September 22, 2023 • 38 mins
20%-60% of dogs are not considered adoptable due to behavior issues and thousands are killed each year in shelters and rescues because they are not considered safe for adoption. My guest today helps to make some of those dogs adoptable; gives them a second chance at life. His name is Thommy Harley and he’s a trainer who specializes in dogs with behavior issues in shelters.
EPISODE NOTES: The Second Chance Angel
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EPISODE NOTES: The Second Chance Angel
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bark-and-swagger-pet-fashion-pet-life-radio-original--6669427/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Twenty to sixty percent of dogs are not considered adoptable
due to behavior issues, and thousands are killed each year
in shelters and rescues because they're not considered.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Safe for adoption.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
How many stories have we heard about dogs living for
months years in kennels and cats living in overcrowded cat rooms.
Welcome to bark and Swagger on Pet Life Radio. I'm
Jody L.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Teischer host. My guest today helps.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
To make some of those dogs adoptable, gives them a
second chance of life. His name is Tommy Harley, and
he's a trainer who specializes in dogs with behavior issues.
He focuses his energies on his nonprofit called From Kennels
to Homes, and I'm going to hear all about it
and all the stories of these dogs. When we continue,
(01:12):
We're going to take a short break from our sponsor
and be right back with Tommy. So grab that favorite beverage,
get comfortable, and we'll be right there.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
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(01:44):
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Speaker 5 (02:05):
Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You're listening to Bark and Swagger on pet Life Radio.
I'm Jody's heis your hosts. Tommy Harley is an angel
for shelter dogs. That's how I can best describe it,
especially those of behavior issues. Over the past seventeen years,
he's been working with these dogs, training them with love, patience,
(02:40):
and kindness. He's helped thousands have a second chance at life.
Some of them have horrendous passes we all know. So
I want to welcome Tommy to the show and let's
find out more about what he's doing and these dogs
that he's helping.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Hey Tommy, Hey Jody, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I'm so happy to have you here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I can't wait to hear all about what you're doing
and share it with my audience. You are truly an
angel for these dogs. So tell us about how you
got started and working with behavior challenge dogs.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Okay, So when I moved to Florida, I started volunteering
at a large rescue, walking dogs and so forth. And
it was just kind of an interesting thing because I
happened to notice this one building and I had asked them,
you know, who are those dogs? And they basically said,
those are aggressive dogs that we can never adopt. And
(03:35):
it just kind of broke my heart to think you
just have to live your life in accounnel. So I
started taking an interest in them, and I just started
taking them out, you know, forming a bond with them.
They became my purpose. I thought, you know, before we
can come to that conclusion, let's, you know, give them
a good assessment, let's understand them, let's give them a chance.
(03:58):
So I started just focusing on those dogs and spent
a lot of time building bonds and then ended up
you know, okay, so they bit a human or they
bit a dog, and everything to me with a bite
is circumstantial and so it's at that moment, that time,
that human that environment, and always motivated by fear. So
(04:23):
that's kind of how I got into it. I just
I took an interest in these dogs. I find found
that you know, they responded to me, and I just
kind of found my purpose right there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Really organic, that's so beautiful. You have seen so much
over these past seventeen years. Educate us a little bit
on what you have seen in shelters and how prevalent
the things are, like the key reasons for rehoming pets,
or why pets don't get adopted. You've done studies, You've
(04:53):
broken them down in percentages.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
So I think what it really comes down to is
we don't understand or listen to dogs communication, and that
can be a death sentence for them. I'm a firm
believer that aggression is a human trait, it's not a
dog trade. And the reason I say that humans we
(05:17):
like violence. We like you know violence, sports, car crashes,
you know, bar fights. Dogs, if we watch them, will
avoid conflict at any cost. However, they are so quickly
labeled if, for instance, in a shelter, if a dog
growls because you're going near their food. They can be
(05:39):
labeled aggressive. If they're on a walk and they get
scared and they lunge at somebody, they get labeled aggressive.
And these are fear based reactions that they have, but
we so easily label them, and once they're labeled, it's
very difficult to remove that label.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right right, And you know, it could be a case
because you say it's all fear based, and I absolutely
believe that true. Of them doing in the way that
they know how saying don't come near me, don't come
near me, you know, or stay away, or don't come
near my food. You know, it's just like more coming
(06:19):
from this place of anxiety rather than wanting to hurt them,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
You're one hundred percent correct. There is dogs. Contrary what
we might believe, they get no joy from any type
of conflict, whether it's reactivity, whether it's a bite. It's
very traumatic for them, yes, yes, but bites occur because
we're not listening the beauty of dogs. They give us warnings.
(06:48):
Unlike humans, a girala is a good thing. Agirala is
basically saying I'm uncomfortable, you know, So I try to
educate people to understand. Give them space. They don't have
arms to push us away, so we need to listen
to them. You know, their vocalization as well as their
body language.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Are you a firm believer and always let the dog lead,
meaning if they want you, if they want to engage
with you or you to engage with them, they will
let you know. Otherwise you just be a neutral presence.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
One percent, one hundred percent. You know, I tell people
with dogs, we have to allow them to come to
us because if they actually come to us, we now
have a bond. If we force ourselves on them, we
break that bond. And yes, I agree with that one percent.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, what puts these dogs behind the eight ball
so to speak, in shelters and rescues with the way
the current system is set up.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
So here's an interesting thing with dogs. If you go
to an island, or you go to where dogs are
running free, there's really any conflict. They run around. Somehow
we bring them into the human world, and conflict is
what we make a part of them. A lot of
these dogs, I mean bites, that's a big thing. My
(08:09):
dog bit me, my dog bit my child. I can
say for me personally, I've never seen a dog bite
out of the blue, nor have I ever had a
case that a dog bites out of the blue once
I start investigating and getting the facts. But for instance,
if you have a small child crawling on the dog
when they're sleeping and they wake up and nip the child,
(08:31):
most of the time, that dog's gonna end up in
a shelter. Yeah, that's the heartbreaking thing. They end up
in the shelter for a lot of those reasons. And
as far as shelters, the two top type things that
dogs are filled for are behavior issues in medical Yeah,
I believe it. It's heartbreaking. And I'll say personally, ninety
(08:51):
nine percent of every labeled aggressive dog or at risk
dog or needs to be euthanized dog did not need
to be once I worked with them and showed people, look,
they're a fine dog. That's a sad thing.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I have a personal experience with this. One of our dogs, Jasper,
not a large dog, you know, eighteen nineteen pounds, reactive
towards other dogs and strangers, and we always had to
be concerned, you know, in any new situation in walking
(09:30):
down the street. And we worked with him, and you know,
I had two different great trainers. When I lived in
New York City, that was also an issue because New
York is so intense. But long story short, because Jasper
was nine and we adopted him from animal control in
Harlem in New York City when he was a puppy.
