The Truth About Why Black Dogs Get Overlooked in Shelters

🐾 No one wanted him—just because he was black.
Now? He’s living his best life with a sassy streak and a mom who sees him for exactly who he is.

In this heartwarming episode, Em chats with Kate—guardian of Rick Ross the Boss Dawg—about the heartbreaking reality of Black Dog Syndrome, the power of rescue, and the joy of giving overlooked dogs a second chance.

💛 You’ll hear:• Why black dogs are so often ignored in shelters• Rick Ross’s transformation from forgotten to fabulous• The emotional highs and lows of working in rescue• Why advocating for misunderstood dogs matters• How rescue work heals both dogs and people

Whether you're a foster, a volunteer, or someone who simply believes every dog deserves a chance—this episode will leave you smiling (and maybe a little teary).

🎙️ Guest InfoFollow Rick Ross and Kate: @rickrossthebossdawg

🎁 This episode is sponsored by PetMatRxUse code SUDT20 to save 20% at petmatrx.comThis affiliate link supports the podcast and helps fund our RV journey 💛Follow: @petmatrx

✨ Stay ConnectedWebsite + Free Resources: straightupdogtalk.comInstagram, YouTube & TikTok: @em_lovesdogs | @straightupdogtalk

🆓 DM SUDTCONSULT on Instagram for a free training or nutrition consult

#rescuedogs #blackdogawareness #adoptdontshop #dogtrainingtips #straightupdogtalk

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today's episode is proudly sponsored and brought to you by
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This stuff works, period. Welcome to Straight Up Dog Talk,
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(00:44):
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Join us every Wednesday for unfiltered conversations, expert
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(01:05):
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from any of your favorite podcast platforms.
Welcome to straight up dog talk.I'm Em and we are back again
this week with another amazing guest.

(01:26):
This week we have Kate and Rick Ross, the boss dog.
And although you guys cannot seehim, Rick is here for the
interview and he has already given me his famous side eye and
looked absolutely adorable on camera.
But since he can't talk, we willlet Kate, his counterpart, do
the talking for him. How are you doing today?
Kate, I'm great. Thank you for having us.

(01:47):
I'm so of. Course I love your guys's
account. You guys are so funny and you
guys have so much positivity andgenerosity and just good spirit
around dogs and the community that is rescue.
And Rick just has such a cool story that I thought you could
share his story and talk a little bit what life is with

(02:08):
Rick and how that kind of catapulted you into the rest.
I'd love to. It's funny, it all started with
an Instagram post from my local shelter.
Actually it was a few years ago in them Texas.
We are a no kill city here in Austin.
The post was saying how many dogs they had, but the Porta

(02:29):
coolers, which are the air conditioning units for the
outside dogs had broken and whenthe Texas heat, it was a plea
for fosters, doctors, anybody. Not three small kids.
I have two existing dogs. I work full time so it's a
really busy household, but I hadto do something.
That post just stuck with me. So I started showing once a

(02:51):
week. I started walking what we call
Green dot dogs and anybody over the age of 18 can walk a Green
dot dog. So I didn't have a certification
or anything at that point. I would walk Green dot dogs once
a week on my lunch break and that was the start of my
contribution. We had an area called the Multi

(03:12):
purpose room and it was just lined with dog.
Rick was one of the dogs in the multi purpose room and he was a
Green dot dog so I was able to walk him and I remember a
volunteer telling me this dog isso good, he is such a love, he's
so easy to walk and there's justbeen no interest in him.

(03:33):
His name was Graham Mercy at theDelta.
My encounter with Rick, my startof walking dogs on my lunch
break, really spearheaded a whole charge of me wanting to
become an actual volunteer but then also learning more about
black dogs in the shelter systemand black dog syndrome.
Honestly, that was the start. I walked him on my lunch break

(03:53):
one day and I fell in love and although we were not going to
foster or adopt, he came home with us.
Well, I think it's just so cool.It started because of a need and
you were like, how can I figure out a way where I can fill this
need a little bit? I lived in Texas for almost 10
years. I know it gets hot there.

(04:14):
I didn't live in the Austin area.
I lived in the Dallas area, but it gets hot there and I
experienced probably some of theworst things in Texas.
When I lived in Texas. That's when I was a vet tech and
I worked in a couple areas rightoutside of Dallas.
But the worst was Cedar Hill. It's right in between the poor
area of Dallas and then more outskirt areas of the city.

(04:36):
And people brought dogs with prom collars embedded in their
necks because they had been leftin their yard by the owner
chained to a tree. And somebody finally got fed up
because they hadn't had water for two days.
I saw some really awful things. Hoarding cases, shelter,
overpopulation, puppy mill situations.
Just really, really see it all there.

(04:59):
Now, Iowa is not much better because we have the same problem
here. We have lots of farms, and we
have an Amish community and theyjust kind of breed dogs Willy
nilly. But then we have all these farm
areas where people just dump dogs.
I have a friend who quite regularly picks up litters of
puppies from the farm field behind her house to take them to

(05:21):
the shelter because there's justpuppies roaming everywhere.
Now, as far as I know, Iowa is not really as entrenched in the
overpopulation problem that is currently happening, but I do
know a couple of rescues here have been helping import dogs
from other states because we do have space and we have available
fosters. But it is just such a difficult

(05:43):
situation. So I love that you went to do
something about it even though it was only one day a week on
your lunch. And you can only start with the
green dot dogs. I remember that the green dot,
yellow dot, red dot. I don't know if you guys have
orange dogs too. We had orange dogs as well.
You might want to be careful, but you don't need the Kevlar
for this one. We have quite a few different
colors. We have a purple for shy dogs

(06:05):
who I adore shy dogs. I really like going slow and
sitting with them. I really enjoy that.
So we do have some different color situations with some
yellows and oranges and different things.
But no, you're right. I work in the healthcare field.
So during COVID was really a struggle for me and I almost
felt a little disconnected from my community in a sense.

(06:26):
I'm a big believer and I live here.
I give here. And how can you make a
difference? And it seems locally is the way
that you really can make a difference.
So that was one reason. Also, I kind of made a promise
to myself, I'm going to keep showing up.
And after I did Green Dots for long time, I officially signed
up to be in a real volunteer andI did all of that training.

