In this episode, we’re joined by Barb Ashmead, Founder/ Executive Director and Ellen Suettler, Assistant Executive Director of Operation Freedom Paws Canada, an organization that pairs both rescue dogs and people with disabilities, including veterans and first responders, by training them together as service dog teams. Barb and Ellen share how the healing goes both ways: dogs once overlooked in shelters are given a renewed purpose, and the humans they partner with find a life-changing companion. We’ll dive into how this unique training model works, what makes these partnerships so effective, and why purpose (on both ends of the leash) can be the key to healing trauma. From PTSD recovery to canine transformation, this is a story of second chances, devotion, and the incredible power of the human-animal bond.
EPISODE NOTES: Four Paws, Two Feet, One Purpose: Rescue Dogs Saving Lives with Barb Ashmead and Ellen Suettler
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EPISODE NOTES: Four Paws, Two Feet, One Purpose: Rescue Dogs Saving Lives with Barb Ashmead and Ellen Suettler
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/save-a-pooch-rescue-dog-welfare-pet-life-radio-original--6669238/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to Save Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I am
Beverly Isla, your host. Thank you for listening in today.
Our guests are barbed Ashmead, Founder Executive director of Operation
Freedom Pause Canada and Ellen Spitler I'll just call you Ellen,
also assistant Executive director of Operations Freedom Pause Canada. And
(00:43):
their work is grounded in an idea where ar rescue
dog is trained as a service animal. So it does
provide a really valuable solution because it's finding purpose in
both ends of the deleash. So through Operation Freedom PAS Canada,
veterans for susponders and individuals with disabilities are matched with
(01:05):
rescue dogs and together they're trained to become certified service teams.
So it's a purpose driven bond that transforms as a
seven both ends of the leash. So when we get
back from these messages, we'll be joined by Barb and Ellen.
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Speaker 4 (02:01):
Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Welcome back to Sabahoos. We are talking with Barbe founder
executive director and Ellen that's just the executive director of
Operation Freedom Pause Canada. Thank you both for being here today.
So to get started, could you share a brief overview
of what Operation Freedom Pause Canada is and how it works,
Like what inspired you to bring this unique model training
(02:36):
rescue dogs alongside veterans to Canada.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Well, actually I got a phone call from our base,
our Air Force base up here on the island, and
they had heard about me and they said, would you
be able to train a service dog for one of
our veterans? And I said, at this time no, but
give me a chance to look at it. So I
started doing a lot of research and I ended up
finding a group in the States run by a lady
(03:01):
called Mary Kirtani called Operation Freedom Pose. And how I
found her was she was one of the ten finalists
in the CNN Hero of the Year, and so I
phoned her and finally got ahold of her and talked,
and then I went down to visit her, and I
loved her model because she used rescue dogs and she
also spread the training out for a minimum of forty
(03:22):
eight weeks, so they had lots of time to work
and become a true bonded team. So I loved that method.
So I came back here and I started it, and
then I was working with another group at that time,
and they decided after four years to change and go
another direction. So I then went back and talked to
Mary and she allowed us to start Operation Freedom Pause Canada.
(03:45):
She gave us permission and all the help we needed.
She mentored us tremendously to allow us to start this,
and so we've been doing that. So we've been up
and running for a little over five years and we've
graduated sixty six people through her program.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So what year did you guys start? Are you veteran yourself?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
No, I'm not, but I'm old and both my parents
who were World War Two veterans, I grew up around
both my parents were. My mom served in a Women's
Air Force over in London, England, and my dad went
through Sicily, Italy and then through Holland, and so all
their friends were people who had served. And I didn't
(04:25):
realize as a kid, I was growing up among a
lot of people with PTSD. So when I finally realized
how well dogs would work, I gravitated towards this. And
when I found this whole thing, I loved it. This
was a dream to be able to help people with
a psychological injury, especially veterans, and help them find somebody
who was with them twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, that does sound amazing. And in the States, do
they also deal with the same audience or are they
dealing with different groups.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
No, they deal with veterans and first responders and others.
Veterans have the highest priority to come in here because okay,
and then we go from there. But we have all
sorts of dogs and all sorts of people.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That's awesome. I love that the healing goes both ways. Now,
can you share more about what happens when a person
and a dog begin this type of journey together?
Speaker 6 (05:16):
All right? When the begin the journey at ofp Canada,
it's very everybody is excited, like we have owner trained
dogs which the owner brings their own dog to the program,
and we have people we match rescue dogs to a person.
(05:37):
So the first day is always crazy. Everybody's excited and
so and it can be very overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You know, Yeah, I can imagine. Now, you guys mainly
work with rescue dogs. Are the organizations there because the
guys are on Vancouver Island?
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Is that right? Yes?
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So do you guys work with rescue organizations on the island.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
We work with one rescue organization on the island. We
have got dogs from First Nations. We have gotten from
the Afghanistan airlift that happened three years ago in Vancouver.