(09:50):
But when he was nine and my husband and I
split up just within the last year, he went to
live with my husband in the English countryside and I don't know,
he's living the life, the life never on a leash,
and literally within one month he was no longer reactive dogs,
(10:12):
large and small people.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
He didn't know.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You know, it's not like a bustling city, so it's
not like he sees a ton of people and there
are people there and with large dogs, hunting dogs, and
he meets them on walks through the woods or in.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The fields and he's fine.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
He's fine, and he's happy.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's a beautiful story.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I miss him, but I know that he's living his
best life. And that's a perfect example of how when
the environment is changed, because it also could be living
in a house with dogs that don't get along, or
dogs that are anxious and you have a dog who
is feeding off of that energy, or in a house
(10:57):
where the people are having issue use trouble, and there's
lots of anxiety and anger in that house. And the
dogs are so intuitive, So yeah, the environment is critical.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Yeah, yes, I mean, and reactivity is such a common thing,
and so what I try to tell people everything As
a behavior specialist, I always look at a dog from
a behavior standpoint. So if a dog is reactive, what
it's telling me is it is very uncomfortable, it's very anxious,
it's fearful for having a panic attack. And that's the reason.
(11:34):
So rather than correcting and saying no, we want to go,
oh okay, so we need to build your confidence. We
need you to understand that in these areas, in these circumstances,
you're safe. Nothing is going to hurt you.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I want to let everyone know who's listening that later
in the show, Tommy is going to be giving his
expert tip on how to work with and manage.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Your reactive dog.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
There are so many people out there who have reactive
dogs like I did, so that's something you should definitely
stick around for. I want to talk a little bit
about this other company that you started in twenty fourteen
called Canine Compassion healing and training. Describe the type of
(12:25):
dog that would come in the door that you would
try and help through that, you know, sort of avenue.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
My focus and my just what I love the most
are dogs with behavior issues. So although I do obedience training,
it's those dogs that are fearful. You know, it could
be hey, when I have people over, my dogs go crazy,
and you know that's a lot of that abuse dogs.
My dog was abused. Now you know, my dog doesn't
(12:53):
like men, Neglected dogs, feral dogs, a lot of these are.
They're just afraid of the world and a few humanity.
So the first thing I need to do, and what
I tell everyone, the first step is always form a
bond with that dog, no matter how much it takes,
how much time it takes. I don't go in and
solve the issue. I tell people I'm going to come
(13:14):
and hope your dog trusts me to help them. So
they're all sorts of those kind of issues, even guarding food.
They can overcome that reactivity, they can overcome you know,
maybe they're not comfortable with another dog in their home. Okay,
well let's help them get comfortable. So I'm a firm
believer that no matter what the issue. We can help
them make progress.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Wonderful, that's beautiful. Can you explain a little bit about
how you work with a dog with extreme behavior issues,
because it's not the same as teaching Fluffy to sit
and stay, is it? You know you have social protocols
that you implement.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Yes, So I work with a lot of reactive dogs
and maybe they were abused, or they're afraid of men
or or something like that. And it's a process. And
the first part of the process is just trying to
bond with that dog. I use a lot of my
energy and my calmness and I kind of talk to them, going,
(14:14):
I know you're afraid of me, but you don't have
to be. I'm going to help you. So trying to
get them slowly and when they get up enough nerve
to come and get a treat. That's a big thing
for me. And it's not a bribery. It's well, here's
a scary man, but he's got a treat, so maybe
he's not that bad. So we start that process. The
more comfortable they get with me, where they'll come up
(14:37):
and I can pet them under the chin, I realize
we're getting a trust bond. And so now I can
start working with them because all of these behavior issues
in their minds are terrified. So I need them to
trust me enough to go, Okay, dude, you got me.
You're protecting me. Let's do it. That's what I want
them to look to me to help them.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah. Yeah, And you mentioned the word energy, which to
me is a really important idea concept here, because I
mean I work with energy and energy medicine in my
pet and human health coaching practices, and these animals are
so intuitive, so the energy you bring is something they
(15:22):
pick up right away. So because you're able to bond
with dogs that are so afraid, you must have a
calm energy, an energy where they think, Okay, I might
be scared, but it's okay to come and get that treat,
I think, and then they they see that it is okay.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So energy is so much. Do you feel that.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
When you are working with these dogs, and are you
conscious of the energy almost like the frequency that you
put out there.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
That's a really good question. I think I don't really
even think about it anymore, but I know that calmness
is the best thing, and they feel that, Okay, this
guy is calm, he's not going to hurt me. And
what I tell people, if you know, even when they're
growling at me or air snapping, I stay perfectly calm,
(16:18):
and I'll tell you the number one thing I do
know about dogs that they've taught me. They don't want
to hurt me. And so when I work with these dogs,
it's not that you know I'm superman, or I walk
on water or I have so much courage. It's just
I know the bottom line, they don't want to hurt me.
So if I do this correctly and calmly and at
their pace, then we can make some progress. But yeah,
(16:41):
staying calm, and I've told people a dog could be fine,
but if you start getting nervous, it puts them on alert.
They're thinking, human, why are you getting nervous?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Right when we come back and you're talking about your
tips for pet parents with aggressive or reactive dogs, working
at their pace and signals, knowing when they've had enough,
or just from your experience, what the length of time
of working with them in one sitting is, basically so
(17:13):
that pet parents can know what to look for.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I think it's going to be great to talk about.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So let's hang on to that for a second, because
I want to know something. Have you ever been attacked
and what happened?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Because it couldn't be just part of.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
The job, you know, it's a very good question. Unfortunately,
to this day I have not.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, thank goodness.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Well it's a matter of I'm always listening to them. Yeah,
so I don't try to play the hero and rush
in there and make them like me. It's calm and easy,
calm and easy. So it's kind of interesting because I
have been bit twice and they've been two dogs under
ten pounds.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Interesting we're either of them chuahas No, surprisingly well surprisingly,
but they were both my fault.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There was one. I was at a rescue and I
knew he didn't like to be picked up, and he
put his paws on my knees and I'm thinking, oh, buddy,
you want me to pick you up. No he didn't,
he didn't.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's so interesting that they were little, because this is
the other thing.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
When a dog is big, people.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
May be more wary when a dog is little and
it's a stranger coming up to a little dog, and
they're like they just go into their space, oh you know,
and all over the head, and you know, they are
still the same being sentient being is a big dog
exactly and feel the same things that we feel, so
the same protocol should be employed, right, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Yeah, And it's kind of interesting because you know, the
breeds of dogs that bite the most, the top two
or three are smaller breeds. Yes, and people don't realize that.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yes, I think that's part of it. I think that's
part of it. And also because well, certainly history, but
also because the littler you are, the bigger everything else.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Is around you, or the harder it is to navigate
the world, maybe the more scary.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Each dog is different and each dog needs to be
approached differently, And I tell people, yes, there's guidelines, but
just like with humans, we have to deal with them
and work with them as individual beings.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I love that you say that because one of the
things that I'm taught in my human health coach training
is bioindividuality and applies just as much to our animals.
