May 12, 2023 • 17 mins
Jason Johnson is a globally recognized subject matter expert in the International K-9 Community. As the Founder and CEO of Project K-9 Hero, Jason has dedicated his career to making sure retired Police K-9s and Military Working Dogs receive the medical care, rehabilitation, or rehoming that they deserve once their service to our country is complete. He is a former Field Canine Coordinator for the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program with Department of Homeland Security, Lead Instructor and Course Developer at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives National Canine Training Center, Kennel Master and K-9 Handler for the U.S. Department of State in Iraq and Afghanistan, Police Narcotics K-9 Handler and Trainer, and a U.S. Army Military Police Officer. Jason holds a Master’s Degree in Security Management, is a published author, and a executive producer of television and film.
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(00:00):
The CEO You Should Know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week CEO Jason Johnson, CEOof Project Canine Hero I started in
the United States Army in nineteen ninetythree. I was a military police officer
and when I came in the military, I didn't even know that working dogs
(00:22):
really existed. I didn't know asa profession. I didn't know that was
something you could do. And whenI started learning more about the working dogs
and what they do for the military, it was something I kind of set
my sights on to be a partof. So it wasn't until after I
got of the military. I startedworking with the police Department, Civilian Police
(00:43):
Department, and my goal there wasto become a canine hailer and a canine
trainer, and that's what I did. And when I became that, I
really started learning more about the impactthat you can put on lives in the
community and things like that that reallyjust not only hands us the safety but
the role model that canines in theirhandlers play and I call it the most
(01:04):
honorable profession in the world. Talkto you about that relationship between a handler
and their service dog. What isthat like, um, it's a bond
like no other when you have acanine partner and they're with you twenty four
seven. A lot of times you'recloser to your canine partner, like when
I have my dog Flash, thenyou are your family. They go to
(01:26):
work with you, they come homewith you, they go to vacation with
you, they go on vacation withyou, and they do other things that
you're just an inseparable and inseparable andit's just it's just a bond that you
can't really describe. And that's whywhen I founded Project Canine Hero, it's
so important to me to make surethat these heroes are being looked after in
(01:48):
their retirement. And you know,we'll we'll talk a little bit about why
that is. But they mean somuch to their handlers and we want to
make sure that they're living in thefullest and in most productive and happy life
that they can. So, beforeyou started Project Canine Hero, what did
the life of some of these servicedogs look like once they were retired,
Once they've done their full tour ofservice, whether it be for police dogs
(02:12):
or military dogs, what happens afterthey retire. Well, currently, we've
gotten a lot better as a societywhere we're not leaving dogs behind the war
zones as much, we're not seeingthem put down like they were in the
Vietnam War. So we've made greatstrides in that and passing laws in legislation.
However, most of the dogs todayget to stay with their handler,
(02:32):
and people think that's great, buta lot of them are having cancer when
foma. We have a dog inthe er today with a chemotherapy or maybe
an amputation from a bone cancer.So in no way as a first responder,
a police officer, a soldier,airman, marine capable of paying for
(02:53):
those expensive surgeries, medications, officevisits sometimes five thousand or fifteen thousand dollars
or more. So that's on thehandler. That's their responsibility once they adopt
to cover all of the health issuesthat happen with these dogs. Yes,
so specifically in the United States militaryand the federal government, there's just no
(03:13):
programs in place. Some of thelocal agencies have set up funds where you
know, it may they get astipend so much per month, so much
per year, but in no waydoes that really help with it a serious
issue. It might help pay forsome food It may help with some prescriptions,
but it's not going to help witha major surgery. I mean I
(03:37):
can speak as an owner of asenior dog. Those bills add up,
and they add up quickly. Andyou never want to be in a position
where you have to make the decisionbetween healthcare of a family member. Right.
And this is this is you know, a civilian dog, right,
We're not talking about dogs who havebeen in action or have you know,
served at the side of some ofour first responders. What is that like
(03:59):
as a bird on their handlers whodo choose to adopt that. It's a
huge burden because two things happen withoutthe help of an organization like Project kN
on Hero. Either they go intoextreme personal debt. They have to put
on their credit cards. When yougo into these vet places for emergency,
you have to put the credit carddown right at that moment, and that
might be five thousands, ten thousanddollars. Let's say it's blow. We're
(04:24):
all kind of familiar with a blow. I mean, those surgeries are expensive.