We have got dogs that people have given up on.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Oh that's nice that you guys took that on.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Yeah, And so we've had all types of dogs and we.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Also we also have all sizes from little to large.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Yeah. Our smallest dog is seven pounds. Our biggest dog
is one hundred and twenty pounds.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What job does a seven pound.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
We have a variety of dogs. So when you we
line up all our people, especially all our graduates, no
two dogs look alike.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
That's amazing. Yeah, So are they matched by like what
they're gifted at with the veterans and versus ponders.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Dogs.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
You don't get the dog, get the dog. This is
match dogs.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So we take the dog through an assessment first, it's
a five page assessment and we walk them through and decide, yeah,
that's this. We're going to take this dog from the shelter.
And then we bring the dog in. But meanwhile, we've
interviewed our people for our next class starting, so we
get an idea of what they're like. And then the
first day they come in, we match them with the
(07:16):
dogs and we're about ninety eight percent, right, So it's amazing.
It's just you look at and you go, Okay, this
person can handle this dog and this person will handle
that dog, and so it works out really well. And
you know, because our program's a minimum of forty eight weeks,
they spend a lot of time training and working hard,
(07:37):
and so it gives them a chance to bond and
you'll watch them. You'll watch that bond grow and grow
and grow over time.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So forty eight weeks is the length of your program,
and that is a mandatory program. I'm assuming with the
people that you accept, right, Yeah, you have to.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Do two hundred hours so that includes the hours that
you're training, which comes out to about one hundred and
eighty two hours train. But we say, we always say
a minimum of forty eight weeks. Each person hears on
their own journey, so as much as they work together
in a group training, they're still on their own journey.
And so some people are ready in forty eight weeks
(08:15):
and some people aren't ready for sixty weeks. You know,
we don't push people. They come along in their own
time and we work at them from that. The rest
of the hours are made up through mall training, public
access training, things like that. And so they have their
two hundred hours.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
In gotcha and what are some of the changes that
you've witnessed in both the people and the dogs through
this program.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
When they start off their journey here, Like I said before,
it's very overwhelming, and they always think, Okay, I'm doing
this wrong, I'm doing this wrong. They're worried about doing
things wrong, and they get frustrated. Okay, so the dog
doesn't respond what they hope for, doesn't listen, So it
(09:00):
gets really frustrating sometimes, but this is all a part
of the whole process here. And then we see about
week four we can see a shift. They start to connect,
They start to the little bond. It takes a while
to bond, but it's they start to understand and the
(09:20):
dog knows, Okay, this is my person, and so connection
starts slowly. Imagine it starts clicking there. And for every person,
their own journey is unique. Everybody has different issues and
so everything happens in different space. So it's all the dogs. Okay,
(09:43):
this is week four. Everything clicked, so it happens to
every individual.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Different repetition, repetition, repetitions, our name. We repeat, repeat, repeat,
because people who have psychological injuries have a hard time
comprehending stuff because there's so much going on in their brain.
So by repeating, repeating, it becomes a habit. So teaching
them how to sit their dogs sounds very straightforward, but
(10:11):
some people have trouble getting their footwork done, their hand
command done, So we work and work and work on
it until it becomes natural to them.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
So they just.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Come on and we do that with each and every
everything that we teach. We teach this really grounded building
blocks at the beginning, and then we build on top
of those building blocks, and then we add in the dogs.
Will start alerting, and we start helping them understand why
their dog is alerting, and then if they're they need
certain tasks, like if they need stuff picked up, we
(10:43):
start teaching them that. So by the time they're done,
they're they're a really well bonded team partnership.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
Yeah, between them.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh that's nice because I can imagine, like the dogs
that are coming from the rescues, they also have their
own traumas.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah. The five dogs we got from the Afghanistan airlift
that came in from Kabul, all of them, pretty much,
all the dogs had seen some form of war and
so they took a long time to decompress. And then
we matched them up and we moved them through the program.
And only one didn't make it out of the five,
and that's because I failed. Yeah, one failed because I
(11:22):
think I think he.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
Had severe hit.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
But otherwise the rest of them made it and have
done really well in their lives. But when we pick
a dog, we look for a very smart dog. And
the reason why a lot of dogs end up in
rescue is because they're bored, and so we run them
through the assessment. We're looking for a smart dog, and
those are the ones we want because they want to work,
(11:47):
they want to have a job, and so we're give
them that job with that person.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
Job is to look after that person.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, that's awesome. But we're just going to have a
quick break and when we get back, we'll continue our
conversation with Barb and Ellen.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
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Let's Talk Past Let's on pet Life.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
Radio, Headline Radio, petlight Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Welcome back to save a booch for talking with Barb,
Founder executive director and Ellen, Assistant executive director of Operation
Freedom Pause Canada. So with with the dogs that you're
matching to your audience, what transformation do they go through?
And then I'm talking about like the dogs because they
have like the mental traumas and stuff. And then you
(13:05):
also have the other end of it where you're helping
the people that have disabilities. Is there like one side
that's harder to manage than the other. If that makes
any sense.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
The dogs, when we assign the dogs there, doesn't take
them long to realize they've got a person twenty four
to seven, and most of them are most of the
dogs are very excited about the people we match them with.