Every animal is different, like every child is different and
every person adult is different. So I'm really glad that
you've said that. We are going to take a short
(19:47):
break now from our sponsor, but when we come back,
Tommy is going.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
To give you these tips.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So that you have some tools in your toolkit to
work with your aggressive or reactive maybe in a new way.
And we're also going to hear some favorite stories that
Tommy has about dogs that he's worked with and helped
over the years.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
So I can't wait to hear that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So refresh that favorite beverage, get cozy, and we'll be
right back.
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Speaker 4 (21:07):
Let's talk past me Let's co Petal, pet Life Radio, Headline.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
Radio, pet Live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
If you've just joined, you're listening to Bark and Swagger
on pet Life Radio, and this is Jody Tyche, your host.
We're here today with Tommy Harley, founder of the nonprofit
from Kennel to Holmes where he does behavioral training with
high risk, aggressive dogs to give them a second chance
at life, which is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Tommy.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
The thousands of dogs you've helped over the years, thousands,
which is incredible and blows my mind. You must have
some favorite stories, So what are your top three?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
You know, when you mentioned that I had to come
up with three, I was like narrowing it down from
two hundred. Of course, every dog is so special in
the fact that they were labeled hopeless. Nobody thought they
could get better, and they got better. So there are
a few that are very dear to my heart. And
so there's one dog zaying and he is a shepherd
(22:20):
mix and he was at Miami Dade Animal Services with
two of his siblings and they were all fairal so
for three months the staff was unable to get them
out of their tunnel. They were so shut down, they
would shake, they would avoid eye contact. It was just heartbreaking.
So they had called me and I went down there
(22:44):
and I was able to get them out. And it's
a heartbreaking thing because I kind of need to drag
them but compassionately going just two more steps. And I
always tell these dogs, listen, this is going to be traumatic,
but I promise you your quality of life is going to
go way up. So we ended up getting the three out,
and it just so happens that Zain was one of
(23:06):
them who went to a rescue that I volunteer with,
so I was able to see him every day and
just his transformation from I'm the only one that he
will be around, I'm the only one that can pet him,
to just expanding that to more and more humans. You know,
this is a dog just afraid of the world and
afraid of people. But then you know, he bonded with me,
(23:27):
and then we would meet somebody else and I would say, zaying,
this person's safe, go ahead, they can pet you. And
you know, just he loves dogs. He has still a
little stranger danger, but oh my gosh, with the people
he likes, he is just he's a huge lab dog.
He's like a sixty pound lab dog. So yeah, So
(23:48):
so Zain's always always going to be one of my favorites.
Another one is Xena, and she came in. She was
surrendered and came in with a Golden Retriever and she
was a bully and just a beautiful silber bully. But
in their home, they had been isolated, their whole lives,
just kept in a back bedroom.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
So they came in and they were just afraid of everybody,
reactive to everybody and everything. You know, you'd go near
her kennel and she would just give the biggest growl
and so forth. And so I actually have a video
on my YouTube channel of her. But I went into
the trailer and I just had to loop her, and
(24:29):
so I looped her with a long leash and got
her out of the trailer and you can just see
her gator rolling and just full blown panic attack. But
I was telling her, listen, we need to keep moving,
we need to keep walking. And so the interesting thing
I would to point out Jody, at any moment that
dog could have attacked me, there was only sixty the
(24:51):
leash between us. That's it. That's it. She didn't want to.
And then that was one of my just a beautiful
story to show. Basically finally got her out, got her
in the playyard and you know, formed that bond with her.
I just sat there and then she came up, wanted
to be petted, and slowly introduced her to more people
and more dogs and she just did amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, with these dogs able to find homes.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
So Zena Xena was able to find a home. Zina
is still up, Dane's still up for adoption and hopefully
he will. And then the third dog is Hamilton, and
he was rescued from a Korean meat farm, believe it
or not. And the conditions, the conditions, it was horrible.
(25:40):
It was so I I was asked by a rescue
can can you take him and work with him? And
this is, you know, just a dog with no experience,
and you know, he would growl at me, and I
just gave him space and let him kind of do
his thing. And then after a while I would sit
on the floor and you know, was able to get
(26:00):
a collar on him and then a leash and we
would do walks and he would just drop to the ground,
be terrified and just a dog afraid of everything and everybody. Slowly,
we just I go on adventures with them. We'll go
to a new park and go slow. And he ended up,
you know, meeting new people, meeting new dogs. And the
(26:22):
funny story about this is he went back to the
rescue for a short time and they sent me a
picture that he had gone out the second story window
was just standing on the roof looking around. I thought,
my god, I thought, I'm so sorry. I gave him
too much confidence. But it was just a cutice thing.
(26:43):
And he ended up being adopted by a guy that
lives by me. So I actually drove up to Georgia,
picked him up and took him to his new home.
And he had just a beautiful, amazing dog.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm so happy that he was adopted and near you
so you can see them when you want.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Yeah, it's so nice because there's been dogs I haven't
seen for you know, three or four years, and they
remember me. And it's just the coolest.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Way they do. They don't forget, they don't forget your spend, no,
and your energy. Yes, it's so amazing. Okay, Now, the
company that you created from Kennel to Holmes is a nonprofit.
It's a nonprofit. You do incredible work, but you rely
on funding to continue the amazing work that you do.
(27:30):
So where can people donate to either maybe a dog
that you have on the site that you're working with,
if they like connect with a video of a dog
you're working with, maybe they can say, oh, I want
this for so and so, or to the organization as
a whole, to just continue doing the beautiful work that
(27:51):
you're doing. Where can they find you to do that?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Sure? Thank you? They can go to from Kennels to
homes dot org and on. There are easy ways to
donate and just so everyone knows, the funding goes to
cover our cost to go to different shelters. And basically
the goal is we want to work with the at
risk dogs that are set up to be euthanized and
(28:16):
we want to give them a chance. And I'll just
share one story. So this year, three times I went
down to Miami Dada Animal Services and worked and assessed
and got great videos of dogs that had been labeled
dogs that were going to be euthanized because they were aggressive,
et cetera. And we were able to do videos of
(28:37):
this actually isn't true. They're not actually like this. And
of those three trips, twenty six dogs are not only
off death row, but they're out of the shelter. Wow.
Such a cool thing, Such a cool thing.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yes, twenty six of them. Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well that it needs perfectly into helping pet parents with
tools on how they can work with and manage their
aggressive or reactive dogs. So would you please give your
expert top tips for pet parents on this.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Definitely, reactivity and what we look at as aggression is
really really prevalent out there, and especially on a leash.
