Jason Johnson - CEO Project K-9 Hero

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I started in the United States Armyin nineteen ninety three. I was a
military police officer. And when Icame in the military, I didn't even
know that working dogs really existed.I didn't know as a profession. I
didn't know that was something you coulddo. And when I started learning more
about the working dogs and what theydo for the military, it was something

(00:20):
I kind of set my sights onto be a part of. So it
wasn't until after I got of themilitary. I started working with the police
Department, Civilian Police Department, andmy goal there was to become a canine
handler and a canine trainer, andthat's what I did. And when I
became that, I really started learningmore about the impact that you can put
on lives in the community and thingslike that that really just not only hands

(00:45):
us the safety but the role modelthat canines and their handlers play. And
I call it the most honorable professionin the world. Talk to me about
that relationship between a handler and theirservice dog. What is that like?
It's a and like no other.When you have a canine partner and they're
with you twenty four seven, alot of times you're closer to your canine

(01:08):
partner, like when I have mydog Flash, then you are your family.
They go to work with you,they come home with you, they
go to vacation with you, theygo on vacation with you, and they
do other things that you're just aninseparable and inseparable and it's just it's just
a bond that you can't really describe. And that's why when I founded Project

(01:30):
Canine Hero, it's so important tome to make sure that these heroes are
being looked after in their retirement.And you know, we'll talk a little
bit about why that is, butthey mean so much to their handlers and
we want to make sure that they'reliving in the fullest and most productive and
happy life that they can. So, before you started Project Canine Hero,
what did the life of some ofthese service dogs look like once they were

(01:53):
retired, Once they've done their fulltour of service, whether it be for
police dogs or military dog, that'swhat happens after they retire. Well,
currently, we've gotten a lot betteras a society where we're not leaving dogs
behind the war zones as much,we're not seeing them put down like they
were in the Vietnam War. Sowe've made great strides in that and passing

(02:14):
laws in legislation. However, mostof the dogs today get to stay with
their handler, and people think that'sgreat, but a lot of them are
having cancer when foma. We havea dog in the er today with a
chemotherapy or maybe an amputation from abone cancer. So in no way as

(02:35):
a first responder, a police officer, a soldier, airman, marine capable
of paying for those expensive surgeries,medications office visits sometimes five thousand, ten
thousand, or fifteen thousand dollars ormore. So that's on the handler.
That's their responsibility once they adopt tocover all of the health issues that happen
with these dogs. Yes, sospecifically in the United States military and the

(02:58):
federal government, there's no program inplace. Some of the local agencies have set
up funds where you know, itmay they get a stipend so much per
month, so much per year,but in no way does that really help
with it a serious issue. Itmight help pay for some food, it
may help with some prescriptions, butit's not going to help with a major

(03:22):
surgery. I mean, I canspeak as an owner of a senior dog.
Those bills add up and they addup quickly. And you never want
to be in a position where youhave to make the decision between healthcare of
a family member, right, Andthis is this is you know, a
civilian dog, right, We're nottalking about dogs who have been in action
or have you know, served atthe side of some of our first responders.

(03:44):
What is that like as a burdenon their handlers who do choose to
adopt that, It's a huge burdenbecause two things happen without the help of
an organization like Project Knine Hero.Either they go into extreme personal debt.
They have to put on their creditcards. When you go into these vet
places for emergency, you have toput the credit card down right at that
moment, and that might be fivethousands, ten thousand dollars. Let's say

(04:10):
it's blow. We're all kind offamiliar with a blow. I mean those
surgeries are expensive. Drop that creditcard, or they have a nice hair
credit something that has interest rate thatjumps up after so much time, Right,
and so you know, either theygo on the financial debt or the
dog simply goes without. So whenI found a Project can On here,
those are the things I want toavoid. I was a former military police

(04:31):
officer. I was a former policeofficer. I was in the federal service,
So it's important to me to makesure they don't go in debt because
I know they're not getting paid anyextra money out there. And some of
our soldiers, specifically police officers,they don't have the ability to get a
second job. They can't go outand work part time somewhere. Some of
their jobs don't even allow for that. So and then most importantly, we