Sometimes take a while because they're they've had a lot
of trauma too, and so they've got to learn to
(13:35):
trust that dog, and trust is a very difficult thing
for someone with trauma. So that all the people in
their program still see a psychologist or therapist anything like that.
So they're getting colesling at least a couple of times
of a month, if not every week, and so they
(13:56):
work at it. They work at it that way, and
that really helps some become a bonded pair and so
they just it's you see, as I said, it's usually
the human that takes the longest to realize they've got
this incredible partner that is going to be with them
twenty four to seven. And once they click into that,
(14:18):
they buy into the whole thing. They just sail. It's
wonderful to watch them sail.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I can imagine.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Yeah, And then they go through the program.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
The success stories that you guys have, like, can you
share a story that really touched you. I guess a
moment that showed you just how powerful like a pair
can be once they're bonded and you know exactly who
they're with.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I asked this one personal if I could use her name,
and she said yes, and her name is Alejandra, and
we matched her with a dog called Teddy. Teddy was
basically on the road to be euthanized, and I didn't
think he was ready for that yet, so we brought
him in here and we had him for a few months,
and when I met Alexandra, I went, I think this
(15:00):
is the right dog for her. And so she took
Teddy and a day to work really hard together. But
I saw a person. She was a mother, and I
watched her grow from being apprehensive about the world to
being strong and getting out there and walking her dog,
(15:21):
going to grocery shopping, going to her kids graduation, going
to all these things that she suddenly start doing, and
I watched her confidence just bloom. I watched Teddy love
the fact that he had a whole person to himself,
and it worked out so well that Alejandra came back
and is a mentor training for us now, and she's
(15:42):
still growing and it's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
To watch that.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
We probably have out of the all the people training,
the sixty six people graduated, we've got sixty six stories
and they're all a little different. Yeah, but it's wonderful. Ellen,
do you have a story you want to talk about?
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Well, we are also like we have a girl who
she came to us, she didn't talk, she was shy,
she didn't look at you, she didn't look at you,
and we gave her a dog, one of the Afghanistan dogs.
And like we just saw the video tonight today she graduated,
(16:20):
graduated from high school, high school. So it's like, yeah, she.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Laughs, she smiles, her dogs with her.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
So that's for us, that's success and success. It's so
great to see to help somebody to move forward like that. Yeah.
I like that.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You guys are achieving the double purpose mission.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah. What are some common misconceptions about service dogs and
the training process?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Lots of people think many people really believe that any
dog can be a service dog, or the training is
quick and easy. You know, it's like I don't have
to put the work in. We always tell our people
it is hard work. It's and after certification you're not done,
(17:11):
you still have to keep going with the with the training.
They service docks are not just well behaved pets. Yeah,
they have to perform critical tasks like what their person
that they need. I mean, we have diabetes alert dogs,
(17:31):
things like we have whatever. We have people who faint,
So these dogs are they are for their person and
they so, like I said, they're not just well trained pets.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Now, Yeah, they can perform the tasks and they have
the alerts. A lot a lot of places feel that
you have to train the alert the dog to the alert.
We let the dog alert the person first. So we
watch very carefully, ELLENI when everybody's training, and we'll see
the dogs start doing something either leaning against them or
(18:08):
actually maybe jumping on them, and then we'll tell the
person to sit down. And that's where we start seeing
the fact that you know, ten minutes later or twenty
minutes later, they have a seizure or they have pots
and so they faint and so the dog, the dog
can tell this. It's like with our diabetic dogs, they
(18:29):
can tell in far faster than they can on a
monitor that the person's bood sugar is either going to
go up or down.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
So they can allergt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Yeah, it's crazy. And it's all done on smell. Yeah,
it's all done on smell. And sixty percent of a
dog's brain is smell, and so they can smell your
body chemistry really quickly, and they can they can.
Speaker 7 (18:51):
Start doing that.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
And we had one person who just started last week
whose dog alerted to a seizure the very first day.
It was sitting beside her whining and why we were watching,
and suddenly she had a seizure. Her seizures are she
just disappears. She doesn't have a grandma, and she just
kind of disappeared and the dog she had a seizure,
and the dog was there. And then we start teaching
(19:13):
the dogs. We teach them to put peanut butter here
or on the bottom of their feet, and so the
dogs lick them and the more the dog licks, the
faster you're gonna come out of the seizure. So you know,
these dogs all do this naturally. We just developed it.
We just developed it and hone it in a little more.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Yeah, we don't teach that. You cannot teach that, Yeah,
but we can we observe and if it's a repeated
same act, that you when something happens, then it's an alert,
So we tell the clients yeah, and we also tell
our clients also when it is alert, make sure you
thank you a dog.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yeah, like that the one I told you about earlier.
Teddy and Alejandra. About the third week Alejandra came into training,
Teddy was just acting like and I was going, oh
my god, what's going on here? So she sat down
and Teddy kept jumping up and touching the left side
of her face with his nose. And ten minutes later
she goes, I've got a migraine. And that's what Teddy
(20:12):
was trying to tell her. She was getting a migraine.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
So now she.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Listens to Teddy. She goes out, she takes her meds,
and she comes back in, puts her sunglasses on, and
then she's fine. Quite often she can avoid her migraine. Yeah,
and the dog alerts to that, and that's his way.
