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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
Inside the World of Dedicated Dog Rescuers: ft. The Animal Pad
Join us as we chat with Lauren and Danielle from The Animal Pad, a passionate dog rescue organization based in sunny San Diego. Lauren shares her transformative journey from volunteering for Bernie Sanders' political campaign to leading a life devoted to dog rescue. With personal anecdotes of fostering her first dog, Rusty, and the hilarity of managing a household filled with furry companions with special needs, Lauren and Danielle paint a vivid picture of the rollercoaster ride that is dog rescue.
Lauren and Danielle's stories shine a light on the profound commitment and compassion required for this work. From rescuing mixed breeds and "border puppies" with serious health conditions in Ensenada, Mexico, to collaborating with emergency vets in San Diego, the challenges are real, but so are the rewards. Listen as they recount memorable tales of bonding with troubled dogs, overcoming fears, and the pivotal role that trainers play in fostering successful adoptions. They also share the heartening transformation of a paralyzed puppy named Pop, who found a joyful life with a dedicated adopter.
Beyond the heartwarming stories, this episode uncovers the emotional complexities of dog rescue, including the pressures of social media and the personal responsibility rescuers feel. Our guests also highlight the importance of self-care and maintaining mental health amidst the chaos, with humorous stories of life with special needs dogs and the value of cooking as a therapeutic escape. Whether you're a seasoned volunteer or new to animal rescue, Lauren and Danielle's stories will inspire and entertain, reminding us all of the incredible impact a little compassion can make.
The Animal Pad
To donate or volunteer with The Animal Pad, visit their website HERE.
To follow them on instagram, click HERE.
If you're a trainer interested in foster training dogs for The Animal Pad or a rescue in your area, visit our website & fill out the form letting us know HERE.
For any other info for The Everyday Trainer, visit our website theeverydaytrainer.com.
hello, hello and welcome back to the everyday trainer podcast. I am joined with lauren and danielle of the animal pad. They are a rescue out of san diego, so we're going to talk all about the rescue world. They're going to tell all about the rescue world. They're going to tell us their crazy stories. We've already been talking about some of their stories and we've been cracking up in here, so this will be a really fun episode. You guys know the drill Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet us back here. Hello guys welcome.
Speaker 1:Hello. Were we supposed to bring a tasty drink?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what the hell? I normally have a tasty drink and I don't have one this time.
Speaker 3:We always have alcohol inside the facility, because it's always necessary A little tap after dart.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Speaker 3:We'll start with you. Okay, my name is Lauren. I'm the executive director here at the Animal Pad, have been doing this for about seven years at this point, and I love it most days.
Speaker 2:You're a true crazy dog lady.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, crazy dog lady, absolutely yeah, very 11 dogs at my house. They I don't own all of them, but um, the likelihood of some of them getting adopted is probably slim. Um, so I yeah, I might own 11 dogs, but I there, you have 11 dogs 11 dogs. Yeah, yeah, we'll always have rotating 11 yeah, yeah, there will always be 11 dogs. Yes, because, when one leaves, yeah, it just doesn't feel the same. Yes, you know, one did leave recently.
Speaker 3:I got annie adopted, one that's true one dog got adopted, so I think that I will be celebrating that for the rest of my life. I will never let people forget that annie left how did the one? Yes, how did you get into this? It's a weird story. I back in what 2016, at this point, was very involved in the Bernie Sanders political campaign. What, which feels like it has nothing to do with Dog Rescue and it doesn't.
Speaker 3:But yeah, was very involved in the campaign, was campaigning, working very hard for the men and hoping that he's potentially going to be our next president, went to the DNC in Philadelphia like all in full throttle. It went poorly, didn't go the way that I had hoped, and I at that point was like God, this is depressing. I feel like I put a lot of my heart and soul, dedicated as a volunteer, into something that now I have like nothing to show for. So at that point I was like, okay, I can't imagine not volunteering for something because I've been actively doing that for so long now. So I was just like, hmm, I'm going to foster a dog.
Speaker 3:And it was like on a whim, random, always loved dogs but like never crazy dog lady status at all, grew up with dogs, but like grew up with like two dogs, not 11 dogs. Yeah, so applied to foster with like seven different San Diego based rescues and the only rescue to get back to me was the animal pad, and it was meant to be. But I back then we were not as structured as we are now and it was like, hey, you applied, do you want to go pick this dog up from the shelter? And so I said sure, and I went and picked up a dog named Rusty, who was an Aussie. He had been shot in the face, trigger warning, I guess.
Speaker 1:Literally. Yeah, he had been shot.
Speaker 3:God, sorry. Danielle and I were just talking about how desensitized we are to most things at this point.
Speaker 2:No, I mean it's kind of funny because we are too. Okay, like being in dog training, like we were literally just talking about how many dogs were at my like the most dogs that I had at my house, and I was like more than are here, you know, it's like that's crazy. Yeah, exactly, okay, good.
Speaker 3:Okay, been shot in the face with like a pellet gun. So he survived. But he had a split open chin, uh, he had teeth knocked out, he all his. His lip was like completely busted and uh, he was, we think, on a property where farmers thought he was a coyote but like also, let's normalize not shooting at coyotes either. But whatever you know not the point he was shot at, he was in the shelter, he was at risk of euthanasia and picked him up and he just like seamlessly fit into my household. I did not adopt him. I had a friend who her parents, within like two days of me posting this dog was like this feels like their dog, so got him adopted very quickly and the rescue like whoa, okay, like let's keep her around like her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's you know, she did her own promotion of the dogs.
Speaker 3:I marketed him and yeah, um, and then I fostered more and then I just started helping out and then it was like hey, we need somebody to pick this up from over here and we need this dog to vet whatever. And I was just driving around doing everything, doing in-person home checks and like ending up in people's living rooms drinking beer with them after doing like a two-hour home check that should have been like 15 minutes like just super fun and I was like god, I love doing this and then became a director of communications, which like meant nothing.
Speaker 3:And then I ran the social media and they were like we'll give you this title and then, was director of operations, which honestly also meant nothing give her a title. Yeah, like literally, I mean, I was doing I was doing whatever I could, and then now executive director and it's my full-time job. So seven years later, pretty crazy. It's been a wild turn of events.
Speaker 2:Started from the bottom. Thank you, Just like our dogs honestly yes. Danielle, tell us how you got here.
Speaker 1:I got here because I started. I actually grew up without having a dog. I asked for a dog every year for Christmas and my parents said no, grew up without having a dog. I asked for a dog every year for Christmas and my parents said no, and so they got me a cat and the cat was fine, but it wasn't as fun as a dog. But I always loved dogs and loved animals. And then, finally, when I was older and I lived on my own and I was like my time to get a dog and I fostered, starting in 2021. Animal Pad was the only place that came and replied back to me as well.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, I applied for a few. I applied for a few. That is it. Yeah, no, that was our foster team.
Speaker 1:I actually had. I'm a big San Diego Padres fan. Shout out to Joe Musgrove because he adopted his dog through the Animal Pad, and that's how I found them. Okay, and I was like, okay, shout out to Joe Musgrove because he adopted his dog through the animal pad, and that's how I found them Okay, and I was like okay, I guess I'll like foster
Speaker 3:a dog. We have so much to thank Joe for.
Speaker 1:I was like low commitment, whatever, I'll get a dog. And then I took home actually a Malinois was my first dog that I took home and he was kind of like I call him a fake Mal because he was really lazy and like not, he didn't need that much from me, but need that much from me. But when they sent me off they were like he's going to be insane, he's crazy in the shelter, like whatever. But I didn't have a dog, I only lived with roommates and I was like OK, like I think I can do this, like I'm pretty active, and he got adopted really fast and I was like wow, this is fun. It's like dogs in dogs out, like this is fun and so rewarding. It was like so fun watching him go to his new home and then fostered a few more dogs and then I ended up with a few dogs later.
Speaker 2:I ended up then, with like a malnourished. Malinois who then was nourished and insane. You're the.
Speaker 1:Malinois girl. Yeah, I didn't even know what a Malinois was when four years ago, you don't need to know, it knows. That's like my. That's the funniest thing I think in my head, because I'm like wait, how did I end up here? I did. I thought you know a malinois.
Speaker 1:I had no idea like what is that and I remember when I took home my first foster and he was a mal and um, the lady was like just a random volunteer, was like okay, do you know this breed at all? And I was like no, and she was like okay, well, and you know the look and I was like okay.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, sweetheart.
