January 9, 2025 • 56 mins
Hope everyone had a Happy New Year! This weeks podcast is an update about the K9 PTSD Center, with it's Founder, James LaMonte. James was on a while back talking about the center and all of the great work they do with working K9's that end up with PTSD from their jobs. Since then he's expanded the center to help more dogs and will be soon extending more services to the public as well. If you'd like to learn more about K9 PTSD and then center then please join us!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Continuing everybody, and welcome to following our creatures. I am
your host slowly and tonight I have a really cool
update podcast. Actually, I have James Lamont, who was the
founder of the k name PTSD Center and if you
guys listened, I had a man a while back and
(00:23):
you were talking about his center and what they do.
But uh, we'll have any man to do an update
because he's got some uh news about what's been going
on with the center and some expansions and stuff they've done.
So uh, James, I'm really glad that you could join
me again and talk about the center and what the
Days have been doing.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, thank you so much for having that spot. It's
really excited to be able to talk to you and
uh share more information with your for your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, a new kidding. I know the Days have done
a lot since the last time you're around, but so
but let's kind of start back at the beginning again
with a date likes for some of the listeners and
maybe get listened to that podcast. How did you get
started working with dogs in general?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And well, I mean I was born, I was born
into the whole world of working dogs is when I
was in diapers. We had working dogs in the house
and our home, and it just kind of was something
that just you know, it has been part of my life,
my whole life, German shepherds and working dogs. So of
(01:26):
course that was always my dream as a child to
kind of work with dogs full time. But life gets
in the way of living. You know, what we think
we're going to be when we get older, and all
of a sudden, life decides it's going to throw us
a curveball and we're gonna it pushes us in different directions.
This was so it took me a long time to
get back to where I wanted to be. So, uh,
(01:49):
it's just just bigd in my DNA and my and
what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So yes, I can totally understand that. I mean, I'm
doing my dog training now, so I'm happy. I wor
you training service dogs and uh stuff like that and
then my regular training. So I'm kind of like, it
took me a long time to maybe get to doing
this kind of stuff, but it's something I enjoy doing, so.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right, And let it be a message to your
listeners is that you know you're never to never too
old to start your dream, right you know, so just
keep keep it, keep at it, and uh, you know,
keep striving for it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
No, exactly exactly, So, uh, why didn't you go ahead
and remind us of what knan PTSD is and what
the kN A PTSD center does.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Great question, Well, since well we talked. I mean, I've
been working on this research for six years to kind
of identify it, give it, give it an image of
what people can see what it is. And because up
until we did our research, it was identified, but nobody
had actually could classify it. There's no diagnosed tools for it.
(03:05):
And since then we've developed assessments and a whole bunch
of information to be able to not only diagnose it,
but to treat it. But can i PTSC in general,
just to simplify it is really about it's the highest
form of stress. I mean, it's when the brain of
(03:27):
whether it's a human or in this particular case that
don't it gets stuck in a constant loop of stress,
panicking anxiety, and it can't get out of it. Unlike
humans where we can medicate self medicate in some cases
of alcohol or habituates or you know, any other type
(03:50):
of depressant to suppress that nervous system, or even prescription
medications and axiolytic like a xanac or out of Van
or the Rise of Him, whatever is used to suppress
the nerve the nervous system. Dogs can't do that, and
(04:11):
so they last out a lot in the way of
ritability and aggression, and it's actually something completely different happening.
So the research has been able to identify it, and
in twenty nineteen, the award winning movie Since We Spoke Last,
(04:32):
Hailing Dakota is now advanced available on Amazon Prime. It
is four ninety nine, but Amazon and jet Bezos splits
half of it with us, so half of it's coming
back to the doggies here under our care. But they
can watch Failing Dakota on Amazon Prime and it will go.
It'll follow the whole story as far as being able
(04:53):
to identify it in the methods that we use to
treat it, so they can EMPUTSS is dead. Kitted to
that treating and researching to improve the quality of lives
of dogs suffering from extreme anxiety and certainly post traumatic
stress one and two. And people always ask, what's the
(05:14):
difference between one and two. It's really simple. Well, it
canon comes in with PTSD one because we've already diagnosed them.
We've already done the excuse me, more than the assessment
basically gave a general probability. Until they come here, we
can't give a full assessment and probability to analyze more.
But PTSD one is simply we can identify the dog
(05:34):
with shot, stabbed, hit by a car, car accident, fell
off a cliff, there was some type of cataclysmic blown up,
some cataclysmic event. PTSD two is when the canon is
exposed to multiple traumatic events over a period of time.
To put that in human terms, often you see that
(05:56):
with domestic violent relationships, and I know it exists in
both my on female but in the female side of
it is that being exposed to abuse, abusive relationship or
for a long period of time, you can develop a
post traumatic stress disorder and those circumstances. So that's what
(06:17):
we call PTSD two. Yep. Cool.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So since you went ahead and as you had mentioned
your documentary here in Dakota, let's just move back and
talk about that real fret and tell the listeners out
there a little bit more about the documentary. And you
said it's on Amazon Prime now, which is awesome. But
let's talk a little bit about the documentary and what it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Is and when you made it. Great. Yeah, Amazon Prime
here in Dakota. It's like I said, it's four you
can buy it for ten dollars and fifty percent split
with us in Jeff Pisos, which is great. Typically don't
get that kind of split in a movie that's on Amazon.
It's like thirty cents. So we did pretty well with that.
(07:03):
But the movie is really going to start out with
the idea of we got this canine that was instrumental
in tracking down the terrorists bombing over here in Boston
in twenty thirteen, and he got kind of dumped on us.
And he was young. He was just just turning eight
years old, and traditionally I'll see him retire at canine
(07:26):
at that age, and like, hmm. So I quickly realized,
having worked with dogs my whole life, that there was
something different about this particular canine, like there's something wrong here.
I've never seen this behavior profile before ever. And so
Dr Morgan and I were actually working on different research
projects here, and all our research is observational research. Just
(07:49):
rewatched behavior so and then document it and journal it.
But I asked her. I said, it was really a
question can dogs kick post traumatic stress? She's like no,
And she's a professor of psychology for thirty three years
and she wasn't sure. So we kind of googled everything
and looked it up and there was nothing available on
(08:09):
it whatsoever. Said, I think this is a post traumatic
stress in her dog, and it starts the journey of
the movie of trying to find the answers to that question.
You know, somebody who didn't have any experience with it
at all, first of all, that you didn't know that
it was a thing, to going out and researching it
and figuring out how to heal this dog. And that's
(08:29):
what the movie is about. So very warm. There's a
lot of emotional parts in the movie. But it's a
good movie. It's a great it's a great movie. Actually
it really is very part of that movie.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I thought it was pretty good. I bought it, watched it,
and I enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty good.
I was showing it on my Facebook page for people
that see it and telling them to buy it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, well, we appreciate thank you so much for doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh yeah, Oh, most definitely. I thought it was really good.
It was well done, and it talked about the journey
and not just Dakota but you along moving.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So yeah, that's true. I need to tell you. Just
in a funny context, I went kicking and screaming. That
movie was never intended for me to be part of it.
The movie was originally going to be me at the end,
coming on and introducing the PTSD center, and that was
about as much as the audience was going to see
in my face. But they're like, the story editor for
(09:28):
the movie is like, nah, I think we're missing something here.
We need to we need to tell your story. I'm like, no,
we really don't need to tell my story. Let's just
focus on Decota and the dogs, and like, na, we
really need to do it. So they put it out
to a test audience the first film, and the whole
of the test audiences came back and said the same thing.
Who's this guy and why is he doing this? And
so that, and then of course the director of photographer,
(09:51):
Zach Levinson, it was just an amazing human being, said
do it for Dakota. I'm like, join you. So so
that's why the audience to suffer through my part of
the film, but Dakota is amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I thought it was awesome. It was it was good
because you guys's journeys actually kind of parallels, so they
all together that.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, it was Yeah. Really, I don't want to really
do any spoils for your audience, but it really bookends
because if you if you watch it again, right, and
here I am dealing with this anxiety issue going on,
and at the beginning of the movie, I won't leave
the yard, and the movie concludes with me and Dakota
(10:31):
on a mountain. Right. You know, a lot of people
don't pick that part up, but but you can see
the journey of us together. So it was just amazing.
It's such a such an amazing chane On, such an
amazing chain on.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, and I'm telling you, I'm not I don't want
to put out too much easier, but you had me
on edge at one part.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I was like, oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah yeah. For your viewers, for your listeners, there's certainly
certainly an emotional journey, there's no doubt about it. And
I think I think it can be just I think
it's a lot because it's you can relate to it
as a human I mean you think you're making progress
and sometimes you're feeling but a lot of times your
(11:10):
failures are your successes. I mean in this you know,
you don't realize it until later. Right, that movie, that
movie was shot over three years, right, so there was
a lot of failures within that three years, and there
was a lot of success stories. And but yeah, you're
(11:31):
watching an hour and twenty two an hour and twenty
two minute movie, but there was three years in filming it.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was pretty hid And like
I said, I enjoyed watching it. And my friend watched
it to She's the one that had talked to me
about her dogs. She watched it too, so she liked it.
So anyway, it was good.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, if you guys get a chance to watch it,
do do strongly recommend it. Healing Decoding. You can find
it on Amazon Prime, and don't forget if you buy
it and step part of the money goes to James
in the center.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So right, that's correct. Fifty percent of whatever, so purchaser
or renting is fifty percent, We get half of it,
which is really, like I said, it's very generous for
the Amazon platform. Yeah, typically they they'll do it that much.
The normally it's like forty cents you get, but they're
very generous to us, so we're really excited about that.