(06:47):
And then after that I decided tobe an ICU volunteer and I did
that training. It's really cool because I do
think that every dog has a storyand sometimes the story is not
told or sometimes you only see aintake photo of a dog.
But I think telling a dog story is really, really important.
And I asked a shelter if they would be interested in doing a

(07:10):
collab reel with me every Fridayof the dog I walked that week.
And again, it's not always my lunch break.
I miss dinner, sometimes I miss bedtime.
I have small children. I have to make sacrifices.
But the shelter started doing a collabriel with me every Friday
and we just highlight the dog I walked.
And I would love to save them all and I wish I could, but we

(07:32):
can't. I'm hopeful that I will make a
small difference locally. And that's what my goal is.
It's been really fun because I've been able to also include
my kids, so I present at their school why I'm a volunteer and
classes will draw photos of dog and write persuasive letters on

(07:52):
why you should adopt the dogs. It's really incredible because
it forms the sense of community where these kids learn about
these shelter dogs. I am able to hang up the photos
on their kennels. It also helps to increase their
kennel presence. It's really cool.
Now I'm the dog mom at the school and everyone knows that
Miss Kate loves dogs. But it's neat because I can also

(08:16):
follow up with kids. They ask me, hey, how's my dog?
And it's really nice because kids get really into it.
But also when I'm not home, I think it's really important for
my kids to know what I'm doing and where I am and why
volunteering is so important andwhy taking care of animals is so
important and how children treatanimals is so important.

(08:39):
So all of it has honestly been one of the the most rewarding
things that I've done. And then adopt this silly guy
with such a personality. OK, first.
Yes to all of that, but also addon there you're teaching your
children and other people's children's that it's OK to be
passionate about something and it's OK to do something about

(09:00):
what you're passionate about. And I don't think that that's a
lesson that gets translated wellor often enough with kids
because the whole let kids be kids, gentle parenting, all of
the arguments that people have about how we raise kids
nowadays. But I don't think that we teach
kids to be passionate about things to, to be happy about the

(09:21):
things they love, to share the things that they love and to get
involved. And so I think what you're doing
is really important. So glad that you mentioned the
drawings on the kennel because I've been saving this question
for you for months and months and months and months about
these drawings. Do the people who adopt the dogs
get to keep the drawings? They do, yes.
I love that so much. Yeah.

(09:43):
So what's really special is whenyou walk into the shelter right
now, there are some of the drawings on the wall and it's
because those dogs are in foster.
So they haven't been adopted yet, but they are in foster.
And so it's nice because we've held on to those.
And so they're on display as soon as you walk in.
But yes, when they are adopted, they get to keep that.

(10:06):
Also, we've had some dogs transferred to different rescue
communities and the photos go there too.
We've had two recent dogs that were transferred to a different
rescue, Austin Pets Alive, and their drawings are also on their
kennels there, which I think is just really special too.
Love. It, I love it.
I love it. I think that is just so cool.
I don't even remember how long ago it was, but I saw that reel

(10:29):
where you show the row of kennels and they all had the
drawings and you were kind of zooming in on them and it was so
cute. I think it's fun to see how
differently kids interpret things and how different all of
the drawings were, but yet how much of the dogs personality you
could see in the pictures that the kids had drawn.
I just think it's so cute and itreally is one of those things.

(10:49):
If I go into a kennel, it's not a fun place to go in.
Let's just be honest, going intoa rescue is not fun.
It is not fun to walk down that row of dogs, see them sad or
barking, lunging, curled up in the corner, shaking.
It's not fun to see that guys. It's not.
If you've never been into a rescue, I highly encourage that

(11:10):
you go and at least experience what walking through a rescue is
like because it is not necessarily the most wonderful
rainbows and sunshine experienceyou will ever have in your life.
Now, getting the dog out in the play yard and getting 1 to
interact with you and having a good experience, experience out
there, that's a 5052. Sometimes it's good, sometimes

(11:30):
it's not. But having that little bit of
extra, that little bit of happiness and look at this
adorable dog that has this cute drawing and crayon or paint or
colored pencil or whatever it happens to be just brightens up
the whole thing. And it makes it seem a little
bit more approachable because I think a lot of families or just

(11:51):
people in general going into rescues don't know what they're
walking into. Yeah, I always say don't judge
dog by their kennel presence. One of the biggest pieces of
advice that was given to me is it's all, it's all about
perspective. So if you're looking at the
dog's perspective and they've been in the kennel all day and
they see someone and they start jumping on the kennel, the

(12:11):
perspective of I am so excited to see you, I am so happy you're
here. I am so excited.
I'm gonna jump. Of course they are.
But if you think of that perspective versus a dog just
sitting there, then I think it really changes things when you
talk about the emotions of the shelter, that's really real.
I cry all the time and sometimesthey're happy tears, sometimes

(12:33):
they're sad tears. But in the area of perspective,
I always think, and this dog gotout today because of me.
And that's the perspective I need, right?
Like what an extra walk. And it's that perspective for
me, which has made the shelter avery joyful experience versus a
sad experience. And it can be, there's a, we
have a lot of dogs. It feels like a spinning wheel,

(12:57):
like maybe I'm not making a difference sometimes, but it's
that perspective of the dog I took out yesterday, got some
extra playtime. And that's just me and you,
buddy. I also tell people I think it's
really important to figure out what you're passionate about and
what fills your bucket. And that fills my bucket.
Taking a dog out, meeting a new dog, loving on a dog that really

(13:18):
fills my bucket and has brought out a different layer of passion
for me. But it's something only I have,
right? Because being a working parent,
sometimes you lose that perspective of what am I
passionate about? What am I doing?
And this is my passion. I like that I can share my
passion with other people. And so it can be a really sad

(13:39):
place and it can be a place where you show up with like
minded people who love animals and want to do something
different. And that's the perspective that
I like to go in with, and that'swhy I show up every.
Week. I think that's fantastic.
It is. It is a hard thing to do week
after week after week after weekbecause you do you do feel like

(14:00):
your wheels are spinning and youdo feel like this is really
helping. And that's where I decided to
shift out of working directly with animals and shelters and
pet sitting and all that kind ofstuff into focusing on training
and doing the podcast because there is so much need for
education out there and there isso much need for the Instagram