Speaker 1:I was like oh, my first dog ever. I was like here we go, um, but he ended up being great and then. So then I ended up with my now foster fail, but his name was dennis. He was like malnourished and uh, skinny and just scared boy in the shelter, friends with everybody because he was terrified. And then I brought him home and he uh, gained weight and he started feeling better and realized he was a 70 pound Malinois and I was like, okay, now now, what am I doing?
Speaker 2:I was like.
Speaker 1:And we had, you know, our fair share of difficulties. My favorite story with him I love him to death, but he was demand barking at me. So I was training for a marathon and I took home a Mel and so I was like, great, you know we're going to run this out together, but instead I was like building a high endurance.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, turns out I didn't know better at the time. So I had this very active big giant dog and he hated being on the leash because he's never been on a leash before and so he would like chew on the leash. He would bite up the leash, then he would bite my arms and like he wouldn't mean to hurt me, but he was like hurting me. Toma can relate yes yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was like I was like, oh and, and I don't know him that well, I've only had him for two weeks and I was like this dog like wants I just didn't know dogs well either and I was like I think this dog wants to hurt me and so we were on a run together. I mean I was like so green, I knew nothing, um, I didn't have treats on. I was like so green, I knew nothing, I didn't have treats on me, I didn't have toys, I had nothing. And he was turns out demand barking, but he would turn and just like bark at me like he does at bike club.
Speaker 1:These days A barking hold and I was like holy shit, this dog is going to attack me, and so I tied him to a tree. And she left him I did not leave him, but I did tie him to a tree. My whole body was shaking and I was like tying this dog and I was like, okay, I'm gonna wrap my arm around and I was like tying him.
Speaker 3:I do not even know this story, yeah and we were at Morley field.
Speaker 1:It's like this huge field at north park and everybody's like kind of watching and I was like because I honestly in my head I was like I just need a moment, like I need to figure out what my game plan is and everyone thought you were abandoning it.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I stood there but I was like I just don't know what my game plan is like. I have this huge dog hates being on the leash easily could chew this leash up um, like biting my arm demand barking at me and I was like what, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 1:so I was like let me just put him. I just I was like I need a second away. And so, yeah, the poor guy, um, but we worked it out, um. Then he like kind of chilled out and I realized he like he turned this corner of like. I mean, we all know now as dog people like you get the demand bar can go playful or it can get to aggression, and he went to the playful side and I could see that and I was like, okay, I think we can just make it back home.
Speaker 2:Wait, how old was he when you?
Speaker 1:got him About like two.
Speaker 2:they said Do you know if he had experience doing bite work?
Speaker 1:I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Because a bark and hold. You have to teach a dog that. If he's just turning around on you.
Speaker 1:He's like bah, bah bah, I think he was finally feeling better and he was a giant.
Speaker 2:He's like, let's go.
Speaker 1:And he was like, and he's like, this run is doing absolutely nothing for me. I need you to do more. And he was like, come on, lady. And I had no idea what he wanted me to do. Yeah, um, so yeah, then I so yeah, then I invested. I made friends with every trainer in the rescue and I said, ok, so I'm scared, I would hide in my kitchen. I had a gate from my other foster dog and, like my roommates and I would hide in the kitchen and he would demand, bark at us in the kitchen, and we would just stand there and be like, ok, what are we going to do? I would like tell them I don't know how they're still friends with me um, I would tell them that I would be like don't walk around empty-handed. Like, if you are walking around the house, have something in your hand you can throw in his mouth. Um, and because they're so mouthy and I wasn't doing, I wasn't giving him that.
Speaker 2:You did that to us today you handed those hoes. When we took out Samson, she's like here you go, you can, you can hold these.
Speaker 1:There's always like, it's always good to have something to put in their mouth.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, yes, Um but yeah, my poor roommates it was so. It was a struggle.
Speaker 1:And then I mean I did, I tried to refoster him, which is the funniest part, like I was just crying all the time. I was like I feel so bad. I love this dog but I'm not right for him, like he's just does not. I'm not, I don't know what I'm doing. And he needs more. And then nobody wanted to foster him.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine why. Because we would go, she really sold him well, this is.
Speaker 1:Another funny story is that we finally I mean, I'm like trying my best to keep it together and I'm like I can do this. I'm not gonna send them back, but like I'm freaking out, I don't know what to do, I'm scared of this dog, um, and we met up with a woman who said who was a police dog handler and she had kids, uh, but she also had a shepherd and she had fostered through us before and she was actually one of our volunteers, like neighbors, and I was like, oh my gosh, perfect, like I think he just needs somebody who knows what they're doing. But he's, he has a sweet soul. You could see in his eyes like he wanted to love um, but I just I was like I don't know how I can get past this, but anyway. So we met up and he's screaming at her.
Speaker 1:And then I was like OK, oh, and this is the funniest part, she was on a front clip harness, because that's like how we did things around here.
Speaker 1:So I'm like showing up with this 70 pound Malinois on a front clip harness and he's just like driving towards her. And she was like, ok, this is crazy. And then she was like like well, let me try to take the leash. And I was like okay, and so then I handed it, because I just trusted her at this point, um, and I gave her the leash and then he like tried to turn on her and she was like, okay, um, you can take the leash back. And I was like, okay, great, I was like okay.
Speaker 1:And then I was standing there and I was like, oh, what do you think? And she was like, yeah, he needs a lot of help, like obviously I can't take this dog. And I was standing there and I was like, oh, what do you think? And she was like, yeah, he needs a lot of help, like obviously I can't take this dog. And I was like, yeah, yeah, you have kids. I was like I get it, I get it. And she was like so sweet and trying to be so nice to me, but like in my head I was like damn, like this police dog handler can't take this dog.
Speaker 2:I was like what am I doing? Doing with this?
Speaker 3:dog, um, but honestly turns out he's a big sweetie. He just, yeah, he sounds, he sounds really great, she's glad she didn't leave him tied to the tree that day, no, I like.
Speaker 1:So this was like the first couple months. And then he like, really like, we figured each other out, like I was, we had, I had to like, I was like I'm not sending him back, like you have like I can do this now too and now I've trained her friends.
Speaker 1:I've learned so much. I'm like now the behavior director for the animal pad like and work with all the harder dogs. I'm not a trainer, but I like just know so much more now, um, and he taught me so much and he's actually like such a sweet dog he just is actually a sweet.
Speaker 3:I met him when he was the sick sweet dog not the I'm gonna tie him to a tree, because he's actually well and insane sweet dog. But I watched the whole progression of everything and it was. I mean, I think it's very easy to feel hopeless when you feel like there's no other alternative for the dog too. But I don't think you kept him for that reason necessarily. I feel like you guys did just like actually start understanding each other and then it got easier for you. But also it was like OK, we, you had this connection, yeah.
Speaker 1:I felt it from the beginning. I was like he is like I think I said to somebody I was like, oh, am I going to adopt this one Like the second day, and then, and then I was like, oh, am I gonna adopt this one like the second day. And then and then I was like, oh wait, I'm actually kind of scared of him. But um, um, but like hindsight, if I, if I knew what I know now, like those behaviors were not actually that scary, yeah, um, like there's much scarier dogs to bring home.
Speaker 1:I just not knowing a lot. They're like this is a scary dog and he has a deep scary bark, but he's scared, you know, he's like just he's like such a scared dog. So he was like I don't know, I just wasn't meeting his needs. But we did, we turned a corner and like he yeah, I feel like he's my soul dog, like it was meant to be. We like learned so much together and he's actually such a sweet dog. But he did want.
Speaker 2:Are you doing like?
Speaker 1:a couple moments, like my roommate's mom came home, uh, or came into the house once and he like started barking at her like this, like like strong stance bark, and I was like, um, oh. I was like uh, I was like, oh, actually, um, can you just leave for one minute, I'll put him on a leash. I didn't know, like I had no idea he had behavior issues like we. I just kind of found out as we went.
Speaker 1:But it just wasn't a dog to like kind of learn that yeah I mean, luckily he was sweet, like he didn't want to actually, like, kill somebody do you like crate? Him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now I do, yeah, yeah, okay well, I was gonna say like like hawk, like our mal, or even minka. Like minka launched herself at cassidy like 10 minutes before we started recording this. I was like, turned around, cassidy's like making like cute faces at the dogs and mink is like like straight at her face and I was like, oh my bad, you know. But like I can't.