So right, so more the doggies get to be more
(12:35):
doggies get to be taken care of and and rescue
more of them across this created nation of ours.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yep, exactly, and that's really cool. So let's step back
to the center now. So you guys, just like you said,
you know, did your expansion and why to go ahead
and tell us so we'll get more about the expansion
and what are you guys added in and also are
(13:07):
you in the public now because you weren't before?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Great question? Wow, yeah, great question. We were never open
to the public, and then we opened to the public
and then we closed to the public. So right, so
we were looking at it and we did expand we
can take up to at this point comfortably twenty k
nines and through the buildings and the expansion of that,
(13:34):
and last year we decided we look for an opportunity
to kind of maybe generating a little bit more income
coming into the center because we're completely donation based at
this point, and to offer our service beyond what we
do for the military and the police department's law enforcement
across the country and internationally. But what wind up happening
(13:57):
when we open to the public was it was it
turned out to be a different a different approach to
it that we didn't find that was very's see, what's
a good word for it effective. So what we decided
to do was kind of pulled back from dealing too
(14:18):
much with the public, refocus our energies on the canines
that we had here, expand what we had here to
take on more of the military and police canines that
we know that are suffering, and kind of harness our
efforts on that. Because we're still a small nonprofit, we
don't have a very large group of people that are here,
and it just became overwhelming trying to accommodate both our
(14:42):
workload here, our remote that we do with military and
police canines, and to be able to accommodate the general public.
It was just too much. So we pulled back for
twenty into twenty twenty four into twenty twenty five, and
as as we mature a little bit more and growing
to our new skin. For a lack of a better analogy,
(15:04):
to be able to then open ourselves back up to
the public to be able to help more people in
the future, more doggies, more doggies in the future.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yes, awesome, sounds yeah, sounds great.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And all of you there.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Keep getting my feedback on my phone. Some of the
things I said there were pretty cool. You guys are
efforts and different services and stuff like that. So that
services are you guys going to offer and can you
tell us just a little bit more about them?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, I mean when we were offering services to the public,
it was a little bit more in the way of
dealing specifically with behaviors that were fear based, because that's
really our wheelhouse. That's what we deal with specifically here
is fear, so fear reactivity towards other dogs, you know,
(15:58):
fear towards other people pull So fear based type of
behaviors were ideally what we were focusing on and how
to minimize the fear and to get a dog that
is experiencing that, uh, some relief in the way of
behavior modification, and that's that that's what we're we're looking
(16:24):
to expand into for non civilians, I should say, outside
of military and police KNA dogs in general Okay. We
also opened a new store on kN I ptsd dot org.
That's KNI letter Knine PTSD dot org. Have been years
(16:44):
people have been asking us for being able to buy
shirts and support of what we do and pats and
all that stuff. So we lunch a pretty good sized
store there and all the profits go directly to the dobbies.
So yep, and that's good to do.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Don't have to just check out the store.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yes, we would definitely love you to do that and
share with all of your listeners and have them go
out there. It's right. It's the time of the year.
What a better Christmas gift to give than a T
shirt from the Canine PTSD center.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Right, exactly, that's a good idea. So I sa Tina
if you guys do some other rehabbing and stuff, because
you guys have a pool and everything there for the
dogs to swim in and do some other stuff. Incorrect, Right,
We have our.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Reft your pools. We have an en ground pool and
we have an above ground pool. The above ground pool
is an Awkwa therapy pool and so also a dock
diving pool, and the in ground pool is strictly an
in ground pool. People can go to our website and
they can actually take a video tour of the center.
It's not all of the center, it's about it's about
maybe eighty five percent of what's here. But we had
(17:58):
a canine come in on Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Day just a
few weeks ago and came in from the military, uh
and he had spinal surgery in August. So the inground
pool and a lot of them have injuries, and so
(18:21):
the inground pool we used for therapy for them. It's
for the ones that are more senior and that have
more of a physical limitation. Is why they can walk
in the pool and walk out, whereas the doc Dot
and Narck with therapy pool, there's a ramp going in there,
but they tend to up a little bit more. So
we keep it for the younger dogs or the ones
that are not severely injured, so they can just have
(18:45):
fun jump in the pool. And so now they there's
a lot of activities for them to do here.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, I know, I said, I thought that was really
cool because I mean, like before you just had like
six kennels right for the dog. You didn't have very
many at all, And now you said you end up
to the twenty is it twenty nine worked.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
At twenty A yeah, exactly what we explained at twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I mean that's that's that's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
That's Yeah. They're not just tunnels, they're sweets. We call
them sweet. Yeah. People will visit their website, can I
PTSD dot or work, They can actually take the tour
and they'll see they have their own living room, they've
own TV, they have own kitchen. Everybody's visited the settles.
(19:34):
I don't know of one person who hasn't said, can
I move in here? This is nicer than my house.
I know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
That's what this is going to say as well.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Say, when you find three hundred and ninety IED's in
more than you.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Can move in, right right exactly, you got to earn
that rate you want to. So then it sounds like
I was just gonna ask if you're still taking in
like the military and police k names and giving them
like put in a placement on stuff like that, if
you can't if they can't go back out.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, yes we do. We've taken the police of Canines.
So within the last month we've taken in a canon
from law enforcement and or let's just say five or
six weeks. Uh, and came out from the military. And
all of these canons that come here, keep in mind
(20:26):
that are diagnosed with PTSD. It's either us or it's
a needle. You know, it's it. There's no third option
for them, right It's either they're here or they put
them down. So every time we're able to take and
welcome one here, that's another life saved. And their heroes,
I mean, they served this country, they served the police, farm,
(20:46):
they served our communities, and they got you know, unfortunately
developed this this uh, this disorder. And so your listeners,
and when they donate, these donations go directly to these days.
Obviously there's nobody takes the salaries here, you know, it
goes to the medical, it goes to their food, it
(21:07):
goes to the electricity to keep the buildings warm and cool.
All the staff's volunteer. There's nobody, nobody's getting paid. So
every time they donate, it's one more it's one more
dollar that we can use towards taking more of them.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Right now, I remember, if I remember right before, it
was kind of just you that really hinded the dogs
and stuff like that because of their conditions for the
lot of them. But do you have another person or
two on your staff that can help you out with them.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
There's you're absolutely right. So in addition to expanding the building,
we've expanded our personnel. And again they're all volunteers as well,
but they come and they're just as dedicated and committed
to healing these amazing heroes as I am. Uh And
so yes, that's a good thing that we have good
help to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So you're planning to open back up to the public, correct,
right now, you're not really open to the public.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Again, right now, at this moment, we're not open to
the public. We're looking to we're looking to maybe sometime
mid year twenty twenty five to open back up to
the public for them to be able to utilize some
of the services that we have. But right now, as
we as we just we have influx of heroes that
have come in right and when you're dealing with it,
(22:34):
came out it's been diagnosed with a CPTSC one or two.
It's really it's really dealing with for everyone you deal with,
it's like dealing with twenty dogs, different dogs with different personalities.
It's extremely demanding. There's a lot of work that goes
into them. So we really don't. You know, when you
(22:56):
start getting too big, then you take away the services
in that that are needed for an individual blog, and
we just don't want to do that. So our resources
are great right now for for the ones we have,
but opening it up to the public at this time
we would have to then give more attention to that
or divide our attention, I should say. And then that's
(23:16):
something we just can't and we don't want to do
at this time. But as we mature more for twenty
twenty five, get more people to come on to help
than absolutely we can helpen to the public.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Okay, good. One of the things I was going to
ask you, I didn't realize that you were close to
the public again, was but the so when you guys
do start offering service again, what would be the process
off someone things that their dog may have can on
PTSD and they contact you. So what would they you know,
(23:51):
kind of have.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
To go through to.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
I guess, you know, use your services to try to
help with they're dog.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It's a great question. Everything everything starts with an assessment.
Whether it's military or police, it doesn't matter. We need
an X ray of what's going on in our X
ray machine is the assessments that we have every dog.
Whether it's somebody's in somebody's backyard or it's on the
front lines of a war lines of a war zone
(24:24):
or in a police cruiser, it doesn't matter. Every single
one of them needs an assessment. So what we do
is we push them through an assessment and I'll push
them through. We have them complete an assessment and they
can do that through Zoom with us. They do it
live zoom session, or they can do the assessment themselves.
(24:46):
Now through US is more expensive. It's four hundred and
ninety five dollars to do an assessment via virtually with US.
Where is they can do the assessment themselves and submit
the data to US, which those programs are still open,
so it's not completely shut down from the public. The
publicans still the public can still go there, complete an
(25:09):
assessment or ask us for an assessment and to be
able to give them at least some starting point where
to go so they can get the answers to their
questions and to be able to the assessments. Just don't
diagnose CPTSD one or two. They diagnose general anxiety disorders
as well, or it'll eliminates those things. I'll tell you
(25:30):
a quick story as experienced as I am, having done
the research and develop CPTSD two and put all of
the conditions to identify and to diagnose it. And people
call me an expert, and they're like, oh, you're an
expert in this, well, okay, but I'll give you a
(25:52):
quick scenario. Three weeks maybe no, five or six weeks ago,
I did an assessment for the canine that came in
from the United States military. I was talking with the
handburter as far as this military canine, and there was
nothing in the conversation that I had with her that
in any way whatsoever triggered anything to make me believe
(26:15):
this canine had post traumatic stress disorder. Not a single thing.
Ran the assessments, the assessments are non biased. Ran the
assessments scored the highest ever on an assessment, even higher
than Dakota. And he's our standard, the cod standard. So
(26:36):
we actually wound up starting crying at the end of
the assessment. Were upset. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked,
and she was shocked. And then the next day I
ran an assessment for a canine in one of the
new England states. I was absolutely convinced, but I was
everything in the conversation was leading me towards a post
(26:59):
traumatic stress in the Canine. I just every work he said,
everything he said in the interview. Because these assessments interviews
can take hours, this would happened to take two hours.
I was convinced. I was almost convinced that start had
CPTs you one or two Ranny assessment. He scored the
lowest we've ever scored on an assessment. Within two days
(27:23):
they had the highest of the lowest. So this is
the reason why we rely so much on these assessments,
because they removed the bias from it. So when somebody
completes an assessment online that they do it themselves to
save some money, or if they want to do it
with us, we're able to give them information that they
otherwise didn't have.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, that's pretty awesome that you guys for are say
offering that. So if people do need to have that done,
they can do it. So you mentioned the research and
stuff you've done, so let's talk about that real quick.