So I've had people say, my dog goes to dog Parts,
doggy daycare, but on a leash, she's reactive. The most
important thing as pet parents, we need to understand reactivity
(29:38):
is an emotion. It's not a behavior. So to clarify
that they're emotional about this, it's a panic attack, an
anxiety attack. Fear is a huge motivation. There is nothing
in them that wants to hurt anything. So reactivity is
an emotion and if we look at it that way,
we have a little more empathy and understand for the dog.
(30:00):
Then this is bad behavior because it's not so to
give you an example, if you're walking your dog on
a leash and they see another dog, it's fight or flight. Well,
they can't flight. So what they do is they make
themselves big and bad as possible to make that threat
go away. That's all that is. That is not aggression.
That is look how big and bad I am.
Speaker 7 (30:22):
Go away.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
So it can be helped. But we need to change
the mentality of this is an aggressive dog too, this
is a fearful dog. So my method I have a
couple of videos out there is what I call it
is keep reassuring, keep walking. So we're passing a dog,
I just keep walking. I'm nice and calm. I'm reassuring
(30:45):
the dog that he's fine. Our voices are so critical
to them. So eventually we're gonna pass thirty dogs and
I'm gonna look at him and go spot, we just
passed thirty dogs. Nobody hurt you. It's desensitizing of your perfectly.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
What about if as you're approaching the first dog or
the second dog or the third dog and they start
going from orange to the red zone where they don't
hear you anymore.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Right, So what we want to do, so you want
to have a very secure harness is the main thing.
But what the most important thing to do is anticipate.
So as soon as I see a dog, I'm already
talking to the dog I'm with. I'm already saying I
see it, I see it, and we want to keep moving.
That's the key. I'm on a walk, you're on a
(31:33):
walk with me. You're going with me, and I've dragged
one hundred and ten pound dogs and you will find
once they pass the threat, they're a lot calmer. Now. Yeah,
the old school thought was, well, you put them in
a sit and you make them stay and you make
them face it. I disagree with that because if I
took my three year old daughter and I was walking
her and she saw a spider and started having an
(31:55):
anxiety attack, I wouldn't say, well, Susie, suck it up,
deal with it, you know, right. So that's the worst thing.
It's a panic attackt We want to walk them through
and let them know that they don't need to worry
about this. You're safe, okay.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
And what do you think about something like a gentle
leader as opposed to a harness for having more control
like steering from the cockpit, you know, the one that
goes is the loose canvas strap around the nose.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Yeah, yes, so I would say it depends on the
level of reactivity. Okay, because the harness manages the body
a little better if you can hook it in the
chest and on the back, all the powers in a chest.
If you can use a general leader and keep them
moving and keep them going perfectly fine, got it. The
(32:42):
reactivities I deal with are pretty severe, so therefore I
need to really have the whole body walking with me.
And the other thing pat parents need to know is
if you have a harness a lesion distance, nothing bad
is going to happen, but you need to stay calm.
So I've had owners walk their dogs they go crazy,
(33:03):
and then I walk the same dog in the same
situation and their calmer because my end of the leash
is calm. My heart rate doesn't go up, my pulse
rate doesn't go up. I'm talking to them, you're fine,
let's go, so they can overcome this. For sure. It
is not aggression, I promise you.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Very interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
What about people who have large dogs and let's say
you know it's a woman and she's you know, a
smaller woman, so she doesn't necessarily have the strength if
they decide to go all out in reacting to something.
How do you manage something like that?
Speaker 6 (33:43):
That's a great question, and you use an important word,
which is manage a lot of with our dogs, we
want to use management tools. We can't cure everything, but
for something in that situation it's okay to turn around
and walk the other way, we want to do it nonchalantly, like, oh, spot,
(34:03):
I was going to turn around anyways. You know, we
want them to know I was gonna turn around in
any ways, which is perfectly fine. But I prefer that
we help our dogs overcome it rather than avoid it,
so you know that's fine though. It's all about management.
So if it's a powerful dog and you need to
do a turn, you just do a turn and you
just say let's go. And the most important thing, Jody
(34:26):
is we don't pause or anything. We just keep a
fluid motion because a pause alerts them.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely true, absolutely true.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Yeah. I mean you'll pause and they'll go why are
you pausing?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So is there something that almost like a little mantra
that you can share with pet parents that they can
say to themselves as they're getting ready to go out
with this dog, and as they're starting the walk with
this dog, that sort of sums up the headspace that
they need to be in to manage their dog.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Well, yes, it has to be our energy. We have
to be calm, We have to be calm our goal.
I'll tell you. A sniffing dog is a confident dog.
A sniffing dog is a confident dog. A dog that's
hyper alert is constantly looking around, and it should be
Disney World on a walk. They shouldn't be looking around.
(35:21):
They should be annoyingly sniffing when we're late for work,
you know, right, right, So if they're hyper alert, you
want to drop treats right when you come out the door. Oh,
the noses in the ground. But the most important thing
is pep parents to think of is I want my
dog to enjoy this walk. Therefore I'll enjoy the walk.
So how do I help my dog enjoy the walk?
(35:42):
Let's be nice and calm and relaxed. If we see
a threat, and me as a human being, I'm not comfortable,
let's just do a quick turnaround. But let's focus on
what a walk is for A dog should be sniffing everything.
It's so good for.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Them, Yes, it's part of the happiness protocol.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
Yes, yes, And the most important thing for everyone to
understand is you do not have a bad dog. Even
if you get dirty lucks, you have a scared dog,
you have, it's a different.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Way to look at them, which completely shifts it. I
think that's really important. You know a trainer that I
used to work with for Jasper years ago used to
call keeping your energy in that place. He used to say,
keep it fluffy.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, keep it fluffy.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Yeah. The other thing I'll tell you, Jody is always
look in control. There's nothing that panics someone else. More
is if your dog's out of control and you look
out of control, yeah, then.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You've got a lot of bad energy.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
Yes, you just look at your neighbor and go, I
got him, I got him. He's fine, he's fine, he's afraid.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay. Beautiful, beautiful Tommy, thank you so much. This has
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Tell people where they can contribute again. Find you social
media as well, so people are very clear about where
they can get in touch and more get help if
need be, etc.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
Sure from Kennels tohomes dot org. That's the website. I
also have a lot of really good educational blogs. That
I put up there, and my goal is to educate
people about dogs and behavior so we can help them more.
There's also the social media links there. You can donate there,
(37:23):
and I'll tell you that every single penny allows us
to continue going to different shelters around the US and
helping these death row dogs get out of the shelters.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I love it. Thank you so much for what you do, Tommy.
You have helped so many and even helping one life
is precious, so this is exponentially amazing. Thank you so
much for being on the show.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Jodi, thank you as well.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
It's my pleasure, and thank you all for listening. Thanks
to our producer, Mark Winter, who makes us sound so good.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
We love you for it.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
My passion is living stylishly animal rescue and help, So
tune in next time to discover the designers, home decors
and rescue stories I love and the heroes behind me
so in fierce fashion calls, bark and swagger.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Let's Talk bets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radios dot com.