Drop that credit card, or theyhave a nice hair credit something that
has interest rate that jumps up afterso much time, Right, And so
you know, either they go onthe financial debt, or the dog simply
goes without. So when I founda Project kN On Hero, those are
the things I want to avoid.I wasn't former military police officer. I
(04:46):
was a former police officer, andI was in the federal service. So
it's important to me to make surethey don't go in debt because I know
they're not getting paid any extra moneyout there. And some of our soldiers,
specifically police officers, they don't havethe bit to get a second job.
They can't go out and work parttime somewhere. Some of their jobs
don't even allow for that. Soand then most importantly, we don't want
(05:08):
to see the dog go without becausethat's what used to happen. The dog
would simply go without or have tobe euthanized because someone just couldn't pay the
bill. So this isn't like thisisn't you doing this for fun. You
have dedicated your life, your careerto this. Talk to me about how
you made that transition from you know, being a service member into dedicating your
life to Project Canine Hero. Yeah, it was. It was a hard
(05:30):
choice for me at the time,but now it's one when I look back
on I'm so glad I did,because you can really never grow as a
nonprofit until you fully dedicate your timeto it, you know, And a
lot of people look at how nonprofitsran, and you know, we did
really great last year with eighty eightpercent program services only five percent or administration,
which is great. And so nowI'll maybe I'll do this for a
(05:53):
living. But you know, atthe time when I left, when I
started in two thousand and sixty,I was still a full time government employee.
And the government doesn't really want youto talk about your nonprofit when you're
at work or outside of work orcertain things, right they want you to
focus on your government job. AndI wasn't. I was working in the
canine program for the United States,like the dogs you see at the airport
(06:13):
listen iff for passengers for explosives.I worked in that program, and you
know, I thought, we're nevergoing to get to the level I want
to be if I don't just dothis full time. And I took five
hundred dollars in my pocket that yearin twenty sixteen and started this organization.
And this year we hope to raiseover five million dollars. How do we
help you raise that money. Well, donations obviously help. We have over
(06:34):
five hundred dogs pending application. We'recommitted to putting in fifty two new dogs
a year, so that's one Heroweek and each week we put that new
hero in, we're committing I usedto make between twenty and twenty five thousand
dollars in the lifetime of that dog. They might be in for a year,
they might be in for five years. Some dogs are still fairly young
when they come in, but thefinancial helps. And for the dogs who
(06:58):
can't stay with their handlers, wehave one hundred and seventy seven acre rehabilitation
rehomie facility in Tennessee and the onesare going to be euthanized otherwise, whether
they have aggression issues or they justrun out of a place to stay because
a family situation, it could beanything. We have that available for them
and everything can be done on ProjectCanaan hero dot org and we have a
donate button. We have ways thatyou can People sometimes leave us estates.
(07:24):
Sometimes people do fo owen k transfers. We're set up for that. We
have a shop on a Project Canaanhero dot org which has our peril does
the Sweet sweatshirt that you're wearing.This hoodie that you got on today,
this is the military working dog Rossohoodie. Rosso had surgery this week forty
two hundred dollars. Who is Rosso? Tell me about Rosso. Rosso is
one of our ambassadors two over twoyears ago. He was going to be
(07:46):
euthanized from the Air Force. Heprotected the last two presidents, he protected
the President of Japan, served overseasand Operation Inherent Resolve and Operations Spartan Shield,
over ten secret service missions around theworld. And when his time was
up, he was just too aggressiveto be adopted. And why he had
a handler that loved him. Thathandler had a six month old child.
(08:07):
Yeah, and while he still activeduty and can still deploy working on the
presidential details and other things, howis his spouse equipped with a newborn to
handle aggressive military working dog? Right? And I can't imagine when you're when
you choose a career path as ahandler, that you know that's that's part
and parcel. You know that that'spart of the agree, right. And
so h the kennel master there reachedout to me. I drove all the
(08:31):
way to Washington State, I pickedup Rosso, drove him back that was
December of twenty twenty one. He'sstill alive. Um, he had he
had an emergency surgery this week.But he's doing well. He's recovering.
