy.
Just let people live their own lives, let people do their own
(35:15):
thing, that people make decisions about their own
bodies. They marry, how they live, where
they live, how many dogs they have, if they have kids or not.
There's so many controversial topics right now.
And then you add in the bad topics like euthanasia lists and
drug rehabilitation and recidivism and anything else
(35:37):
that's happening in the world right now, and it's just so sad.
And I completely agree with you.I think that sometimes we have
to kind of just kick our tunnel vision the area because if we
don't, the scope is just too big.
And I think everybody would be depressed all of the time.
But I also think that part of the problem is that some
people's focus is just focused so much on themselves and what
(36:02):
they want that they have these blinders on and they don't see
the rest of the world. And that is where all the
conflict happens because they'reso headstrong and so hell bent
on whatever it is that they want.
Screw everybody else, screw the system, screw the rules, screw
you for making that decision because it affected me for
whatever reason, even though it probably didn't.
(36:24):
I think that if people could just be nice to each other
again, it would be a whole different situation.
Yes, happening. They're leading with
selfishness. But they're also not doing it in
a kind way. There's one thing to be selfish
and focused on what you're doingand your little part of the
world and being unkind to those of you to do that.
So it is really hard to feel like you're trying to do the
(36:47):
best and be the best version of yourself and trying to grow
every day. And I appreciate that you don't
like to get political, but it isvery difficult and frustrating
when you see people around you believe in something and someone
who is not innately kind, being kindly to other people.
They're not speaking kindly about other people.
(37:09):
And so when you are surrounded by people that think that that
is OK, it makes it really hard to be our kind of people empath
and compassionate and trying to be the best versions of
ourselves because they're not trying to be the best persons of
ourselves. I kind of feel honestly like I'm
getting the crap end of the stick at this point because with
(37:30):
animal welfare, I'm trying everysingle day to not only take care
of my own dogs, but try to help other people take good care of
their dog to help make it so other dogs get adopted.
It's very frustrating and sad because we are the people that
are going to continue to get burned out.
We are the people that are goingto have to say I can't do this
anymore. I and I had to get to that
point. I have two young daughters, I
(37:51):
have a six and four year old andthey need me to be my best self.
And if I'm stressed and sad about dogs dying everyday and
people not being good to others,they're going to suffer.
And so you have to draw a line. So I hope that I don't know what
I hope. I hope overtime that they, the
side of people that think that being unkind and not treating
(38:13):
others with respectful decency, will realize that that's really
not the best way to go about moving through this world and
the ramifications that hopefullywill come so that they can learn
that lesson in the kindest way possible.
Of course, that's all we can hope for.
And yeah. I completely agree and I think
that unfortunately, we are just in a time and place where we
(38:35):
don't even worry about the future of our kids.
So getting people to worry aboutthe future, a dog or a cat is
even harder. And that is mildly terrifying
and absolutely heartbreaking. I'm here every single week
dropping these episodes trying to help people who are
struggling, keep their dogs in their homes or don't understand
why their dog is acting in a certain way or doing a certain
(38:57):
thing. Or understand the nutrition, or
how to adopt A pet or how to identify the wrong type of
situation to obtain a dog or allof the other millions of things
that we talk about on this show.And I just think that leading
with love, leading with kindness, and continuing to do
whatever we have to do for as long as we can do it is really
important. But also taking breaks.
(39:18):
Sometimes you just have to put things on autopilot and just
shut it down for a minute. Like I said, it's it's a rainy
day, it's a Saturday in bed. And sometimes we just need that.
And I think that there's so muchsure on people all the time to
be productive, get this done, dothis, do that, all the things
you have to have done all the time.
(39:38):
And getting overwhelmed is supereasy in that in that constant
chaos. But it's almost like if you
don't have that minimum level ofkeeping the lid on the chaos,
then the chaos just gets bigger and everything kind of ripples
out. Unfortunately, I, I don't know
what's going to happen. I don't know how things are
going to get better, but I do have hope that moving forward
(40:03):
there are. Enough people who are using
their voices and there are enough people who are
understanding the right situations and they are
advocating for different spaces,whether it's reactive dogs or
dogs that need homes or dogs that just need better treatment
or training in general or betterquality of training.
(40:23):
I think that people are trying to do better and the more of us
that band together and stick together and work together, the
bigger those ripples are going to be.
I think that we just have to keep going because I am seeing
so much, especially in the last six months, so many more people
in the dog space advocating for better understanding of our dogs
(40:45):
as individuals, better feeding, better understanding of what
enrichment is and how and when, and all of these things.
But also so many more people I see bringing in foster dogs and
talking about it and sharing thejourneys.
And it's just been really neat to see.
So I'm hoping that that's something that continues to have
a positive effect on social media and that people start
(41:08):
seeing that there is a deeper side to all of this and it's not
just all rainbows and sunshine. All of the.
Time I love that you're seeing that.
That makes me really happy to see.
I see a lot of sad stuff on social media, but I see a lot of
sad stuff. I feel like trauma is attracted
to me and I mean, I was supposedto work background, right?
Like I was a personal trainer and I became a therapist to a
(41:30):
lot of my clients and I feel like trauma finds me and I also
seek it out, right. The other night I watched a
prison documentary because of course I yeah, that's just me.
I just, I don't, I just like to make myself suffer.
It's fine I think. Trauma seeks me out sometimes
too. I've always been in that thing
where the special dogs always find me the.
Special people, always. Find me and I don't I would like
(41:53):
to turn that light off. It's like the porch light for
Halloween candy, right? I just turn that light off
sometimes. I've tried it doesn't work so I
don't know how to turn it off. So if somebody knows how to turn
it off, please let me know because I'd like to turn it off
sometimes. Yeah, and I would like to turn
the empath enemy off, but I, I do envy the people that are so
(42:15):
outside of this world. I really wish sometimes,
sometimes that I could turn it off and not care as much as I
do. But I also know that is what
makes me me, and if I don't do it, who's gonna do it?
So taking those breaks is so important.
I'm actually taking all of November off of treats because I
just needed a reset. I need to focus in on my kids a
little bit more as they have transitions and things going on
(42:37):
in their lives and just understanding when it is
important to take breaks. I've had a few dogs that I've
been advocating for get adopted.Donnie is one of them, really
excited about that. And there's been a couple others
that transitioned. And so it's finding time to
recharge and reset and then getting that strength to get
back into battle because that's what I feel it is.
We are fighting the good fight, you know, and we have, like you
(43:00):
said, we do have to keep going because there's no.
Alternative. Yeah.
I mean, if everybody gave up, then we would definitely be in a
worse place than we already are.That's why I always love to give
huge shout outs to people that are doing the work, that are
committed to these causes, because it's hard and it's
awful. And we too see really sad stuff
in our feeds and we watch terrible documentaries or read
(43:23):
about shelter situations and hear stories from our local
shelters or people that I've talked to all over the United
States and other shelters. And it's just if we, if we give
up then and everyone gives up, then we're just in a worse
place. So as much as it sucks, like we
always have to come back to it. But like you said, as long as it
brings you joy and it is that action, you're always going to
(43:46):
be able to come back to it. But do know when to step away,
take a break, take a breather and clear your head out.