Was really weird because he kept jumping up and touching
the left side, and her migraine was on the left side.
And so these dogs are so brilliant they can you
(20:35):
just have to learn to listen to him. It's a
very common term here, listen to your dog.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
The clients do head to toe check what's going on?
Are you frustrated? Are you in pain? Are you angry?
Head to toe? Are you to check what's going on?
And if something is going on, listen to your dog.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah, either sit down, sit on the ground, have your
dog lay across you, do some deep pressure, and when
you're ready start training again. Yeez.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Do you find like there's other like certain breeds that
are better at detecting.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
No, they're all good. It's all dogs.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
We teach them right away to use their dog's nose.
We teach them games like find it which which fist
has the treat in it? We teach them to find it.
We teach all sorts of different things so that the
dog uses the brain. The more it uses his brain,
the better he can smell your body chemistry, and they
can smell it a long ways away too. We had
(21:30):
somebody tell us that their dog was in the backyard
and they were in their car port and they were
having a really bad moment, and suddenly their dog was
there jumping on them, and he said, I didn't understand
it first, but then he realized he was mad and angry,
and the dog was telling them.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
Sit down down, Yeah, calm down.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
And you know, and so we teach them thank your dog,
and understand that they're not doing this to be annoying,
but they're doing this because there's something going on with
you and you need to learn to listen to the queues.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
We also have a client here. It's just amazing to
see she feigns and the dog alerts her to eat,
just pulls her to a safe place. Forty five minutes
before it actually happens. He can do it, and you
ask her how you're feeling. I'm fine, I'm fine, And
the dog just pulls her to a safe place and
(22:24):
sure enough, so she sits down. Forty five minutes later
she is.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Out anyway, Yeah, forty five minutes, as long as she'll
tell her. Today it was about ten minutes in advance.
He pulled into a chair. I took a look at her.
I said, sit down on the ground. She passed out.
The dog sat with her, and then he starts looking
her and you see her hand come up and she starts,
she starts coming.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Out of it.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an amazing it's an amazing thing to
see it. Just it blows me away each and every time.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
What a dog can do to alert.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, wow, you guys take regular training. Look like peanuts, Now,
best train your dog to save your life.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
We haven't had a peanut dog, but down in the
States they had a peanut dog and he was amazing
because if you had eaten peanuts in the last forty hours,
he would not let you approach her.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Interesting.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, so dogs are amazing and we don't realize just
how amazing they are. And rescue dogs, Like I said,
a lot of men up and rescue because they're too smart.
All Louijah to that statement, and that's why rescue is
so important to us. I actually looked up this fact
that in the States one point seven million dogs are
(23:39):
euthanized a year. In Canada it's about one hundred thousand.
So if we can save a dozen dogs a year,
then we've done a job. We've done something. We've done
something right to help those dogs. Match up with people, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Absolutely, all these readers.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, how can people support your mission, whether it be donations, volunteering, fostering.
I mean, do you guys use fosters.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
If you live on Vancouver Island. We are looking for
fosters and We're always looking for volunteers for when we
have an event to raise money for us. But the
major thing, like every charity needs, is money. We're especially
looking to try and develop our monthly donor ones so
people donate every month so we can start realizing that
(24:26):
this is how much money we have coming in each month,
and so we're looking at that. But yes, money with
any charity is what you need to survive.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Yeah, yeah, and we.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Make it work. We do our best on very little money.
It costs us about eighteen thousand dollars a dog, but
then we look for.
Speaker 7 (24:47):
And that's cheap.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Other schools are anywhere between thirty to forty thousand a dog.
But because we use a rescue dog, it cuts our
cuts it down tremendously, right, dog a chance.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wow, kudles for you guys.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Love it.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
So my last question of the day to both of
you is what does it mean to you personally when
you see this rescue dog and hand there become certified
and they can both not go out in their in
their life like living on purpose literally living on purpose.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
For me, well, it makes you proud, yeah, that you've
done a good job, that you help somebody they live
a better life. This is me how I see it.
Sometimes it's you go, you doubt yourself and you start
doubting you. But when you see the end result, it's
(25:39):
just so heartwarming. It's just for me, this is it.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, for me. It makes me realize that I've done
something right in life, and that's really important. Like I've
I've I've helped these people and I'm I'm, like Ellen,
very proud to be able to help these people and
let them go off and live a good life and
you know, help them to have a better bond with
their wives, their children, their families, everything, go grocery shopping,
(26:05):
go to a movie, go to a rock concert, whatever
they want. They can now start doing that and then
they just get They just tend to get better and better.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, exactly, and they deserve that's like for what they've
put in, all the work that they put in, you know,
like get us another rant that I will start, but yeah,
but yeah, thank you, thank you Barb and Ellen for
coming out today.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
We are out of time.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, so thank you again for being here and for
the work you do with Operation Freedom Pause Canada. Your
mission gives healing and purpose to people and dogs who
might otherwise be forgotten. Thanks to our show producer Mark
Winter for making the show possible. You can learn more
about Bob and Ellen's work by visiting Operation Freedom Pause
(26:50):
Canada dot We'll also have the link posted on our
show page. Do you have any questions, comments, or ideas
for a show, please email me at Beverly at pat
life radio dot com. So, until next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to Save Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I am
Beverly Isla, your host. Thank you for listening in today.