And you know, he's just agood example of a military working dog who
was trained to be like this,right if who was selected to act top
(08:52):
dog. He I mean, you'reprotecting the president at that level, it's
like superservance and he protected Air ForceBass and security. So yes, he
supposed to be aggressive. He's supposedto be fierce, but he's also loyal
and he's very loyal to his handler. It was never a problem with his
handler. Was anyone who came aroundthat wasn't his hand Yeah, I know
I own a little bit about that. And you know, so Rosso that's
(09:13):
his that's his personality, but thatdoesn't mean that he should be put down
after a service. So he livesout at one hundred and seventy seven acre
Rehabilitation Rehoming Center in Tennessee. Andum, he's doing one the Police's thirteen
and uh, you know this isa a Rosso. So at Sherton,
we have a lot of a lotof different appare Project Cana Hair dot org
that has other dogs on it.We have a Duke one and an Arlow
(09:35):
one and we have one with Flashwho uh you know. I wanted to
get into Flash because Flash was toldme about Flash police canan that helped me
start this program. Who's Flash?Well, Flash was my police canine when
I when I worked in Yakima,Washington and uh we were there together until
I went overseas in two thousand andeight and I had she had a stay.
(09:56):
I took a job protecting the ambassadorof United States. How do you
explain not to how do you explain? Some people say they would never leave
their dog behind. But I wasgiven an opportunity, and I would tell
you that I wouldn't be the founderof this organization if I hadn't made these
career moves in my life. Soprotecting the ambassador and I rack in Afghanistan
as a dog handler was a bigdeal to me. It was an opportunity
I just really could pass up.Flash had to stay and she worked with
(10:20):
two additional handlers. But when sheretired in twenty thirteen, I was an
instructor outside the DC area for thefederal government and I was given the call
to get her back, and Igot her back in retirement and she had
lyme disease. She had over threethousand deployments rough on her body, and
I noticed then, you know,even though she had seized millions and millions
of dollars of assets in cash andnarcotic related currency and things, none of
(10:43):
that can help with her retirement.So we have a lot of dogs in
our program like that who might workin border patrol or might work you know,
on a local drug task force,and they and they do all these
great things, but none of thosefunds go to their retirement. So,
you know, she really opened myeyes to what it was like as a
hero. In twenty eighteen, shewas named the Law Enforcement Dog or Year
in America. We were on We'rein Beverly Hills. That was through the
(11:09):
American Humane Round the Hallmark Channel,and it was just it was it was
amazing. And so she got herrecognition. And we have two children's books
that I wrote, once called CanineFlash Becomes a Hero and the other's Canine
Flash a Hero's Hero and the truestories about our life and how we started
Project Kenine Hero and how we're helpingdogs all across the nation, And both
of those can be purchased on awebsite of Project kenan hero dot org.
(11:31):
Do you think these dogs know thatthey're heroes? Do you think that?
I mean, you know, youknow when you have a special dog,
right, one that obviously you're connectedto, and you think the world of
them. But do you think thesedogs who have done so much service for
us and for our public servants,that they also know that they're there's something
extra special? I think they do. I think the way they're treated like
(11:52):
celebrities and superstars. If you lookat pictures of Flash she's on the red
carpet there at the Beverly Hilton.You know, there's picture of our online,
any of our ambassadors, they allget the special treatment, and they
should. These dogs put their liveson the line for us. They specifically
the ones in the military and thepolice that we help without question, without
(12:15):
hesitation. They don't ask questions.They do what's expected to them, and
they love to do it. Andfor that, you know, um,
I always say, you know,one of our taglines is protecting those who
protected us, and that's what wedo at Projecting and Hero We protect those
who protected us. When you starteddipping your toe into this life's work,
that you're doing. I mean,you are a CEO of a nonprofit that
(12:41):
has got to keep you up atnight. I mean, do you ever
wake up in the middle of thenight and go, what am I doing?