(14:22):
versus reality barrier to come down.
And I think that unfortunately with today's culture, a lot of
people get on Instagram and theysee this dog and they think this
dog is perfect and this dog is beautiful.
And this dog fits my vibe and all of these things.
It'll look great on my couch. And all of a sudden now it's
true. It's true.
You're laughing, but I know you know it's true because people

(14:47):
have turned dogs into an aesthetic.
And then now all of a sudden they have this beautiful border
collie because they liked the way that it looked and they felt
like it was fit into their idea of what I'm going to use quote
hit air quotes here. Their idea of what their home
life should look like. Because we're not just talking
about aesthetic. We're talking about checking

(15:08):
boxes on a list too, right? People this with the house, the
fence, the dog, the cars, the kids, everybody's got a hair a
certain way, clothes a certain way, all the things, right?
We're checking all of these boxes.
So we get a dog that looks a certain way because it gives us
the family look or it gives us the single girl look or gives us

(15:28):
the macho dude look or whatever it is that we're trying to go
for. And now we have this dog that we
don't know what to do with because it's got all these crazy
behaviors and we don't know how to manage them.
And the next thing you know, nowyou are dealing with that dog
and having to try to find a homefor that dog and trying to make
the world a better place and make a difference for that dog.

(15:49):
Because somebody did not educatethemselves.
They followed Instagram or TikTok or YouTube and saw this
dog that they thought was perfect for their lifestyle, but
didn't actually do any research when it came to the dog.
And it's a problem. I'm laughing because I just
wonder what people think about our family.
We are, we are very far from perfect, but we accept chaos and

(16:12):
we appreciate it. You know what's interesting
though? What you said about education is
I, I've had dogs my entire life and I thought I knew so much
about dogs. And then I started volunteering
at an animal shelter and I was like, wow, I don't just the
amount of information I have learned being a volunteer is
just wild. And although this second we

(16:33):
adopted Rick, we got a trainer as well and proper training.
And it's really neat because some of the training that I was
able to use on Rick pattern games, things like that, all
incorporate at the shelter. And I not a trainer, but I will
use the same tricks and games and stuff to, I can start doing

(16:54):
that with dogs at the shelter before they leave the shelter.
Education is huge. And I think that's a part that
skipped over a lot because I didthink I knew a lot about dogs.
And I can't tell you how much I've learned about dogs since I
started volunteering. And Rick obviously has a lot to
teach us. He does.
Have a lot to teach us and whilewe're on the education piece,

(17:15):
I'm going to plug this really quick.
Kim Brophy, I believe it was episode 48 or 49.
She is a specialist in the worldof animal science, behavior,
ethology, and she wrote a book called Meet Your dog.
For the longest time it's been free on Audible.
I don't know if it's still free on Audible, but if you guys have
not read Meet Your Dog by Kim Brophy, it is absolutely a 100%.

(17:39):
I recommend every single one of my training clients read this
book because the first few chapters talk about dog behavior
and how we expect our dogs as dogs to fit into human society,
and dogs were not built for human society.
And it talks a lot about expectations versus actual
behavior and how finding the right blend of those things is

(18:01):
super, super important. But then the last several
chapters of the book breaks downeach type of dogs, gun dogs,
herding dogs, guardian dogs, andyou really get an in depth view
of what each breed really looks like.
And it's cool because as I'm listening to this book and she
gets to the combination of breeds that fits is because he's

(18:23):
got about 7 or 8 different breeds in him and she's listing
off the things that you might see in behavior for this breed
of dogs. And I'm like, Yep, Yep, yeah,
that too. Well, so I was a vet tech for 10
years. I've been working with animals,
whether it's pet sitting dog training or as a vet tech for 30
years. And I am still learning every

(18:46):
single day. And I think that in the dog
world, you have to be learning all of the time because we're
not learning, we're not evolving.
And we can't be better for our dogs if we're not willing to put
ourselves out there and find that education piece and then
try to advocate that education piece for everyone else.
And when you talk about part of the education piece is relating

(19:08):
it to humans. I tell people, have you liked
every single human you've ever met?
In truth, you vibe with some people, you don't vibe with some
people do. Have you liked every single
person you've ever met? Probably not.
So why do we expect the same fordogs?
That was one of the things when I started at the shelter, It's
OK. Not every dog has to like every

(19:28):
dog. And that was something that I
learned where that's OK, that's OK to have your own opinions,
that is OK to listen to what they're trying to tell you.
It's all about having tools in your toolbox also.
And what tools do you have to help make your dog the best dog
your dog can be? And it was really important for

(19:49):
me to try to learn all the toolsI can for Rick, but the dogs who
I'm just meeting every single week.
So I just think education is huge.
And I love everything you pointed.
I also just added that book to my cart, so thank you.
I am such a big, big person to push that book because it was a
lot of light bulb moments for me.
And I actually took her course, her legs course, which is

(20:14):
learning environment, genetics and self.
And it talks about each individual layer of those in the
dogs. And basically it just hit on a
lot of what you said, which is dogs learn behavior, but it
depends on their environments, it depends on their genetics,
and it also depends on them as an individual.
I think that if more people could see dogs as an individual

(20:35):
it would change things. Your point to not every dog has
to like every other dog. Not every dog likes walks.
Not every dog likes to play fetch.
Also one thing that bothers me alot is that I want my dog to
look at me thing. Yes I want my dog to look in my
direction to tell me. Yes I'm paying attention to you.
But it is weird. I'm sorry I'm going to swear

(20:55):
it's weird as fuck when somebodyis staring you down from across
the room. That is creepy to me.
I'm sorry. I don't like it.
So why would would you want to do that to your dog or force
your dog to do that to you? I just think it's so weird and I
don't like kids. I don't like it.
Again, another human expectationthat we're putting on our dogs,

(21:16):
but not thinking it all the way through, which is it's wild to
me. I don't know.
It's it's wild. So let's talk about our little
buddy now, Mr. Rick, because I know that he is just an absolute
sweetheart. He's a total Velcro dog.
He is your personal assistant. He does all kinds of things with
my favorite was the Dodo. Was that what it was recently?

(21:39):
Great dogs. Oh great dogs yes.
That was my absolute favorite was the re rate dogs because
just like pushing himself acrossthe room in the chair, that was
the most passive aggressive thing I have ever seen a dog do
and it made me laugh. He is just such a unique special
guy. Fitz is a very unique dog too.