What is the research that you've done that kind of
qualifies you to diagnose the condition and to help you
(28:07):
know prepared treatment plans or help tut disks.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's a great question. For years I have done for years,
I've taken in dogs with probable c PTSD, and I
looked at patterns and took accurate notes, journaled everything to
kind of generalize what it is. But for years I
(28:31):
was so conflicted. I knew what post I knew what
post traumatic stress was. I mean, we all have a
general idea what it is. Kind of, it's it's much
more complicated than just in passing. People say like, oh,
the holidays is the comment I'm gonna get PTSD from
a holidays with your family. That's probably true for a
lot of us, right, But the reality is it's not
(28:53):
post traumatic stress. It's really really specific. Then, so I
was doing this research, looking at all the studying, all
the behavior profiles of all these dogs coming in, and
for years I couldn't figure it out. I could identify
PPSD one, but then I'd have a cana that came
in that was exhibiting the same behavior, the exact same
(29:16):
behavior as our control which we knew had postmas stress. Won.
But they weren't shot, they weren't stabbed, they weren't hit
by a car. They weren't in a car accident. None
of those things were true. So I was rocking my
brain for years, keeping the research going and keeping the
(29:37):
research going, hoping for an answer to the point where
I was like, maybe post traumatic stress is like the
autism spectrum. Maybe it's the spectrum disorder. And I couldn't
connect with the dots or I kept at it, kept
researching it, kept journaling it, logging behavior profiles, what do
they have in common? Like, don't they have in common
(29:59):
with the treat measures work? Which ones don't work? All
of these different things, and then finally I had that
light bulb moment someone of twenty twenty three, whereas like,
it's two of them. It's not the spectrum disorder, there's
not one, it's two.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And then from there I was able to then put
the final pieces in a puzzle to see the picture
clearly of how to identify it, how to diagnose it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And that's important, how to treat it. And that all
came from here. It's all original research. I ironically though,
for your listeners out there, that what's interesting because right now,
if somebody is experiencing trauma, they go to their doctor,
(30:50):
they can get diagnosed with PTSD right, and the DNS
hive or they Diagnostic Statistical Manual Psychology, it's the fifth
version that they're going to use to identify post live
stress and you have to qualify, just off the top
(31:11):
of my head, nine out of the fifteen possible behavioral
profiles for diagnosing you with PTSD. That's great, that's great
when we can identify an event that caused it, right,
But CPTSD two, which is the research I've done, will
ultimately be complex PTSD in humans, which is not diagnosable
(31:38):
as far as it being on the dam asified or
the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. You can't go to there and
then have it diagnosed, which means insurance companies don't have
to pay for it because it's not an official disorder.
So the research that I'm doing will then give these
(31:59):
research out there for the human factor, So all these
canine heroes are actually supporting humans. So later on a
year's to come, when they update the d MS five
to take the research that I've done, then humans can
get diagnosed with it and treated for it and their
insurance companies to pay for it. So that's what I've
been working on.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Wells like quite a bit of work.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There's a lot of work, but you know what, I
want to take the work work out of there because
the passion and I love it, and I don't feel
like I work a day in my life. People look
at it from the outside like, my God works so hard,
like every single day, but I don't feel it. I
don't feel like it's work. Right. I want to wake
the dogs up to start with you in the morning.
I have to wait for that. He wait for me.
(32:45):
I'm waiting for them, like, all right, come on, that's
three thirty four o'clock. Let's go. Come on, let's go,
let's go. So it's just a passion, it's a way
of life. It's a mission, and it's just a beautiful thing.
And I'm so blest and I get to do this
every single day.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And all those dogs there that you're helping her are
so happy that you're there to do that every single
day as well.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, what a big moment. I bring big breakthrough yesterday
when Canaine is Zach who's a very large German ship
with military canine instarted to go ahead and make my face.
I'm like, wow, that's great, look my face. And he
didn't chomp it off.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's a good day, exactly exactly, and then it's a
big step for some of those dogs to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Building trust is the number one thing. Building trust. Humans
that don't trust you build their trust with them. You
show them love and compassion, and they they'll give you
that chance. They're like, Okay, I'm gonna trust you. It
takes a while to build it, but once you build it,
but you can never break it, never because there's no
there's a second chance. You don't get another one. Right. Yeah,
(33:53):
it's very important that we constantly keep them in a
position of success.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, I mean, and that's not just you know the views.
That's anybody that has a dog that you always want
to keep them in that position and have them successful.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And you know, so it's good advice for anybody exactly exactly.
You know. I was I was thinking the other day.
I was as I was working with one of the
doggies and one of the heroes here, and I was thinking,
how would you know there was a series on the
History Channel was called Life After People, and it would
(34:29):
just basically profiled what the earth would do if human
beings were just we're all gone off the earth. And
I not for myself, what would life be like without dogs?
And I think that our I think our civilization would
just hope, it would just hope, you know, you take it. Actually,
we're working on the next movie right now. It's called
The Dogs, right, which we can get into. As far
(34:51):
as Dakota's Law, which is a lot that's going to
be looking to pastor in Massachusetts. As far as named
after the movie Hill in Dakota giving retirement benefits for canines.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, he's giving me an rescue about that, I'd say
it out here, I say it on your website. So
I was wondering if you could give us more information about.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It, right, So yeah, So I wrote Dakota's Law in
January twenty twenty three. I submitted it to one of
our state representative, representative Steve Zero's just an amazing human being.
He was a police officer I think for forty three years,
became a state representative, very very very strong connections to
(35:31):
the canine community. I wrote this letter to him asking
him if he could endorse and support a law called
Dakota's Law. He came to the premiere of the movie
Heland Dakota, which happened to be on Martha's vineyard and
he's in Cape Cott. He's not even my local state rep.
He's in Cape Cott. And he came out to the premiere,
watched the movie gave me a hog at the end
(35:52):
of that movie, and he said, I'm all in, let's
do it, and he did. He went. He had that
hearings at the State House Boston, and it got chosen
to be up for a vote twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
That's uh, that's good to hear. I was wondering if
it was going to get passed.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, we have to get it voted on, but we're helping.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So yeah, well that's great.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I want to start a campaign starting in twenty twenty
five called UH support the Positive enforce the laws and
the coders are each B twenty four four.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
That'd be great to share the nopal rips for her
state as well in the other state.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Exactly correct, because h and we want to see it
start in Massachusetts and we'd like to see it expanded
across the country as a federal law. That these police
officers that have four legs, that's their entitled the benefits
because when a canaine gets dropped off here, they don't
come with a check they come with a bill, right,
(36:56):
So the listeners and viewers and out there that sending
donations to us, that's what keeps this going. This is
what sustains us. It's not so when Dakota's law once passed,
the canon that retires from the come up in Massachusetts,
UH will come up a retirement package so that his
(37:16):
aftercare for his medical and food and his housing and
his therapy or whatever's needed is funded by the by
the state.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
That's good too. I mean, they deserve it, absolutely, absolutely
do it especially, I mean, as you know, sometimes it's
so they see some of these stories where an officer
left their canine officer in a car, especially at airners
a time and they say, what, how did you just
(37:49):
leave your partner in a car? That's time And then
you know, the dog passes away or whatever, and it's like,
you know, if anybody else did that in this state,
that'd be animal pulity against them.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, you know, And I've I've actually spoken of a
couple officers UH in my work here that that's happened
to and I can s I can speak for them
and how devastated they are as human beings. I mean
just absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
I didn't understand if you had something, you know, like
thaughty happened, like maybe the air conditioner or something you know,
fuit working in the vehicle if it is running.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
But yeah, yeah, but I I mean, accidents are gonna happen.
I mean just it's just it's just the way the
world is, the laws of probability, that thing's gonna happen
in this in this line, and of course we try
to avoid that at all possible, but certainly those things
(38:55):
can happen from time to time. But uh, yeah, it's no,
it's a sad it's a sad thing all around. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So let's talk a little bit too about what the
benefits of canine PTSD treatment is. I mean, obviously I
don't think the dogs can ever be completely cured, or
do they just have a little better quality of life.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's an excellent question. Excellent question, Thank you for asking it.
You know what a caretaker of a dog and a home,
what they would measure success is going to be completely
different than what we measure success. As so, when a
canine comes in, they're in such distress, and how do
(39:45):
we measure success, Well, it's always based on a case
by case basis, the study of one, which is our
center's motto, is that not two dogs are gonna respond
the same to therapy, but we get it for them
to be as close to a normal dog as possible,
and for outsiders looking in they may not see that,
(40:11):
they may not see that as being a normal dog.
We do because their level of traumas so high when
they come in that the idea of not giving an
example like not running in circles in their kennel twenty
four hours a day barking is and they don't do that,
(40:32):
they're able to sit down and relax and just in
the sun out it's thirty two degrees out here in Boston. Self,
I can tell you right now if they're laying in
the sun, just to lay in the sun and relax
and just be able to get themselves under threshold, get
themselves to the point where they're not constantly stressed out,
(40:54):
where they're not hyper vigilant, where they're not in that
fight or flight response constantly, where they're not defecating themselves,
they're not journating themselves. That they can go for a walk,
they can go swimming, But are they ever cured from it.
They're healed from it as long as they're not reintroduced
(41:17):
to the trigger sets that brought them there. But we
don't know because we don't measure that. We don't look
to reintroduce them to things like police uniforms or military uniforms,
or police cruisers or sirens or gunshots, all the things
(41:38):
that otherwise would remind them and trigger their their stress response,
because that's not what we are. We want to heal
them from, you know, chewing their posit to us down
to bear skin and bleeding and and as I said,
(41:58):
and defecating them, yearning themselves, running in circles, all the
things that that doesn't allow them just to relax and
settle down, playing ball, like having a game of fetch,
like they don't do that. PTSD canands don't have fetch.