Our guests are barbed Ashmead, Founder Executive director of Operation
Freedom Pause Canada and Ellen Spitler I'll just call you Ellen,
also assistant Executive director of Operations Freedom Pause Canada. And
(00:43):
their work is grounded in an idea where ar rescue
dog is trained as a service animal. So it does
provide a really valuable solution because it's finding purpose in
both ends of the deleash. So through Operation Freedom PAS Canada,
veterans for susponders and individuals with disabilities are matched with
(01:05):
rescue dogs and together they're trained to become certified service teams.
So it's a purpose driven bond that transforms as a
seven both ends of the leash. So when we get
back from these messages, we'll be joined by Barb and Ellen.
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Speaker 4 (02:01):
Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Welcome back to Sabahoos. We are talking with Barbe founder
executive director and Ellen that's just the executive director of
Operation Freedom Pause Canada. Thank you both for being here today.
So to get started, could you share a brief overview
of what Operation Freedom Pause Canada is and how it works,
Like what inspired you to bring this unique model training
(02:36):
rescue dogs alongside veterans to Canada.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Well, actually I got a phone call from our base,
our Air Force base up here on the island, and
they had heard about me and they said, would you
be able to train a service dog for one of
our veterans? And I said, at this time no, but
give me a chance to look at it. So I
started doing a lot of research and I ended up
finding a group in the States run by a lady
(03:01):
called Mary Kirtani called Operation Freedom Pose. And how I
found her was she was one of the ten finalists
in the CNN Hero of the Year, and so I
phoned her and finally got ahold of her and talked,
and then I went down to visit her, and I
loved her model because she used rescue dogs and she
also spread the training out for a minimum of forty
(03:22):
eight weeks, so they had lots of time to work
and become a true bonded team. So I loved that method.
So I came back here and I started it, and
then I was working with another group at that time,
and they decided after four years to change and go
another direction. So I then went back and talked to
Mary and she allowed us to start Operation Freedom Pause Canada.
(03:45):
She gave us permission and all the help we needed.
She mentored us tremendously to allow us to start this,
and so we've been doing that. So we've been up
and running for a little over five years and we've
graduated sixty six people through her program.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So what year did you guys start? Are you veteran yourself?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
No, I'm not, but I'm old and both my parents
who were World War Two veterans, I grew up around
both my parents were. My mom served in a Women's
Air Force over in London, England, and my dad went
through Sicily, Italy and then through Holland, and so all
their friends were people who had served. And I didn't
(04:25):
realize as a kid, I was growing up among a
lot of people with PTSD. So when I finally realized
how well dogs would work, I gravitated towards this. And
when I found this whole thing, I loved it. This
was a dream to be able to help people with
a psychological injury, especially veterans, and help them find somebody
who was with them twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, that does sound amazing. And in the States, do
they also deal with the same audience or are they
dealing with different groups.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
No, they deal with veterans and first responders and others.
Veterans have the highest priority to come in here because okay,
and then we go from there. But we have all
sorts of dogs and all sorts of people.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That's awesome. I love that the healing goes both ways. Now,
can you share more about what happens when a person
and a dog begin this type of journey together?
Speaker 6 (05:16):
All right? When the begin the journey at ofp Canada,
it's very everybody is excited, like we have owner trained
dogs which the owner brings their own dog to the program,
and we have people we match rescue dogs to a person.
(05:37):
So the first day is always crazy. Everybody's excited and
so and it can be very overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You know, Yeah, I can imagine. Now, you guys mainly
work with rescue dogs. Are the organizations there because the
guys are on Vancouver Island?
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Is that right? Yes?
Speaker 7 (05:54):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So do you guys work with rescue organizations on the island.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
We work with one rescue organization on the island. We
have got dogs from First Nations. We have gotten from
the Afghanistan airlift that happened three years ago in Vancouver.
We have got dogs that people have given up on.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Oh that's nice that you guys took that on.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Yeah, And so we've had all types of dogs and we.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Also we also have all sizes from little to large.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Yeah. Our smallest dog is seven pounds. Our biggest dog
is one hundred and twenty pounds.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What job does a seven pound.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
We have a variety of dogs. So when you we
line up all our people, especially all our graduates, no
two dogs look alike.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
That's amazing. Yeah, So are they matched by like what
they're gifted at with the veterans and versus ponders.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Dogs.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
You don't get the dog, get the dog. This is
match dogs.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So we take the dog through an assessment first, it's
a five page assessment and we walk them through and decide, yeah,
that's this. We're going to take this dog from the shelter.