Speaker 1:I would not have my malinois out when people come over well yeah hindsight but we learned that the other struggle with him was that he was so he's still so anxious, like he's a very anxious dog. So, yeah, um, and I had roommates, like I said, so like we would, some of us would work from home and then it just your schedules are all over the place. So crate training him was like a pain, and especially like they would be home and he'd be screaming or like pawing up the crate and so then they would let him out. It just was really hard to like navigate that which I totally get. But so I didn't crate him for like a whole year. And then when I moved in by myself, how did you exist?
Speaker 2:So I didn't crate him for like a whole year and then when I moved in by myself.
Speaker 1:How did you exist? He chewed up a lot of things. Our actual saving grace, though, was that there was a park by our house, and turns out he was obsessed with me. He never wanted to leave my side.
Speaker 2:That's what's cool about my malinois.
Speaker 1:It's like once you get that trust, trust from them, they're never going anywhere and there was a park near our house and we wake up early and we would go play fetch at that park and and like he would always come back to me, I would use a long line first, and then we got really good at recall and that was our saving grace. Like I would tire the shit out of him and then we would do commands, I mean for the day, and then he would sleep like I would go to work or whatever, like in my room, but like and we would do commands.
Speaker 1:I mean for the day and then he would sleep like I would go to work or whatever, like in my room, but like, and we would do commands and stuff. But it was like very basic, but I don't, I don't know. Honestly, crazy time thinking about it when I look, when, was that Twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2:OK, not that long ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had him for two years. Yeah, so how many? How many dogs do you have now? I have well, he's my only one that I own and then I have two foster dogs, oh yes, and a cat, two fosters, yes. Two fosters and a cat.
Speaker 2:So what are your fosters? Are they all males?
Speaker 1:No kind of.
Speaker 3:They have to have a little bit of male to like get admission into the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the problem is that now, once I learned a lot about Dennis, I see them.
Speaker 2:I love that his name is.
Speaker 1:Dennis, I know I love dogs.
Speaker 3:That was Henry and Sydney Henry mostly Named him Dennis.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Denny.
Speaker 2:He's called Denny Wait, which one was rescued from the field.
Speaker 3:That one. Yeah, Dennis rescued from the field that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh okay.
Speaker 1:I just saw that video today and I was like oh my gosh, I know her yeah, yeah, he's famous on the dodo yeah um, nova is a shepherd and mal, so she's like 30 shepherd, 20 mal and 10 boxer and then a couple other things so tj special the tj special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the thing is is that when I see them, like she was doing really bad in the kennels, like she bit somebody and she was like just having a hard time here, and I think that's also why I'm drawn, not, I mean, dennis has opened my eyes up to the Malinois community, but seeing them here like breaks my heart even more, because I just like they do not do well here. No, um, and I feel like now I know what I can provide them to make them successful, um, so that's why I'm like okay, come on, you come with me. And now I have two, three, I have a puppy. I don't know what she is yet, she just did her wisdom panel, but she's like drivey and she looks she looks now.
Speaker 2:She looks like a, like a terrier mal or something.
Speaker 1:She's little she's little, but we don't know how old she is either, which is hard, yeah, um, like maybe nine weeks, or who knows she's from ensenada so she's probably also like 12 different breeds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's like typically what we see. Yeah, yeah uh, somehow. So dennis is from ensenada, but he's 100 percent malinois yeah, dennis was a part part of the drug cartel or something he was a part of some sort of Well, wasn't he left in a field?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did embark because I didn't believe Wisdom Panel when it said 100% Malinois. I was like no way. So I did embark too, and they were like 100% Malinois.
Speaker 3:You do know right, the shelter that he was found around. That's the shelter that we partner with. That's a great shelter in Ensenada. They're called Los Adoptables and there are a lot of Malinois breeders around there actually, because you can see when you're driving around, they have signs up for puppies, like all the time. I heard that this is a thing like border puppies.
Speaker 2:Yes, what is that? Oh, border puppies are sad.
Speaker 3:Sad bad thing, border puppies, and these were not border puppies because this is Ensenada, so this is like two and a half hours into Baja. Okay, but border puppies, really sad. We have rescued quite a few because people call us. When they get them because they take them in, sometimes knowing that they don't want to adopt a dog, but they just want to get these dogs out of these people's care, um, and sometimes they take them in being like I will adopt this dog and then they almost always have parvo or distemper or something and end up in the hospital and they can't afford the care and then the hospital tells them to call us and we end up accruing a $3,000 to $5,000 bill almost every single time yes For.
Speaker 3:Parvo, parvo and Distemper. And yeah, Parvo can be like $3,000 a day oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:We currently have a Parvo puppy from the shelter. We just took in a litter of puppies and their mom and one puppy tested positive. So now we're kind of just waiting for everybody else to test positive. Unfortunately it sucks, but they actually all came in here today and saw our vet team and got the new antibody. That is really cool. That is, it's an injection and with that we have not again knock on wood, we have not lost a puppy, um to parvo, since this injection became a thing and um, yeah, it's an antibody and it helps them like get over it a lot quicker and now all the puppies have it, not parvo but the antibody, and we're hoping that they all survive. But we actually just had a Parvo puppy that was hospitalized yesterday who for 18 hours of hospitalization it was $3,500. 18 hours, that's not even 24 hours.
Speaker 3:Because it's around the clock. I mean it's nursing care like critical care for 18 hours. It sucks. Nursing care like critical care for 18 hours it sucks. Sometimes you can get away with parvo puppies going to general practice vets and then going home at night, but if they're really critical and they're like up and down and all over the place, then that's what it costs and a lot of the times we've had parvo puppies that need like eight days in the hospital. So that's times eight yeah.
Speaker 2:So you guys have, like your own vet care in here, but we not with not emergency. Yeah, so we have three days a week.
Speaker 3:We have a vet staff in here meaning vet staff, meaning volunteers and an actual vet that we pay and a vet assistant that we pay. So those two are you know, they know what they're doing. The rest of us are just helping out in any way we can. But we can't do any kind of emergency care, like if something urgent comes up. We have sick appointments that are on the books that we try to keep open to be able to, like today, parvo, test all the remaining puppies from that litter and give the antibodies. But um yeah, anything total emergency, we can't do here. Anything that's like overnight hospital, we can't do here. Anything that's like overnight hospitalization we can't do here. So we have I'm on a first name basis with almost every emergency room in San Diego and they see me calling and they're like what are you?
Speaker 3:bringing us today. Yeah, a lot of the doctors have told us that they've learned a lot from the docs we bring in, because they're kind of medical mysteries a lot of the time you get like a lot of like crazy medical cases very taken, the hardest, the ones that no other rescue will take. We always take in the ones that make people go. What the fuck?
Speaker 1:and honestly, look at the guy in the silver guy. Yes, yes, yeah, very easy, yeah, yeah yeah, wait, silver guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's the Figaro, the guy with the husky, with the yeah, yeah. So yeah, we take in dogs that most people think should probably just be euthanized. But to be honest, like we are a rescue that fights for the underdogs, whether it's behaviorally or medically, totally 100% and it doesn't feel right to you know, value a dog's life over another dog's life and obviously we know we can't save them all, but we have become very efficient in most medical things so that's kind of our niche. Now we've learned how to treat a lot of things that people again would look at and say not worth it, you shouldn't, and so I feel like that we're capable of it, so we do it, and we have a lot of dogs that come with a lot of baggage from Mexico specifically.
Speaker 3:It's a wild card Like. We see dogs all the time. The dog that Danielle was just talking about is a dog named Figaro who is a like pocket husky. He's like very small, but he came from a rescuer in Tijuana who is there's a lot. The Baja community is awesome and I think it gets a bad rap a lot of the time in terms of like, oh, people don't care there, and that's not the case in most instances at all from my experience.
Speaker 3:Um people care, they just don't have the means to take care of the animals right imagine we go down there and visit and it's like, oh my god, we're driving past dogs all the time on the street, so like if that was my life, like here in San Diego, a dog gets out and there's like it's on next door, it's it's on the news, like it's like people are chasing this dog everywhere, which we've learned is not the thing to do thank you, babs Fry.
Speaker 1:Thank you Babs.
Speaker 3:Fry. Um, but yeah, people, it's like everyone knows there's like an amber alert out for this dog in Mexico. That's the way that they live. So it's like you become not only kind of blind to it but like I'm sure for your mental health you also kind of have to go. Ok, I can't stop and, you know, examine every single dog to see if they're OK.