They won't play fetch with you. So they get them
to play fetch. That's a big move. So we measure
(42:21):
it on an individual basis, but ideally that's what then
we consider it successful. That's to us as success.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Good good nat didn't think they should be entirely like
period of it says, you know, getting as close as
possible to normal, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, to answer the question, when they're here, they go
through the healing process, they become normal dogs. For here,
we would never reharme one. We would never say, Okay,
they're ready to go to somebody's house. We would never
do that. Ever, when they come here, yeah, they come
here for the rest of their lives. They have good
lives here. I mean, like I said, they have two pools,
(43:04):
they got agility course, they got big yards to run in,
there's plenty of woods that they can go for hikes
and walks, and there's all kinds of different things here
for them. So right, they live, they live. They live
very well. I'm gonna even venture a guests they live
better than a lot of dogs in the United States.
(43:24):
I bet they do. And that's and that's they'll live it.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
On my part, that's good that that's just the same
that they're being well taken care of, well loved, and.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well taken care of. Right because I see them as
police officers and I see them as military military veterans.
That's exactly how I see them. When they get retired
from the military, they come up their military retirements with
their medals that they achieved during their their time of service.
Their their veterans, and they deserve all the respect and
(43:57):
dignity in the world and everything that I have to
give them, and I do it so and I take
great pride in it. People will often call me a hero.
I said, I am no hero, not even close to it.
But I work with them. I work with heroes every
single day.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, people can't forget that
there are the full lesure here guys out there, whether
their dog or horse or they're out there.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Absolutely absolutely no.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I had si on your website too that you were
offering a certification in K nine PTSD. But are you
guys going to continue to offer that or.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
That's a great question. Yes, we actually opened that up
for certification and we're the only ones who can actually
do the certification. It's taught by a professor. It's a
college course, it's a semester long, it's fifteen weeks. You
get a certification at the end, and then that gives
the person who wants to go out do the assessments
(45:01):
and treat for PTSD one and two the skill set
and foundations that they need to be able to go
out there and do that. And we look to increase
that more and more so that more people are certified
in it and that people can go out and find it.
Because right now in the United States, if we do
(45:22):
the math, there's one hundred and fifty million dogs in
the United States and ten to twenty percent of them
are suffering from a postraumatic stress one or two. And
a professional behaviorist would be able to go through the course,
get certified at the end of it, and be able
to go out there and be unique in offering that
(45:44):
service in their community, in their area that others don't
have because they're not trained in it. And for people
who because we in the scales of aggression, there's I forget,
there's twelve of them. I believe it is the ideopathic aggression.
Idiopathic just means we don't have we don't know where
(46:05):
it's rooted from, right, So it's an idiopathic and if
the dog is experiencing some type of pain, right and so,
But idiopathic can be easily defined now as an aggressive
state that comes from the dog suffered from post traumatic stress. Right.
I think that the research that I've done is answered
(46:27):
that question. I finally is giving a name to that category.
So a professional behaviors out there that wants to treat
for CPTs one or two, and the treatment is the
diagnosis and they get to use our tools, our assessments,
all of our literature to be able to go out
there and offer that service that others can't provide unless
(46:52):
they're certified and trained there.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
So well there not saying that for people to be
able to get that surface, that's pretty cool. I know,
I saw that as I that would be kind of
interesting to have.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
It is it's, it's, it's it's basically it makes it.
Having a certificated in CPTs wanting to makes you the
top behaviorist period because there's no other I mean, you
can say predatory aggression or a female and female aggression.
Those are the two that you're just as a behavior student.
Chances are you're not working through some of your view
Your listeners might push back on that, but in my
(47:27):
experience that just those are the two most difficult. But
what's the most challenging and what is ultimately the most difficult,
which is the number one behavior that affects it that
these are amazing four legged heroes and uh family members
out there, is CPTSD. It's extremely complicated and if not
(47:48):
knowing what you don't know, you can make it a
thousand times works as a behaviorist because it you know,
as experience as I was with canines and dogs and
dog behavior and training. If nothing that I ever knew
prepared me for it. In fact, everything that I knew
(48:09):
didn't work. I had to learn the opposite of what
actually it was. I had to be self taught, and
so I had to do if I'm jumping in the
deep end and figure out what work and what didn't work.
And that course, I'd give them the ability and the
skill set to beause out there and be a top
tiered behaviors because if you're certified with CPTSD one or two,
there's no other behavior that's more complicated than that. There's
(48:32):
just not.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Well, I'm guide you after that. So maybe more people
decide to get cified with that.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
And I know that the course is like andety five dollars,
but they're going to be doing a payment program for
that starting in January so that they don't have to
pay it all at once. They can do it in installments,
so it makes it more affordable for more people. Just
to kind of give you an FYI on that so
when they look at the price and like, it's one
thousand dollars for this course, but it'll be an smaller
plan that will break down over the fifteen weeks. So
(49:04):
this way people makes it more affordable for them.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Oh that's nice, Yeah, yes, all right, cool. Well we're
coming to the end of the podcast, James. I'm so
glad that you were able to come on again. But
before we do jump off, maybe to go ahead and
put the information out there for people that would may
be like to donate to the center. Help you out.
(49:31):
You know, it's here in your area. If you're you know,
if they're thinking about becoming a volunteer talking with you
about that, so have it. Someone gave the contact to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
That's excellent. Thank you so much for providing that opportunity
for us. The best method to gain touch with us
our phone number are you know, address all our contact
informations on our website at www. The letter carry the
number nine PTSD dot org. We are high and C
three nonprofit, so we are taxed about theible for donations.
(50:00):
They can reach out to the US there they can
sort of contact to us. Email is generally the best
way to contact us and you know, ask you questions
or inquireble more information and we're going to take that
virtual tour. They give you a little bit insight to
what it looks like here and not so much what
(50:20):
we do, but more about what we what it looks like.
And yeah, that'd be awesome for people to reach out
and you know, need some support.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Yeah awesome, and not to the link up on my face,
but just to.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Go to so I appreciate, We appreciate that very much,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh yeah, and I'll definitely check out that stare and
see by getting a shirt tist right.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
All right, yeah, yeah, you know whether it's going to
be for a holiday gift or a birthday gift or
a New Year's Eve gift or Valentine's gift because there's
a lot of red in there. Yeah, so show the
loved ones that you love them by buying a Canine
Authentic Official can Our PTSD shirt and red.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And well that's my favorite color. So now I'm gonna
have to definitely go check it out.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So excellent, excellent from those red hats up there. It
was a big request for red hats, so we put
some red hats out there too as well, so that's all. Yeah,
so we appreciate you, thank you so much for having
us again. This has been wonderful and your your podcast
has an amazing job reaching so many viewers and educating
them on things that brilliant. Other people don't have that information.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Too, so well, thanks, I try.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
You do a great job, a wonderful job. Right.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Well, you're doing a great job with what you guys
are doing there at the K nine ptsd senter to you,
so keep up the good work and thanks again for
coming back in. I appreciate it, and I'm glad they
get the information out there to the listeners. And don't
forget Healing Decode. They grab the movie Amazon poem and
check it out and keep an eye out for the
(51:58):
new one they'll be coming out as well.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Dog's right. Thank you so much everyone. I agree, appreciate
you all right.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
And thanks James, And I'm just gonna go ahead and
announce the next couple of podcasts I have. So you're
welcome to stand, but I know it's a bit of
later or your Times office if you want to jump back,
that's fine too.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I'm gonna jump off because some dogs a teach here.
But thank you so much again for your time and
look forward to talking to your reil.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
All right, thanks James, you have a good night now.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Take care, bye bye bye. All right.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
So that was great of James to come back on
and talk about the Canyon PTSD centered with a great
time that was talking with him and getting more information
on their expansion and updated services and stuff like that
they're gonna have. So for that being said, the next
podcast that I have coming up is on January twenty third,
(52:55):
and that's gonna be with Michael French and Lisa Arnold,
who the founders of Enhanced Vet Sciences. So they make
treats and different stuff like that for our dogs. And
what was really cool is that they were offering to
put the little Pets picture on their bags when they
(53:17):
sent them to you food treats, whatever you're getting. So
I thought that was pretty cool. And they sent me
a sample and I have my one dog on there.
It was kind of cool for Christmas he has there's
a Christmas tree and little stars and stuff. So it
was really pretty cool and it was pretty simple. You
just haven't had to upload the picture and they put
it on the bag. So I thought that was interesting.
(53:38):
So I'm gonna be talking with those guys about enhanced
foot sciences and what they're doing and having their pets
picture on the bag again. So that's gonna be January
twenty third, and then the next one after that would
be on uh February sixth. I and going to be
(54:01):
talking with Catherine Curver. And she is an author that
had a little book called Abandoned Chronically the Journeys of
One's Forsaken Dogs. So this book is all about, uh
she follows UH shelter dogs in uh certain shelter or two,
and she kind of chronicled, you know, that they came
(54:22):
into the shelter system and then what happened to them, uh,
whether they were euthanized or whether they got adopted, how
long they read it sheltered, the rescue system, some diss
as they came from, and then how they you know,
for the most part, most of them from homes. So
she's going to be coming on to talk about her
(54:44):
book and talk with me about, you know, her experiences
uh with the shelter and rescues while she was writing
her book. So I'm looking forward to talking with uh
Catherine about her uh book, Abandoned chronically the journeys of
them for Saken Dogs. So I think that'll be a
great one, So hopefully you guys willing to tune in
(55:04):
on that again February sixth, and the one right before
that again is on January twenty third, January I Can't
Talk Now January twenty three, uh from Enhanced Vet Sciences
with Michael French and Lisa Arnolds, So uh looking forward
to talking with those guys as well, So hopefully you
guys will be able to listen in. So and with
(55:25):
that being said, I hope you all have a uh
great great weekend, and I hope that you all had
a uh happy Holidays and that you guys got really
cool things for Christmas notes you wanted and got to
(55:46):
celebrate it with your families and you loved once. So
with that being said, uh, I hope you guys have
a good night and come on back in a couple
of weeks and listen to the next podcast.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Good night now,
Continuing everybody, and welcome to following our creatures. I am
your host slowly and tonight I have a really cool
update podcast. Actually, I have James Lamont, who was the
founder of the k name PTSD Center and if you
guys listened, I had a man a while back and
(00:23):
you were talking about his center and what they do.