Is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Twenty to sixty percent of dogs are not considered adoptable
due to behavior issues, and thousands are killed each year
in shelters and rescues because they're not considered.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Safe for adoption.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
How many stories have we heard about dogs living for
months years in kennels and cats living in overcrowded cat rooms.
Welcome to bark and Swagger on Pet Life Radio. I'm
Jody L.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Teischer host. My guest today helps.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
To make some of those dogs adoptable, gives them a
second chance of life. His name is Tommy Harley, and
he's a trainer who specializes in dogs with behavior issues.
He focuses his energies on his nonprofit called From Kennels
to Homes, and I'm going to hear all about it
and all the stories of these dogs. When we continue,
(01:12):
We're going to take a short break from our sponsor
and be right back with Tommy. So grab that favorite beverage,
get comfortable, and we'll be right there.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
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Speaker 5 (02:05):
Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
You're listening to Bark and Swagger on pet Life Radio.
I'm Jody's heis your hosts. Tommy Harley is an angel
for shelter dogs. That's how I can best describe it,
especially those of behavior issues. Over the past seventeen years,
he's been working with these dogs, training them with love, patience,
(02:40):
and kindness. He's helped thousands have a second chance at life.
Some of them have horrendous passes we all know. So
I want to welcome Tommy to the show and let's
find out more about what he's doing and these dogs
that he's helping.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Hey Tommy, Hey Jody, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I'm so happy to have you here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I can't wait to hear all about what you're doing
and share it with my audience. You are truly an
angel for these dogs. So tell us about how you
got started and working with behavior challenge dogs.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Okay, So when I moved to Florida, I started volunteering
at a large rescue, walking dogs and so forth. And
it was just kind of an interesting thing because I
happened to notice this one building and I had asked them,
you know, who are those dogs? And they basically said,
those are aggressive dogs that we can never adopt. And
(03:35):
it just kind of broke my heart to think you
just have to live your life in accounnel. So I
started taking an interest in them, and I just started
taking them out, you know, forming a bond with them.
They became my purpose. I thought, you know, before we
can come to that conclusion, let's, you know, give them
a good assessment, let's understand them, let's give them a chance.
(03:58):
So I started just focusing on those dogs and spent
a lot of time building bonds and then ended up
you know, okay, so they bit a human or they
bit a dog, and everything to me with a bite
is circumstantial and so it's at that moment, that time,
that human that environment, and always motivated by fear. So
(04:23):
that's kind of how I got into it. I just
I took an interest in these dogs. I find found
that you know, they responded to me, and I just
kind of found my purpose right there.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Really organic, that's so beautiful. You have seen so much
over these past seventeen years. Educate us a little bit
on what you have seen in shelters and how prevalent
the things are, like the key reasons for rehoming pets,
or why pets don't get adopted. You've done studies, You've
(04:53):
broken them down in percentages.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
So I think what it really comes down to is
we don't understand or listen to dogs communication, and that
can be a death sentence for them. I'm a firm
believer that aggression is a human trait, it's not a
dog trade. And the reason I say that humans we
(05:17):
like violence. We like you know violence, sports, car crashes,
you know, bar fights. Dogs, if we watch them, will
avoid conflict at any cost. However, they are so quickly
labeled if, for instance, in a shelter, if a dog
growls because you're going near their food. They can be
(05:39):
labeled aggressive. If they're on a walk and they get
scared and they lunge at somebody, they get labeled aggressive.
And these are fear based reactions that they have, but
we so easily label them, and once they're labeled, it's
very difficult to remove that label.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right right, And you know, it could be a case
because you say it's all fear based, and I absolutely
believe that true. Of them doing in the way that
they know how saying don't come near me, don't come
near me, you know, or stay away, or don't come
near my food. You know, it's just like more coming
(06:19):
from this place of anxiety rather than wanting to hurt them,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
You're one hundred percent correct. There is dogs. Contrary what
we might believe, they get no joy from any type
of conflict, whether it's reactivity, whether it's a bite. It's
very traumatic for them, yes, yes, but bites occur because
we're not listening the beauty of dogs. They give us warnings.
(06:48):
Unlike humans, a girala is a good thing. Agirala is
basically saying I'm uncomfortable, you know, So I try to
educate people to understand. Give them space. They don't have
arms to push us away, so we need to listen
to them. You know, their vocalization as well as their
body language.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Are you a firm believer and always let the dog lead,
meaning if they want you, if they want to engage
with you or you to engage with them, they will
let you know. Otherwise you just be a neutral presence.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
One percent, one hundred percent. You know, I tell people
with dogs, we have to allow them to come to
us because if they actually come to us, we now
have a bond. If we force ourselves on them, we
break that bond. And yes, I agree with that one percent.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, what puts these dogs behind the eight ball
so to speak, in shelters and rescues with the way
the current system is set up.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
So here's an interesting thing with dogs. If you go
to an island, or you go to where dogs are
running free, there's really any conflict. They run around. Somehow
we bring them into the human world, and conflict is
what we make a part of them. A lot of
these dogs, I mean bites, that's a big thing. My
(08:09):
dog bit me, my dog bit my child. I can
say for me personally, I've never seen a dog bite
out of the blue, nor have I ever had a
case that a dog bites out of the blue once
I start investigating and getting the facts. But for instance,
if you have a small child crawling on the dog
when they're sleeping and they wake up and nip the child,
(08:31):
most of the time, that dog's gonna end up in
a shelter. Yeah, that's the heartbreaking thing. They end up
in the shelter for a lot of those reasons. And
as far as shelters, the two top type things that
dogs are filled for are behavior issues in medical Yeah,
I believe it. It's heartbreaking. And I'll say personally, ninety
(08:51):
nine percent of every labeled aggressive dog or at risk
dog or needs to be euthanized dog did not need
to be once I worked with them and showed people, look,
they're a fine dog. That's a sad thing.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I have a personal experience with this. One of our dogs, Jasper,
not a large dog, you know, eighteen nineteen pounds, reactive
towards other dogs and strangers, and we always had to
be concerned, you know, in any new situation in walking
(09:30):
down the street. And we worked with him, and you know,
I had two different great trainers. When I lived in
New York City, that was also an issue because New
York is so intense. But long story short, because Jasper
was nine and we adopted him from animal control in
Harlem in New York City when he was a puppy.