And if that means you got to walk away for three months, six
months, a year, then then do it because it's better for everyone
if you take that time and come back than it is if you continue
going on when you're completely burnt out.
(44:07):
It's just like what I said aboutthe dogs earlier.
Sometimes you just need a day torefresh your mental and
emotional state. You have to do that with kids
too. Sometimes kids are so hard and
they, they're smart and they talk back and they say things
that you're like, I was unaware that you were that aware of that
situation. You know, they, they take you by
surprise. And honestly, some days I'm glad
(44:28):
that my dogs don't talk back to me because I don't think I could
handle that right now. So I have to give you a lot of
credit for three dogs and two kids.
That's, that's a house full. And that is a lot of work,
despite what some people say about staying at home and that
not being a real job. To those people, I say do it for
24 hours and then tell me how you feel about it because.
(44:49):
It's fully, I had no idea. Both of my parents owned their
own businesses when I was growing up.
And so we had nannies and we went to daycares and stuff.
And so I didn't really grasp howbig it was to stay home with
your kids. And I really wanted to do it
because I didn't have that. And so when I did it for the
first five years, it was great. It was so challenging.
(45:10):
You were everything. I was the maid, I was the cook,
I was the therapist, I was all the things.
And so it, it's really challenging because you don't
get a break. I mean, you think obviously my
husband, it's a maid amazing andhe helps me so much when he's
home with me and we tag team andall the things.
That's why we only have two. It's 24/7 and it isn't that way
now because both of my kids are in school.
(45:31):
So he's in part time and as Mason full time.
But it's also still a mental burden for me, right?
We're having things happen afterschool and it's a shift in
behavior. And so you have to troubleshoot
what is going on that is causingthis behavior to kind of come
out. And it's the same in dog.
What is happening with the dog to make them feel a certain way
to be acting out or expressing themselves in this way and comes
(45:53):
up right now, my daughter's being bullied and so she's
bullying me, right? I've always told my kids, if you
are going through something really challenging or you're
having nightmares, you need to tell me so that I can carry it,
right? So you don't have to Because I
don't think my parents did that and that's probably why I am
such an impact. And so my daughter tells me
amazing 6 year old child says I needed to put the meanness
(46:13):
somewhere because I was taking it a lot and so I needed to give
it to somebody. And so I was giving it to you
because you can handle it. That's what I told her, right?
So thankfully and the story, we're talking to the school and
we're talking to all the people involved that can not only give
my daughter support, but gives alittle girl support who is
talking to my daughter this way because she's going through
(46:34):
something too. It's not just how dare you bully
my kid. No, what are what's going on
with you that makes you feel like you need to talk to
somebody because hurt people hurt people.
And so she's going through something that she needs help
and resources and tools too. So, and it's same for dogs,
right? We need to they give everybody a
little bit more grace and help people where they are.
(46:56):
And hopefully, like we talk about if we start interacting,
continue to interact with peoplein that way, I really do hope
that we will get to a point where that is kind of the
majority and that is how people are moving through the world.
And people who do terrible things and don't treat people
well will be called out because no, no, we don't do that here.
That's not how we work in this place.
(47:19):
And so that's my hope. I think that that's a really
great message to leave the listeners with tonight too, is
that try to look at the bigger picture.
Don't, don't focus on this is hurting me or this is my dog is
hurting or my dog is behaving this way or my child is behaving
this way. Acknowledge it.
Figure out what the root problemis and then again, go back to
(47:40):
that root problem, Go back to that original source and try to
remedy it. Change the feelings, change the
reactions, change the behavior, and now we've created this
positive circle of emotions and treatment and interactions that
now has a better outcome for everyone.
I really, really hope that your stuff's getting bullied.
That's. That's just so.
(48:02):
She I have. Always really struggled not
being the stay at home mom and letting my little birds fly out
of the nest because I am such a very strongly written advocation
in all the ways right consents sticking up herself all the
things. But I can't do it for her
anymore. I need her to do it.
And so we've been talking a lot.We've been doing a lot of
role-playing and she stood up for herself today to the and
(48:25):
said I don't appreciate that you're talking to me this way.
I would really like to be your friend.
And guess what, they were reading a book together by the
end of the. Day.
That's amazing, yes. And so I'm hoping that not only
is it going to change the treatment that my daughter is
dealing with, but it's going to help the girl learn that you
don't have to be mean to people for to get attention.
(48:46):
Whatever it is that she's going through, she can hopefully see
that there's a better way and you can bond with people and you
can have really good relationships with people.
And now it's almost a challenge to my daughter where she's like,
let's go. I want to be your friend even
more now. And I'm going to we always say
use your powers for good. I love that and and that that's
so applicable to life in general.
(49:07):
Use your powers for good. Raise better children, raise
better dogs, be better people, treat others with kindness and
do what you can do to make a better space around you so that
other people want to be part of that.
And I think that that is the message 24/7.
Always. I do too.
(49:27):
Is there anything else you want to leave the listeners with
tonight? I don't think.
So I think it's all connected and it's just kindness.
Just choose kindness. That's all we can do and that's
all we should do. All right, well.
Plug your business, tell everybody where they can find
you and how to get in contact with you, and if they're
interested in adopting a dog in the Austin area, how they can
get in touch. With you amazing.
(49:49):
So you can find me for my treatsat wild Wolf Pack treats,
WILDWOLFE treats and then if youwant to talk about maybe finding
an animal, even if you're not inAustin, I would love to try
working with you to match me. You can find me at Hey dot good
dog dogs and I would love to help.
And my website is the same wild wolf facttreats.com.
(50:10):
Thank you so much, Emily. You're the best.
I absolutely love having a conversation with you and I
can't wait to have you come back.
And we hope that you guys enjoyed this episode of Straight
Up Dog Talk and we will see you guys next week.
Straight Up Dog Talk was createdby Emily Breslin.
It is edited and produced under the supervision of Straight Up
Dog Talk, LLC and Emily Breslin.If you're enjoying this podcast,
(50:34):
follow or subscribe and be sure you don't miss an episode and
leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Looking for more honest and relatable dog content?
Check out our sister show Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and
Madison Simpson. Thanks listening to Straight Up
Dog Top.
Welcome to straight up dog talk.I'm em and we're back again this
week with Bridget from wild WolfPack treats and hey, good dogs.
How are you doing tonight, Bridget?
Hey, I'm doing. Great.
How are you? Thanks for having me.
Absolutely you are a fan fave. Your episode has so many listens
and everybody I think who has ever gotten your treats for
(01:35):
their dogs knows first of all how passionate you are about
rescuing dogs. And just dogs in general.
But also how important quality and nutrition is to you as well.