Speaker 3:And so there is a community large on Facebook that's how we get quite a few of our dogs of people tagging us and saying I saw this dog. It looks like this you shouldn't be rescuing dogs. There's also plenty of that going on there. There's plenty of that going on here and you know that's just a whole nother story. But um shouldn't be rescuing dogs, doesn't have the means and they're actually better off on the streets than with him. That's, you know, a certain thing. So this dog came to him, um, blind, was attacked by the other dogs he has on his property and then just never got medical care and is a hot mess disaster. He's with us, obviously getting medical care, getting what he needs, probably feeling safe for the first time ever. Um, and so that's a lot of the dogs that come to us. They're feeling safe for the first time ever. They have that like, fresh off the streets, sleep, that like they'll sleep for 48 hours, and we're like are you sick? Are you just feeling, you know, like you can finally relax? We kind of both.
Speaker 2:We saw that with River. Like when we first got him, I was like oof, I don't know if this dog's going to make it. You know, and then, like a couple days go by, he's like I feel great, and he's like I'm going to drag you down the street. I'm like, oh, he's feeling much better Exactly Same thing that happened to you. It's like time to transform yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the moral of the learned what to do in those instances, like literally back tying. Like now, you know, after working with bite work people you're like oh, it was back tying, boom him yeah.
Speaker 3:Sorry, but yeah, that's. I mean yeah, and it's like, in most instances the dogs we take in are quite possibly sick, but also decompressing in a major way and feeling safe for the first time ever and it's honestly a beautiful thing. One of the dogs I ended up adopting was a feral dog that we brought here who no one touched for two weeks because he was not having it. He was just pissed off at the world and it took me like throwing a sheet over him and carrying him outside and him like finally touching, literally.
Speaker 3:I I remember it was during a shift and one of the the girl that was running the shift is on our management team and a friend of ours and literally I was like okay, this is not gonna be pretty, I don't need to advertise what's about to happen here, but he needs to go outside. It's been two weeks. Like it's been two weeks. That's unhealthy for this guy. Like it's not good.
Speaker 3:I didn't want to push him. Like there's that fine line all the time, obviously here, between like take the chance or don't. Didn't want to push him. Like there's that fine line all the time, obviously here, between like take the chance or don't. Do you want to push it, do you not? But like he wouldn't, he wasn't one that was like oh, I'm going to make this decision actively on my own to come out Like he was like no, I think to this day he'd still be in that kennel.
Speaker 3:Like no, so through the sheet, carried him out he's kicking and screaming and trying to bite and just being like a pure maniac and then got him into the yard and put him down and left the sheet over him and then I slowly removed it and I'm like look at the world. And literally that was like it makes me emotional thinking about it, because that was like life changing for him. Just going outside, yeah, it was crazy. And so it's like these, these dogs, every everybody's different. Obviously they all need a different individual, like plan and nobody's cookie cutter. And we can't say like, oh, on day five, everybody goes outside and you know, yeah, no, it's like he needed it to be the way that it was for him. But now he's, you know, a completely different dog two years later and he was absolutely feral. Like I've never worked with a dog that level until now, because now we actually have other feral dogs that we've taken, but that was like we didn't know.
Speaker 1:We did it once. We can do it again. We're actually quite good at it.
Speaker 3:um, actually yeah, but yeah, he, um, he's a great dog. That's my my man, marty. Um, but yeah, is he with you? He's my dog? Yeah, okay, he was my. He was a foster fail for me too. He got me through like quite a bit of loss.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously, doing this kind of work as a volunteer or not, it's like all the time we are faced with a lot of dogs, because also we rescue the sickest dogs. Uh, there are times it's inevitable and I mean we will do anything to get them whatever they need and we spare no expense. And that's probably often why we are like in the red constantly, because if a dog needs it, we will do it for them, we will figure out a way to get it. Um, and when you have 400 dogs and they all need things, you're like, okay, that's, that's quite a bit of money that we're gonna have to raise this month, but you know we'll do it. Um, but yeah, at at the end of the day it's, there's some dogs that obviously you just can't get them what they need medically and we're not going to also have them suffer.
Speaker 3:There's like a little bit of suffering that I think comes with each dog that we have here and like when you can see past that and know that the end result is going to be good, um, or that there's hope for that, I think that that's when it's worth it.
Speaker 3:But if it gets to a point where it's not fair to ask them to keep fighting and they don't want to and they, they are telling you that we listen, and so there is quite a bit of heartbreak that comes with this work and being a part of a rescue like ours. But then it's like those moments where you see like the breakthrough and even if it's something so small, like I've cried so many times here, happy tears by like being in a kennel with a dog that like hates my guts and wants nothing to do with me, and then like just feeling them, like knows me, or like lick my hand and then like totally run away from me and not care, and I, it's just like the little things that trigger you to be like. This is why I do this and it it makes you just it, just you know, restores your faith in you, know just everything that we do all the time. So it's really cool.
Speaker 1:We also see so many different types of dogs and so many different behaviors medically, like I feel like we we can see things in the dogs and we're like we know they're gonna be better.
Speaker 2:yeah, like you just have that, like well you've seen the light at the end of the tunnel yeah, I talk about that all the time with like dog training, because owners come to me and they're like I can't do it right, like how you were. You were like, oh my god, like what the fuck have I done? And I'm like, listen, you got this. You just got to do these things. I see, see it for you. You know, because, like I've seen it so many times, when you get on a crate schedule and like, do all these things, like the dog is going to get better, I promise you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it doesn't feel hopeless when you you know, when you know and that's kind of how I feel too about like all a lot of the conditions that we take in that we know how to treat, a lot of the conditions that we take in that we know how to treat again people looking at them very jarring, like looking at a dog with tumors all over their body that are like exposed and rupturing is like you know whoa and I have to preface all the time like this looks really bad.
Speaker 3:And when we come in with tours and stuff it's like okay, well, maybe don't look under that sheet there unless you, you know, like yeah, because it's yeah, I put trigger warning on the kennel cards all the time and again it goes back to like us being desensitized and like giving tours and being like here's a dog with one eyeball and here's this one. Like over here, that's got, you know, two legs. Isn't that normal?
Speaker 1:Like everybody's got a dog with two legs, right, yeah, sometimes people will come in and point something out and I'm like oh yeah, that's not normal, huh. Like oh yeah, yeah, but they're fine, they're very happy. Happy dog and people people will be.
Speaker 3:We were just talking about this earlier too. People will like be very sad for the dogs that we have here when they first start care team and you like see it. You see a transformation in the dogs, but you see a transformation in the people too, because they'll be very sad and then they're like, oh my god, I need to come more often because the dogs need me, because they are. So you know, this is such a sad place yeah and it's not at all.
Speaker 3:And then, like a month in, people are like, oh no, like that old thing, that's just tvt, it's a contagious cancer like everybody's, you know like he'll be better in no time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. And at first they're like, oh my God, is this dog going to die Like I've had? You know, I'll remember forever that there is a dog named Pop that we rescued. That was a puppy from Tijuana who was hit by a car and we took to a vet and it was a volunteer that had never. Now she's one of our directors and she knows better, but she had never transported a dog for us at all to the vet.
Speaker 3:She goes to the vet and the vet was like, oh, this dog's gonna have a really poor quality of life. He's paralyzed, like all these things. And she was like what, sobbing, sobbing, crying, like, oh my God, I just took this dog to his death. Like I took him to the vet, the vet saying bad things, like the rescue is going to listen and just say like this dog's not worth it. Like, and I just drove this dog there to this appointment, thinking like what kind of help can we get for him? And there's none, it's hopeless. And I remember she called me and was sobbing none, it's hopeless. And I remember she called me and was sobbing and I was like it's okay, we already knew he's paralyzed, it's fine, like we'll figure it out.
Speaker 3:Okay, noted, don't go to that vet with paralyzed dogs anymore, like we'll go to a different vet but there is hope for them and he's adopted by a woman on Instagram called the unstoppable dogs, and she's got like 12 dogs all in wheelchairs. Lives in Huntington Beach. They're a biker. Have you seen them? Yeah, biker gang of street dogs, all with different disabilities, but almost entirely all of them paralyzed, and it's the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 1:What they're in wheelchairs running on the beach, running the beach. I love that.
Speaker 3:They have the best life ever they're in wheelchairs running on the beach, running the beach Stop. I love that they have the best life ever she's adopted three.