But uh, we'll have any man to do an update
because he's got some uh news about what's been going
on with the center and some expansions and stuff they've done.
So uh, James, I'm really glad that you could join
me again and talk about the center and what the
Days have been doing.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, thank you so much for having that spot. It's
really excited to be able to talk to you and
uh share more information with your for your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, a new kidding. I know the Days have done
a lot since the last time you're around, but so
but let's kind of start back at the beginning again
with a date likes for some of the listeners and
maybe get listened to that podcast. How did you get
started working with dogs in general?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And well, I mean I was born, I was born
into the whole world of working dogs is when I
was in diapers. We had working dogs in the house
and our home, and it just kind of was something
that just you know, it has been part of my life,
my whole life, German shepherds and working dogs. So of
(01:26):
course that was always my dream as a child to
kind of work with dogs full time. But life gets
in the way of living. You know, what we think
we're going to be when we get older, and all
of a sudden, life decides it's going to throw us
a curveball and we're gonna it pushes us in different directions.
This was so it took me a long time to
get back to where I wanted to be. So, uh,
(01:49):
it's just just bigd in my DNA and my and
what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So yes, I can totally understand that. I mean, I'm
doing my dog training now, so I'm happy. I wor
you training service dogs and uh stuff like that and
then my regular training. So I'm kind of like, it
took me a long time to maybe get to doing
this kind of stuff, but it's something I enjoy doing, so.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right, And let it be a message to your
listeners is that you know you're never to never too
old to start your dream, right you know, so just
keep keep it, keep at it, and uh, you know,
keep striving for it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
No, exactly exactly, So, uh, why didn't you go ahead
and remind us of what knan PTSD is and what
the kN A PTSD center does.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Great question, Well, since well we talked. I mean, I've
been working on this research for six years to kind
of identify it, give it, give it an image of
what people can see what it is. And because up
until we did our research, it was identified, but nobody
had actually could classify it. There's no diagnosed tools for it.
(03:05):
And since then we've developed assessments and a whole bunch
of information to be able to not only diagnose it,
but to treat it. But can i PTSC in general,
just to simplify it is really about it's the highest
form of stress. I mean, it's when the brain of
(03:27):
whether it's a human or in this particular case that
don't it gets stuck in a constant loop of stress,
panicking anxiety, and it can't get out of it. Unlike
humans where we can medicate self medicate in some cases
of alcohol or habituates or you know, any other type
(03:50):
of depressant to suppress that nervous system, or even prescription
medications and axiolytic like a xanac or out of Van
or the Rise of Him, whatever is used to suppress
the nerve the nervous system. Dogs can't do that, and
(04:11):
so they last out a lot in the way of
ritability and aggression, and it's actually something completely different happening.
So the research has been able to identify it, and
in twenty nineteen, the award winning movie Since We Spoke Last,
(04:32):
Hailing Dakota is now advanced available on Amazon Prime. It
is four ninety nine, but Amazon and jet Bezos splits
half of it with us, so half of it's coming
back to the doggies here under our care. But they
can watch Failing Dakota on Amazon Prime and it will go.
It'll follow the whole story as far as being able
(04:53):
to identify it in the methods that we use to
treat it, so they can EMPUTSS is dead. Kitted to
that treating and researching to improve the quality of lives
of dogs suffering from extreme anxiety and certainly post traumatic
stress one and two. And people always ask, what's the
(05:14):
difference between one and two. It's really simple. Well, it
canon comes in with PTSD one because we've already diagnosed them.
We've already done the excuse me, more than the assessment
basically gave a general probability. Until they come here, we
can't give a full assessment and probability to analyze more.
But PTSD one is simply we can identify the dog
(05:34):
with shot, stabbed, hit by a car, car accident, fell
off a cliff, there was some type of cataclysmic blown up,
some cataclysmic event. PTSD two is when the canon is
exposed to multiple traumatic events over a period of time.
To put that in human terms, often you see that
(05:56):
with domestic violent relationships, and I know it exists in
both my on female but in the female side of
it is that being exposed to abuse, abusive relationship or
for a long period of time, you can develop a
post traumatic stress disorder and those circumstances. So that's what
(06:17):
we call PTSD two. Yep. Cool.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So since you went ahead and as you had mentioned
your documentary here in Dakota, let's just move back and
talk about that real fret and tell the listeners out
there a little bit more about the documentary. And you
said it's on Amazon Prime now, which is awesome. But
let's talk a little bit about the documentary and what it.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Is and when you made it. Great. Yeah, Amazon Prime
here in Dakota. It's like I said, it's four you
can buy it for ten dollars and fifty percent split
with us in Jeff Pisos, which is great. Typically don't
get that kind of split in a movie that's on Amazon.
It's like thirty cents. So we did pretty well with that.
(07:03):
But the movie is really going to start out with
the idea of we got this canine that was instrumental
in tracking down the terrorists bombing over here in Boston
in twenty thirteen, and he got kind of dumped on us.
And he was young. He was just just turning eight
years old, and traditionally I'll see him retire at canine
(07:26):
at that age, and like, hmm. So I quickly realized,
having worked with dogs my whole life, that there was
something different about this particular canine, like there's something wrong here.
I've never seen this behavior profile before ever. And so
Dr Morgan and I were actually working on different research
projects here, and all our research is observational research. Just
(07:49):
rewatched behavior so and then document it and journal it.
But I asked her. I said, it was really a
question can dogs kick post traumatic stress? She's like no,
And she's a professor of psychology for thirty three years
and she wasn't sure. So we kind of googled everything
and looked it up and there was nothing available on
(08:09):
it whatsoever. Said, I think this is a post traumatic
stress in her dog, and it starts the journey of
the movie of trying to find the answers to that question.
You know, somebody who didn't have any experience with it
at all, first of all, that you didn't know that
it was a thing, to going out and researching it
and figuring out how to heal this dog. And that's
(08:29):
what the movie is about. So very warm. There's a
lot of emotional parts in the movie. But it's a
good movie. It's a great it's a great movie. Actually
it really is very part of that movie.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I thought it was pretty good. I bought it, watched it,
and I enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty good.
I was showing it on my Facebook page for people
that see it and telling them to buy it.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, well, we appreciate thank you so much for doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh yeah, Oh, most definitely. I thought it was really good.
It was well done, and it talked about the journey
and not just Dakota but you along moving.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So yeah, that's true. I need to tell you. Just
in a funny context, I went kicking and screaming. That
movie was never intended for me to be part of it.
The movie was originally going to be me at the end,
coming on and introducing the PTSD center, and that was
about as much as the audience was going to see
in my face. But they're like, the story editor for
(09:28):
the movie is like, nah, I think we're missing something here.
We need to we need to tell your story. I'm like, no,
we really don't need to tell my story. Let's just
focus on Decota and the dogs, and like, na, we
really need to do it. So they put it out
to a test audience the first film, and the whole
of the test audiences came back and said the same thing.
Who's this guy and why is he doing this? And
so that, and then of course the director of photographer,
(09:51):
Zach Levinson, it was just an amazing human being, said
do it for Dakota. I'm like, join you. So so
that's why the audience to suffer through my part of
the film, but Dakota is amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I thought it was awesome. It was it was good
because you guys's journeys actually kind of parallels, so they
all together that.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, it was Yeah. Really, I don't want to really
do any spoils for your audience, but it really bookends
because if you if you watch it again, right, and
here I am dealing with this anxiety issue going on,
and at the beginning of the movie, I won't leave
the yard, and the movie concludes with me and Dakota
(10:31):
on a mountain. Right. You know, a lot of people
don't pick that part up, but but you can see
the journey of us together. So it was just amazing.
It's such a such an amazing chane On, such an
amazing chain on.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, and I'm telling you, I'm not I don't want
to put out too much easier, but you had me
on edge at one part.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I was like, oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah yeah. For your viewers, for your listeners, there's certainly
certainly an emotional journey, there's no doubt about it. And
I think I think it can be just I think
it's a lot because it's you can relate to it
as a human I mean you think you're making progress
and sometimes you're feeling but a lot of times your
(11:10):
failures are your successes. I mean in this you know,
you don't realize it until later. Right, that movie, that
movie was shot over three years, right, so there was
a lot of failures within that three years, and there
was a lot of success stories. And but yeah, you're
(11:31):
watching an hour and twenty two an hour and twenty
two minute movie, but there was three years in filming it.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it was pretty hid And like
I said, I enjoyed watching it. And my friend watched
it to She's the one that had talked to me
about her dogs. She watched it too, so she liked it.
So anyway, it was good.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, if you guys get a chance to watch it,
do do strongly recommend it. Healing Decoding. You can find
it on Amazon Prime, and don't forget if you buy
it and step part of the money goes to James
in the center.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So right, that's correct. Fifty percent of whatever, so purchaser
or renting is fifty percent, We get half of it,
which is really, like I said, it's very generous for
the Amazon platform. Yeah, typically they they'll do it that much.
The normally it's like forty cents you get, but they're
very generous to us, so we're really excited about that.