What am I doing right now?Well, to wake up in the
middle of night, you'd have tosleep, that's true. Well, that's
true. No, it's super important. Hardest part of my job. Applications
coming every day. I know,financially we can put in one Hero a
(13:01):
week, so we may get upto fifteen twenty applications, and I have
to choose which one we're going tochange the lives of Now people think a
project can on Hero helping the docks. True, but we're not just helping
the docks. When we pay thatmedical bill, or we take them in
for life and pay all their medicalbills, that's helping the first responder,
the soldier, the airmand the marine, and that's changing lives of their family.
That's that's now that their kids cango to college, they don't have
(13:22):
to pay that ten thousand dollars.They can take their family on that vacation
like any other working American can do, because if not, they were going
to spend that money on their dock, and I just feel that, you
know, we're working with Congress.I've been in DC here recently, good
and we're working with Congress to changethat to help nonprofits like ours get funding
(13:43):
to help these retired heroes, justto make sure they get the medical care
they deserve. Do you think asyou were doing this, there was anything
that surprised you about running your ownnonprofit? I mean, coming from your
background in the service you've you've givento our country, is there anything that,
like you know, surprised you aboutrunning a nonprofit. It's probably a
lot more work than anyone that wouldever think it would be. You know,
(14:07):
we're in a good spot because weget a lot of great pr and
people kind of understand. Most peoplewho like us like police and military,
but not everybody does. And youknow, there's every day I have to
delete comments or deal with people whoare negative towards police and military dogs and
I don't really see a reason forthat. But you know, I understand
that not everybody supports them. Maybethey had a bad encounter with them,
(14:31):
but I think the general public reallydoes, really really does get behind what
we do. And for me,you know, trying to get our facility
belts where we need the most help. You know, donating financially our line
is great, but I'm looking forcorporations who want to partner with us to
get that rehab rehoming facility built.We have dogs in waiting that are going
to be euthanized otherwise because I don'thave room for him. We have the
(14:54):
space, we have one hundred andseventy seven acres, but we have plans
to build a fourteen on new fourteenrun kennel, indoor play area, adoption
cabins, all of these things.I'm looking for corporations who want to put
their name on them, who wantto get involved, and whatever their company
name is, we can put theirname on them and help us build those.
So hopefully someone's listening who wants toget involved and put their name on
(15:16):
a rehab rehoming center and the planswe have it will be the most comprehensive
that I know of in the world. And we'll take police canines and multi
working dogs and from all over thenation. And we have one there from
Vancouver, British Columbia right now,so we're international and nine Blitz he's at
our facility, so we're working internationallynow, and so I just I just
(15:37):
hope because when people donate to ourcause, and we did lower four million
last year, I hope to doover five million this year. And with
that eighty eight percent program services andstuff, they want to see it go
right to that bill and they wantto see it go right into the dog
food or the prescription or the medicine, right, which is great. But
when you're building a building and yougot to bring a water line in off
the road and you gotta worry aboutthe septic of the kennels, Okay,
(15:58):
nobody, nobody, but it reallytakes that account that I'll cost money to
as part of the program. SoI think some of the biggest hold up
for me has just been getting thathelp get those buildings built, and that's
where we really could use it themost. So Jason, why don't you
tell us again if you are abusiness that's hearing this and you'd like to
be a part of the cause,or if you're an individual jone or who
wants to help out, or ifyou just want more information about the program,
(16:22):
where can they find that information?Yeah, it's a project knine hero
dot org. It's a project letterk number nine hero dot org and we
have a contact us on there.I answered every email personally, hundreds of
emails a day, but you know, I'll make sure I see it.
And yeah, we're really thankful forthe support that we do get. You
know, organizations like iHeartRadio. Whowants to get out there and promote what
(16:45):
we do and promote you know,our mission to the world. It's super
important. And I'm again I'm hopingthat someone who's listening wants to help support
by putting their name on a buildingand helping us get these because it's sad
to me to know that I havethe space, but I don't space as
in the acreage, but I don'thave the facilities right now to save lives
(17:08):
of heroes that served our country.And you know, I say all the
time that they spent their career protectingus, and I'm going to spend the
rest of mine protecting them. JasonJohnson, CEO of Project Knine Hero the
CEO you should know. Read abio, see a photo, and hear
the extended interview at wmanfm dot com. This is John Roby of RFME Insurance.