(09:50):
But when he was nine and my husband and I
split up just within the last year, he went to
live with my husband in the English countryside and I don't know,
he's living the life, the life never on a leash,
and literally within one month he was no longer reactive dogs,
(10:12):
large and small people.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
He didn't know.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You know, it's not like a bustling city, so it's
not like he sees a ton of people and there
are people there and with large dogs, hunting dogs, and
he meets them on walks through the woods or in.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The fields and he's fine.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
He's fine, and he's happy.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's a beautiful story.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I miss him, but I know that he's living his
best life. And that's a perfect example of how when
the environment is changed, because it also could be living
in a house with dogs that don't get along, or
dogs that are anxious and you have a dog who
is feeding off of that energy, or in a house
(10:57):
where the people are having issue use trouble, and there's
lots of anxiety and anger in that house. And the
dogs are so intuitive, So yeah, the environment is critical.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Yeah, yes, I mean, and reactivity is such a common thing,
and so what I try to tell people everything As
a behavior specialist, I always look at a dog from
a behavior standpoint. So if a dog is reactive, what
it's telling me is it is very uncomfortable, it's very anxious,
it's fearful for having a panic attack. And that's the reason.
(11:34):
So rather than correcting and saying no, we want to go,
oh okay, so we need to build your confidence. We
need you to understand that in these areas, in these circumstances,
you're safe. Nothing is going to hurt you.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I want to let everyone know who's listening that later
in the show, Tommy is going to be giving his
expert tip on how to work with and manage.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Your reactive dog.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
There are so many people out there who have reactive
dogs like I did, so that's something you should definitely
stick around for. I want to talk a little bit
about this other company that you started in twenty fourteen
called Canine Compassion healing and training. Describe the type of
(12:25):
dog that would come in the door that you would
try and help through that, you know, sort of avenue.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
My focus and my just what I love the most
are dogs with behavior issues. So although I do obedience training,
it's those dogs that are fearful. You know, it could
be hey, when I have people over, my dogs go crazy,
and you know that's a lot of that abuse dogs.
My dog was abused. Now you know, my dog doesn't
(12:53):
like men, Neglected dogs, feral dogs, a lot of these are.
They're just afraid of the world and a few humanity.
So the first thing I need to do, and what
I tell everyone, the first step is always form a
bond with that dog, no matter how much it takes,
how much time it takes. I don't go in and
solve the issue. I tell people I'm going to come
(13:14):
and hope your dog trusts me to help them. So
they're all sorts of those kind of issues, even guarding food.
They can overcome that reactivity, they can overcome you know,
maybe they're not comfortable with another dog in their home. Okay,
well let's help them get comfortable. So I'm a firm
believer that no matter what the issue. We can help
them make progress.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Wonderful, that's beautiful. Can you explain a little bit about
how you work with a dog with extreme behavior issues,
because it's not the same as teaching Fluffy to sit
and stay, is it? You know you have social protocols
that you implement.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Yes, So I work with a lot of reactive dogs
and maybe they were abused, or they're afraid of men
or or something like that. And it's a process. And
the first part of the process is just trying to
bond with that dog. I use a lot of my
energy and my calmness and I kind of talk to them, going,
(14:14):
I know you're afraid of me, but you don't have
to be. I'm going to help you. So trying to
get them slowly and when they get up enough nerve
to come and get a treat. That's a big thing
for me. And it's not a bribery. It's well, here's
a scary man, but he's got a treat, so maybe
he's not that bad. So we start that process. The
more comfortable they get with me, where they'll come up
(14:37):
and I can pet them under the chin, I realize
we're getting a trust bond. And so now I can
start working with them because all of these behavior issues
in their minds are terrified. So I need them to
trust me enough to go, Okay, dude, you got me.
You're protecting me. Let's do it. That's what I want
them to look to me to help them.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah. Yeah, And you mentioned the word energy, which to
me is a really important idea concept here, because I
mean I work with energy and energy medicine in my
pet and human health coaching practices, and these animals are
so intuitive, so the energy you bring is something they
(15:22):
pick up right away. So because you're able to bond
with dogs that are so afraid, you must have a
calm energy, an energy where they think, Okay, I might
be scared, but it's okay to come and get that treat,
I think, and then they they see that it is okay.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So energy is so much. Do you feel that.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
When you are working with these dogs, and are you
conscious of the energy almost like the frequency that you
put out there.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
That's a really good question. I think I don't really
even think about it anymore, but I know that calmness
is the best thing, and they feel that, Okay, this
guy is calm, he's not going to hurt me. And
what I tell people, if you know, even when they're
growling at me or air snapping, I stay perfectly calm,
(16:18):
and I'll tell you the number one thing I do
know about dogs that they've taught me. They don't want
to hurt me. And so when I work with these dogs,
it's not that you know I'm superman, or I walk
on water or I have so much courage. It's just
I know the bottom line, they don't want to hurt me.
So if I do this correctly and calmly and at
their pace, then we can make some progress. But yeah,
(16:41):
staying calm, and I've told people a dog could be fine,
but if you start getting nervous, it puts them on alert.
They're thinking, human, why are you getting nervous?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Right when we come back and you're talking about your
tips for pet parents with aggressive or reactive dogs, working
at their pace and signals, knowing when they've had enough,
or just from your experience, what the length of time
of working with them in one sitting is, basically so
(17:13):
that pet parents can know what to look for.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I think it's going to be great to talk about.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So let's hang on to that for a second, because
I want to know something. Have you ever been attacked
and what happened?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Because it couldn't be just part of.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
The job, you know, it's a very good question. Unfortunately,
to this day I have not.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, thank goodness.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Well it's a matter of I'm always listening to them. Yeah,
so I don't try to play the hero and rush
in there and make them like me. It's calm and easy,
calm and easy. So it's kind of interesting because I
have been bit twice and they've been two dogs under
ten pounds.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Interesting we're either of them chuahas No, surprisingly well surprisingly,
but they were both my fault.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There was one. I was at a rescue and I
knew he didn't like to be picked up, and he
put his paws on my knees and I'm thinking, oh, buddy,
you want me to pick you up. No he didn't,
he didn't.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's so interesting that they were little, because this is
the other thing.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
When a dog is big, people.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
May be more wary when a dog is little and
it's a stranger coming up to a little dog, and
they're like they just go into their space, oh you know,
and all over the head, and you know, they are
still the same being sentient being is a big dog
exactly and feel the same things that we feel, so
the same protocol should be employed, right, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Yeah, And it's kind of interesting because you know, the
breeds of dogs that bite the most, the top two
or three are smaller breeds. Yes, and people don't realize that.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yes, I think that's part of it. I think that's
part of it. And also because well, certainly history, but
also because the littler you are, the bigger everything else.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Is around you, or the harder it is to navigate
the world, maybe the more scary.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Each dog is different and each dog needs to be
approached differently, And I tell people, yes, there's guidelines, but
just like with humans, we have to deal with them
and work with them as individual beings.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I love that you say that because one of the
things that I'm taught in my human health coach training
is bioindividuality and applies just as much to our animals.