(22:00):
He's just too Dang smart. And that's where the hurting
breed in him comes in. Because I have tried and tried
and tried and tried to figure out how to turn off the noise
that your camera makes when you start hitting record.
That little beep that your phonemakes, because as soon as he
hears it, behavior changes. He's done.
Can't catch it on camera. I would have to leave my phone

(22:21):
recording like 12 hours a day inorder to catch some of the crazy
stuff that he does to be able toput it on Instagram and be like,
look at what a weirdo my dog is.Rick is just like, here I am.
Let me show you how I am. You know what's funny is he does
stuff like this all the time andhe sits with me every day next

(22:41):
to me at work. When I'm on work calls he's
right next to me and I didn't know how strange it was, I guess
because it's just normal for us.So he started scooting towards
me too. So in that video he's scooting
away from me. I actually got 1 today where
he's scooting towards me which is hilarious.
So hopefully people won't be madat me anymore since he's learned

(23:03):
that trick. He is a character and I didn't
realize how funny he was. It just happened to catch the
moment. But I was like, well, he does
this stuff all the time. I think it's.
Great. When did you first notice?
Because let's talk a little bit about the decompression stages.
You bring him home and I've heard so many terrible, horrible
stories about how people get a dog and they keep it for less

(23:25):
than 24 hours and they're automatically surrendering it
because the dog did this or it peed on the floor, it tore this
up or it wouldn't get in the caror whatever other horrible.
You're basically taking an animal that was
institutionalized. It has no social skills or came
from a really bad situation previously and it's nervous.
So we have got three days, threeweeks, three months situation

(23:47):
where it's so many days to get to here, so many weeks to get to
here, and then so many months toget to here.
And bringing a dog into your home, you have to kind of let
their personality unfurl, so to speak.
And so I would love to hear about what it was like with Rick
and how he unfurled in to this lovable little house.
Hippo. Sure.

(24:07):
It was a disaster when we brought him home.
It was. And that's the thing.
That is why I think 333 is so important and giving a dog the
chance to decompress is so important because he ate through
his crate and he was a crate dogat the shelter.
So he was telling me something and then he ate my husband's

(24:30):
computer all within 24 hours. So we also needed to manage our
expectations of, OK, this is a lot for this guy here at our
house too. So let's make sure instead of a
crate, we're going to make sure that Rick has a very special
safe area where he knows that heis safe and special and can be

(24:51):
by himself and get some rest andcome out when he's ready.
I also will say that AB Gates will save your life when you
bring a new dog home. And we had two existing dogs.
So we all the sudden had three dogs and three small children.
Having to not only learn the dogs interactions, but then also

(25:12):
I needed to go through all of that with my children as well to
make sure that they know how to respectfully be around a dog and
they know how to respectfully touch a dog, talk to a dog, how
to go up to a dog, All of the things which we highlight every
single day. Just yesterday I was walking

(25:34):
Rick with one of my kids and they said why does he turn
around and look at you? And I said let's talk about it
every three to four steps. I always say Ricks name on a
walk just to make sure he's engaged with me because I don't
know if if there's going to be an off leash dog, I don't know
what's going to happen while I'mwalking.
But you know what? I can control my walk with Rick

(25:55):
and I can control making sure that him and I are having a good
connection. Every three to four steps I'll
say, hey, he'll look at me, I'llgive him a little treat and
we'll keep going. And I got to explain that to my
kids. This is the connection that we
have and you can see it, can't you?
Isn't that cool? And it's neat because they can
see the connection you have withyour dogs.
I think that's really awesome. I think that that's raising a

(26:17):
child who's going to go on laterin their life and already know
that they have to build that connection with their dog.
That wasn't something when I wasa kid.
That wasn't how it was. We had a golden retriever and we
were like The Sandlot kids, right?
Like we just, we played in the park across the street.
My sister and I were the only girls really in the

(26:38):
neighborhood. There was one girl that was a
little bit older, but she didn'tplay with us.
All the other kids were boys. We played baseball and football
and kickball and we did all the things.
And then we all had dogs and ourdogs would just kind of like
hang out with us, but they weren't like leash trained and
they didn't know how to check inon walks.
It was totally different. Dogs were totally different when

(26:59):
I was a kid. Family dogs were there, but dogs
were kind of just allowed to exist as dogs.
They weren't so cornered and quartered and trained and
everybody wasn't so nitpicky about what their dogs were
doing. If their dog was chewing a stick
in the yard, that was fine. People weren't freaking out
about it. So I think that it's really
great that that's something thatyou can share with your kids.
We do the same thing. Fitz is not a dog that likes

(27:22):
walks, which is why I said that earlier.
He does not like walks, but we occasionally go because he needs
to retain the leash skills. He needs to know how to use
those leash skills for things like when we go to the vet or if
there's an emergency or if we dodecide to travel or something
like that, he needs to be able to have those skills.
Our check in Word is hey, and every so often I say hey and

(27:42):
he'll turn around and he'll comeback and get a treat.
And it's really important to keep your dog engaged because
you don't know. We had an incident last summer
where we were walking around theneighborhood and I don't know if
a new family moved into a house or if they just got new dogs or
what the situation was, but thisis a non fenced in backyard.
Neither of these dogs had collars on.
So I know that there was not an invisible fence.

(28:05):
And we he got charged by a Rottweiler and a goldendoodle.
Fortunately, because of my practice and my work and my
leash handling skills, I was able to maneuver him, put myself
in between him and run backwards.
He didn't even see the other dogs coming.
And we got away. That was quick thinking.
If you don't practice those things, yeah, you don't know how
to use those things. And again, that's another place

(28:26):
where where the education piece comes in.
Yes, yes, you're right that withthe decompression, he was
difficult. The first few days he was really
challenging. He was difficult.
It was one of those, my life is already really chaotic, what the
heck have I done? But then right after that first
period, we got into training. We did all the things and my

(28:48):
senior dog doesn't get along with Rick all the time.
So that was a new dynamic that we had to learn about.
And then we went to separate training for my other existing
dog. And it's all these different
scenarios that you learn. And that's again where I thought
I knew about dogs. And then I was like, Oh my gosh,
I have so much to learn. Fitz was that dog for me.