So right, so more the doggies get to be more
(12:35):
doggies get to be taken care of and and rescue
more of them across this created nation of ours.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yep, exactly, and that's really cool. So let's step back
to the center now. So you guys, just like you said,
you know, did your expansion and why to go ahead
and tell us so we'll get more about the expansion
and what are you guys added in and also are
(13:07):
you in the public now because you weren't before?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Great question? Wow, yeah, great question. We were never open
to the public, and then we opened to the public
and then we closed to the public. So right, so
we were looking at it and we did expand we
can take up to at this point comfortably twenty k
nines and through the buildings and the expansion of that,
(13:34):
and last year we decided we look for an opportunity
to kind of maybe generating a little bit more income
coming into the center because we're completely donation based at
this point, and to offer our service beyond what we
do for the military and the police department's law enforcement
across the country and internationally. But what wind up happening
(13:57):
when we open to the public was it was it
turned out to be a different a different approach to
it that we didn't find that was very's see, what's
a good word for it effective. So what we decided
to do was kind of pulled back from dealing too
(14:18):
much with the public, refocus our energies on the canines
that we had here, expand what we had here to
take on more of the military and police canines that
we know that are suffering, and kind of harness our
efforts on that. Because we're still a small nonprofit, we
don't have a very large group of people that are here,
and it just became overwhelming trying to accommodate both our
(14:42):
workload here, our remote that we do with military and
police canines, and to be able to accommodate the general public.
It was just too much. So we pulled back for
twenty into twenty twenty four into twenty twenty five, and
as as we mature a little bit more and growing
to our new skin. For a lack of a better analogy,
(15:04):
to be able to then open ourselves back up to
the public to be able to help more people in
the future, more doggies, more doggies in the future.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yes, awesome, sounds yeah, sounds great.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
And all of you there.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Keep getting my feedback on my phone. Some of the
things I said there were pretty cool. You guys are
efforts and different services and stuff like that. So that
services are you guys going to offer and can you
tell us just a little bit more about them?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, I mean when we were offering services to the public,
it was a little bit more in the way of
dealing specifically with behaviors that were fear based, because that's
really our wheelhouse. That's what we deal with specifically here
is fear, so fear reactivity towards other dogs, you know,
(15:58):
fear towards other people pull So fear based type of
behaviors were ideally what we were focusing on and how
to minimize the fear and to get a dog that
is experiencing that, uh, some relief in the way of
behavior modification, and that's that that's what we're we're looking
(16:24):
to expand into for non civilians, I should say, outside
of military and police KNA dogs in general Okay. We
also opened a new store on kN I ptsd dot org.
That's KNI letter Knine PTSD dot org. Have been years
(16:44):
people have been asking us for being able to buy
shirts and support of what we do and pats and
all that stuff. So we lunch a pretty good sized
store there and all the profits go directly to the dobbies.
So yep, and that's good to do.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Don't have to just check out the store.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yes, we would definitely love you to do that and
share with all of your listeners and have them go
out there. It's right. It's the time of the year.
What a better Christmas gift to give than a T
shirt from the Canine PTSD center.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Right, exactly, that's a good idea. So I sa Tina
if you guys do some other rehabbing and stuff, because
you guys have a pool and everything there for the
dogs to swim in and do some other stuff. Incorrect, Right,
We have our.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Reft your pools. We have an en ground pool and
we have an above ground pool. The above ground pool
is an Awkwa therapy pool and so also a dock
diving pool, and the in ground pool is strictly an
in ground pool. People can go to our website and
they can actually take a video tour of the center.
It's not all of the center, it's about it's about
maybe eighty five percent of what's here. But we had
(17:58):
a canine come in on Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Day just a
few weeks ago and came in from the military, uh
and he had spinal surgery in August. So the inground
pool and a lot of them have injuries, and so
(18:21):
the inground pool we used for therapy for them. It's
for the ones that are more senior and that have
more of a physical limitation. Is why they can walk
in the pool and walk out, whereas the doc Dot
and Narck with therapy pool, there's a ramp going in there,
but they tend to up a little bit more. So
we keep it for the younger dogs or the ones
that are not severely injured, so they can just have
(18:45):
fun jump in the pool. And so now they there's
a lot of activities for them to do here.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, I know, I said, I thought that was really
cool because I mean, like before you just had like
six kennels right for the dog. You didn't have very
many at all, And now you said you end up
to the twenty is it twenty nine worked.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
At twenty A yeah, exactly what we explained at twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I mean that's that's that's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
That's Yeah. They're not just tunnels, they're sweets. We call
them sweet. Yeah. People will visit their website, can I
PTSD dot or work, They can actually take the tour
and they'll see they have their own living room, they've
own TV, they have own kitchen. Everybody's visited the settles.
(19:34):
I don't know of one person who hasn't said, can
I move in here? This is nicer than my house.
I know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
That's what this is going to say as well.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Say, when you find three hundred and ninety IED's in
more than you.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Can move in, right right exactly, you got to earn
that rate you want to. So then it sounds like
I was just gonna ask if you're still taking in
like the military and police k names and giving them
like put in a placement on stuff like that, if
you can't if they can't go back out.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, yes we do. We've taken the police of Canines.
So within the last month we've taken in a canon
from law enforcement and or let's just say five or
six weeks. Uh, and came out from the military. And
all of these canons that come here, keep in mind
(20:26):
that are diagnosed with PTSD. It's either us or it's
a needle. You know, it's it. There's no third option
for them, right It's either they're here or they put
them down. So every time we're able to take and
welcome one here, that's another life saved. And their heroes,
I mean, they served this country, they served the police, farm,
(20:46):
they served our communities, and they got you know, unfortunately
developed this this uh, this disorder. And so your listeners,
and when they donate, these donations go directly to these days.
Obviously there's nobody takes the salaries here, you know, it
goes to the medical, it goes to their food, it
(21:07):
goes to the electricity to keep the buildings warm and cool.
All the staff's volunteer. There's nobody, nobody's getting paid. So
every time they donate, it's one more it's one more
dollar that we can use towards taking more of them.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Right now, I remember, if I remember right before, it
was kind of just you that really hinded the dogs
and stuff like that because of their conditions for the
lot of them. But do you have another person or
two on your staff that can help you out with them.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
There's you're absolutely right. So in addition to expanding the building,
we've expanded our personnel. And again they're all volunteers as well,
but they come and they're just as dedicated and committed
to healing these amazing heroes as I am. Uh And
so yes, that's a good thing that we have good
help to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So you're planning to open back up to the public, correct,
right now, you're not really open to the public.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Again, right now, at this moment, we're not open to
the public. We're looking to we're looking to maybe sometime
mid year twenty twenty five to open back up to
the public for them to be able to utilize some
of the services that we have. But right now, as
we as we just we have influx of heroes that
have come in right and when you're dealing with it,
(22:34):
came out it's been diagnosed with a CPTSC one or two.
It's really it's really dealing with for everyone you deal with,
it's like dealing with twenty dogs, different dogs with different personalities.
It's extremely demanding. There's a lot of work that goes
into them. So we really don't. You know, when you
(22:56):
start getting too big, then you take away the services
in that that are needed for an individual blog, and
we just don't want to do that. So our resources
are great right now for for the ones we have,
but opening it up to the public at this time
we would have to then give more attention to that
or divide our attention, I should say. And then that's
(23:16):
something we just can't and we don't want to do
at this time. But as we mature more for twenty
twenty five, get more people to come on to help
than absolutely we can helpen to the public.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Okay, good. One of the things I was going to
ask you, I didn't realize that you were close to
the public again, was but the so when you guys
do start offering service again, what would be the process
off someone things that their dog may have can on
PTSD and they contact you. So what would they you know,
(23:51):
kind of have.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
To go through to.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
I guess, you know, use your services to try to
help with they're dog.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It's a great question. Everything everything starts with an assessment.
Whether it's military or police, it doesn't matter. We need
an X ray of what's going on in our X
ray machine is the assessments that we have every dog.
Whether it's somebody's in somebody's backyard or it's on the
front lines of a war lines of a war zone
(24:24):
or in a police cruiser, it doesn't matter. Every single
one of them needs an assessment. So what we do
is we push them through an assessment and I'll push
them through. We have them complete an assessment and they
can do that through Zoom with us. They do it
live zoom session, or they can do the assessment themselves.
(24:46):
Now through US is more expensive. It's four hundred and
ninety five dollars to do an assessment via virtually with US.
Where is they can do the assessment themselves and submit
the data to US, which those programs are still open,
so it's not completely shut down from the public. The
publicans still the public can still go there, complete an
(25:09):
assessment or ask us for an assessment and to be
able to give them at least some starting point where
to go so they can get the answers to their
questions and to be able to the assessments. Just don't
diagnose CPTSD one or two. They diagnose general anxiety disorders
as well, or it'll eliminates those things. I'll tell you
(25:30):
a quick story as experienced as I am, having done
the research and develop CPTSD two and put all of
the conditions to identify and to diagnose it. And people
call me an expert, and they're like, oh, you're an
expert in this, well, okay, but I'll give you a
(25:52):
quick scenario. Three weeks maybe no, five or six weeks ago,
I did an assessment for the canine that came in
from the United States military. I was talking with the
handburter as far as this military canine, and there was
nothing in the conversation that I had with her that
in any way whatsoever triggered anything to make me believe
(26:15):
this canine had post traumatic stress disorder. Not a single thing.
Ran the assessments, the assessments are non biased. Ran the
assessments scored the highest ever on an assessment, even higher
than Dakota. And he's our standard, the cod standard. So
(26:36):
we actually wound up starting crying at the end of
the assessment. Were upset. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked,
and she was shocked. And then the next day I
ran an assessment for a canine in one of the
new England states. I was absolutely convinced, but I was
everything in the conversation was leading me towards a post
(26:59):
traumatic stress in the Canine. I just every work he said,
everything he said in the interview. Because these assessments interviews
can take hours, this would happened to take two hours.
I was convinced. I was almost convinced that start had
CPTs you one or two Ranny assessment. He scored the
lowest we've ever scored on an assessment. Within two days
(27:23):
they had the highest of the lowest. So this is
the reason why we rely so much on these assessments,
because they removed the bias from it. So when somebody
completes an assessment online that they do it themselves to
save some money, or if they want to do it
with us, we're able to give them information that they
otherwise didn't have.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, that's pretty awesome that you guys for are say
offering that. So if people do need to have that done,
they can do it. So you mentioned the research and
stuff you've done, so let's talk about that real quick.