Every animal is different, like every child is different and
every person adult is different. So I'm really glad that
you've said that. We are going to take a short
(19:47):
break now from our sponsor, but when we come back,
Tommy is going.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
To give you these tips.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So that you have some tools in your toolkit to
work with your aggressive or reactive maybe in a new way.
And we're also going to hear some favorite stories that
Tommy has about dogs that he's worked with and helped
over the years.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
So I can't wait to hear that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So refresh that favorite beverage, get cozy, and we'll be
right back.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
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Speaker 4 (21:07):
Let's talk past me Let's co Petal, pet Life Radio, Headline.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
Radio, pet Live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
If you've just joined, you're listening to Bark and Swagger
on pet Life Radio, and this is Jody Tyche, your host.
We're here today with Tommy Harley, founder of the nonprofit
from Kennel to Holmes where he does behavioral training with
high risk, aggressive dogs to give them a second chance
at life, which is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Tommy.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
The thousands of dogs you've helped over the years, thousands,
which is incredible and blows my mind. You must have
some favorite stories, So what are your top three?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
You know, when you mentioned that I had to come
up with three, I was like narrowing it down from
two hundred. Of course, every dog is so special in
the fact that they were labeled hopeless. Nobody thought they
could get better, and they got better. So there are
a few that are very dear to my heart. And
so there's one dog zaying and he is a shepherd
(22:20):
mix and he was at Miami Dade Animal Services with
two of his siblings and they were all fairal so
for three months the staff was unable to get them
out of their tunnel. They were so shut down, they
would shake, they would avoid eye contact. It was just heartbreaking.
So they had called me and I went down there
(22:44):
and I was able to get them out. And it's
a heartbreaking thing because I kind of need to drag
them but compassionately going just two more steps. And I
always tell these dogs, listen, this is going to be traumatic,
but I promise you your quality of life is going to
go way up. So we ended up getting the three out,
and it just so happens that Zain was one of
(23:06):
them who went to a rescue that I volunteer with,
so I was able to see him every day and
just his transformation from I'm the only one that he
will be around, I'm the only one that can pet him,
to just expanding that to more and more humans. You know,
this is a dog just afraid of the world and
afraid of people. But then you know, he bonded with me,
(23:27):
and then we would meet somebody else and I would say, zaying,
this person's safe, go ahead, they can pet you. And
you know, just he loves dogs. He has still a
little stranger danger, but oh my gosh, with the people
he likes, he is just he's a huge lab dog.
He's like a sixty pound lab dog. So yeah, So
(23:48):
so Zain's always always going to be one of my favorites.
Another one is Xena, and she came in. She was
surrendered and came in with a Golden Retriever and she
was a bully and just a beautiful silber bully. But
in their home, they had been isolated, their whole lives,
just kept in a back bedroom.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
So they came in and they were just afraid of everybody,
reactive to everybody and everything. You know, you'd go near
her kennel and she would just give the biggest growl
and so forth. And so I actually have a video
on my YouTube channel of her. But I went into
the trailer and I just had to loop her, and
(24:29):
so I looped her with a long leash and got
her out of the trailer and you can just see
her gator rolling and just full blown panic attack. But
I was telling her, listen, we need to keep moving,
we need to keep walking. And so the interesting thing
I would to point out Jody, at any moment that
dog could have attacked me, there was only sixty the
(24:51):
leash between us. That's it. That's it. She didn't want to.
And then that was one of my just a beautiful
story to show. Basically finally got her out, got her
in the playyard and you know, formed that bond with her.
I just sat there and then she came up, wanted
to be petted, and slowly introduced her to more people
and more dogs and she just did amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, with these dogs able to find homes.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
So Zena Xena was able to find a home. Zina
is still up, Dane's still up for adoption and hopefully
he will. And then the third dog is Hamilton, and
he was rescued from a Korean meat farm, believe it
or not. And the conditions, the conditions, it was horrible.
(25:40):
It was so I I was asked by a rescue
can can you take him and work with him? And
this is, you know, just a dog with no experience,
and you know, he would growl at me, and I
just gave him space and let him kind of do
his thing. And then after a while I would sit
on the floor and you know, was able to get
(26:00):
a collar on him and then a leash and we
would do walks and he would just drop to the ground,
be terrified and just a dog afraid of everything and everybody. Slowly,
we just I go on adventures with them. We'll go
to a new park and go slow. And he ended up,
you know, meeting new people, meeting new dogs. And the
(26:22):
funny story about this is he went back to the
rescue for a short time and they sent me a
picture that he had gone out the second story window
was just standing on the roof looking around. I thought,
my god, I thought, I'm so sorry. I gave him
too much confidence. But it was just a cutice thing.
(26:43):
And he ended up being adopted by a guy that
lives by me. So I actually drove up to Georgia,
picked him up and took him to his new home.
And he had just a beautiful, amazing dog.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I'm so happy that he was adopted and near you
so you can see them when you want.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Yeah, it's so nice because there's been dogs I haven't
seen for you know, three or four years, and they
remember me. And it's just the coolest.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Way they do. They don't forget, they don't forget your spend, no,
and your energy. Yes, it's so amazing. Okay, Now, the
company that you created from Kennel to Holmes is a nonprofit.
It's a nonprofit. You do incredible work, but you rely
on funding to continue the amazing work that you do.
(27:30):
So where can people donate to either maybe a dog
that you have on the site that you're working with,
if they like connect with a video of a dog
you're working with, maybe they can say, oh, I want
this for so and so, or to the organization as
a whole, to just continue doing the beautiful work that
(27:51):
you're doing. Where can they find you to do that?
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Sure? Thank you? They can go to from Kennels to
homes dot org and on. There are easy ways to
donate and just so everyone knows, the funding goes to
cover our cost to go to different shelters. And basically
the goal is we want to work with the at
risk dogs that are set up to be euthanized and
(28:16):
we want to give them a chance. And I'll just
share one story. So this year, three times I went
down to Miami Dada Animal Services and worked and assessed
and got great videos of dogs that had been labeled
dogs that were going to be euthanized because they were aggressive,
et cetera. And we were able to do videos of
(28:37):
this actually isn't true. They're not actually like this. And
of those three trips, twenty six dogs are not only
off death row, but they're out of the shelter. Wow.
Such a cool thing, Such a cool thing.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yes, twenty six of them. Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well that it needs perfectly into helping pet parents with
tools on how they can work with and manage their
aggressive or reactive dogs. So would you please give your
expert top tips for pet parents on this.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Definitely, reactivity and what we look at as aggression is
really really prevalent out there, and especially on a leash.
So I've had people say, my dog goes to dog Parts,
doggy daycare, but on a leash, she's reactive. The most
important thing as pet parents, we need to understand reactivity
(29:38):
is an emotion. It's not a behavior. So to clarify
that they're emotional about this, it's a panic attack, an
anxiety attack. Fear is a huge motivation. There is nothing
in them that wants to hurt anything. So reactivity is
an emotion and if we look at it that way,
we have a little more empathy and understand for the dog.