Speaker 3:She adopted one of my personal fosters named Rudy, who has no back legs, who was one of my first incontinent dogs I fostered and best lives Like the coolest. But not every rescue is going to have a dog that's paralyzed and be like, yeah, we can figure this out, like we just make commitments to them and we figure it out for them like it's the least we can do, and so, um, yeah, it's hard to not have hope when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, like you said, and we see that for all of them, unless there is like some blaring reason not to, and then it's, you know something that again, like so much rather they be with us and in a compassionate place than anywhere else.
Speaker 3:honestly, even all the loss, like I regret literally taking in not a single dog we've ever taken in, even the ones that like don't make it out of the hospital on the first night because what would have been the alternative. Like I can't even fathom dying on the streets or just, you know, with somebody that wasn't holding them and and at least telling them that they're loved for, you know, maybe the first time, like that's the kind of stuff that is totally worth it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's very interesting. I feel like you guys have changed my perspective a lot because, as, like an outsider of I, I personally have never like rescued a dog besides the two that I have now. Like I've just never even like thought of that. You know, I it was never even on my radar and I always kind of like looked at rescues that were investing like so much time and money into like sick dogs or behavioral dogs of like why would you do that? Sure, you know like, why would you do that when there's like healthy dogs, like why not just invest in like the healthy dogs that you know have a better chance? But it's so different when you're like here and you see it, you know, because it's like they do deserve it. You know like why not and like somebody's gotta do it right, you know so like you guys are literally those people that are like doing it when no one else will yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting because the I think the behavior ones are harder than the medical, because the medical you can see the trans transformation and everybody wants to be a part of that story and usually donate to that story and feel like you know and usually they end up being like really cute and like friendly yeah, uh, people and dog friendly and like they don't have behavior.
Speaker 1:Or some of them end up having behavior issues, but some of them don't, and they're just like. They have this amazing story, this medical story, and then they can fit into the family with the kids and their dogs and whatever, and it's a perfect happy ending. Um, but the behavior dogs are the ones that like, first of all, take a lot of time. You don't see the transformation, uh, that clearly, like you can see the tumors going down. You can't see the reactivity going down. Sometimes it takes it's not like physical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does and sometimes it's just it's, I mean obviously it's just never linear. Progress is never linear. So you just sometimes have bad days, sometimes you have but see, that's why I want to like try to work through.
Speaker 1:That is tough to be like. I mean, and I felt it with Dennis and I think that's why I can like really empathize with our fosters that struggle with their dogs, because I'm like, look, I get it, it does get better. Like there is that moment that you have that. It's like you figure each other out, you know, and you, you see it with the dog, but it's a struggle to get there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that moment typically comes like after a breaking what you think is a breaking point.
Speaker 1:yeah, it was like I had to look at dennis and be like, all right, we got to do this together, dude, like you got to work with me and I'll work with you, but like, let's figure it out.
Speaker 2:But see, that's why I think trainers and like rescues need to work together I feel like right now it's very separate, you know, know, like trainers don't like I don't really know that many trainers that are involved in rescues, well, I feel like it kind of like they need to work together to some capacity so that, like those dogs can like stay in homes and also you don't have to go through that right, Because, like, if you had somebody in your corner, like if I knew you, then I would be like here's what you do, and you would have like one day of frustration and then it would be like, yeah, oh, here's what I need to do, you know. And so, like even people who are like adopting dogs or like your fosters, it's like, hey, if you have this dog, like here's how we can train it so that, like, when it does get adopted, you know, like yeah, it has a better chance.
Speaker 1:We try we try to give. I've never been a dog trainer so I don't know what it's like working with actual clients. But with the fosters I find where it's difficult and just maybe a challenge that would be fun for a trainer to work through, is giving them tangible things to do. That tangible things to do that they'll see a result almost quicker than you would, than if it's their own dog, because if it's a foster dog they want it to be easier. Yes, they don't want to work through those. They don't want to do reactivity training.
Speaker 2:They don't want to do, but it doesn't have to be back and forth.
Speaker 1:They want to go on long walks with their dogs, and they're just yeah there's just things that are that I find are challenging with foster. Some fosters are amazing and they want to work through their with their dogs and they're like, yeah, training's fun, whatever, but if you're like not in it with the dog, 100 it makes it difficult. Yeah, so that's I mean. But not to say that if they didn't have, if we had more trainers, more people to support the people but see that's.
Speaker 2:I think trainers should take more foster dogs, I agree, yeah like there are no for real.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, I think it's a lot of work for because you take up a space and they're in your facility like if, if you took a foster dog takes up a space in your van.
Speaker 2:Well, you do have a foster dog so exactly, I have two exactly, so you have like two spaces.
Speaker 2:If you were like doing board and trains or whatever, then those are two spots for those dogs that you're making money off of for your business um yeah, but you guys are out here like busting your ass and have like a million dogs and it's like for a dog trainer, like for a behavioral case for a regular foster it would be crazy, right, but for a dog trainer, that a regular foster it would be crazy, right. But for a dog trainer that's literally what we do.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, it's so much easier to take one behavioral dog is like, not that big of a deal.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's why I have like Mink the like staff. I think she's a staffie, I don't know. People have told me she's like bulldog. I don't know. That's why I have her is like she's not necessarily like a bad dog. Like I have Cassidy can handle her. You know, like dog trainers, can I trust them? You know like they're fine, but it's like you do have to know a little bit of body language and you know like I'm not just going to give her to anybody, like she can't go to just a regular pet home because she will like ball a small dog you know, like things like that and it's like okay, so she, we create and rotate.
Speaker 2:You know, and it's like for dog trainers, that's like easy. You know we're already doing that with all of our dogs. Like there are so many dog trainers out there, like they all need to take a foster dog, you know they do they agree?
Speaker 1:I agree, you're right, because it does just like fit into their rotation. Yeah, um, like claire and hallie have taken our dogs and they fit our some of our hardest dogs that can't go out with other dogs, but their system works yeah, and it's just like we're already doing it and they help, they help us.
Speaker 3:They help so much, they help us a lot. There's quite a few uh ray, who I was talking to you about earlier, the pity that we found with like a dangling leg that needed to be amputated. He's been with a trainer, katie, for a long time who's fostering him. That has been so helpful to him and helping him make friends. And then Claire and Hallie have helped us with dogs that, like we have felt. We know they're not hopeless dogs, but we have felt hopeless because we are like what can we do and we can't do enough.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not what you do full time Right?
Speaker 3:Exactly, admittedly, it's not what I do at all. I mean I can, I think, I know I have intuition with the dogs. I know I can understand, but when they have behavior that is not desirable, I am not the person Like, admittedly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm like no, no, no, I will get you through your medical stuff and then you'll have bad behavior and then the next person can help you with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you do have to have the space and the time and just the setup for it.
Speaker 2:I feel like dog trainers do, they do that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna.
Speaker 2:I mean we're not disagreeing.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get you I'm gonna get you a whole bunch of dog trainers, and it would be awesome to just get eyes on, like sometimes it's it's tough to send home dogs from our shelter and be like, well, I think they're gonna do, but I mean honestly, similar to dennis. It's like, well, I think they're gonna be okay, but this is what, what I would recommend. You know the structure in the house. Keep the leash on, crate, whatever, do all the things, but at the end of the day, people don't listen.
Speaker 2:Um and so I know.
Speaker 1:So you know, we're like hey, please keep the dog separate for at least a couple days, and? And then all of a sudden like a day later. But they were doing so good and they were whining for my dog, and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, there's a dog fight and we're like wait. Why were they even interacting? Like what happened?
Speaker 3:All the time. So we communicate on Slack a ton and we all have our private like text side messages going off all day long Like what the fuck? But on Slack it's like we will get tagged from foster coordinators who are like basically, oh, that's how I started as a foster coordinator, which I love that role, because to me you are literally a therapist for a foster person or parent. Not a, not a, not the dog person.
Speaker 3:You're not the person person or parent, not a, not a, not the dog person. You're not the. You're a person, um, you're not. You're not the therapist for the dog, but you're the therapist for the person who is having a mental breakdown or some sort of freak out or some sort of something and, like you, are just an ear for them, which honestly does. It's so helpful to have, um, just in moments of frustration, but, um, that it's like that. Right, there is most the time all someone needs to kind of at least de-escalate themselves in, like feeling like they're so stressed out. Yeah, but we will see, sometimes it has to be escalated to us because an incident happens. We will see, yeah, we'll be tagged and, you know, pinged on slack, and then I will read things and just be like that's the opposite of what we told them to do, the actual, literal opposite.
Speaker 1:We're like did you tell them to create and rotate? And we're like yes, we sent the graphic, we did everything possible.