(04:54):
don't want to see the dog gowithout because that's what used to happen.
The dog would simply go without orhave to be euthanized because someone just couldn't
pay the bill. So this isn'tlike this isn't you doing this for fun.
You have dedicated your life, yourcareer to this. Talk to me
about how you made that transition fromyou know, being a service member into
dedicating your life to Project Canine Hero. Yeah, it was. It was

(05:16):
a hard choice for me at thetime, but now it's one when I
look back on, I'm so gladI did. Because you can really never
grow as a nonprofit until you fullydedicate your time to it, you know,
and a lot of people look athow nonprofits ran and you know,
we did really great last year witheighty eight percent program services only five percent
or administration, which is great.And so now I'll maybe we'll do this

(05:39):
for a living. But you know, at the time when I left,
when I started in two thousand andsixteen, I was still a full time
government employee. And the government doesn'treally want you to talk about your nonprofit
when you're at work or outside ofwork or certain things, right they want
you to focus on your government job. And I wasn't. I was working
in the canine program for the UnitedStates, like the dogs you see at
the air report listen if for passengersfor explosives. I worked in that program,

(06:02):
and you know, I thought,we're never going to get to the
level I want to be if Idon't just do this full time. And
I took five hundred dollars in mypocket that year in twenty sixteen and started
this organization. And this year wehope to raise over five million dollars.
How do we help you raise thatmoney? Well, donations obviously help.
We have over five hundred dogs pendingapplication. We're committed to putting in fifty

(06:27):
two new dogs a year, sothat's one hero week and each week we
put that new hero in we're committing. I used to make between twenty and
twenty five thousand dollars in the lifetimeof that dog. They might be in
for a year, they might bein for five years. Some dogs are
still fairly young when they come in, but the financial helps. And for
the dogs who can't stay with theirhandlers, we have one hundred and seventy
seven acre rehabilitation rehomie facility in Tennessee, and the ones are going to be

(06:50):
euthanized otherwise, whether they have aggressionissues or they just run out of a
place to stay because a family situation, it could be anything. We have
that available for them and everything canbe done on Project Canaan hero dot org
and we have a donate button.We have ways that you can people sometimes
leave us estates. Sometimes people dofour oh when k transfers were set up

(07:13):
for that. We have a shopon Project Canaan hero dot org which has
our apparel. Is the sweet sweatshirtthat you're wearing, this hoodie that you
got on today. This is theMilitary Working Dog ROSSO hoodie. Rosso had
surgery this week forty two hundred dollars. Who is Rosso? Tell me about
Rosso. Rosso is one of ourambassadors. Two over two years ago.
He was going to be euthanized fromthe Air Force. He protected the last

(07:36):
two presidents, he protected the Presidentof Japan, served overseas and Operation Inherent
Resolve and Operations Spartan. Shield didover ten secret service missions around the world.
And when his time was up,he was just too aggressive to be
adopted. And why he had ahandler that loved him. That handler had
a six month old child. Yeah, and while he still active duty and
can still deploy working on the presidentialdetails and other things, his spouse equipped

(08:01):
with a newborn to handle aggressive militaryworking dog. Right. And I can't
imagine when you're when you choose acareer path as a handler that you know
that's that's part and parcel. Youknow that that's part of the age career.
Right. And so, uh,the kennel master there reached out to
me. I drove all the wayto Washington State, I picked up Rosso,
drove him back. That was Decemberof twenty twenty one. He's still

(08:22):
alive. Um, he had hehad an emergency surgery this week. But
he's doing well, he's recovering,and you know, it's just a good
example of a military working dog whowas trained to be like this, right
if who was selected to act topdog. He I mean, you're protecting
the president at that level, it'slike servant. And he protected Air Force

(08:43):
bass and security. So yes,he's supposed to be aggressive, he's supposed
to be fierce, but he's alsoloyal and he's very loyal to his handler.
It was never a problem with hishandler. Was anyone who came around
that wasn't his hand? Yeah,I know I own a little bit about
that at home, you know.So Ross So that's his that's his personality,
but that doesn't mean that he shouldbe put down after a service.