(30:00):
Then this is bad behavior because it's not so to
give you an example, if you're walking your dog on
a leash and they see another dog, it's fight or flight. Well,
they can't flight. So what they do is they make
themselves big and bad as possible to make that threat
go away. That's all that is. That is not aggression.
That is look how big and bad I am.
Speaker 7 (30:22):
Go away.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
So it can be helped. But we need to change
the mentality of this is an aggressive dog too, this
is a fearful dog. So my method I have a
couple of videos out there is what I call it
is keep reassuring, keep walking. So we're passing a dog,
I just keep walking. I'm nice and calm. I'm reassuring
(30:45):
the dog that he's fine. Our voices are so critical
to them. So eventually we're gonna pass thirty dogs and
I'm gonna look at him and go spot, we just
passed thirty dogs. Nobody hurt you. It's desensitizing of your perfectly.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
What about if as you're approaching the first dog or
the second dog or the third dog and they start
going from orange to the red zone where they don't
hear you anymore.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Right, So what we want to do, so you want
to have a very secure harness is the main thing.
But what the most important thing to do is anticipate.
So as soon as I see a dog, I'm already
talking to the dog I'm with. I'm already saying I
see it, I see it, and we want to keep moving.
That's the key. I'm on a walk, you're on a
(31:33):
walk with me. You're going with me, and I've dragged
one hundred and ten pound dogs and you will find
once they pass the threat, they're a lot calmer. Now. Yeah,
the old school thought was, well, you put them in
a sit and you make them stay and you make
them face it. I disagree with that because if I
took my three year old daughter and I was walking
her and she saw a spider and started having an
(31:55):
anxiety attack, I wouldn't say, well, Susie, suck it up,
deal with it, you know, right. So that's the worst thing.
It's a panic attackt We want to walk them through
and let them know that they don't need to worry
about this. You're safe, okay.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
And what do you think about something like a gentle
leader as opposed to a harness for having more control
like steering from the cockpit, you know, the one that
goes is the loose canvas strap around the nose.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Yeah, yes, so I would say it depends on the
level of reactivity. Okay, because the harness manages the body
a little better if you can hook it in the
chest and on the back, all the powers in a chest.
If you can use a general leader and keep them
moving and keep them going perfectly fine, got it. The
(32:42):
reactivities I deal with are pretty severe, so therefore I
need to really have the whole body walking with me.
And the other thing pat parents need to know is
if you have a harness a lesion distance, nothing bad
is going to happen, but you need to stay calm.
So I've had owners walk their dogs they go crazy,
(33:03):
and then I walk the same dog in the same
situation and their calmer because my end of the leash
is calm. My heart rate doesn't go up, my pulse
rate doesn't go up. I'm talking to them, you're fine,
let's go, so they can overcome this. For sure. It
is not aggression, I promise you.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Very interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
What about people who have large dogs and let's say
you know it's a woman and she's you know, a
smaller woman, so she doesn't necessarily have the strength if
they decide to go all out in reacting to something.
How do you manage something like that?
Speaker 6 (33:43):
That's a great question, and you use an important word,
which is manage a lot of with our dogs, we
want to use management tools. We can't cure everything, but
for something in that situation it's okay to turn around
and walk the other way, we want to do it nonchalantly, like, oh, spot,
(34:03):
I was going to turn around anyways. You know, we
want them to know I was gonna turn around in
any ways, which is perfectly fine. But I prefer that
we help our dogs overcome it rather than avoid it,
so you know that's fine though. It's all about management.
So if it's a powerful dog and you need to
do a turn, you just do a turn and you
just say let's go. And the most important thing, Jody
(34:26):
is we don't pause or anything. We just keep a
fluid motion because a pause alerts them.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely true, absolutely true.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Yeah. I mean you'll pause and they'll go why are
you pausing?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So is there something that almost like a little mantra
that you can share with pet parents that they can
say to themselves as they're getting ready to go out
with this dog, and as they're starting the walk with
this dog, that sort of sums up the headspace that
they need to be in to manage their dog.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Well, yes, it has to be our energy. We have
to be calm, We have to be calm our goal.
I'll tell you. A sniffing dog is a confident dog.
A sniffing dog is a confident dog. A dog that's
hyper alert is constantly looking around, and it should be
Disney World on a walk. They shouldn't be looking around.
(35:21):
They should be annoyingly sniffing when we're late for work,
you know, right, right, So if they're hyper alert, you
want to drop treats right when you come out the door. Oh,
the noses in the ground. But the most important thing
is pep parents to think of is I want my
dog to enjoy this walk. Therefore I'll enjoy the walk.
So how do I help my dog enjoy the walk?
(35:42):
Let's be nice and calm and relaxed. If we see
a threat, and me as a human being, I'm not comfortable,
let's just do a quick turnaround. But let's focus on
what a walk is for A dog should be sniffing everything.
It's so good for.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Them, Yes, it's part of the happiness protocol.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
Yes, yes, And the most important thing for everyone to
understand is you do not have a bad dog. Even
if you get dirty lucks, you have a scared dog,
you have, it's a different.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Way to look at them, which completely shifts it. I
think that's really important. You know a trainer that I
used to work with for Jasper years ago used to
call keeping your energy in that place. He used to say,
keep it fluffy.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, keep it fluffy.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Yeah. The other thing I'll tell you, Jody is always
look in control. There's nothing that panics someone else. More
is if your dog's out of control and you look
out of control, yeah, then.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
You've got a lot of bad energy.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
Yes, you just look at your neighbor and go, I
got him, I got him. He's fine, he's fine, he's afraid.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay. Beautiful, beautiful Tommy, thank you so much. This has
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Tell people where they can contribute again. Find you social
media as well, so people are very clear about where
they can get in touch and more get help if
need be, etc.
Speaker 6 (37:03):
Sure from Kennels tohomes dot org. That's the website. I
also have a lot of really good educational blogs. That
I put up there, and my goal is to educate
people about dogs and behavior so we can help them more.
There's also the social media links there. You can donate there,
(37:23):
and I'll tell you that every single penny allows us
to continue going to different shelters around the US and
helping these death row dogs get out of the shelters.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I love it. Thank you so much for what you do, Tommy.
You have helped so many and even helping one life
is precious, so this is exponentially amazing. Thank you so
much for being on the show.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Jodi, thank you as well.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
It's my pleasure, and thank you all for listening. Thanks
to our producer, Mark Winter, who makes us sound so good.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
We love you for it.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
My passion is living stylishly animal rescue and help, So
tune in next time to discover the designers, home decors
and rescue stories I love and the heroes behind me
so in fierce fashion calls, bark and swagger.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Let's Talk bets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radios dot com.
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