And then we bring the dog in. But meanwhile, we've
interviewed our people for our next class starting, so we
get an idea of what they're like. And then the
first day they come in, we match them with the
(07:16):
dogs and we're about ninety eight percent, right, So it's amazing.
It's just you look at and you go, Okay, this
person can handle this dog and this person will handle
that dog, and so it works out really well. And
you know, because our program's a minimum of forty eight weeks,
they spend a lot of time training and working hard,
(07:37):
and so it gives them a chance to bond and
you'll watch them. You'll watch that bond grow and grow
and grow over time.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So forty eight weeks is the length of your program,
and that is a mandatory program. I'm assuming with the
people that you accept, right, Yeah, you have to.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Do two hundred hours so that includes the hours that
you're training, which comes out to about one hundred and
eighty two hours train. But we say, we always say
a minimum of forty eight weeks. Each person hears on
their own journey, so as much as they work together
in a group training, they're still on their own journey.
And so some people are ready in forty eight weeks
(08:15):
and some people aren't ready for sixty weeks. You know,
we don't push people. They come along in their own
time and we work at them from that. The rest
of the hours are made up through mall training, public
access training, things like that. And so they have their
two hundred hours.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
In gotcha and what are some of the changes that
you've witnessed in both the people and the dogs through
this program.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
When they start off their journey here, Like I said before,
it's very overwhelming, and they always think, Okay, I'm doing
this wrong, I'm doing this wrong. They're worried about doing
things wrong, and they get frustrated. Okay, so the dog
doesn't respond what they hope for, doesn't listen, So it
(09:00):
gets really frustrating sometimes, but this is all a part
of the whole process here. And then we see about
week four we can see a shift. They start to connect,
They start to the little bond. It takes a while
to bond, but it's they start to understand and the
(09:20):
dog knows, Okay, this is my person, and so connection
starts slowly. Imagine it starts clicking there. And for every person,
their own journey is unique. Everybody has different issues and
so everything happens in different space. So it's all the dogs. Okay,
(09:43):
this is week four. Everything clicked, so it happens to
every individual.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Different repetition, repetition, repetitions, our name. We repeat, repeat, repeat,
because people who have psychological injuries have a hard time
comprehending stuff because there's so much going on in their brain.
So by repeating, repeating, it becomes a habit. So teaching
them how to sit their dogs sounds very straightforward, but
(10:11):
some people have trouble getting their footwork done, their hand
command done, So we work and work and work on
it until it becomes natural to them.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
So they just.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Come on and we do that with each and every
everything that we teach. We teach this really grounded building
blocks at the beginning, and then we build on top
of those building blocks, and then we add in the dogs.
Will start alerting, and we start helping them understand why
their dog is alerting, and then if they're they need
certain tasks, like if they need stuff picked up, we
(10:43):
start teaching them that. So by the time they're done,
they're they're a really well bonded team partnership.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
Yeah, between them.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh that's nice because I can imagine, like the dogs
that are coming from the rescues, they also have their
own traumas.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah. The five dogs we got from the Afghanistan airlift
that came in from Kabul, all of them, pretty much,
all the dogs had seen some form of war and
so they took a long time to decompress. And then
we matched them up and we moved them through the program.
And only one didn't make it out of the five,
and that's because I failed. Yeah, one failed because I
(11:22):
think I think he.
Speaker 7 (11:24):
Had severe hit.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
But otherwise the rest of them made it and have
done really well in their lives. But when we pick
a dog, we look for a very smart dog. And
the reason why a lot of dogs end up in
rescue is because they're bored, and so we run them
through the assessment. We're looking for a smart dog, and
those are the ones we want because they want to work,
(11:47):
they want to have a job, and so we're give
them that job with that person.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
Job is to look after that person.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, that's awesome. But we're just going to have a
quick break and when we get back, we'll continue our
conversation with Barb and Ellen.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
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Speaker 2 (12:27):
Let's Talk Past Let's on pet Life.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
Radio, Headline Radio, petlight Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Welcome back to save a booch for talking with Barb,
Founder executive director and Ellen, Assistant executive director of Operation
Freedom Pause Canada. So with with the dogs that you're
matching to your audience, what transformation do they go through?
And then I'm talking about like the dogs because they
have like the mental traumas and stuff. And then you
(13:05):
also have the other end of it where you're helping
the people that have disabilities. Is there like one side
that's harder to manage than the other. If that makes
any sense.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
The dogs, when we assign the dogs there, doesn't take
them long to realize they've got a person twenty four
to seven, and most of them are most of the
dogs are very excited about the people we match them with.
Sometimes take a while because they're they've had a lot
of trauma too, and so they've got to learn to
(13:35):
trust that dog, and trust is a very difficult thing
for someone with trauma. So that all the people in
their program still see a psychologist or therapist anything like that.