(17:33):
It is said that a good leadersets the bar high because he or
she wants to reach goals and makethe best of their teams. We're proud
to introduce you to some of thecommunity's leaders on the CEO series
The CEO You Should Know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week CEO Jason Johnson, CEOof Project Canine Hero I started in
the United States Army in nineteen ninetythree. I was a military police officer
and when I came in the military, I didn't even know that working dogs
(00:22):
really existed. I didn't know asa profession. I didn't know that was
something you could do. And whenI started learning more about the working dogs
and what they do for the military, it was something I kind of set
my sights on to be a partof. So it wasn't until after I
got of the military. I startedworking with the police Department, Civilian Police
(00:43):
Department, and my goal there wasto become a canine hailer and a canine
trainer, and that's what I did. And when I became that, I
really started learning more about the impactthat you can put on lives in the
community and things like that that reallyjust not only hands us the safety but
the role model that canines in theirhandlers play and I call it the most
(01:04):
honorable profession in the world. Talkto you about that relationship between a handler
and their service dog. What isthat like, um, it's a bond
like no other when you have acanine partner and they're with you twenty four
seven. A lot of times you'recloser to your canine partner, like when
I have my dog Flash, thenyou are your family. They go to
(01:26):
work with you, they come homewith you, they go to vacation with
you, they go on vacation withyou, and they do other things that
you're just an inseparable and inseparable andit's just it's just a bond that you
can't really describe. And that's whywhen I founded Project Canine Hero, it's
so important to me to make surethat these heroes are being looked after in
(01:48):
their retirement. And you know,we'll we'll talk a little bit about why
that is. But they mean somuch to their handlers and we want to
make sure that they're living in thefullest and in most productive and happy life
that they can. So, beforeyou started Project Canine Hero, what did
the life of some of these servicedogs look like once they were retired,
Once they've done their full tour ofservice, whether it be for police dogs
(02:12):
or military dogs, what happens afterthey retire. Well, currently, we've
gotten a lot better as a societywhere we're not leaving dogs behind the war
zones as much, we're not seeingthem put down like they were in the
Vietnam War. So we've made greatstrides in that and passing laws in legislation.
However, most of the dogs todayget to stay with their handler,
(02:32):
and people think that's great, buta lot of them are having cancer when
foma. We have a dog inthe er today with a chemotherapy or maybe
an amputation from a bone cancer.So in no way as a first responder,
a police officer, a soldier,airman, marine capable of paying for
(02:53):
those expensive surgeries, medications, officevisits sometimes five thousand or fifteen thousand dollars
or more. So that's on thehandler. That's their responsibility once they adopt
to cover all of the health issuesthat happen with these dogs. Yes,
so specifically in the United States militaryand the federal government, there's just no
(03:13):
programs in place. Some of thelocal agencies have set up funds where you
know, it may they get astipend so much per month, so much
per year, but in no waydoes that really help with it a serious
issue. It might help pay forsome food It may help with some prescriptions,
but it's not going to help witha major surgery. I mean I
(03:37):
can speak as an owner of asenior dog. Those bills add up,
and they add up quickly. Andyou never want to be in a position
where you have to make the decisionbetween healthcare of a family member. Right.
And this is this is you know, a civilian dog, right,
We're not talking about dogs who havebeen in action or have you know,
served at the side of some ofour first responders. What is that like
(03:59):
as a bird on their handlers whodo choose to adopt that. It's a
huge burden because two things happen withoutthe help of an organization like Project kN
on Hero. Either they go intoextreme personal debt. They have to put
on their credit cards. When yougo into these vet places for emergency,
you have to put the credit carddown right at that moment, and that
might be five thousands, ten thousanddollars. Let's say it's blow. We're
(04:24):
all kind of familiar with a blow. I mean, those surgeries are expensive.