Speaker 3:This dog does not like you to take away high reward things. This is literally something we're dealing with right now. Don't take away high reward things from this dog, because he's been known to bite. If you take away those things Like, there's other ways that you can get that away from him and literally we get reports of oh yep, that happened again. I took a Kong away.
Speaker 2:Are these the fosters or people who have adopted the dogs? These are fosters, okay.
Speaker 3:And bless them. But like there are times where we're like oh my God.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I just literally have to go.
Speaker 3:okay, I'm going to put my phone down and we are going to have a dance party in the middle of the kitchen to decompress, because there is no way that I can even touch that right now, because I'm actually gonna be so livid but my point being is, like some of the dogs from our shelter, like if they don't follow the rules they're dangerous dogs they are, see.
Speaker 1:That's why they need to be with dog trainers, because we know that having a dog trainer evaluate some of the dogs, even if it's just a couple weeks or whatever, and just be like helpful this is actually their behavior, because the shelter, shelter, uh behaviors I don't think are, I don't think it's the true behavior of the dog. So I'm like this is how they are here. I don't know how they're going to be in the home, probably not dog friendly, probably not this, but we don't really know yeah um.
Speaker 1:So having eyes from a trainer and being like, the support for one of the, of being like I've worked with this dog, I know and then having that support, um, I think is invaluable yeah, yeah, it's happened.
Speaker 3:Our dogs have not actually ever been in a home before like they are actual street dogs yeah and that's a whole nother beast of like. We actually don't know how they're going to be in a home at all and we sometimes can't even predict how they're going to be in a home. Sometimes you take a street dog home and they're completely potty trained and you're like how is this a?
Speaker 1:thing?
Speaker 3:And my take is that, like they're just like oh, this place is way too nice, I'm not going to be here Like I don't want to get kicked out of this place.
Speaker 3:Um, but, like, you don't ever know and so you know, we can tell people like what we predict and hope that it's better than we predict. But, um, we're never gonna like lead someone with false information and sugarcoat things and make it sound like it's gonna be easy for them. So, yeah, we don't know how some of our dogs are gonna be in homes and you're always taking a little bit of a chance on them, always, I mean we took a chance in them by by taking them in, but also you as a foster, are taking a chance on them by allowing them into your home.
Speaker 3:And, um, we have we are lucky to have a lot of really understanding fosters that are super cool and when something doesn't go the way that any of us hoped, um their understanding of that. But then, um, I feel like there's this new wave of like people who want to do it for the gram and like be foster so that they can post like what a good person they are, and those people are giving up on dogs after taking them home for like one day, because they are like oh, this is actually work.
Speaker 3:like, wasn't that?
Speaker 1:Wanted to just seem like a good person. Sometimes the street dog will pee in the house and then they're like oh, they're not potty trained. Yeah well, we get the question all the time. You do know they came from a, are they potty?
Speaker 3:trained and we're like, probably not Like we're not going to tell you we don't know.
Speaker 1:They've actually never, never been they could probably learn in a couple be a little understanding of it yeah, yeah, but yeah no we I, I literally just told the story the other day.
Speaker 3:This happened like last year, but I will never forget it and we have like a surge sometimes of like. When I post on instagram like that we need a foster or we need fosters in general, we'll sometimes get like 30 applications and we're like, damn hell, yeah, this is awesome, we have 30 dogs plus sitting here waiting for foster homes super cool. And then, as we're screening these people, half of them, more than half of them, are weeded out because it's just not going to be a fit and we are pretty lax. Like honestly, I know there's orgs that won't foster to people who don't have yards, like all these different things like for us, we have a dog. For you, you don't have a yard, we have a couch potato ancient chihuahua that just wants to be on your lap.
Speaker 3:Um, we have all these things, so it not every dog here needs that. They all have different needs.
Speaker 2:We can match you with one that's going to be appropriate and I think that's really cool because not a lot of rescues or a lot of rescues that, like I've worked with, are like that, like they're like oh, you don't have a yard, you know, or like I wanted I wanted to rescue a chihuahua a while ago and like they wouldn't because I live in a van yeah, no, so we just we adopt.
Speaker 3:We've adopted before even knowing anyone that lived in a van and being able to vouch. We've adopted dogs to people that live in vans by meeting them and having human conversation and assessing the quality of life they're going to be able to provide the dog and it's like damn, you travel the country and this dog is going to have an adventure yeah it's cool and we have a dog for that.
Speaker 3:We have dogs that are going to love that lifestyle. We also have dogs that would actually hate that. I have two at my house that like being in the car is like their worst nightmare, so they would probably not be a dog we would adopt to a person that lives in a van yeah, like there are dogs that are so down for this so it's like that's silly to me and there's so many dogs that need homes.
Speaker 3:To like turn down a good one because of that is just like really pretty crazy. But yeah, we see it all the time Like there is a match for, I think, most people. But what we're kind of running into right now a little bit it's kind of off topic but a little bit is that people on Instagram do like whether you're kind of making an emotional decision and like I want to foster that dog because I feel connected, and then you think about it later and you're like oh, maybe actually no, because it's going to be a lot of work, or whether you, you know, might just think that this is going to you going to be good content for your Instagram. I sometimes think that people think that way and think like, oh, this is going to make me look like a good person.
Speaker 3:And we had a person a year ago who took in a like hippo-esque gray pity that we had, who, honestly, was an amazing dog and went on to get adopted by her next foster and was like arguably easy compared to most. This girl from Instagram took her in and the very next day was like cannot foster this dog, need to return her. And I remember we were all so bummed because gray pity like not everybody is necessarily knocking down our door for this specific dog Got her back. And then I had followed since I run the social media, I had followed this girl the day she took the dog home on Instagram because I was like, oh my God, we love these dogs. The second they leave our facility, we're still thinking about them. We want to see updates, like we're in communication.
Speaker 2:Obviously People that were here today. You knew their dog. Yes, oh, I know this, my brain retains nothing but these dogs.
Speaker 3:Like I don't, I don't learn new information Memory yeah.
Speaker 3:I literally. That is, I will say, the only thing. It retains nothing else. So there's no more learning for me. It's at capacity, but the dog information will be there. Um, the important things. So this girl brought the dog back and then went on for literally a month posting. She took within one day enough content to post for a literal month and for a month posted the dog every single day and didn't say I had to return her. But I'm now advocating for her and tried to said on our morning walk as if she had the freaking dog for a month and I commented every post shamelessly and said this dog's actually with the new foster, If you're interested in adopting, head to the animal pad dot org.
Speaker 3:Like every time, every post she did, I would comment. She wouldn't even delete the comment, but she was acting actively like she had the dog and people are commenting. You're such a good person, You're so amazing.
Speaker 1:And I was like, oh my God, is this? Yeah, no, that's like crazy. You have some sort of mental disorder if you're doing that. But yeah, in all the industry, right, I mean trainers. Everyone is just out there on social media just faking it till they make it.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be very real with you. I am in my own little bubble and I like do not, I can't consume the other I can't consume dog trainer honestly, like that's pretty healthy for everybody to be all I think about is like what I can put out, you know but. But I'm like I it just it gives me anxiety.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I can't. I can't look at what other dog trainers are doing or other people in the industry, or like sit on there and sometimes I'll like catch myself like scrolling and then I'm like this is not productive, Like I would rather be creating than like consuming stuff.
Speaker 3:You know, if social media was not like 100 percent necessary in rescue, I would not be on it either. I wouldn't be doing it. It's honestly how we fundraise as a 100 percent donation based rescue, Like that is how we bring in most of our funding honestly but and at the same time it's how we find out about dogs that need us. So I get it, but I wouldn't be doing it.
Speaker 2:And I also feel like very much anxiety having to do with social media. It's a lot, it's like a whole thing and it that's so interesting that you bring that up because, like me and tomer were talking about, like when we got river, like I just kind of got this malinois on a whim and for whatever reason, I we're gonna give him, we're gonna train him and give him my dad, which I think is like perfect, and I'm like.
Speaker 2:I think that's why I like amazing so connected to him because I'm not like I'm not on those pages, like I did not look at that. I'm like no, I know myself I'm gonna cry. Like yeah, I'm not gonna consume that. And like shane actually reposted like river and it was like this dog's getting put down today. And I like reached out to my la people and I was like this dog is getting put down today. And I like reached out to my LA people and I was like can somebody pull this dog? Like I don't know why, but I like I need this dog, right.