What is the research that you've done that kind of
qualifies you to diagnose the condition and to help you
(28:07):
know prepared treatment plans or help tut disks.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's a great question. For years I have done for years,
I've taken in dogs with probable c PTSD, and I
looked at patterns and took accurate notes, journaled everything to
kind of generalize what it is. But for years I
(28:31):
was so conflicted. I knew what post I knew what
post traumatic stress was. I mean, we all have a
general idea what it is. Kind of, it's it's much
more complicated than just in passing. People say like, oh,
the holidays is the comment I'm gonna get PTSD from
a holidays with your family. That's probably true for a
lot of us, right, But the reality is it's not
(28:53):
post traumatic stress. It's really really specific. Then, so I
was doing this research, looking at all the studying, all
the behavior profiles of all these dogs coming in, and
for years I couldn't figure it out. I could identify
PPSD one, but then I'd have a cana that came
in that was exhibiting the same behavior, the exact same
(29:16):
behavior as our control which we knew had postmas stress. Won.
But they weren't shot, they weren't stabbed, they weren't hit
by a car. They weren't in a car accident. None
of those things were true. So I was rocking my
brain for years, keeping the research going and keeping the
(29:37):
research going, hoping for an answer to the point where
I was like, maybe post traumatic stress is like the
autism spectrum. Maybe it's the spectrum disorder. And I couldn't
connect with the dots or I kept at it, kept
researching it, kept journaling it, logging behavior profiles, what do
they have in common? Like, don't they have in common
(29:59):
with the treat measures work? Which ones don't work? All
of these different things, and then finally I had that
light bulb moment someone of twenty twenty three, whereas like,
it's two of them. It's not the spectrum disorder, there's
not one, it's two.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And then from there I was able to then put
the final pieces in a puzzle to see the picture
clearly of how to identify it, how to diagnose it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And that's important, how to treat it. And that all
came from here. It's all original research. I ironically though,
for your listeners out there, that what's interesting because right now,
if somebody is experiencing trauma, they go to their doctor,
(30:50):
they can get diagnosed with PTSD right, and the DNS
hive or they Diagnostic Statistical Manual Psychology, it's the fifth
version that they're going to use to identify post live
stress and you have to qualify, just off the top
(31:11):
of my head, nine out of the fifteen possible behavioral
profiles for diagnosing you with PTSD. That's great, that's great
when we can identify an event that caused it, right,
But CPTSD two, which is the research I've done, will
ultimately be complex PTSD in humans, which is not diagnosable
(31:38):
as far as it being on the dam asified or
the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. You can't go to there and
then have it diagnosed, which means insurance companies don't have
to pay for it because it's not an official disorder.
So the research that I'm doing will then give these
(31:59):
research out there for the human factor, So all these
canine heroes are actually supporting humans. So later on a
year's to come, when they update the d MS five
to take the research that I've done, then humans can
get diagnosed with it and treated for it and their
insurance companies to pay for it. So that's what I've
been working on.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Wells like quite a bit of work.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There's a lot of work, but you know what, I
want to take the work work out of there because
the passion and I love it, and I don't feel
like I work a day in my life. People look
at it from the outside like, my God works so hard,
like every single day, but I don't feel it. I
don't feel like it's work. Right. I want to wake
the dogs up to start with you in the morning.
I have to wait for that. He wait for me.
(32:45):
I'm waiting for them, like, all right, come on, that's
three thirty four o'clock. Let's go. Come on, let's go,
let's go. So it's just a passion, it's a way
of life. It's a mission, and it's just a beautiful thing.
And I'm so blest and I get to do this
every single day.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And all those dogs there that you're helping her are
so happy that you're there to do that every single
day as well.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, what a big moment. I bring big breakthrough yesterday
when Canaine is Zach who's a very large German ship
with military canine instarted to go ahead and make my face.
I'm like, wow, that's great, look my face. And he
didn't chomp it off.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's a good day, exactly exactly, and then it's a
big step for some of those dogs to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Building trust is the number one thing. Building trust. Humans
that don't trust you build their trust with them. You
show them love and compassion, and they they'll give you
that chance. They're like, Okay, I'm gonna trust you. It
takes a while to build it, but once you build it,
but you can never break it, never because there's no
there's a second chance. You don't get another one. Right. Yeah,
(33:53):
it's very important that we constantly keep them in a
position of success.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, I mean, and that's not just you know the views.
That's anybody that has a dog that you always want
to keep them in that position and have them successful.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And you know, so it's good advice for anybody exactly exactly.
You know. I was I was thinking the other day.
I was as I was working with one of the
doggies and one of the heroes here, and I was thinking,
how would you know there was a series on the
History Channel was called Life After People, and it would
(34:29):
just basically profiled what the earth would do if human
beings were just we're all gone off the earth. And
I not for myself, what would life be like without dogs?
And I think that our I think our civilization would
just hope, it would just hope, you know, you take it. Actually,
we're working on the next movie right now. It's called
The Dogs, right, which we can get into. As far
(34:51):
as Dakota's Law, which is a lot that's going to
be looking to pastor in Massachusetts. As far as named
after the movie Hill in Dakota giving retirement benefits for canines.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah, he's giving me an rescue about that, I'd say
it out here, I say it on your website. So
I was wondering if you could give us more information about.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It, right, So yeah, So I wrote Dakota's Law in
January twenty twenty three. I submitted it to one of
our state representative, representative Steve Zero's just an amazing human being.
He was a police officer I think for forty three years,
became a state representative, very very very strong connections to
(35:31):
the canine community. I wrote this letter to him asking
him if he could endorse and support a law called
Dakota's Law. He came to the premiere of the movie
Heland Dakota, which happened to be on Martha's vineyard and
he's in Cape Cott. He's not even my local state rep.
He's in Cape Cott. And he came out to the premiere,
watched the movie gave me a hog at the end
(35:52):
of that movie, and he said, I'm all in, let's
do it, and he did. He went. He had that
hearings at the State House Boston, and it got chosen
to be up for a vote twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
That's uh, that's good to hear. I was wondering if
it was going to get passed.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, we have to get it voted on, but we're helping.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
So yeah, well that's great.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I want to start a campaign starting in twenty twenty
five called UH support the Positive enforce the laws and
the coders are each B twenty four four.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
That'd be great to share the nopal rips for her
state as well in the other state.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Exactly correct, because h and we want to see it
start in Massachusetts and we'd like to see it expanded
across the country as a federal law. That these police
officers that have four legs, that's their entitled the benefits
because when a canaine gets dropped off here, they don't
come with a check they come with a bill, right,
(36:56):
So the listeners and viewers and out there that sending
donations to us, that's what keeps this going. This is
what sustains us. It's not so when Dakota's law once passed,
the canon that retires from the come up in Massachusetts,
UH will come up a retirement package so that his
(37:16):
aftercare for his medical and food and his housing and
his therapy or whatever's needed is funded by the by
the state.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
That's good too. I mean, they deserve it, absolutely, absolutely
do it especially, I mean, as you know, sometimes it's
so they see some of these stories where an officer
left their canine officer in a car, especially at airners
a time and they say, what, how did you just
(37:49):
leave your partner in a car? That's time And then
you know, the dog passes away or whatever, and it's like,
you know, if anybody else did that in this state,
that'd be animal pulity against them.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, you know, And I've I've actually spoken of a
couple officers UH in my work here that that's happened
to and I can s I can speak for them
and how devastated they are as human beings. I mean
just absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
I didn't understand if you had something, you know, like
thaughty happened, like maybe the air conditioner or something you know,
fuit working in the vehicle if it is running.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
But yeah, yeah, but I I mean, accidents are gonna happen.
I mean just it's just it's just the way the
world is, the laws of probability, that thing's gonna happen
in this in this line, and of course we try
to avoid that at all possible, but certainly those things
(38:55):
can happen from time to time. But uh, yeah, it's no,
it's a sad it's a sad thing all around. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So let's talk a little bit too about what the
benefits of canine PTSD treatment is. I mean, obviously I
don't think the dogs can ever be completely cured, or
do they just have a little better quality of life.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's an excellent question. Excellent question, Thank you for asking it.
You know what a caretaker of a dog and a home,
what they would measure success is going to be completely
different than what we measure success. As so, when a
canine comes in, they're in such distress, and how do
(39:45):
we measure success, Well, it's always based on a case
by case basis, the study of one, which is our
center's motto, is that not two dogs are gonna respond
the same to therapy, but we get it for them
to be as close to a normal dog as possible,
and for outsiders looking in they may not see that,
(40:11):
they may not see that as being a normal dog.
We do because their level of traumas so high when
they come in that the idea of not giving an
example like not running in circles in their kennel twenty
four hours a day barking is and they don't do that,
(40:32):
they're able to sit down and relax and just in
the sun out it's thirty two degrees out here in Boston. Self,
I can tell you right now if they're laying in
the sun, just to lay in the sun and relax
and just be able to get themselves under threshold, get
themselves to the point where they're not constantly stressed out,
(40:54):
where they're not hyper vigilant, where they're not in that
fight or flight response constantly, where they're not defecating themselves,
they're not journating themselves. That they can go for a walk,
they can go swimming, But are they ever cured from it.
They're healed from it as long as they're not reintroduced
(41:17):
to the trigger sets that brought them there. But we
don't know because we don't measure that. We don't look
to reintroduce them to things like police uniforms or military uniforms,
or police cruisers or sirens or gunshots, all the things
(41:38):
that otherwise would remind them and trigger their their stress response,
because that's not what we are. We want to heal
them from, you know, chewing their posit to us down
to bear skin and bleeding and and as I said,
(41:58):
and defecating them, yearning themselves, running in circles, all the
things that that doesn't allow them just to relax and
settle down, playing ball, like having a game of fetch,
like they don't do that. PTSD canands don't have fetch.