Drop that credit card, or theyhave a nice hair credit something that
has interest rate that jumps up afterso much time, Right, And so
you know, either they go onthe financial debt, or the dog simply
goes without. So when I founda Project kN On Hero, those are
the things I want to avoid.I wasn't former military police officer. I
(04:46):
was a former police officer, andI was in the federal service. So
it's important to me to make surethey don't go in debt because I know
they're not getting paid any extra moneyout there. And some of our soldiers,
specifically police officers, they don't havethe bit to get a second job.
They can't go out and work parttime somewhere. Some of their jobs
don't even allow for that. Soand then most importantly, we don't want
(05:08):
to see the dog go without becausethat's what used to happen. The dog
would simply go without or have tobe euthanized because someone just couldn't pay the
bill. So this isn't like thisisn't you doing this for fun. You
have dedicated your life, your careerto this. Talk to me about how
you made that transition from you know, being a service member into dedicating your
life to Project Canine Hero. Yeah, it was. It was a hard
(05:30):
choice for me at the time,but now it's one when I look back
on I'm so glad I did,because you can really never grow as a
nonprofit until you fully dedicate your timeto it, you know, And a
lot of people look at how nonprofitsran, and you know, we did
really great last year with eighty eightpercent program services only five percent or administration,
which is great. And so nowI'll maybe I'll do this for a
(05:53):
living. But you know, atthe time when I left, when I
started in two thousand and sixty,I was still a full time government employee.
And the government doesn't really want youto talk about your nonprofit when you're
at work or outside of work orcertain things, right they want you to
focus on your government job. AndI wasn't. I was working in the
canine program for the United States,like the dogs you see at the airport
(06:13):
listen iff for passengers for explosives.I worked in that program, and you
know, I thought, we're nevergoing to get to the level I want
to be if I don't just dothis full time. And I took five
hundred dollars in my pocket that yearin twenty sixteen and started this organization.
And this year we hope to raiseover five million dollars. How do we
help you raise that money. Well, donations obviously help. We have over
(06:34):
five hundred dogs pending application. We'recommitted to putting in fifty two new dogs
a year, so that's one Heroweek and each week we put that new
hero in, we're committing I usedto make between twenty and twenty five thousand
dollars in the lifetime of that dog. They might be in for a year,
they might be in for five years. Some dogs are still fairly young
when they come in, but thefinancial helps. And for the dogs who
(06:58):
can't stay with their handlers, wehave one hundred and seventy seven acre rehabilitation
rehomie facility in Tennessee and the onesare going to be euthanized otherwise, whether
they have aggression issues or they justrun out of a place to stay because
a family situation, it could beanything. We have that available for them
and everything can be done on ProjectCanaan hero dot org and we have a
donate button. We have ways thatyou can People sometimes leave us estates.
(07:24):
Sometimes people do fo owen k transfers. We're set up for that. We
have a shop on a Project Canaanhero dot org which has our peril does
the Sweet sweatshirt that you're wearing.This hoodie that you got on today,
this is the military working dog Rossohoodie. Rosso had surgery this week forty
two hundred dollars. Who is Rosso? Tell me about Rosso. Rosso is
one of our ambassadors two over twoyears ago. He was going to be
(07:46):
euthanized from the Air Force. Heprotected the last two presidents, he protected
the President of Japan, served overseasand Operation Inherent Resolve and Operations Spartan Shield,
over ten secret service missions around theworld. And when his time was
up, he was just too aggressiveto be adopted. And why he had
a handler that loved him. Thathandler had a six month old child.
(08:07):
Yeah, and while he still activeduty and can still deploy working on the
presidential details and other things, howis his spouse equipped with a newborn to
handle aggressive military working dog? Right? And I can't imagine when you're when
you choose a career path as ahandler, that you know that's that's part
and parcel. You know that that'spart of the agree, right. And
so h the kennel master there reachedout to me. I drove all the
(08:31):
way to Washington State, I pickedup Rosso, drove him back that was
December of twenty twenty one. He'sstill alive. Um, he had he
had an emergency surgery this week.But he's doing well. He's recovering.