The last time we had a really talked about your treat business
and how it got started. But everybody's journey changes
(01:56):
and different things happen and you're different advocating
space now. So I just wanted to give you an
opportunity to come on here and tell everybody what you're doing
now and update us on all of the things.
Sounds great. Well, like you said, things
change like happens on my advocation journey with rescue
and animal welfare in general has really changed over the last
(02:19):
couple years. I talked a little bit about the
business back when we reported last time and I was a stay at
home mom at the time and I wanted to get my identity back
doing something that I was passionate about.
But I really only had night timeto do that.
And so I started this dog treat business.
I have three dogs myself. When I started it, I think I
just had two and then adopted Susie from the shelter that I
(02:40):
was at. But I really wanted to start
making dog treats because I havea dog who has pretty severe
allergies to food and environmental.
And so it it started really quiet and small and I really
didn't know what I was doing. And it has evolved into making
sure that I use the best qualityingredients.
(03:01):
I recently bought a roller so that all my treats are actually
rolling the same height, which is really cool.
Before I just hand rolled everything and it was
inconsistent. But it was a labor of love and I
hope people realize that it was me doing everything by hand.
And it's not a manufacturing situation, that's it's me.
Business has really evolved overthe years.
(03:22):
And of course it's tricky because I still use natural
human grade and pet safe ingredients and I use only
citric acid as my preservative. And so unfortunately, I'm at the
mercy of the post office and theUSPS.
And so like, of course they can get moldy if they're not stored
properly or if they don't arriveto the home in time.
And so that's something I'm still dealing with.
(03:43):
But I don't want to get away from the quality that I have set
out from from the very beginning.
My business kind of runs two different passion, passion for
loving on and foiling dogs. Because I truly love dogs with
all my heart. They are my favorite animal.
I love all animals, but I would say dogs are definitely my
favorite. And so I want to soil animals
(04:04):
and dogs as much as I can, but also I wanted to be able to give
back in a way that monetarily I wasn't able to do because I
don't work. My husband is our kind of
breadwinner because I was a stayat home mom.
And so that was my focus. And so I really wanted to be
able to donate as much as I possibly could, but also
sustaining the business. And so I donate 50% of all the
(04:25):
sales and I have from the beginning and I haven't done an
updated in the last couple weeks, but the last time I
updated, we've been able to donate $13,000, which is
absolutely insanity. I never could have imagined.
Doing that. And I think if I trying to
donate that much money of our own money, my husband would say,
excuse me, ma'am. So it's been really nice to be
(04:45):
able to give people really high quality products for the animals
and dogs that they love so, so much, while also, you know,
giving back to causes that are really incredible and doing the
hard work that I can't do right now.
And that kind of tip toes into our abdication section of a good
Dogs, which is a page that I started.
It was a different name previously and it was a way for
(05:07):
me to advocate for the dogs thatI was volunteering with at the
shelter that I was at. I'm no longer there.
And that's something that I had to close the chapter on.
It was heartbreaking and sad, but these things happen.
And so my advocation journey hasreally shifted and changed
because I'm not physically volunteering anywhere.
I do have some dogs that I know very well and that are in foster
(05:27):
homes or that I've interacted with, with a shelter that I
actually do help out and do social media for and have been
there a handful of time. So I used that platform to
advocate for those dogs. But I really wanted to have a
space kind of like you do here with straight up dog talk to
open people's eyes a lot more towhat is happening in the animal
rescue world. And I firmly believe that there
(05:49):
are so many things in this worldthat are really hard and
challenging and a lot of people treat it as out of sight, out of
mind. So it's not something that
you're experiencing on a regularbasis.
You really don't understand or grasp the gravity of it all and
that it can be true for human trafficking or foster kids or
the drug problem or homelessness.
(06:11):
There are so many hard things that are happening in this world
and I think it's important that everybody find their passion and
something that they want to channel their love and their
interest into. And previously for me, that was
foster kids because I was socialwork.
But now that's too hard for me because I do have two kids of my
own. And so I need to understand my
(06:31):
boundaries and what I'm able to withstand.
And animal welfare has kind of become my passion project.
And so I'm trying to find my place still.
I've leaned more heavily on my business in the last probably
six months or so because I'm notphysically volunteering.
And so it's a little bit trickier, but I can spend my
time making these dog treats andhelping the organizations that
(06:53):
are physically doing so much good every single day.
And so that's kind of where where I'm at right now.
And I'm sure it will just continue to evolve, I think.
What you're doing is really coolbecause one, it gives you the
ability to kind of hyper focus on certain dogs, which doing
that gives them a better chance of getting adopted or put into a
(07:14):
foster home. That is a safer situation for
them. You're also donating a lot of
money, which is incredible. Not everybody has the ability to
do that or the time. I think that anything that you
can do to help make your business run a little bit
smoother is the best thing that you can do for your business.
And so if you have to get something that makes.
(07:35):
All of the dough. And even level, I am all for
that. I know that we've had other
people talk about equipment thatthey've had to buy.
They make their own dog treats or they make their own dog food
and they have a dehydrator for this and they have a dehydrator
for that. And they have all these things
and quality of food and should be.
That's always going to be an issue if your product is
(07:57):
actually healthy and safe and human grade.
And those are, I think, risks that people have to understand
that they're taking quality. I mean, when your cookies get
here, they just they go half of them go in the freezer usually
because I want them to be aroundfor a while.
And I also want to be able to keep them fresh.
And I like that I can separate them out and use them later down
(08:21):
the road because my dogs love them.
And we always have cookie testing going on in this house
because Fitz, I've said that he's a picky eater.
And I realize that it's not justthat he's the picky eater, it's
also that the quality of the food wasn't good or he was not
feeling well because of the certain brand of food that we
(08:41):
were feeding him or, or, or. And now we finally have landed
on Sundays for dogs for him, which I mean is a bit more
expensive, but he eats every single bit of it.
And he's on the pet Matrix supplements.
And I see my dog becoming healthier.
I see both my dogs becoming healthier.
And to me, it's worth it. And I like that the expiration
(09:02):
date on my food is much smaller.The previous brands that we were
buying before because somewhat of don't have expiration dates
for like years. And that to me is just wild.
I think that a lot of people aremuch more interested in
nutrition for their dogs now than they used to be even 10
years ago, which is very cool. And I like to see that because
(09:25):
that leads to healthy, happier dogs that live longer, better
lives. So I think that it's really
incredible that you're part of that movement.
And I think that it's also really incredible that you're
part of the movement that is doing everything they can to
save dogs lives. Because the euthanasia toll is
high. It is so high, it is too high.
(09:45):
And until we get a grip on how we stop the backyard breeding
and we stop. Just.
Churning out of puppies in puppymills we just don't have choice
but to just continue doing what we're doing and I agree with you
it is definitely an out of sight, out of mind thing,
especially for people who don't have dogs, don't want dogs,
(10:05):
don't know anything about dogs, don't understand that their
neighbor with like 3 kiddie pools full of puppies in their
backyard. It's a problem and that's why we
have to talk about it, unfortunately.