(09:03):
So he lives out at one hundredand seventy seven acre rehabilitationy Homing Center in
Tennessee. And um, he's doingone Police thirteen and uh, you know,
this is a a Rosso sweat shirt. And we have a lot of
a lot of different Appa Project canahair out or that has other dogs on
it. We have a Duke oneand an Arlow one and we have one
with Flash who uh you know,I wanted to get into Flash because Flash

(09:26):
was told me about Flash Police Canaanthat helped me start this program. Who's
Flash? Well, Flash was mypolice Can nine when I when I worked
in Yakima, Washington, and wewere there together until I went overseas in
two thousand and eight and I hadshe had to stay. I took a
job protecting the Ambassador United States.How do you explain that too? How
do you explain Some people say theywould never leave their dog behind. But

(09:50):
I was given an opportunity. AndI will tell you that I wouldn't be
the founder of this organization if Ihadn't made these career moves in my life.
So protecting the ambassador in Iraq andAfghanistan as a dog handler was a
big deal to me. It wasan opportunity I just really couldn't pass.
And Flash had to stay, andshe worked with two additional handlers. But
when she retired in twenty thirteen,I was an instructor outside the DC area

(10:11):
for the federal government and I wasgiving the call to get her back.
And I got her back in retirementand she had lyme disease. She had
over three thousand deployments rough on herbody. And I noticed then, you
know, even though she had seizedmillions and millions of dollars of assets in
cash and narcotic related currency and things. None of that can help with her
retirement. So we have a lotof dogs in our program like that who

(10:33):
might work in border patrol or mightwork you know, on a local drug
task force, and they and theydo all these great things, but none
of those funds go to their retirement. So, you know, she really
opened my eyes to what it waslike as a hero. In twenty and
eighteen, she was named the lawEnforcement Dog of the Year in America.
We were on We're in Beverly Hills. That was through the American Humane whereund

(10:56):
the Hallmark Channel, and it wasjust it was it was amazing, and
so she got her recognition. Andwe have two children's books that I wrote,
once called Canine Flash Becomes a Heroand the other's Canine Flash a Hero's
Hero and the true stories about ourlife and how we started Project Canine Hero
and how we're helping dogs all acrossthe nation, and both of those can

(11:16):
be purchased on a website of Projectcanan Hero dot org. Do you think
these dogs know that they're heroes?Do you think that, I mean,
you know, you know when youhave a special dog right one that obviously
you're connected to and you think theworld of them. But do you think
these dogs who have done so muchservice for us and for our public servants,
that they also know that they're there'ssomething extra special. I think they
do. I think the way they'retreated like celebrities and superstars. If you

(11:41):
look at pictures of Flash, he'son the red carpet, they're at the
Beverly Hilton. You know, there'spictures of our online, any of our
ambassadors, they all get the specialtreatment, and they should. These dogs
put their lives on the line forus. They specifically ones in the military
and the police that we help withoutquestion, without hesitation. They don't ask

(12:03):
questions. They do what's expected tothem, and they love to do it.
And for that, you know,I always say, you know,
one of our taglines is protecting thosewho protected us, and that's what we
do that project Can and hero weprotect those who protected us. When you
started dipping your toe into this life'swork that you're doing, I mean,

(12:24):
you are a CEO of a nonprofitthat has got to keep you up at
night. I mean do you everwake up in the middle of the night
and go, what am I doingwhat am I doing right now? Well,
to wake up in the middle ofnight, you'd have to sleep.
Well, that's true. No,it's super important. Hardest part of my
job. Applications coming every day.I know, financially we only can put