(29:10):
I've had other difficult scenarios in the past, but for
as far as like having a dog thatwas reactive towards people and
other dogs, totally selective about everyone in the scenario
all of the time, that was Fitz for me.
He was a light bulb dog all of the time for me.
Actually, it's something that I don't talk about a lot and I
should probably actually talk about this on Instagram.

(29:31):
Fitz does not like cats. We live in an area that has a
big backyard. We have we have possums, we have
feral cats, we have all the things in our backyard,
squirrels and Fitz chases them. My roommate has 2 cats.
Baby gates will save your life. OK, we have a stack of baby
gates. We have two screen baby gates
stacked on each other. And then there's a baby gate at
the bottom that's in front of the screen gate because Toby

(29:55):
realized that he could get underthe screen gate and get into the
cat box and eat the poop. So we had to put up another
barrier so that Toby couldn't dothat.
Now my roommate wants to get a kitten and I'm.
Well, then we're going to have to do something totally
different than this mishmash thing that we have going on here
because kittens are liquid. And the last thing I want is for
a kitten to come upstairs and for there to be a dead kitten

(30:17):
because my dog does not like cats.
Yeah, that's something that we've been going back and forth
on. And I think the best solution is
to install a door because I don't even know that the highest
baby gate would help us because kittens are kittens.
But it's one of those things where you bring a dog into a
house, you have to figure out what those concessions are.
Toby didn't like Fitz at first either.

(30:37):
And Fitz was a puppy when I brought him in.
Toby was like, no, thank you. So I totally get it.
He wasn't quite a senior dog at that point, but he was close.
Yeah. And it's a lifestyle change.
So I think that it's great that you were ready to tackle it,
even though it was a lot. I commend you.
Three dogs, 3 kids. That's that's a handful.
That's a lot. When I was married, I had two
kids and three dogs and two cats.

(30:59):
And then we had an arrangement of small animals on top of that.
And it's it's a lot. It's a lot of work to take care
of all of that. So for you to do all that and
volunteer on top of it is fantastic.
So you started training with Rick.
What did that look like? How did he do with the training?
Was he good right away? He did.
Fantastic. Yeah, when we started, after the

(31:20):
initial decompression phase, hispersonality started to
highlight. And he is a lazy.
He is a couch potato. He likes to sunbathe, but he's
not stubborn at all. He just loves his people, loves
his people. And he's quite lazy.
He wants his daily walk. It's funny because the

(31:40):
neighborhood dogs are out walking at 8:00 AM.
They're going, going, going. And I'm like, oh, Rick doesn't
wake up till 11. He knows what's up.
He's a lunch break kind, Yes, yes.
But that's when his personality really started shining.
It was our trainers who also helped notice that something was
wrong with Rick's leg and they noticed our very first

(32:01):
appointment that he had a torn CCL.
But it was our trainers who caught that, which is also why
that, you know, trainers are so valuable and we're so amazing
for us. I didn't know he had a torn CCL,
but he did. We were able to get surgery, but
that halted some of our trainingand we had to modify some of the
training also based on his leg. And even though it's healed, we

(32:22):
still modify some of the training.
We just had an alumni meet up a few weeks ago, which was really
fun. We did some scent work at
different stations and got to rotate so the dogs were able to
have different scent stations and some agility things and it
was really cool. It was really great.
He did great with training. He did great with training.
I think part of the training forhim was also training me and I

(32:46):
think that's also really important because he will catch
on to it really well. But I think a lot of it is also
training your human and making sure that they understand and
buy in of why you're doing certain things and the science
behind it. But it was great.
He goes with me to school pick up every day.

(33:07):
After the initial decompression phase, his personality really
started to shine. And then some of his little bad
behaviors with some of his little naughty behaviors like
demand barking, which we're working on right now because
boy, I tell you, if you feed this boy at 5:01 instead of
5:00, he will tell you he is happy with the service that is

(33:28):
provided in this house. It's.
So funny when dogs have those little quirks, it's just
personality, right? It's the same.
It's the same as me. Somebody might think that
something I do is weird, but somebody else might think that
it's funny and then somebody else thinks it's normal, right?
So again, like you said earlier,it's all about perspective and
how you look at those things. And I think that taking your dog

(33:51):
at face value and just kind of letting your dog be whoever they
are is one of the best things, things that we can do for our
dogs because that's when we learn the most about them is
just by letting them do those weird little things.
And OK, so maybe we don't like the demand barking.
I'm not a huge fan of the demandbarking either.
My big thing with Fitz right nowis I had to rearrange the the

(34:12):
living room area that I record the podcast in because where I
had the desk positioned originally, you can see it, the
listeners can't see it behind me.
I was speaking into that large echoey void right back there.
And so the audio quality was notsuper were great.
And so I was like, OK, well, nowI have to switch the whole room
around, which put the couch right in front of the window.
Not ideal when you have a dog that doesn't like anything that

(34:35):
moves because he's a hurting breed that's alert barking at
everything. So I put a window film on my
windows so that we can keep him from barking out of the window
because the mailman's coming out, the Amazon's coming out,
somebody's walking by with theirdog or just somebody's randomly
going for a run. He would bark at all of that
stuff. So I put up the window, but I

(34:56):
only put it up on the bottom window, thinking if he can't see
it, he's not going to bark at it.
No, he's too smart. Now he just puts his little paws
up on the window sill and peeks out over the top half of the
window. So now I'm going to have to put
window film over the top half ofthe windows so that he can't do
that. Does he have a bark too?
Doesn't he? He sounds scary.
He. Sounds scary is Rick.

(35:19):
He only demand barks at 501 otherwise the guy doesn't bark.
My senior dog does bark, but Rick is more just like a I must
be near you, sit next to you andthen just looks out the window
while I'm working. Got his own little job at his
own little desk. I wish Fitz would just lookout
the window while. I was working fair, fair.

(35:40):
I know he's. Like, oh, that thing is
happening and I don't like it. And I'm like, dude, that thing
is happening, it's fine. You know, he gets angry about
it. You.
Know what's funny is one of the things in training we are still
working on actually is helping Rick gain some of his own
confidence because he does have to sit next to me working in a

(36:02):
chair. He does have to be so close to
me. And although he doesn't bark, he
needs that. So we are working on that
confidence of can Rick be in a room without mom?
And I know people joke, oh, yourdog follows you to the bathroom
and like, yes. But like Rick also comes into
the shower. So we are really working on the
confidence of him going and relaxing in another room by

(36:25):
himself and not seeing me for a few minutes.
We're trying different techniques just to build his own
confidence because he looks so confident as this boss dog
wearing his Sonny's and his outfits.
But. And his gold chain.
And his gold chain. Gold chain.
But that's one of the things we're learning actually in
training, is just to give him his own confidence.