And I think that you're doing such an amazing job of that.
I would like you to talk about arecent adventure that you've had
(10:26):
with a dog. Will you talk about Banana
Slipper? I just think her story is so
great. And if she doesn't have a home
by the time this episode comes out, hopefully somebody will
want to give her a home because of this episode because what an
insane story. So will you please share that
with the listeners? Yes, I.
Am the type of person if I see any animal frankly I'm going to
(10:47):
do anything in my power to reunite them.
Honestly. A couple weeks ago there was a
vulture in one of my my neighbors backyards, but it was
a house that had been up for sale.
And she was so concerned about this poor vulture.
And so being the person I am, I get a bunch of food for my
fridge and I put a box out and this vulture cannot fly.
So he's obviously hurt. And Long story short, he
(11:10):
actually got hit by a car, whichis devastating.
But that's the type of person I am, right?
So I will go out of my way at myhusband's disdain sometimes
because he's like Bridget, you can't save everybody.
But I'm going to try. OK.
So anyway, the girls and I go onwalks every single morning,
stroller, 3 dogs. I look like a crazy person.
It's fine. And we're walking down the
street and we see this dog, Banana Slipper, and she looks
(11:32):
very sad. I do what I normally do when I
try to approach it. I, I call her first to see what
kind of what we're dealing with.Is that a dog that's aggressive?
Is she going to growl at me at even being, you know, quite a
distance away? Where, where are we at?
And she just looked extremely sad.
She didn't approach me at all. She didn't growl.
(11:52):
She was just sad. And so I said, all right, well,
this is what we're dealing with.I need treats because this dog
is not going to let me approach her.
She's just going to run and that's the last thing we want.
Well, the girls and I went back home and I did a little bit of
digging with my neighbors. What's the deal on this dog?
What's going on? Come to find out, we think she
was abandoned there and she had been there for three days or so.
We don't normally go down that part of my street, and so I
(12:15):
hadn't seen her until that morning.
And so we tried to get close to her.
I got chicken breasts and she finally came up to hand and then
we had a idea, which was really stupid honestly, to kind of like
push her towards my house so we could get her in the backyard,
get her comfortable, get her decompressing safe in the spot
(12:35):
without getting hit by a car or whatever.
And she ran standably so with a very limping back left foot.
And we lost her and I felt awful, but I was like, she's
probably going to go back to where she was because we're
thinking she was abandoned there.
That must have been how well shedidn't.
And every single day I looked from April until May when I
(12:57):
found out that she was actually found 40 minutes away from my
home. And there's really no way that
she could have run 40 minutes away because we live off of a
very busy highway and there's noreal way for her to get where
she was without being driven. So we think she was picked up
and re dumped, which is horrifying and terrible.
So she was finally trapped by Trappers, who is an amazing
(13:18):
organization that works with owndogs that are lost and then
reunite them with their owners and then they also help with a
straight population. And so she was finally trapped
by them, got them in her into a foster home.
I forgot the best part of the story.
So when we first met this dog, Iasked my daughter who's 4, what
should we name her? My daughter's name is Zoe and
she said Banana Slipper. And I'm like, what?
(13:40):
What a random name. And then she tells me it's
because she's slippery like a banana and she gets lost like
your slipper. Her name is Banana Slipper.
That's amazing. And so I just don't.
And she's in an incredible foster home now.
She's had an FHO surgery to repair.
She actually had a completely dislocated hip on her left side.
So the fact that she was runningfor as long as she was insane.
(14:03):
She had a stomach full of rock. And honestly, she looks pretty
good. She didn't look completely
emaciated. Her coat was pretty beautiful.
She didn't look like she had been mistreated, but we found
out that she was adopted a couple days before she showed up
in my neighborhood in April. She was on euthanasia list.
She got adopted and then she wasnamed Jimbo.
She's a female. So anyway, it's a very insane
(14:25):
story. She is in a foster home now.
She's doing incredible. He is still a little bit timid
at times. Loud noises really are her a
little bit still, but she is thriving.
She loves dogs. So she is actually an anomaly
where most people say this dog cannot be with any other dog and
he's the Unicorn home. She needs to be around other
dogs because dogs bridge the gapwith her with her confidence
(14:47):
between humans and herself. And so she can see another dog
coming up to somebody and getting pets in love and treat.
She can kind of think in her brain, OK, that is a safe
situation that I would love to be a part of.
So she is still looking for a home.
We would love to find her a really perfect home and it needs
to be perfect because she's beenthrough too much to get re
traumatized. Adopted and then dumped again
(15:09):
like a euthanasia Listed. Adopted, dumped again, and then
she is a slippery little banana.Goodness gracious.
Yeah, and that kind of goes to, I had a breakthrough with my
husband, I want to say 8 months or so ago, where I was just down
in the dumps about the state of animal welfare.
And I get down in the dumps about a lot of things because
(15:31):
the world is a dumpster fire. But he kind of sat me down and
had a really good heart to heartwith me.
And he basically said you're notgoing to be able to help people
if you were in such a sad state.You're going to just sit in it.
You're not going to be to project positively about the
situation. You're probably not going to
want help because you're going to be so drained by it.
And so I had to really start putting the boundaries for
(15:53):
myself and for the work that I'mdoing.
And part of that was because I wasn't hands on volunteering and
I couldn't see it with my own eyes physically.
Of course, you still see terrible things every day on
social media, but it's putting that boundary up and trying to
educate. That goes to show Banana
Slipper, she was adopted and then completely mistreated and
(16:15):
that just goes to show take careof your own dog.
It's really hard to think about stopping backyard breeders,
stopping that kind of thing because that's going to take a
lot of time. Legislation, a lot of laws need
to be put in place for that. But what can we do on a very
personal individual level? I have three dogs that I can
take really good care of and I can teach my friends and my
(16:35):
neighbors to take really good care of their dogs because
honestly, there are situations where a rehoming is absolutely
necessary if there is a safety concern.
If your life completely, completely changes and there's
no possible way for you to keep an animal, it does happen.
I don't want to be judgmental tosay that how dare you should
keep your dog. But financially, it's so
expensive to own and properly take care of animal.
(16:58):
My dogs have cost a lot of moneyin the last couple months and
it's just routine care. Routine care is incredibly
expensive. So I had to keep asking myself
how can I help this big problem because it feels so heavy and I
don't feel like I'm doing enough.
And then I had to tell myself, Ihave 3 dogs here that I have
promised that I will take reallygood care of.
And so I reprioritized and of course I take great care of my
(17:21):
dogs on daily without really having to think about it.
But taking care of them is goingto hopefully project to the
outside world what it looks liketo be a good dog.
And I think that can help make waves, right?
Because if we show people what kindness looks like and proper
animal care, proper people care how to be kind to others, it can
really make a ripple effect thatisn't so daunting.
(17:43):
And how do I get in touch with alawmaker or a judge or somebody
to really make a massive impact in the animal?
Because that that's daunting. So what can we do individually
every single day to make an impact?