So they're getting colesling at least a couple of times
of a month, if not every week, and so they
(13:56):
work at it. They work at it that way, and
that really helps some become a bonded pair and so
they just it's you see, as I said, it's usually
the human that takes the longest to realize they've got
this incredible partner that is going to be with them
twenty four to seven. And once they click into that,
(14:18):
they buy into the whole thing. They just sail. It's
wonderful to watch them sail.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I can imagine.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Yeah, And then they go through the program.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
The success stories that you guys have, like, can you
share a story that really touched you. I guess a
moment that showed you just how powerful like a pair
can be once they're bonded and you know exactly who
they're with.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I asked this one personal if I could use her name,
and she said yes, and her name is Alejandra, and
we matched her with a dog called Teddy. Teddy was
basically on the road to be euthanized, and I didn't
think he was ready for that yet, so we brought
him in here and we had him for a few months,
and when I met Alexandra, I went, I think this
(15:00):
is the right dog for her. And so she took
Teddy and a day to work really hard together. But
I saw a person. She was a mother, and I
watched her grow from being apprehensive about the world to
being strong and getting out there and walking her dog,
(15:21):
going to grocery shopping, going to her kids graduation, going
to all these things that she suddenly start doing, and
I watched her confidence just bloom. I watched Teddy love
the fact that he had a whole person to himself,
and it worked out so well that Alejandra came back
and is a mentor training for us now, and she's
(15:42):
still growing and it's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
To watch that.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
We probably have out of the all the people training,
the sixty six people graduated, we've got sixty six stories
and they're all a little different. Yeah, but it's wonderful. Ellen,
do you have a story you want to talk about?
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Well, we are also like we have a girl who
she came to us, she didn't talk, she was shy,
she didn't look at you, she didn't look at you,
and we gave her a dog, one of the Afghanistan dogs.
And like we just saw the video tonight today she graduated,
(16:20):
graduated from high school, high school. So it's like, yeah, she.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Laughs, she smiles, her dogs with her.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
So that's for us, that's success and success. It's so
great to see to help somebody to move forward like that. Yeah.
I like that.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You guys are achieving the double purpose mission.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah. What are some common misconceptions about service dogs and
the training process?
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Lots of people think many people really believe that any
dog can be a service dog, or the training is
quick and easy. You know, it's like I don't have
to put the work in. We always tell our people
it is hard work. It's and after certification you're not done,
(17:11):
you still have to keep going with the with the training.
They service docks are not just well behaved pets. Yeah,
they have to perform critical tasks like what their person
that they need. I mean, we have diabetes alert dogs,
(17:31):
things like we have whatever. We have people who faint,
So these dogs are they are for their person and
they so, like I said, they're not just well trained pets.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Now, Yeah, they can perform the tasks and they have
the alerts. A lot a lot of places feel that
you have to train the alert the dog to the alert.
We let the dog alert the person first. So we
watch very carefully, ELLENI when everybody's training, and we'll see
the dogs start doing something either leaning against them or
(18:08):
actually maybe jumping on them, and then we'll tell the
person to sit down. And that's where we start seeing
the fact that you know, ten minutes later or twenty
minutes later, they have a seizure or they have pots
and so they faint and so the dog, the dog
can tell this. It's like with our diabetic dogs, they
(18:29):
can tell in far faster than they can on a
monitor that the person's bood sugar is either going to
go up or down.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
So they can allergt.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Yeah, it's crazy. And it's all done on smell. Yeah,
it's all done on smell. And sixty percent of a
dog's brain is smell, and so they can smell your
body chemistry really quickly, and they can they can.
Speaker 7 (18:51):
Start doing that.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
And we had one person who just started last week
whose dog alerted to a seizure the very first day.
It was sitting beside her whining and why we were watching,
and suddenly she had a seizure. Her seizures are she
just disappears. She doesn't have a grandma, and she just
kind of disappeared and the dog she had a seizure,
and the dog was there. And then we start teaching
(19:13):
the dogs. We teach them to put peanut butter here
or on the bottom of their feet, and so the
dogs lick them and the more the dog licks, the
faster you're gonna come out of the seizure. So you know,
these dogs all do this naturally. We just developed it.
We just developed it and hone it in a little more.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Yeah, we don't teach that. You cannot teach that, Yeah,
but we can we observe and if it's a repeated
same act, that you when something happens, then it's an alert,
So we tell the clients yeah, and we also tell
our clients also when it is alert, make sure you
thank you a dog.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yeah, like that the one I told you about earlier.
Teddy and Alejandra. About the third week Alejandra came into training,
Teddy was just acting like and I was going, oh
my god, what's going on here? So she sat down
and Teddy kept jumping up and touching the left side
of her face with his nose. And ten minutes later
she goes, I've got a migraine. And that's what Teddy
(20:12):
was trying to tell her. She was getting a migraine.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
So now she.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Listens to Teddy. She goes out, she takes her meds,
and she comes back in, puts her sunglasses on, and
then she's fine. Quite often she can avoid her migraine. Yeah,
and the dog alerts to that, and that's his way.
Was really weird because he kept jumping up and touching
the left side, and her migraine was on the left side.
And so these dogs are so brilliant they can you
(20:35):
just have to learn to listen to him. It's a
very common term here, listen to your dog.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
The clients do head to toe check what's going on?