Speaker 2:And so everybody online for the first week was like, oh, my gosh, you're so wonderful, thank you so much for saving River. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, like after a week, it's like, oh, nobody cares anymore. Yep, right. And like, like at first everybody's like how can I donate, how can I help you, how can I do all of these things? Right? But then it's like, okay, it's not interesting anymore. Like the next thing is up and has passed and we were like talking about it.
Speaker 2:I'm like it's so weird because, like at first, everybody was like show us updates of river and like I felt kind of icky about it because like that's not really why I was doing it.
Speaker 2:Or even like with Mink, the pity that I have like I have had her for a year and a half now and for a year I did not show anybody that I had her, because I was like this isn't really a safe dog, like I don't want to pretend like you know, she's this great dog who just needs a nice home. I'm like she's not, like she's not a safe dog and I don't want to go on here and like promote this dog that like I did the right thing and like took this dog in and blah, blah, blah, because I'm like I don't know that I did the right thing, like I don't know what is gonna end up with her, you know, um, but it just kind of like it's weird, like it's such a weird thing, like you kind of need social media right to get these dogs adopted. But then there is also like all of the ego that comes with it all just dogs that need our help when we are already at capacity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so it's just depressing.
Speaker 3:It's like one way to just make me absolutely like go into a hole for the rest of the night is like if I accidentally click into it, which sometimes happens because I'm getting tagged constantly and all my notifications are on because I'm the contact for most things in this rescue, so I have to have the notifications on and I click and it pops up and I'm like, well, life ruined, like absolutely ruined, and then I can spiral too, and that happens and I'm human and sometimes I see a dog that I'm like I can't freaking, unsee this dog and like I feel that connection too and then like I feel responsible, hence why I have 11 dogs at my house because I'm responsible.
Speaker 3:When a dog comes into the rescue and they're not thriving here, I feel fucking bad. I feel bad. I feel like I personally did that to that dog and not like they'd be better off, you know, euthanized, but like it can feel like what's the plan? What are we going to do? Like, oh my God, there's so much on our plates already and we really just did this. Meaning, I feel like I just did this and I know I didn't. I have the team behind me and all these things, but it's just like, yeah, it's a, it's a recipe for just like feeling like a piece of shit, even though you just saved a dog. Yeah, it's just like. What are you doing? Like, yeah, it can, it can really get twisted really quick.
Speaker 3:But I think so often, um, even on like Instagram DMs which I used to be a huge open every DM girl, because we've had so many opportunities come through Instagram DM that I never would have imagined would have like helped our rescue. That have like been tremendous. I mean Henry and Sydney. The way they came to us was he DMed and said, hey, we're looking for a rescue to partner with in Baja. Like heard you know some and I got on the call with them and now we're great friends and they're huge, you know, contributors to our rescue and a huge part of what we do. So I was like every DM must be opened and it put me in like such a funk continuing up with that, because I can't no, I can't Now I don't.
Speaker 3:But yeah, every you know you get the DMs that are like have a heart, save this dog, and there's $3,000 in pledges, which means nothing. Like actually means jack shit. Like you have to go chase all. You have to take the time to go chase all those people who said on a public forum they were going to donate to again look like a good person and then are going to ghost you and not respond. Some people definitely do, but like my experience is you don't even get a fraction of what those pledges are and the dog's going to cost you way more than that anyway.
Speaker 3:So, like just what I always feel like screaming from the mountaintops, is like rescues are not not intentionally rescuing dogs. Like we are a rescue, that is what we do. We rescue dogs. But like what you, what the general public doesn't understand is what goes into every single dog we rescue. Our average dog costs us $3,500. Our adoption fees for puppies, which are our most expensive adoption fee, is like $500. So we are losing money on every single dog. It's not about making money. That's not why we're here. We'd be in the worst business ever if we were trying to make money.
Speaker 3:But we need to stay afloat. We need to be able to also care for the emergency that's going to happen next week with one of the 400 dogs we already have in our care. Like, we are committed to those dogs. We have to be able to make it happen for those dogs. So, in you know my non-response to your DM have a heart, there's $3,000 for this dog. Like, why would you not take this dog for $3,000? You'll probably make money. It's like A, no B, like our hearts are actually already like breaking and at capacity. So it's yeah, it can be a real struggle.
Speaker 1:Like social media is something that I always am just like uh, double-edged sword, I know we need it. Social media would love you, though you're hilarious. Social media does love lauren.
Speaker 3:That's why she, she loves my dogs because they are weird.
Speaker 1:She runs our like main account and she has so much on her plate that that is not something that should be on her plate but she's so good at it that it's like hard to be like give it the same because she's so like personable and storytelling and like so good at all of that the thing that the reason I actually still do it is because I am the one in contact with the rescuers.
Speaker 3:I, I hear the story, I get the footage firsthand. I'm normally going to the vet hospital getting them or just on the forefront. So me, like, relaying that to somebody else is going to take just as much time, if not more, than me just doing it myself, even though I don't want to be doing it because it is annoying to me. But the dogs in my house like are wonky, weird, like I. I think I started to tell you guys like I used to live in North Park if anyone's familiar with San Diego, and I lived in a house in North Park which is like a rarity, but to the left of me was an apartment building that had like four stories, a smaller apartment complex, but all of the apartments had balconies that led out to like if you look down, you just are in my backyard, which it was way bigger than my house. My house was 600 square feet. I was living with 10 dogs at the time.
Speaker 3:Oh, my gosh, yeah, um, incontinent dogs Like I mean dogs that like with special needs, not just like you know, I mean so it was wild. Um, I, I mean dogs, that like with special needs, not just like you know. I mean. So it was wild. Um, I didn't have a functioning kitchen, I didn't have like a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, but it's just like living in a van, right, it's fine.
Speaker 3:I'm like, wow, that's so crazy yeah, I know, I was just gonna say after this, I need to use your hose.
Speaker 2:We have the hose at a crate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what I felt it was totally fine, um, but yeah, I I would never see my neighbors out on the balcony and I always thought that was really weird, but also is probably completely on purpose. But I, if I lived in that apartment, I would have been out there all the time because I would just let my dogs run. And when I say run like I mean they're all missing body parts, so it's like running is like I mean you know, I guess it's subjective is like I mean, you know, I guess it's subjective Wobbling around, they're running or like, yeah, hobbling, or like scooting or bunny hopping, whatever.
Speaker 3:But it was like Toy Story, like Sid's toys, all the like, you know, one eyeball spiked heads, like coming at you, like that was literally what my dogs would be doing in my yard, running back and forth, and I'm like this is hilarious. Nobody cares about this.
Speaker 3:My neighbors don't care to come out and watch the show, but like social media cares about them. It's very sweet Actually, like they, they, yeah, it's. That's like what I'll do when I'm just like over my capacity and just like stressed out is like I'll take a cute video of them and I'm like this is what I want to post today to the stories like this, them being funny. Pearl, my non ambulatory, another doodle I'm not a doodle girl, but it sounds like I am when I talk about that. I have doodles in my house, cause I have three of them that are all like variations of doodle. But Pearl is completely non-ambulatory. She does not walk at all, but she does the worm. She finds ways to get her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll show you videos of her. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:She's bizarre and perfect and crazy, but she will put her leg behind her head and that's how she sits. She's in a yoga pose. I'll just be scanning the yard, looking at all the dogs as they're sunbathing, and then I just get to her old. She's got her leg behind her head and I'm just like life is good.
Speaker 1:Life is good, this is what.
Speaker 3:I'll post today, because this is what makes you would like you. Your personality is very fitting to like having the island of misfit toys, so it's so funny and they make me laugh all the time and they are so much work and I can't get anywhere on time. I mean, I'm not a timely person, I don't get places on time, but they are a great excuse because they actually make me an hour later to anything my people.
Speaker 1:That's what I was just about to say too. Not only is Lauren and the rest of us just taking care of all these dogs at HQ and in foster.
Speaker 3:Like in your home.
Speaker 1:But we also have them in our house All of us have. Yeah, Like the amount of like crate and rotating and the chaos that happens in my tiny apartment with only three dogs and a cat is like insane, so I can't even imagine.
Speaker 3:The time sucks. For me is like cleaning in the areas like expressing the dogs doing that kind of stuff For you. My dogs also, because of their special needs. They don't need a lot of exercise, they get it in my yard, but they really can't do that much.
Speaker 1:Some of them don't walk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but with Danielle it's like a whole other level of like. You have less dogs, but they need more from you yes, but they need you. Yeah, yes, they need more from you, like you know, actually not maybe the physical stuff of like doing things for them, but you are, you're doing things for them, like you're fulfilling a need in a major way. And so, yeah, anyone with dogs, it's OK to be late, be late.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm always late and I'm like Moral of the story. Honestly, I'm always late and I'm like I'll get there.