And that's something small, but it really can help a lot.
I completely agree. And I mean I think that is a
boundary that a lot of small business owners realize that
(18:06):
they have to come to at some point.
We all realized, okay, I'm here and this is what I'm advocating
for, but it's to only be like within this limitations and what
I do for the podcast is different than what I do for dog
training. But I like for them to overlap
if they can. We've just kind of, I've gotten
to the point where I have realized that it's better to
(18:29):
speak to the people who understand what I'm saying than
trying to get people to understand what I'm saying.
Because I can talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk
and talk. All I need to talk about
training, reactivity, enrichment, muzzle training, all
things, right. But if I'm not speaking the
language that somebody is looking for, I'm not speaking to
(18:51):
anybody. And I think that's where social
media fails us because it does really categorize everything so
deeply and it niches us down so hard that it's very difficult to
say, well, I'm here for all dogsbecause we can't really be here
for all dogs. Because if we say we're here for
all dogs and we're not helping any dogs, we're not even helping
(19:12):
our own dogs or ourselves. And I think that it's really
healthy mental health. This a big platform for me.
I like to talk about how taking care of ourselves is paramount
to taking care of our dogs. If we're not feeling well, our
dogs are probably not doing so great either.
We had a Saturday a couple weekends ago.
It rained all day, all day. And I said fine, put my phone on
(19:35):
mute and we watched movies all day and we did not get out of
bed. We went outside to go potty and
that was it. And amazing.
It was amazing. It was awesome.
I felt great the next day. It rained the next day, and Fitz
was like, no, again, no, we're not doing this again.
You know, we have days where we have to sometimes play in the
(19:56):
rain and when it gets too muddy that he walks.
Like, I don't know how to explain how he walks, but he
picks up his feet like, weird. He waddles because he doesn't
like the mud between his toes. It's so funny.
I'm like, OK, I think it's outside and he's like, well, OK,
never mind, this sucks. And then he comes inside and he
just acts like a Tasmanian. Devil.
(20:17):
This is why I educate on these topics, because he's not
perfect, but we don't have perfect days.
That one day when we can get Fitz to take it is a huge day
for everybody in this house because Toby loves it and I love
it. And Fitz is like, all right, we
can chill for a day because the next day is that way too.
We're all going to pay for it, totally.
(20:39):
I do even more to counteract thethe lazy chill, yeah.
Yeah, it's so funny because thissummer I am so disheartened with
the weather and everything is just like not looking forward to
winter. It's getting dark.
It's like 5:30 at night and in the summer from the time I get
(21:02):
home from work or if I'm workingfrom home, we're taking breaks
and we're outside until 9:00 at night when it's dark.
Now it's like 530 and it's dark.And if it's is like excuse me, I
still have the ball in my mouth.Excuse me, it's a four leg.
You'll hear. Well, then what the heck, We're
not done yet. And when you have a dog that
averages between 6:00 and 9:00 miles a day, wow, in Flay,
(21:28):
that's not even taking a walk. If we take a walk or if we go
for a car ride or if we go on anadventure or whatever, that's
just extra steps, right? But on average, 7 miles a day
for one dog, it's a that's amazing.
It's a lot. It is amazing, but sometimes it
makes me. Tight, which you can earn as
that energy and like put it in like, all right, that's this
(21:50):
energy. Let's go.
I know sometimes I sort of got him out in the backyard having
dance parties, doing jumping jacks.
I'm sure all of my neighbors arelike, she's doing that again.
And the best thing is, is that we live right next to a church.
I have never been inside of the church, but I can see that it's
like a conference room or a gathering room or something and
(22:10):
there's two big huge windows. I know they have KA meetings
over there and they have worshipnight and they have some kind of
kids group and they have dance routines.
The kids are doing dance routines.
So I don't know if they have like church plays or what going
on over there, but something. So there's always people in that
window. So I know for sure that
everybody in the church is probably like, there's that Lady
(22:31):
with her dogs again. Maybe we should give her a card
so she could come join us. They have.
They have come over and like, given us.
Invitations to the church before.
Oh, that's allure, Yeah. When you're a content creator
and you're filming all of it anyway.
So it's definitely a learning journey and of all of these
things as to be kind to ourselves, we have to be
(22:52):
authentic and got to remember, just pretend that the camera
isn't there and, and do what we would normally do.
Because I do want people to see what our life is really like.
And I'm, I want people to see that it's not pretty and it
doesn't have a bow and all thesethings.
Because Instagram is so bad about the perfectionism.
(23:14):
Here's the before, here's the after.
Nobody shows the middle. I'm trying hard to show the
middle. And that is kind of where you're
at too, because you are showing the middle of we rescued this
dog and now it needs a home. These are all of the things that
we're doing. We're providing surgeries, we're
providing spays and neuters. We're providing healthcare
vaccines. We're giving them freaks when
(23:36):
they get adopted. We're making sure that we put
all this time and energy into finding them the perfect tones.
And I think that a lot of peopledon't realize how much happens
behind the scenes and this kind of stuff.
We're working at rescue is a lot.
It is a huge emotional toll because 1, you want to take all
(23:56):
of the dogs home and you change.And two, you have all of these
dogs and all of these different situations that have come from
all of these terrible situationsand they're just trying to make
it. And unfortunately, that kind of
just feels, like you said, the way the world is, the dumpster
fire, everybody is just trying to make it right now.
And it sucks that we have basically had to
institutionalized dogs in order for them to be able to keep
(24:20):
their lives and then not even really be able to keep their
lives because we've maxed out capacity and we're constantly
maxing out capacity between Texas and California.
The rescue world, the numbers are so heartbreaking.
And it's I'm surprised you Iowa's usually in the top 5% for
puppy mills because farm state barns people do all of that
(24:43):
wonderful stuff here. And you have an Amish community
that they help with that whole situation, backyard breeders,
puppy male situations, and have friends who have found litters
of puppies dumped in their fields or the neighbors.
And there's 3 or 4 puppies and not sometimes a mom and
sometimes not a mom. And it's just, it's just so sad.
(25:04):
People don't give any validationto the fact that these are
living, breathing creatures thatneed care and that we're just
pumping them out for dollars andnot understanding that this is a
commitment. If we could get people to
understand that maybe not every dog is right for their wrong and
instant gratification should definitely not be a thing when
(25:25):
it comes to puppies. But if we could get that same
thought into people's head aboutyou don't just have a child to
fulfill a need in your brain. You shouldn't just get a puppy
to fulfill that need in your brain either.
Because unless you're prepared for that responsibility, you're
setting yourself up for failure and all kinds of, you know,
behavioral issues and financial.Issues.
(25:46):
There should be some kind of class or.
Something that you have to take before you can adopt A dog or
breed a dog or anything, but I don't know.
It's like multi, multi layered. For the people that do have
dogs, do do they know the gravity of having a dog?
Taking care of a dog properly and fulfilling that animal in
(26:08):
all of its needs emotionally, physically and enriching them.