And you know, he's just agood example of a military working dog who
was trained to be like this,right if who was selected to act top
(08:52):
dog. He I mean, you'reprotecting the president at that level, it's
like superservance and he protected Air ForceBass and security. So yes, he
supposed to be aggressive. He's supposedto be fierce, but he's also loyal
and he's very loyal to his handler. It was never a problem with his
handler. Was anyone who came aroundthat wasn't his hand Yeah, I know
I own a little bit about that. And you know, so Rosso that's
(09:13):
his that's his personality, but thatdoesn't mean that he should be put down
after a service. So he livesout at one hundred and seventy seven acre
Rehabilitation Rehoming Center in Tennessee. Andum, he's doing one the Police's thirteen
and uh, you know this isa a Rosso. So at Sherton,
we have a lot of a lotof different appare Project Cana Hair dot org
that has other dogs on it.We have a Duke one and an Arlow
(09:35):
one and we have one with Flashwho uh you know. I wanted to
get into Flash because Flash was toldme about Flash police canan that helped me
start this program. Who's Flash?Well, Flash was my police canine when
I when I worked in Yakima,Washington and uh we were there together until
I went overseas in two thousand andeight and I had she had a stay.
(09:56):
I took a job protecting the ambassadorof United States. How do you
explain not to how do you explain? Some people say they would never leave
their dog behind. But I wasgiven an opportunity, and I would tell
you that I wouldn't be the founderof this organization if I hadn't made these
career moves in my life. Soprotecting the ambassador and I rack in Afghanistan
as a dog handler was a bigdeal to me. It was an opportunity
I just really could pass up.Flash had to stay and she worked with
(10:20):
two additional handlers. But when sheretired in twenty thirteen, I was an
instructor outside the DC area for thefederal government and I was given the call
to get her back, and Igot her back in retirement and she had
lyme disease. She had over threethousand deployments rough on her body, and
I noticed then, you know,even though she had seized millions and millions
of dollars of assets in cash andnarcotic related currency and things, none of
(10:43):
that can help with her retirement.So we have a lot of dogs in
our program like that who might workin border patrol or might work you know,
on a local drug task force,and they and they do all these
great things, but none of thosefunds go to their retirement. So,
you know, she really opened myeyes to what it was like as a
hero. In twenty eighteen, shewas named the Law Enforcement Dog or Year
in America. We were on We'rein Beverly Hills. That was through the
(11:09):
American Humane Round the Hallmark Channel,and it was just it was it was
amazing. And so she got herrecognition. And we have two children's books
that I wrote, once called CanineFlash Becomes a Hero and the other's Canine
Flash a Hero's Hero and the truestories about our life and how we started
Project Kenine Hero and how we're helpingdogs all across the nation, And both
of those can be purchased on awebsite of Project kenan hero dot org.
(11:31):
Do you think these dogs know thatthey're heroes? Do you think that?
I mean, you know, youknow when you have a special dog,
right, one that obviously you're connectedto, and you think the world of
them. But do you think thesedogs who have done so much service for
us and for our public servants,that they also know that they're there's something
extra special? I think they do. I think the way they're treated like
(11:52):
celebrities and superstars. If you lookat pictures of Flash she's on the red
carpet there at the Beverly Hilton.You know, there's picture of our online,
any of our ambassadors, they allget the special treatment, and they
should. These dogs put their liveson the line for us. They specifically
the ones in the military and thepolice that we help without question, without
(12:15):
hesitation. They don't ask questions.They do what's expected to them, and
they love to do it. Andfor that, you know, um,
I always say, you know,one of our taglines is protecting those who
protected us, and that's what wedo at Projecting and Hero We protect those
who protected us. When you starteddipping your toe into this life's work,
that you're doing. I mean,you are a CEO of a nonprofit that
(12:41):
has got to keep you up atnight. I mean, do you ever
wake up in the middle of thenight and go, what am I doing?