(36:46):
And I'm trying to help him buildhis confidence of things he can
do without me. And I'm like, you can do it,
buddy. I don't want to step on your toe
here at your trainer's toes hereat all because I hate to do
that, but have you guys done anydoggie parkour activities with
him at all? No, you guys should try that.
Well, we can have a conversationabout that later, but doggy
parkour is a super fun way that you can build confidence and a

(37:11):
little bit of independence. And really you don't need
anything special. You can do it on your furniture
and all kinds of things like that.
So for example, if I wanted to set up a little obstacle course
in my house, I would pull out the chairs from the dining room
table and then I would take the bench and I would put it in the
hallway. And then we have an agility hoop
that he can jump through. So I would put him in the

(37:32):
starting position and then I would run him down the hallway
and then he would have to run back around, get on top of the
bench, run down the bench. And then he would go over and
under all of the chairs around the table.
And then he would jump through his hoop.
And then he would end in a little finish and he would have
to lay down when he was done. And he would just get treats all
the way around to kind of lure him through the course.

(37:53):
But that up and down motion and that over under motion.
And that's really confident building.
And you can also do that on yourwalks.
So if you're walking down the sidewalk and has a giant rock in
their yard or something and they're not going to freak out
if your dog jumps on top of the rock, you can have him jump up
on the rock and then you can continue walking down the
sidewalk. And then when you come back, you

(38:14):
can walk around times and then jump on it.
So you can just make your own little obstacle course
challenges for him to do, which builds his confidence in
exploring new things and that helps with confidence boost as
well. That's a good idea.
I haven't thought about that. Thank you.
Yeah, I hope if you guys do it, take some video, send me what's
going on. I'd love to see it posted on
Instagram. I would love to see Rick getting

(38:35):
a little funky on the obstacle course.
I think he would be a lot of funto watch.
Well, part of me has an idea of me setting up an obstacle course
in our house and showing him andthen him just looking at me and
being like, lady, you do it verywreck thing to do.
I'm just going to sit here actually, and just watch.
You do it, lady. If there's treats, though, make
sure you have really good treatsbecause that then they

(38:59):
participate. Yeah, my little dog Toby is
like, I'm good. I'm 13 or 14 years old, I'm
good. But the second I pull out the
treats, he will get on the pad and he will walk around in the
circle and he will jump off. He's learned that we have the
training mat out on the porch. And when I work on certain
things with Fitz, we use the elevated place mat on the porch.

(39:21):
And Toby the little creeper willsit in the window and just put
his face up against the glass and he'll just stare at us.
Like I see that there is treats happening out there.
And so then I'll let Fitz out into the yard, and then I'll let
Toby come out onto the porch, and Toby will go and sit on the
mat. And then he'll just sit there
and look at me like, OK, where are the treats?
I'm here. I'm doing the thing.

(39:42):
He does not realize. There's so much more happening
than just sitting on the rats. It's so funny.
I'm. Ready.
Give me all the treats. I'm ready.
Let's go. Besides the chair thing, because
that's probably my favorite thing, that's an image I will
have in my head forever. It's Ritz scooping across the
floor. But knowing that he gets in the
shower with you is also pretty funny.

(40:03):
Although. Obviously you don't appreciate
it. It's pretty funny, but tell us
some of the other funny things that Rick does.
He's a creature of habit, so youcan find him if he's not sitting
next to me. He is sitting in the exact same
spot on the couch every single day.
But he tucks his head in betweenthe pillows.
So when you look at him, it's like the meme of it's too much.

(40:25):
He can't face the day ever. He's just constantly making me
laugh because of the things thathe tries to do.
But he is he's creature of habit.
He is either right there or he'sright here next to me.
But he does have a hard time facing the day.
He always has the judgmental face of some kind.
He also sleeps with his eyes open and storms.

(40:48):
And so I'm like, are you awake? Are you asleep?
Are you awake? Are you?
And. So.
We have to try to figure that out.
And I'm like, well, the tongue is out.
I think he's asleep. But yeah, he sleeps with his
eyes open, which is kind of strange.
Gosh, what else does he do? I mean, he's just just such a
character. He is.
He's just. Goofy.
That's what I love about him. Rick and Thor from Mythological

(41:11):
Dogs, I don't know if you followthat.
They've been on the podcast twice now.
I absolutely love them. They're one of my very favorite
people to follow on Instagram. I love what they do.
I'm also in a biracial marriage and so I think it's really cool
and they're awesome. I am a big fan of theirs.
Yeah, they're incredible and they're doing big things for the

(41:32):
rescue community too. It's so special to see that they
have some big, big things comingup know they're fostering dogs
now at home, have five dogs of their own and now they're
bringing in all these foster dogs too, which is just really
cool to see. I think it's really neat how
each account that I follow is doing something that's so

(41:52):
incredible. It's so cool to see what an
amazing diverse community we have and how much of a
difference that UN account can make just by fostering a dog, by
walking dogs on their lunch break, by saving a black dog.
And you mentioned that earlier about the black dog syndrome.
It's the same with cats. And honestly, I don't get it.

(42:15):
I don't understand it. My dogs have been all different
colors. I haven't had a single dog that
looked the same, but some peopleare very specific about that.
I don't know if that's a aesthetic thing or if it's a
preference thing or what. There's a little superstition
actually with black dogs and Black Cats.
It doesn't really make sense, but I think it's just been a
passed down thing. If you look at the dogs that are

(42:38):
portrayed, even in Harry Potter,it was a black dog.
It's how it's portrayed sometimes of it being a black
dog. And it's funny because I will
probably only adopt black now. I'm trying to highlight only
black dogs this month for Black Dog Syndrome Awareness Month.
There are so many black dogs whoare absolutely wonderful,
incredible, amazing dogs waitingfor their forever home.