They won't play fetch with you. So they get them
to play fetch. That's a big move. So we measure
(42:21):
it on an individual basis, but ideally that's what then
we consider it successful. That's to us as success.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Good good nat didn't think they should be entirely like
period of it says, you know, getting as close as
possible to normal, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, to answer the question, when they're here, they go
through the healing process, they become normal dogs. For here,
we would never reharme one. We would never say, Okay,
they're ready to go to somebody's house. We would never
do that. Ever, when they come here, yeah, they come
here for the rest of their lives. They have good
lives here. I mean, like I said, they have two pools,
(43:04):
they got agility course, they got big yards to run in,
there's plenty of woods that they can go for hikes
and walks, and there's all kinds of different things here
for them. So right, they live, they live. They live
very well. I'm gonna even venture a guests they live
better than a lot of dogs in the United States.
(43:24):
I bet they do. And that's and that's they'll live it.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
On my part, that's good that that's just the same
that they're being well taken care of, well loved, and.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well taken care of. Right because I see them as
police officers and I see them as military military veterans.
That's exactly how I see them. When they get retired
from the military, they come up their military retirements with
their medals that they achieved during their their time of service.
Their their veterans, and they deserve all the respect and
(43:57):
dignity in the world and everything that I have to
give them, and I do it so and I take
great pride in it. People will often call me a hero.
I said, I am no hero, not even close to it.
But I work with them. I work with heroes every
single day.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, people can't forget that
there are the full lesure here guys out there, whether
their dog or horse or they're out there.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Absolutely absolutely no.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I had si on your website too that you were
offering a certification in K nine PTSD. But are you
guys going to continue to offer that or.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
That's a great question. Yes, we actually opened that up
for certification and we're the only ones who can actually
do the certification. It's taught by a professor. It's a
college course, it's a semester long, it's fifteen weeks. You
get a certification at the end, and then that gives
the person who wants to go out do the assessments
(45:01):
and treat for PTSD one and two the skill set
and foundations that they need to be able to go
out there and do that. And we look to increase
that more and more so that more people are certified
in it and that people can go out and find it.
Because right now in the United States, if we do
(45:22):
the math, there's one hundred and fifty million dogs in
the United States and ten to twenty percent of them
are suffering from a postraumatic stress one or two. And
a professional behaviorist would be able to go through the course,
get certified at the end of it, and be able
to go out there and be unique in offering that
(45:44):
service in their community, in their area that others don't
have because they're not trained in it. And for people
who because we in the scales of aggression, there's I forget,
there's twelve of them. I believe it is the ideopathic aggression.
Idiopathic just means we don't have we don't know where
(46:05):
it's rooted from, right, So it's an idiopathic and if
the dog is experiencing some type of pain, right and so,
But idiopathic can be easily defined now as an aggressive
state that comes from the dog suffered from post traumatic stress. Right.
I think that the research that I've done is answered
(46:27):
that question. I finally is giving a name to that category.
So a professional behaviors out there that wants to treat
for CPTs one or two, and the treatment is the
diagnosis and they get to use our tools, our assessments,
all of our literature to be able to go out
there and offer that service that others can't provide unless
(46:52):
they're certified and trained there.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
So well there not saying that for people to be
able to get that surface, that's pretty cool. I know,
I saw that as I that would be kind of
interesting to have.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
It is it's, it's, it's it's basically it makes it.
Having a certificated in CPTs wanting to makes you the
top behaviorist period because there's no other I mean, you
can say predatory aggression or a female and female aggression.
Those are the two that you're just as a behavior student.
Chances are you're not working through some of your view
Your listeners might push back on that, but in my
(47:27):
experience that just those are the two most difficult. But
what's the most challenging and what is ultimately the most difficult,
which is the number one behavior that affects it that
these are amazing four legged heroes and uh family members
out there, is CPTSD. It's extremely complicated and if not
(47:48):
knowing what you don't know, you can make it a
thousand times works as a behaviorist because it you know,
as experience as I was with canines and dogs and
dog behavior and training. If nothing that I ever knew
prepared me for it. In fact, everything that I knew
(48:09):
didn't work. I had to learn the opposite of what
actually it was. I had to be self taught, and
so I had to do if I'm jumping in the
deep end and figure out what work and what didn't work.
And that course, I'd give them the ability and the
skill set to beause out there and be a top
tiered behaviors because if you're certified with CPTSD one or two,
there's no other behavior that's more complicated than that. There's
(48:32):
just not.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Well, I'm guide you after that. So maybe more people
decide to get cified with that.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
And I know that the course is like andety five dollars,
but they're going to be doing a payment program for
that starting in January so that they don't have to
pay it all at once. They can do it in installments,
so it makes it more affordable for more people. Just
to kind of give you an FYI on that so
when they look at the price and like, it's one
thousand dollars for this course, but it'll be an smaller
plan that will break down over the fifteen weeks. So
(49:04):
this way people makes it more affordable for them.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Oh that's nice, Yeah, yes, all right, cool. Well we're
coming to the end of the podcast, James. I'm so
glad that you were able to come on again. But
before we do jump off, maybe to go ahead and
put the information out there for people that would may
be like to donate to the center. Help you out.
(49:31):
You know, it's here in your area. If you're you know,
if they're thinking about becoming a volunteer talking with you
about that, so have it. Someone gave the contact to
you guys.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
That's excellent. Thank you so much for providing that opportunity
for us. The best method to gain touch with us
our phone number are you know, address all our contact
informations on our website at www. The letter carry the
number nine PTSD dot org. We are high and C
three nonprofit, so we are taxed about theible for donations.
(50:00):
They can reach out to the US there they can
sort of contact to us. Email is generally the best
way to contact us and you know, ask you questions
or inquireble more information and we're going to take that
virtual tour. They give you a little bit insight to
what it looks like here and not so much what
(50:20):
we do, but more about what we what it looks like.
And yeah, that'd be awesome for people to reach out
and you know, need some support.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Yeah awesome, and not to the link up on my face,
but just to.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Go to so I appreciate, We appreciate that very much,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Oh yeah, and I'll definitely check out that stare and
see by getting a shirt tist right.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
All right, yeah, yeah, you know whether it's going to
be for a holiday gift or a birthday gift or
a New Year's Eve gift or Valentine's gift because there's
a lot of red in there. Yeah, so show the
loved ones that you love them by buying a Canine
Authentic Official can Our PTSD shirt and red.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And well that's my favorite color. So now I'm gonna
have to definitely go check it out.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So excellent, excellent from those red hats up there. It
was a big request for red hats, so we put
some red hats out there too as well, so that's all. Yeah,
so we appreciate you, thank you so much for having
us again. This has been wonderful and your your podcast
has an amazing job reaching so many viewers and educating
them on things that brilliant. Other people don't have that information.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Too, so well, thanks, I try.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
You do a great job, a wonderful job. Right.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Well, you're doing a great job with what you guys
are doing there at the K nine ptsd senter to you,
so keep up the good work and thanks again for
coming back in. I appreciate it, and I'm glad they
get the information out there to the listeners. And don't
forget Healing Decode. They grab the movie Amazon poem and
check it out and keep an eye out for the
(51:58):
new one they'll be coming out as well.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Dog's right. Thank you so much everyone. I agree, appreciate
you all right.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
And thanks James, And I'm just gonna go ahead and
announce the next couple of podcasts I have. So you're
welcome to stand, but I know it's a bit of
later or your Times office if you want to jump back,
that's fine too.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I'm gonna jump off because some dogs a teach here.
But thank you so much again for your time and
look forward to talking to your reil.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
All right, thanks James, you have a good night now.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Take care, bye bye bye. All right.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
So that was great of James to come back on
and talk about the Canyon PTSD centered with a great
time that was talking with him and getting more information
on their expansion and updated services and stuff like that
they're gonna have. So for that being said, the next
podcast that I have coming up is on January twenty third,
(52:55):
and that's gonna be with Michael French and Lisa Arnold,
who the founders of Enhanced Vet Sciences. So they make
treats and different stuff like that for our dogs. And
what was really cool is that they were offering to
put the little Pets picture on their bags when they
(53:17):
sent them to you food treats, whatever you're getting. So
I thought that was pretty cool. And they sent me
a sample and I have my one dog on there.
It was kind of cool for Christmas he has there's
a Christmas tree and little stars and stuff. So it
was really pretty cool and it was pretty simple. You
just haven't had to upload the picture and they put
it on the bag. So I thought that was interesting.
(53:38):
So I'm gonna be talking with those guys about enhanced
foot sciences and what they're doing and having their pets
picture on the bag again. So that's gonna be January
twenty third, and then the next one after that would
be on uh February sixth. I and going to be
(54:01):
talking with Catherine Curver. And she is an author that
had a little book called Abandoned Chronically the Journeys of
One's Forsaken Dogs. So this book is all about, uh
she follows UH shelter dogs in uh certain shelter or two,
and she kind of chronicled, you know, that they came
(54:22):
into the shelter system and then what happened to them, uh,
whether they were euthanized or whether they got adopted, how
long they read it sheltered, the rescue system, some diss
as they came from, and then how they you know,
for the most part, most of them from homes. So
she's going to be coming on to talk about her
(54:44):
book and talk with me about, you know, her experiences
uh with the shelter and rescues while she was writing
her book. So I'm looking forward to talking with uh
Catherine about her uh book, Abandoned chronically the journeys of
them for Saken Dogs. So I think that'll be a
great one, So hopefully you guys willing to tune in
(55:04):
on that again February sixth, and the one right before
that again is on January twenty third, January I Can't
Talk Now January twenty three, uh from Enhanced Vet Sciences
with Michael French and Lisa Arnolds, So uh looking forward
to talking with those guys as well, So hopefully you
guys will be able to listen in. So and with
(55:25):
that being said, I hope you all have a uh
great great weekend, and I hope that you all had
a uh happy Holidays and that you guys got really
cool things for Christmas notes you wanted and got to
(55:46):
celebrate it with your families and you loved once. So
with that being said, uh, I hope you guys have
a good night and come on back in a couple
of weeks and listen to the next podcast.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
Good night now,
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