What am I doing right now?Well, to wake up in the
middle of night, you'd have tosleep, that's true. Well, that's
true. No, it's super important. Hardest part of my job. Applications
coming every day. I know,financially we can put in one Hero a
(13:01):
week, so we may get upto fifteen twenty applications, and I have
to choose which one we're going tochange the lives of Now people think a
project can on Hero helping the docks. True, but we're not just helping
the docks. When we pay thatmedical bill, or we take them in
for life and pay all their medicalbills, that's helping the first responder,
the soldier, the airmand the marine, and that's changing lives of their family.
That's that's now that their kids cango to college, they don't have
(13:22):
to pay that ten thousand dollars.They can take their family on that vacation
like any other working American can do, because if not, they were going
to spend that money on their dock, and I just feel that, you
know, we're working with Congress.I've been in DC here recently, good
and we're working with Congress to changethat to help nonprofits like ours get funding
(13:43):
to help these retired heroes, justto make sure they get the medical care
they deserve. Do you think asyou were doing this, there was anything
that surprised you about running your ownnonprofit? I mean, coming from your
background in the service you've you've givento our country, is there anything that,
like you know, surprised you aboutrunning a nonprofit. It's probably a
lot more work than anyone that wouldever think it would be. You know,
(14:07):
we're in a good spot because weget a lot of great pr and
people kind of understand. Most peoplewho like us like police and military,
but not everybody does. And youknow, there's every day I have to
delete comments or deal with people whoare negative towards police and military dogs and
I don't really see a reason forthat. But you know, I understand
that not everybody supports them. Maybethey had a bad encounter with them,
(14:31):
but I think the general public reallydoes, really really does get behind what
we do. And for me,you know, trying to get our facility
belts where we need the most help. You know, donating financially our line
is great, but I'm looking forcorporations who want to partner with us to
get that rehab rehoming facility built.We have dogs in waiting that are going
to be euthanized otherwise because I don'thave room for him. We have the
(14:54):
space, we have one hundred andseventy seven acres, but we have plans
to build a fourteen on new fourteenrun kennel, indoor play area, adoption
cabins, all of these things.I'm looking for corporations who want to put
their name on them, who wantto get involved, and whatever their company
name is, we can put theirname on them and help us build those.
So hopefully someone's listening who wants toget involved and put their name on
(15:16):
a rehab rehoming center and the planswe have it will be the most comprehensive
that I know of in the world. And we'll take police canines and multi
working dogs and from all over thenation. And we have one there from
Vancouver, British Columbia right now,so we're international and nine Blitz he's at
our facility, so we're working internationallynow, and so I just I just
(15:37):
hope because when people donate to ourcause, and we did lower four million
last year, I hope to doover five million this year. And with
that eighty eight percent program services andstuff, they want to see it go
right to that bill and they wantto see it go right into the dog
food or the prescription or the medicine, right, which is great. But
when you're building a building and yougot to bring a water line in off
the road and you gotta worry aboutthe septic of the kennels, Okay,
(15:58):
nobody, nobody, but it reallytakes that account that I'll cost money to
as part of the program. SoI think some of the biggest hold up
for me has just been getting thathelp get those buildings built, and that's
where we really could use it themost. So Jason, why don't you
tell us again if you are abusiness that's hearing this and you'd like to
be a part of the cause,or if you're an individual jone or who
wants to help out, or ifyou just want more information about the program,
(16:22):
where can they find that information?Yeah, it's a project knine hero
dot org. It's a project letterk number nine hero dot org and we
have a contact us on there.I answered every email personally, hundreds of
emails a day, but you know, I'll make sure I see it.
And yeah, we're really thankful forthe support that we do get. You
know, organizations like iHeartRadio. Whowants to get out there and promote what
(16:45):
we do and promote you know,our mission to the world. It's super
important. And I'm again I'm hopingthat someone who's listening wants to help support
by putting their name on a buildingand helping us get these because it's sad
to me to know that I havethe space, but I don't space as
in the acreage, but I don'thave the facilities right now to save lives
(17:08):
of heroes that served our country.And you know, I say all the
time that they spent their career protectingus, and I'm going to spend the
rest of mine protecting them. JasonJohnson, CEO of Project Knine Hero the
CEO you should know. Read abio, see a photo, and hear
the extended interview at wmanfm dot com. This is John Roby of RFME Insurance.
(17:33):
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