(43:01):
Some say they don't photograph as well.
There are a lot of reasons. But again, it was something I
just didn't know until I startedvolunteering.
And that's one of the things that I learned about.
I had no idea that black dogs were adopted less than other
dogs. But yeah, I've, I've known about
it for a long time, like back into the vet tech years.

(43:21):
Yeah. And the surrender rate is higher
and all that stuff. It just never made any sense to
me. I had an all black German
Shepherd and she was a beautifuldog.
I'm one of those people, though,that I am not a doggist person,
which is racism for dogs. That's what we always called it
when I was in the veterinary world.
We called it doggism. It's just, it's one of those

(43:41):
things where people are selective about the breed, the
color, the size, all of the things.
And I can't tell you how many times I would be taking
something to the front desk or answering the phone for
somebody. And we would have a client come
in and they would see a pit bullor a Rottweiler or a German
Shepherd in the waiting room. And they'd throw open the door.

(44:02):
And they would say, can that doggo into a room so I can bring my
dog in? And I would just be like, this
dog is not doing anything. What is your deal?
And of course, they would have like this teeny tiny little
small dog. That was probably actually the
problem because it's usually howit goes.
But there's so much misinformation.
Uneducated and then fear mongering when it comes to those

(44:23):
breeds of dogs, the colors of dogs, all the things like that.
Because we could just be nice toeach other as people, and maybe
we could be nice to dogs too. There is a book called Pitbull
Actually, and it's a phenomenal book, but it goes into a lot of
the history of why and how the misinformation has spread and
where it started from and the scientific evidence about dogs.

(44:48):
It's a really good book for any dog person.
I recommend it a lot. I do always keep learning
because when I walked in the shelter, I didn't know anything
about bully breeds. And here I am two years later
when we're talking about Instagram.
It's funny because I like to saythat we found the happy spot on
the Internet and there are definitely some unkind people,

(45:08):
but there are some really kind people spreading true
information and spreading positivity and trying to make a
difference. It's been really, really cool to
connect. I actually met the account.
Polo. The pity, yeah.
She was on the podcast too Mollywhen she sent me a.
Message and was like would you like to meet in person and I was

(45:29):
like I would love to meet in person and I shelter to the
shelter. It was amazing.
It's really cool the type of connections you can also make
with other people, other brands.It's just been honestly a joy
connecting with other people on different rescues and trying to
support your friends who are nowfostering or trying to support

(45:51):
people in different cities. That has been such a joy, a
positive part of the Internet, versus I try to stay away from
everything else. Yeah, no, I completely agree.
I am very invested in the Dogstergram world and not
anywhere other exploration at all.
I might check out some horses orsome funny cat videos, but
really just keep me in the animal realm because I don't

(46:13):
care about the rest of it. That's my happy place.
I have had the same experience here with the podcast as well.
Just the number of people getting involved with meeting
people like you and just having these fun conversations and
sharing information. And now you have given me a book
that I can read because I had never heard of that book.
And that's where it's important because as long as we're having
these conversations and we're learning from each other, then

(46:35):
we are doing the work. And that's why I started this
podcast is because I think that it's easy to learn from
listening to the podcast, easy to listen to this episode and
learn about black dog syndrome. It's easy to learn about Meet
Your Dog and Pitbull, and it's easy to learn these are some
starting places. And these are two people that we
can reach out to and know that we're not going to get judged if

(46:56):
we have questions, right? That's really important because
I think there are plenty of accounts out there that there is
a lot of negativity on, and you can't reach out to those people
because you don't trust them. And that's what I'm trying to
tell people. This is a safe place.
Yeah, You can trust me. You can trust my guests.
You can trust that if you have questions that somebody will be

(47:17):
there to answer them. It's all about the good stuff,
right? I remember when I stumbled upon
your account, it was I think right after you had got Rick and
it was you trying to figure out where he fit in your life and
stuff and then slowly just kind of unfolds into this silly
little dog. And it was just really cool.
And also when he started wearingthe gold chain, that was kind of

(47:38):
just it for me because I was like this dog, He looks like
he's just the coolest dude on the planet and he is fine with
it. And I love it.
I love that you were able to give that to him and I love that
you were able to see that and somany other dogs and just kind of
help you find a new home. What you're doing is so cool.
And I hope that you will let it continue to fill your cup and

(48:01):
not let it pull you down and drain you, because I know that
there are things that happen in the rescue world that are not
ideal and it's hard to watch. It is.
Yeah, it is. It's hard.
The whole reason I started the account, I didn't think I was
gonna ever have an Instagram. I don't know what I'm doing.
I still joke that I have no ideawhat I'm doing because I don't.

(48:22):
But I wanted to show people a different side of a
misunderstood read that I probably didn't know much about
either. And I hope to show the positive
series. Gary is climbing back around his
chair. People are like, does he climb
in the chair himself? Yes, he climbs in the chair
himself. This is all him.

(48:43):
It's if you had to pick. Him up every single time, That
would be a disaster. There he is, this world, we're
just all living in it. I know there's a lot of dog
accounts, but I wanted to do something a little different and
just show and share some of the things I learned.
But I think it's really cool being able to see the dogs I get
to hang out with. Every week too, before we wrap

(49:04):
up, I want to talk about Howdy alittle bit because that story
really, really hit me. Of course, it happened right
before I jumped on here to record with you.
That's why it's fresh in my mind.
But this is a perfect example ofa dog that was mistreated, a dog
that was obviously categorized in a certain way.
It's a black dog, it's a bully breed.

(49:25):
And now someone else has made ityour responsibility, the
shelter's responsibility. It's so difficult.
I'm going to tell from my experience what I saw on your
account and then I'm going to let you tell the rest of the
story. When I got on Instagram this
afternoon, before I got on here with Kate, of course she popped
up in my feed and Howdy has A tag on him that says something
to the effect of I have annoyed everyone and everything in my

(49:46):
life. And now this is basically where
we've ended up. An engraved tag, you guys, large
Oval shaped engraved tag that has this terrible message on it.
And this dog was chained to a pole or a tree and left, not
surrendered, just left. I am just completely blown away,
one, by the fact that somebody would just abandoned a dog like

(50:07):
that, even though I know that ithappens a lot, but two, the fact
that somebody would spend the time and the money to make that
tag and then just abandoned the dog like that, it's just mind
blowing. Hopefully by the time this
episode releases, Howdy will have found a home and I promise
that I will update you guys if you ask about Howdy.