Are you frustrated? Are you in pain? Are you angry?
Head to toe? Are you to check what's going on?
And if something is going on, listen to your dog.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Yeah, either sit down, sit on the ground, have your
dog lay across you, do some deep pressure, and when
you're ready start training again. Yeez.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Do you find like there's other like certain breeds that
are better at detecting.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
No, they're all good. It's all dogs.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
We teach them right away to use their dog's nose.
We teach them games like find it which which fist
has the treat in it? We teach them to find it.
We teach all sorts of different things so that the
dog uses the brain. The more it uses his brain,
the better he can smell your body chemistry, and they
can smell it a long ways away too. We had
(21:30):
somebody tell us that their dog was in the backyard
and they were in their car port and they were
having a really bad moment, and suddenly their dog was
there jumping on them, and he said, I didn't understand
it first, but then he realized he was mad and angry,
and the dog was telling them.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
Sit down down, Yeah, calm down.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
And you know, and so we teach them thank your dog,
and understand that they're not doing this to be annoying,
but they're doing this because there's something going on with
you and you need to learn to listen to the queues.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
We also have a client here. It's just amazing to
see she feigns and the dog alerts her to eat,
just pulls her to a safe place. Forty five minutes
before it actually happens. He can do it, and you
ask her how you're feeling. I'm fine, I'm fine, And
the dog just pulls her to a safe place and
(22:24):
sure enough, so she sits down. Forty five minutes later
she is.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Out anyway, Yeah, forty five minutes, as long as she'll
tell her. Today it was about ten minutes in advance.
He pulled into a chair. I took a look at her.
I said, sit down on the ground. She passed out.
The dog sat with her, and then he starts looking
her and you see her hand come up and she starts,
she starts coming.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Out of it.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an amazing it's an amazing thing to
see it. Just it blows me away each and every time.
Speaker 7 (22:58):
What a dog can do to alert.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, wow, you guys take regular training. Look like peanuts, Now,
best train your dog to save your life.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
We haven't had a peanut dog, but down in the
States they had a peanut dog and he was amazing
because if you had eaten peanuts in the last forty hours,
he would not let you approach her.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Interesting.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Yeah, so dogs are amazing and we don't realize just
how amazing they are. And rescue dogs, Like I said,
a lot of men up and rescue because they're too smart.
All Louijah to that statement, and that's why rescue is
so important to us. I actually looked up this fact
that in the States one point seven million dogs are
(23:39):
euthanized a year. In Canada it's about one hundred thousand.
So if we can save a dozen dogs a year,
then we've done a job. We've done something. We've done
something right to help those dogs. Match up with people, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Absolutely, all these readers.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, how can people support your mission, whether it be donations, volunteering, fostering.
I mean, do you guys use fosters.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
If you live on Vancouver Island. We are looking for
fosters and We're always looking for volunteers for when we
have an event to raise money for us. But the
major thing, like every charity needs, is money. We're especially
looking to try and develop our monthly donor ones so
people donate every month so we can start realizing that
(24:26):
this is how much money we have coming in each month,
and so we're looking at that. But yes, money with
any charity is what you need to survive.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
Yeah, yeah, and we.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Make it work. We do our best on very little money.
It costs us about eighteen thousand dollars a dog, but
then we look for.
Speaker 7 (24:47):
And that's cheap.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Other schools are anywhere between thirty to forty thousand a dog.
But because we use a rescue dog, it cuts our
cuts it down tremendously, right, dog a chance.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wow, kudles for you guys.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Love it.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
So my last question of the day to both of
you is what does it mean to you personally when
you see this rescue dog and hand there become certified
and they can both not go out in their in
their life like living on purpose literally living on purpose.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
For me, well, it makes you proud, yeah, that you've
done a good job, that you help somebody they live
a better life. This is me how I see it.
Sometimes it's you go, you doubt yourself and you start
doubting you. But when you see the end result, it's
(25:39):
just so heartwarming. It's just for me, this is it.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, for me. It makes me realize that I've done
something right in life, and that's really important. Like I've
I've I've helped these people and I'm I'm, like Ellen,
very proud to be able to help these people and
let them go off and live a good life and
you know, help them to have a better bond with
their wives, their children, their families, everything, go grocery shopping,
(26:05):
go to a movie, go to a rock concert, whatever
they want. They can now start doing that and then
they just get They just tend to get better and better.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, exactly, and they deserve that's like for what they've
put in, all the work that they put in, you know,
like get us another rant that I will start, but yeah,
but yeah, thank you, thank you Barb and Ellen for
coming out today.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
We are out of time.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, so thank you again for being here and for
the work you do with Operation Freedom Pause Canada. Your
mission gives healing and purpose to people and dogs who
might otherwise be forgotten. Thanks to our show producer Mark
Winter for making the show possible. You can learn more
about Bob and Ellen's work by visiting Operation Freedom Pause
(26:50):
Canada dot We'll also have the link posted on our
show page. Do you have any questions, comments, or ideas
for a show, please email me at Beverly at pat
life radio dot com. So, until next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com
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