Understanding that there are people on financial strain and
there is going to come a time where taking care of humans
needs to come alongside animal welfare, right?
There needs to be putting humansat a higher level and taking
really good care of them so thatthey can take better care of
(26:30):
their animals. There's a cultural discrepancy
where they're in some cultures, dogs are not pet, they are
outside, they are protection. It's not something that they
think about. And so it's challenging because
obviously there are those of us who are in different cultures
and different upbringings that do value animals and dogs at a
(26:50):
very high level. And so to us, it's super
frustrating and horrifying when we see someone just chaining a
dog up. But to them, they might not
understand that that is a cultural different, that that's
not how most people might take care of an animal.
So that's the challenge. Challenging part is trying to
figure out how to come to a mutual understanding by helping
(27:13):
people and not being judgmental about it.
And because I guarantee you there are some people out in
this world that are backyard breeders, quote, UN quote, who
are struggling and maybe don't know how to get a proper job or
they just have been doing this for so long.
They don't really understand that there is a better way.
And maybe they do need to spend some time volunteering in a
(27:35):
shelter to really graph how massive this issue is and their
ability to make it worse. Right.
Because one female I read the other day can have 10 litters or
more. And that's hundreds of dogs from
one ma. And imagine if that mom has a
bunch of girls, right? It's just perpetuating it again
and again and again. And so I'm always in a mindset
(27:57):
of trying to give people the benefit of the Dow.
And maybe that's something that we need to shift is meeting
people where they are and havingthese conversations and
educating and helping them. Because why are they feeling
that they need to breed these dogs?
What is going on in their lives that are that is making them
feel like this is my only option?
How can we help you? So that isn't your only option
(28:18):
because if you help the people, hopefully you can not just stop
that dog and rescue that dog from being bred again.
But it stopped the person from breeding altogether.
They might have 10 dogs that they're breeding.
What a massive thing. It's like teaching a man to fish
instead of just giving him a fish.
So it's, it's really hard and itfeels like you're in a tiny
little pond and you're trying tomake these massive wave.
(28:40):
And sometimes it's who you know,not what you know, and that
could benefit and make a bigger impact.
But I hope that doing something little with the barriers that I
have right now in my life can hopefully down the road, make
some bigger ways because eventually my goal is to start
my own rescue. I have gone through so many
(29:01):
experiences with different organizations and rescues, and
I've seen some pretty horrific rescues that have been run.
I don't know. If you follow Becca on
Instagram, she works with Yaqui.She kind of busted open the
Chandler 55 case in Arizona. And so there's people that are
doing terrible things in the name of rescue.
And I would love to be somebody that does things the right way
(29:23):
and helps as many animals as I possibly can without stepping
over to like the boarding situation because it happens.
There are people that want to help so desperately that they
kind of jump over the line and become a hoarding situation and
then it's more than they can handle.
And it's really sad theory because their heart was in the
right place, but they got too big for their bridge.
(29:44):
That's my long term goal. I think that's an awesome long
term goal and I think that starting your own small business
and doing the advocacy work before starting the rescue, kind
of getting to know all of the facets of how everything runs is
probably the best way to do thatin a very successful manner
because you do experience all ofthe things that you don't want
(30:05):
to see in your rescue. So that gives you, you know, a
good learning curve. I agree with you.
I think that going to the root of the issue is probably how we
could fix a lot of these problems.
I think that setting some kind of minimum standard would be
really helpful. The ASPCA still has free
clinics. They still have free spay and
(30:26):
neuter clinics. They have vaccine clinics.
There's been several arguments in the community about homeless
people having dogs and how they shouldn't have dogs.
And I don't necessarily agree with that because that's what
the ASPCA is there for. That's what those free shot
clinics and spay and neuter clinics are for.
And if we could just get it to apoint where we were back on the
(30:48):
spay and neuter campaign becauseI feel like that was really,
really big early in the thousands and I don't know where
it went. I feel like I remember, I know
we've talked about this before, the Sarah McLaughlin commercials
from when we were kids and how emotional those things make us
and how that would get people todonate and all that stuff.
And if we could start focusing on those kindness campaigns
(31:11):
again and educational campaigns again, that we would be in a
better place. Because it's almost kind of like
people forgot. I want to make a they forgot
about Dre reference here right now because people forgot we
have to do these things. That's like the vet tech and me.
It's talking about vaccinations and spay and neuters and all the
things because so many people, so you see that in the clinic
(31:32):
just come in in for a rabies andspay and neuter.
They don't want anything else. And then their dog gets sick and
then they're mad because it was a totally preventable thing that
they didn't pay for for the vaccine.
And now they either want to put the animal down or they want to
reholy animal or they're just going to drop it off at the
shelter and it's sick. And there's so many things.
And I agree with you. Hoarding cases are something
(31:54):
that you can't Unsee. And it's unfortunate that people
do get into that level because Imean, that is a mental illness
at that point. It's something that I'm not
really sure that you can rehabilitate people from border.
I know that they do it on those TV shows all the time.
They help the hoarders change their lifestyle or whatever.
But I don't know, it's a different situation when it's a.
(32:16):
Tricky. The tricky mental space there is
they think they're helping, and so you kind of have to say
there's a level where yes, maybeyou are, but you're not.
When you have so many dogs in a very small state, there's no way
anybody can really do that. And properly emaciated animals,
like all over the property and corpses and freezers and not
(32:40):
just one freezer, multiple freezers and multiple bodies.
And it's just, it's unhealthy physically for the human and the
other animals, but also mentallyand emotionally for the human
and the other animals. So it really is one of those
really sad situations. I definitely think that that is
an area that I think people definitely should be more aware
(33:01):
about because it's not. That's something that we talk
about and shining light in the dark spaces and all of that is
what the podcast is about and talking about this hard stuff.
Well, the frustrating thing, thefrustrating thing with hoarding
cases is that you're thinking these animals have been rescued,
right? They're in a home, they're safe.
No, no, they are actually works off than when they started.
And so now they have to be re rescued, rehabilitated even more
(33:25):
than they were before they were placed in this home.
Becca uses an amazing quote. It's trying to empty it with a
spoon and that's what it feels like is what it feels like.
And so that's why I do have to come back into myself and
realize that I have saved three.I have saved 3 in my own home
and my parents have adopted 2 ofmy fosters.
(33:45):
I speak it often to the people that I love and my circle, how
important it is to adopt. And I post incessantly on my
next door pages and my neighborhood pages so people
know me as a dog person. Everybody in my neighborhood, if
there's a lost dog, if there's anything going on with an animal
in my neighborhood, everybody calls me because they know.
I do want to hope that that willcontinue to make ripples and
(34:09):
that more people will become aware of that.
But in the same breath, I do getthis imposter syndrome because
I'm thinking, wow, I'm so passionate about this.
What about the drug crisis that's happening?
What about the foster kid situation that's happening where
they are in very similar situation where they have so
many children in foster care. And so it's really challenging
(34:29):
to not feel completely bogged down by it all, defeated by it
all. But I also don't think that we
should carry the burden of everyone else not showing up.