(50:28):
We can ask Kate to see what Howdy status is, but hopefully
Howdy will have a home by then. Would you tell everybody about
Howdy and just advocate a littlebit for Howdy and then we can
talk about why we don't want this kind of thing to continue
to? Happen.
Yeah, of course, Each week I pick a dog at the shelter who
I've walked and tell their story.

(50:49):
And I think that's what's reallyimportant.
I really think that every dog has a story, even if it's at the
beginning of their story or the middle of their story.
That's not how the story has to end.
We can try to help change that. So how was left tied to a sign
at the shelter? He was not surrendered, the
engraved tag on him said. I have become a burden upon my

(51:13):
owner and an annoyance to everyone else and that's how he
was found. What really bothered me about
that particular situation with Howdy was when an owner
surrenders a dog, we can learn so much more about them.
And I know there is a lot of stigma about owner surrender.
I completely get it. But when you surrender a dog,
you can help to tell that dog story.

(51:35):
So Howdy has no story because ofhow he was left.
We have to try to create that and, and figure out things that
his previous owner might have been able to tell us.
What was his favorite food? What is he like?
There's got to be something positive about Howdy.
I'll tell you that. Howdy's a young dog who's
desperate for training. He's Rick two years ago.

(51:57):
He's a black dog who is young and playful, but he was so eager
to learn. I spent like an hour with him.
We played some pattern games. He was catching on right away.
He's a strong puller. But I had my treats in hand.
I called his name, we stopped. I gave him a treat.
We started working on those things right away.
He was so eager to learn, but Howdy was not given the tools,

(52:21):
so Howdy failed. And that is also really hard
because you need to find really good adopters.
He's not an annoyance. Probably every human, every kid
at some time have been told they're annoying.
And that's what really bothered me is because I'm like, no,
buddy, you're not annoying. You're not, but you haven't been

(52:44):
set up to succeed, so let's go ahead and try to help you.
That one really bothered me. It bothered me.
Too, what's really sad about this is it's probably somebody
who didn't ask for help. They didn't hire a trainer.
They didn't know what they were doing.
They got a puppy. They had no idea that puppies
had to be potty trained and kennel trained and leash trained

(53:05):
and all of the things. And so the reason that Howdy
became an annoyance, let's put that in air quotes, was because
Howdy's owner didn't know what they were doing.
And instead of taking responsibility and asking
questions, doing research, hiring a trainer, learning,
finding that education piece, trying to make the situation
better for Howdy and themselves,they just said screw this, it

(53:29):
can be somebody else's problem. And that is why there is such a
freaking huge disaster of a problem in the shelter world.
It's so sad. There are.
Resources out there, and if the shelter was contacted, there are
training resources that we have for people that are available.
And I know, I get it. I know it's hard.

(53:50):
Everything's expensive. I'm very empathetic to other
people's situations too. But it's hard because now we
have another dog at the shelter to find another home for.
So that's kind of how it's neverending.
But you know what, he's safe. Rick was dumped from a car and
left was brought to the shelter.Howdy's safe.
Rick is safe, luckily. I'm going to try everything in

(54:13):
my power to help another black dog get out of the shelter.
I appreciate you taking the timeto do this today and I
appreciate everything that you do for The Rescue World.
And as soon as I end this recording with you, I'm going to
go back on Instagram and I'm going to share Howdy's story.
Thank you. Yes yes because it really hit me
that deeply. I tried not to share too many of

(54:36):
the rescue things because my stories would be just every hour
there would be like 3 stories because of all the accounts that
I follow and help and work with and everyone would be like,
Emily, you need to post something other than this.
This is tragic and heartbreaking.
Well, it is tragic and heartbreaking and it's so sad,
but this is definitely one of those situations where it just

(54:56):
hit my heart way too hard. Honestly, I'm just appalled.
I try to keep it upbeat. I promise I.
Do, really do. But I appreciate that because
when people do share, it just takes one person.
If I can tell you one quick story because I know we're
wrapping up, but it's funny because it does take one person,
right? So this year I found two dogs,

(55:16):
my kids baseball games and the second one was beautiful German
Shepherd and she couldn't get up.
I had called 311 and we got the animal protection officer to
come out and get the dog and I did a reel about her.
Her name was Coraline, and a beautiful family in Florida saw
her and came and got her, and they're incredible because they

(55:40):
gave her so much time to decompress.
But this is also the connectionsand the people that I've been
able to meet. I'm going to meet the family in
person this weekend because they're coming back to Austin,
which is really exciting. Yeah, it's very.
Cool when people do share. Stories.
I'm very grateful because it just takes one person to see it

(56:02):
and you never know who's going to see it.
So thank you because that's my goal is we're going to get Howdy
out of the shelter and I'm very hopeful for Hazelnut from last
week. I will make sure that in
stories. We have an update when this
episode publishes because this episode is not going to publish
for a few months post recording.So hopefully Howdy will be in a
happy home by then and we'll have an update that we can share

(56:25):
in stories about this. Again, thank you Kate so much
for being here. Thank you so much for saving
Rick and bringing him into our lives and sharing all of the
joyful, hilarious things that hedoes with.
I just have one more question for you.
What would you like to leave thelisteners with?
Goodness, I would be so. Grateful if people would visit
their shelters this year and they don't have to adopt A dog.

(56:47):
I just ask that you visit your shelter and I ask that you get
involved in your community. It doesn't even have to be with
dogs. I just think that it's really
important to figure out what youcan do within your community.
Whatever fills your bucket. So that's it, fine.
What fills your bucket? I think that's a great message.
And it's a really good suggestion.

(57:07):
Get involved. It doesn't have to be dogs.
No, it can be. It can be the parks and rec.
It can be the library. It can be whatever you want,
guys. But get involved.
Do something and bucket do something for you.
Yeah, exactly do. Something for you?
Do something. That makes you happy and gives
that positive impact to the restof the world.
Take that as you will guys and share your stories about how

(57:30):
you're making an impact and we will see you guys next week on
straight up dog talk. Straight Up Dog Talk was created
by 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,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

(57:52):
relatable dog content? Check out our sister show,
Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and Madison Simpson.
Thanks for listening to StraightUp Dog Talk.
See you next week.