(12:46):
in one HERO a week, sowe may get up to fifteen twenty applications,
and I have to choose which onewe're going to change the lives of.
Now people think of Project CAN andHERO helping the docks. True,
but we're not just helping the docks. When we pay that medical or we
take them in for life and payall their medical bills, that's helping the
first responder, the soldier, theairman, the marine, and that's changing
lives of their family. That's that'snow that their kids can go to college,

(13:09):
they don't have to pay that tenthousand dollars there, they can take
their family on that vacation like anyother working American can do, because if
not, they were going to spendthat money on their dog. And I
just feel that, you know,we're working with Congress. I've been in
DC here recently good and we're workingwith Congress to change that to help nonprofits
like ours get funding to help theseretired heroes just to make sure they get

(13:33):
the medical care they deserve. Doyou think as you were doing this,
there was anything that surprised you aboutrunning your own nonprofit. I mean,
coming from your background in the serviceyou've you've given to our country, is
there anything that, like, youknow, surprised you about running a nonprofit.
It's probably a lot more work thananyone that would ever think it would
be. You know, we're we'rein a good spot because we get a

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lot of great pr and people kindof understand. Most people who like us
like police and military, but noteverybody does. And you know, there's
every day I have to elete commentsor deal with people who are negative towards
police and military dogs and I don'treally see a reason for that. But
you know, I understand that noteverybody supports them. Maybe they had a

(14:16):
bad encounter with them, but Ithink the general public really does, really
really does get behind what we do. And for me, you know,
trying to get our facility belts wherewe need the most help. You know,
donating financially our line is great,but I'm looking for corporations who want
to partner with us to get thatrehab rehoming facility built. We have dogs

(14:37):
in waiting that are going to beeuthanized otherwise because I don't have a room
for them. We have the space, we have one hundred and seventy seven
acres, but we have plans tobuild a fourteen a new fourteen run kennel,
indoor play area, adoption cabins,all of these things. I'm looking
for corporations who want to put theirname on them, who want to get
involved, and whatever their company nameis, we can put their name on
them and help us build those.So hopefully one was listening who wants to

(15:01):
get involved and put their name ona rehab rehoming center and the plans we
have it will be the most comprehensivethat I know of in the world.
And we'll take police canines and miltitworking dogs and from all over the nation.
And we have one there from Vancouver, British Columbia right now, so
we're international and names K nine Blitz. He's at our facility, so we're
working internationally now. And so Ijust I just hope because when when people

(15:26):
donate to our cause, and wedid lower four million last year, I
hope to do over five million thisyear, and with that eighty eight percent
of program services and stuff. Theywant to see it go right to that
bill, and they want to seeit go right into the dog food or
the prescription or the medicine right,which is great. But when you're building
a building and you got to bringa water line in off the road and
you gotta worry about the septic ofthe kennels, Okay, nobody, nobody,

(15:46):
nobody really takes that account that I'llcost money to as part of the
program. So I think some ofthe biggest hold up for me has just
been getting that help get those buildingsbuilt, and that's where we really could
use it the most. So Jason, why don't you tell us again if
you are a business that's hearing thisand you'd like to be a part of
the cause, or if you're anindividual Jonor who wants to help out,

(16:06):
or if you just want more informationabout the program, where can they find
that information? Yeah, it's ProjectKnine hero dot org. It's a project
letter K number nine hero dot org. And we have a contact us on
there. I answer every email personally, hundreds of emails a day. But
you know, I'll make sure Isee it and yeah, we're really thankful
for the support that we do get, you know, organizations like iHeartRadio.

(16:30):
Who wants to get out there andpromote what we do and promote, you
know, our mission to the world. It's super important. And I'm again,
I'm hoping that someone who's listening wantsto help support by putting their name
on a building and helping us getthese because it's sad to me to know
that I have the space, butI don't space as in the acreage,

(16:52):
but I don't have the facilities rightnow to save lives of heroes that served
our country. And you know,I say all the time that they at
their career of protecting us, andI must spend the rest of mine protecting them