If more people showed up and more people put their energy
into doing good then we would probably wouldn't even be in
this situation. I I've told my husband this so
many times. If people stop harming others,
(34:52):
just get burnt out by it. Get exhausted by doing it every
single day. We wouldn't have to continue
picking up the pieces and fixingthe mess of those people.
Everything is kind of a mess right now.
Like we don't really get into politics a whole lot on this
podcast, but in general, just being nice to other people.
You'd think that that would be easy.
Just let people live their own lives, let people do their own
(35:15):
thing, that people make decisions about their own
bodies. They marry, how they live, where
they live, how many dogs they have, if they have kids or not.
There's so many controversial topics right now.
And then you add in the bad topics like euthanasia lists and
drug rehabilitation and recidivism and anything else
(35:37):
that's happening in the world right now, and it's just so sad.
And I completely agree with you.I think that sometimes we have
to kind of just kick our tunnel vision the area because if we
don't, the scope is just too big.
And I think everybody would be depressed all of the time.
But I also think that part of the problem is that some
people's focus is just focused so much on themselves and what
(36:02):
they want that they have these blinders on and they don't see
the rest of the world. And that is where all the
conflict happens because they'reso headstrong and so hell bent
on whatever it is that they want.
Screw everybody else, screw the system, screw the rules, screw
you for making that decision because it affected me for
whatever reason, even though it probably didn't.
(36:24):
I think that if people could just be nice to each other
again, it would be a whole different situation.
Yes, happening. They're leading with
selfishness. But they're also not doing it in
a kind way. There's one thing to be selfish
and focused on what you're doingand your little part of the
world and being unkind to those of you to do that.
So it is really hard to feel like you're trying to do the
(36:47):
best and be the best version of yourself and trying to grow
every day. And I appreciate that you don't
like to get political, but it isvery difficult and frustrating
when you see people around you believe in something and someone
who is not innately kind, being kindly to other people.
They're not speaking kindly about other people.
(37:09):
And so when you are surrounded by people that think that that
is OK, it makes it really hard to be our kind of people empath
and compassionate and trying to be the best versions of
ourselves because they're not trying to be the best persons of
ourselves. I kind of feel honestly like I'm
getting the crap end of the stick at this point because with
(37:30):
animal welfare, I'm trying everysingle day to not only take care
of my own dogs, but try to help other people take good care of
their dog to help make it so other dogs get adopted.
It's very frustrating and sad because we are the people that
are going to continue to get burned out.
We are the people that are goingto have to say I can't do this
anymore. I and I had to get to that
point. I have two young daughters, I
(37:51):
have a six and four year old andthey need me to be my best self.
And if I'm stressed and sad about dogs dying everyday and
people not being good to others,they're going to suffer.
And so you have to draw a line. So I hope that I don't know what
I hope. I hope overtime that they, the
side of people that think that being unkind and not treating
(38:13):
others with respectful decency, will realize that that's really
not the best way to go about moving through this world and
the ramifications that hopefullywill come so that they can learn
that lesson in the kindest way possible.
Of course, that's all we can hope for.
And yeah. I completely agree and I think
that unfortunately, we are just in a time and place where we
(38:35):
don't even worry about the future of our kids.
So getting people to worry aboutthe future, a dog or a cat is
even harder. And that is mildly terrifying
and absolutely heartbreaking. I'm here every single week
dropping these episodes trying to help people who are
struggling, keep their dogs in their homes or don't understand
why their dog is acting in a certain way or doing a certain
(38:57):
thing. Or understand the nutrition, or
how to adopt A pet or how to identify the wrong type of
situation to obtain a dog or allof the other millions of things
that we talk about on this show.And I just think that leading
with love, leading with kindness, and continuing to do
whatever we have to do for as long as we can do it is really
important. But also taking breaks.
(39:18):
Sometimes you just have to put things on autopilot and just
shut it down for a minute. Like I said, it's it's a rainy
day, it's a Saturday in bed. And sometimes we just need that.
And I think that there's so muchsure on people all the time to
be productive, get this done, dothis, do that, all the things
you have to have done all the time.
(39:38):
And getting overwhelmed is supereasy in that in that constant
chaos. But it's almost like if you
don't have that minimum level ofkeeping the lid on the chaos,
then the chaos just gets bigger and everything kind of ripples
out. Unfortunately, I, I don't know
what's going to happen. I don't know how things are
going to get better, but I do have hope that moving forward
(40:03):
there are. Enough people who are using
their voices and there are enough people who are
understanding the right situations and they are
advocating for different spaces,whether it's reactive dogs or
dogs that need homes or dogs that just need better treatment
or training in general or betterquality of training.
(40:23):
I think that people are trying to do better and the more of us
that band together and stick together and work together, the
bigger those ripples are going to be.
I think that we just have to keep going because I am seeing
so much, especially in the last six months, so many more people
in the dog space advocating for better understanding of our dogs
(40:45):
as individuals, better feeding, better understanding of what
enrichment is and how and when, and all of these things.
But also so many more people I see bringing in foster dogs and
talking about it and sharing thejourneys.
And it's just been really neat to see.
So I'm hoping that that's something that continues to have
a positive effect on social media and that people start
(41:08):
seeing that there is a deeper side to all of this and it's not
just all rainbows and sunshine. All of the.
Time I love that you're seeing that.
That makes me really happy to see.
I see a lot of sad stuff on social media, but I see a lot of
sad stuff. I feel like trauma is attracted
to me and I mean, I was supposedto work background, right?
Like I was a personal trainer and I became a therapist to a
(41:30):
lot of my clients and I feel like trauma finds me and I also
seek it out, right. The other night I watched a
prison documentary because of course I yeah, that's just me.
I just, I don't, I just like to make myself suffer.
It's fine I think. Trauma seeks me out sometimes
too. I've always been in that thing
where the special dogs always find me the.
Special people, always. Find me and I don't I would like
(41:53):
to turn that light off. It's like the porch light for
Halloween candy, right? I just turn that light off
sometimes. I've tried it doesn't work so I
don't know how to turn it off. So if somebody knows how to turn
it off, please let me know because I'd like to turn it off
sometimes. Yeah, and I would like to turn
the empath enemy off, but I, I do envy the people that are so
(42:15):
outside of this world. I really wish sometimes,
sometimes that I could turn it off and not care as much as I
do. But I also know that is what
makes me me, and if I don't do it, who's gonna do it?
So taking those breaks is so important.
I'm actually taking all of November off of treats because I
just needed a reset. I need to focus in on my kids a
little bit more as they have transitions and things going on
(42:37):
in their lives and just understanding when it is
important to take breaks. I've had a few dogs that I've
been advocating for get adopted.Donnie is one of them, really
excited about that. And there's been a couple others
that transitioned. And so it's finding time to
recharge and reset and then getting that strength to get
back into battle because that's what I feel it is.
We are fighting the good fight, you know, and we have, like you
(43:00):
said, we do have to keep going because there's no.
Alternative. Yeah.
I mean, if everybody gave up, then we would definitely be in a
worse place than we already are.That's why I always love to give
huge shout outs to people that are doing the work, that are
committed to these causes, because it's hard and it's
awful. And we too see really sad stuff
in our feeds and we watch terrible documentaries or read
(43:23):
about shelter situations and hear stories from our local
shelters or people that I've talked to all over the United
States and other shelters. And it's just if we, if we give
up then and everyone gives up, then we're just in a worse
place. So as much as it sucks, like we
always have to come back to it. But like you said, as long as it
brings you joy and it is that action, you're always going to
(43:46):
be able to come back to it. But do know when to step away,
take a break, take a breather and clear your head out.
And if that means you got to walk away for three months, six
months, a year, then then do it because it's better for everyone
if you take that time and come back than it is if you continue
going on when you're completely burnt out.
(44:07):
It's just like what I said aboutthe dogs earlier.
Sometimes you just need a day torefresh your mental and
emotional state. You have to do that with kids
too. Sometimes kids are so hard and
they, they're smart and they talk back and they say things
that you're like, I was unaware that you were that aware of that
situation. You know, they, they take you by
surprise. And honestly, some days I'm glad
(44:28):
that my dogs don't talk back to me because I don't think I could
handle that right now. So I have to give you a lot of
credit for three dogs and two kids.
That's, that's a house full. And that is a lot of work,
despite what some people say about staying at home and that
not being a real job. To those people, I say do it for
24 hours and then tell me how you feel about it because.
(44:49):
It's fully, I had no idea. Both of my parents owned their
own businesses when I was growing up.
And so we had nannies and we went to daycares and stuff.
And so I didn't really grasp howbig it was to stay home with
your kids. And I really wanted to do it
because I didn't have that. And so when I did it for the
first five years, it was great. It was so challenging.
(45:10):
You were everything. I was the maid, I was the cook,
I was the therapist, I was all the things.
And so it, it's really challenging because you don't
get a break. I mean, you think obviously my
husband, it's a maid amazing andhe helps me so much when he's
home with me and we tag team andall the things.
That's why we only have two. It's 24/7 and it isn't that way
now because both of my kids are in school.
(45:31):
So he's in part time and as Mason full time.
But it's also still a mental burden for me, right?
We're having things happen afterschool and it's a shift in
behavior. And so you have to troubleshoot
what is going on that is causingthis behavior to kind of come
out. And it's the same in dog.
What is happening with the dog to make them feel a certain way
to be acting out or expressing themselves in this way and comes
(45:53):
up right now, my daughter's being bullied and so she's
bullying me, right? I've always told my kids, if you
are going through something really challenging or you're
having nightmares, you need to tell me so that I can carry it,
right? So you don't have to Because I
don't think my parents did that and that's probably why I am
such an impact. And so my daughter tells me
amazing 6 year old child says I needed to put the meanness
(46:13):
somewhere because I was taking it a lot and so I needed to give
it to somebody. And so I was giving it to you
because you can handle it. That's what I told her, right?
So thankfully and the story, we're talking to the school and
we're talking to all the people involved that can not only give
my daughter support, but gives alittle girl support who is
talking to my daughter this way because she's going through
(46:34):
something too. It's not just how dare you bully
my kid. No, what are what's going on
with you that makes you feel like you need to talk to
somebody because hurt people hurt people.
And so she's going through something that she needs help
and resources and tools too. So, and it's same for dogs,
right? We need to they give everybody a
little bit more grace and help people where they are.
(46:56):
And hopefully, like we talk about if we start interacting,
continue to interact with peoplein that way, I really do hope
that we will get to a point where that is kind of the
majority and that is how people are moving through the world.
And people who do terrible things and don't treat people
well will be called out because no, no, we don't do that here.
That's not how we work in this place.
(47:19):
And so that's my hope. I think that that's a really
great message to leave the listeners with tonight too, is
that try to look at the bigger picture.
Don't, don't focus on this is hurting me or this is my dog is
hurting or my dog is behaving this way or my child is behaving
this way. Acknowledge it.
Figure out what the root problemis and then again, go back to
(47:40):
that root problem, Go back to that original source and try to
remedy it. Change the feelings, change the
reactions, change the behavior, and now we've created this
positive circle of emotions and treatment and interactions that
now has a better outcome for everyone.
I really, really hope that your stuff's getting bullied.
That's. That's just so.
(48:02):
She I have. Always really struggled not
being the stay at home mom and letting my little birds fly out
of the nest because I am such a very strongly written advocation
in all the ways right consents sticking up herself all the
things. But I can't do it for her
anymore. I need her to do it.
And so we've been talking a lot.We've been doing a lot of
role-playing and she stood up for herself today to the and
(48:25):
said I don't appreciate that you're talking to me this way.
I would really like to be your friend.
And guess what, they were reading a book together by the
end of the. Day.
That's amazing, yes. And so I'm hoping that not only
is it going to change the treatment that my daughter is
dealing with, but it's going to help the girl learn that you
don't have to be mean to people for to get attention.
(48:46):
Whatever it is that she's going through, she can hopefully see
that there's a better way and you can bond with people and you
can have really good relationships with people.
And now it's almost a challenge to my daughter where she's like,
let's go. I want to be your friend even
more now. And I'm going to we always say
use your powers for good. I love that and and that that's
so applicable to life in general.
(49:07):
Use your powers for good. Raise better children, raise
better dogs, be better people, treat others with kindness and
do what you can do to make a better space around you so that
other people want to be part of that.
And I think that that is the message 24/7.
Always. I do too.
(49:27):
Is there anything else you want to leave the listeners with
tonight? I don't think.
So I think it's all connected and it's just kindness.
Just choose kindness. That's all we can do and that's
all we should do. All right, well.
Plug your business, tell everybody where they can find
you and how to get in contact with you, and if they're
interested in adopting a dog in the Austin area, how they can
get in touch. With you amazing.
(49:49):
So you can find me for my treatsat wild Wolf Pack treats,
WILDWOLFE treats and then if youwant to talk about maybe finding
an animal, even if you're not inAustin, I would love to try
working with you to match me. You can find me at Hey dot good
dog dogs and I would love to help.
And my website is the same wild wolf facttreats.com.
(50:10):
Thank you so much, Emily. You're the best.
I absolutely love having a conversation with you and I
can't wait to have you come back.
And we hope that you guys enjoyed this episode of Straight
Up Dog Talk and we will see you guys next week.
Straight Up Dog Talk was createdby Emily Breslin.
It is edited and produced under the supervision of Straight Up
Dog Talk, LLC and Emily Breslin.If you're enjoying this podcast,
(50:34):
follow or subscribe and be sure you don't miss an episode and
leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Looking for more honest and relatable dog content?
Check out our sister show Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and
Madison Simpson. Thanks listening to Straight Up
Dog Top.
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