Speaker 2:when I get there, I've never been a late person.
Speaker 1:I get anxiety, late anxiety. I'm like I'm an on time person. I've never been more late in my entire life.
Speaker 2:You can't, I cannot get out of the house in time. Okay, Toma is like he came from. Like you need to be on time.
Speaker 1:If you're not 15 minutes early, you're late Because I was a sports girl.
Speaker 2:I'm like if you're not early, you're late, that's how he was and then, like you can't do that with dogs, you cannot.
Speaker 3:They're on their own schedule.
Speaker 2:You're getting ready to walk out the door and somebody shits in the crate and you're like, well, gotta hose out the crate. You know it's like 30 minutes late and it's like all my clients would know that like I've got always, I'm always gonna be late, and it's not like I'm just like sitting around doing nothing. You know, it's like if I had a GoPro strapped to my chest, yes, like y'all would lose your mind what my day today actually is.
Speaker 3:I love that you just said it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing, because that is my I will. I like when I get frustrated and I can tell people are frustrated with me, I will. That's like verbatim what I will say it's not like I was doing nothing, like you know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:You know it if you came and spent a day with me, you would be exhausted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm also, like, if anyone wants to come over and help, fucking do, please come 20 loads of laundry a day and take care of incontinent dogs that are shitting everywhere, then be my guest. Like, come over and do it honestly. Um, yeah, it's, I still want to give them like a great quality of life and like I don't want them to just have to like eat one thing for the rest of their lives. So like, sometimes they get a little snacky and they have the shits and it's, it's worth it to me and I'll be late and I don't care. And, like, my friends that are my real friends, they get it. They know how I am there. She'll get here when she gets here and when I get there, it's fine.
Speaker 3:If it's, I will preface with, like, if this is important, like today I had to be at the ceremony thing at eight 30. I woke up at like six o'clock. Yeah, not because up at like six o'clock, yeah, not because I needed to like shower and like to make myself presentable, but because I was like, okay, the dogs need to get the stuff done and I'm not gonna leave the house till it's done and it will take me this amount of time or longer. So, like let me just make sure that I prepare with like extra time and I made it on time because it was an important thing, but so, like I will make it on time for like oh of wedding, I won't miss your ceremony.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:I know I was like what are the things that would be that important to me Watching someone I care about do something that is important to them? I would like to be there and I will try my best, but I will be on time for those sorts of things. But I don't care people who are like you said, you'd come over and hang out and it's an hour later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's an hour later. Do you not know me? You know me.
Speaker 3:I don't even need to explain this at this point.
Speaker 1:You should know.
Speaker 2:Cassidy's spending the day with us and I was like, can you and Toma go to the uh car wash and hose out a crate? Can you help him?
Speaker 1:like yeah, this is really how you can help me be on time if you'd like me to be on time.
Speaker 3:I need something from you as well well, it was.
Speaker 1:when Meg said she was running late because of traffic don't worry, we're all late I was like amazing, I amazing, I had said it in her voice memo and I was like in traffic.
Speaker 3:You know how it goes.
Speaker 1:I will be there. I was like you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah, I mean it's funny because I feel like you should just know better at this point.
Speaker 2:This brings up a good point. Like, you guys spend all day taking care of other animals. What are some things that you do to take care of yourself? Oh my God.
Speaker 1:Oh Lauren.
Speaker 3:This year, I will tell you, was supposed to be the year of me figuring that out for myself. Okay, it didn't necessarily happen the way I thought it would, but I did my first therapy session of my life okay, that's a big deal this year yeah, I did.
Speaker 3:I only did one. It honestly was for pet loss and grief and I need to do more of that and I think that would be healthy for me to continue on a regular basis and I think that that should be normalized as well, but I do need to do it for just like my personal life as well, because I think that's healthy. I'm the person that's like therapy is so healthy, everybody should do it, and I do one therapy a week but, like I am a huge advocate truly that is my one thing.
Speaker 2:I have done therapy every single week, like I do not miss, for five years that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Right, that's how it should be. That's how long it would take me to make a routine, but I love that so much.
Speaker 2:That's awesome like I stopped doing it for like three weeks, while we were like traveling and like building out the van and I was like I'm losing my fucking mind and I like got back.
Speaker 3:I think I need to find a therapist, because I think that that's what is intimidating to me. Yes, um, because I not just anybody is gonna like understand, like I want somebody who actually cares about what I'm talking about. Yeah, not just like is faking it, because I will know yeah, and then, I'll be like I'm not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the idea of like finding one is is daunting. Yeah, what you go, it's like they say it's kind of like dating. You have to like go talk to somebody and see if they're the right person, and then you could go to someone else and see if they're the right person like I don't want to.
Speaker 2:I don't want to do all that I got truly like blessed, like the universe was like here, like you need her. You know um, and it's the first therapist I've literally ever had. I found her on better help okay and I like I don't better help sponsor me?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, and it was like she's such a badass bitch, like she is no bullshit, you know. And she's also like we have the same job. Being a dog trainer and being a therapist is like I'm like, oh, we have the exact same job, only I'm therapizing through dogs, you know, literally. Um, and she's like very much, no bullshit, like we work together great, and so I just have somebody that I can like vent to every week and I'm like here are all the things you know.
Speaker 3:And she's like just sits there and listens I have have a bunch of friends that are 2025. Yeah, 2025 is for sure right around the corner.
Speaker 2:This is your year Mark, my birth this is it?
Speaker 3:But yeah, I have friends that are like, oh, I'll give you a good recommendation. But I'm like, is it weird to use your friend's therapist like I feel? Okay, I feel like I like need my own therapist so I can talk shit about everybody.
Speaker 2:If they're professional, they'll let you talk shit about everybody.
Speaker 3:Honestly, though, that's actually a joke. I don't actually think I have many people that would recommend therapists to me to talk shit about. I think it'd be everybody else. Okay, so, besides your one therapy, yeah, I honestly like expressing dogs manually and doing things like if, if people don't know what that is necessarily response yeah I know no, no I.
Speaker 1:That's not the answer. That's not the answer. That's not what I do for. That's what I do for my dog.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:No, that's not what I do. That's your self-care, I do do that but that is not self-care.
Speaker 3:I was going to say doing that For people who don't know what that looks like. It's very hard on the body manually because it's a lot like bending over and like picking up dogs. I have a dog that's 65 pounds that I have to like pick her up and be able to like push on her bladder and it takes strength and this is getting weird but like it's honestly true and my body like aches and is sore a lot of the time. So I have started getting like cheapo massages and taking care of myself in that way I was going somewhere with that.
Speaker 2:Okay, that is an acceptable answer. We will take that one.
Speaker 3:I started getting like cheapo massages that are good and it's been very helpful for me to be like I'm not gonna be on my phone for the next hour and putting that away. The last thing I will say that also has to do with putting my phone away and just being like I'm checking out is that I also just recently stopped this because it's expensive Charging your phone.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, I actually did recently say that my phone dies all the time and I used to have major anxiety about it and now I'm just like whatever, sometimes it feels good, but then, like that's the time I plug it back in A dog's on the loose, there's a dog that needs to go to the ER, there's you know a million things. So like it still is anxiety inducing, but like I try to be cool girl about it, I'm like it died, I'm like carefree, but really really like not that often, but no, something else I did, which is random, but I just stopped doing it because it actually became expensive, but I think I've learned enough to be able to like maintain it on my own is that I purchased a what's it called Purple carrot, like the the vegan meal, and I'm not vegan, but like I like to. If I can eat a vegan meal, then great, like that makes me happy and I'm not vegan, but like I like to. If I can eat a vegan meal, then great, like that makes me happy. So it's, it was like a meal plan, like a hello fresh type situation and you get it and you can opt for like it's already made and you like warm it up type thing. Or you can opt for like we send you all the ingredients and you have to like chop and prep and do all that stuff. Chop and prep and do all that stuff.
Speaker 3:And I, admittedly, I told you guys earlier that I didn't have a kitchen for most of my last place I lived because I had dogs in the kitchen, so I didn't have a functioning kitchen so I never cooked like ever and I never was like into that. Well, I moved into a bigger place with a nice new remodeled kitchen and I was like I'm gonna start trying to cook. So I purchased these meals and again have taken time to put my phone away and follow a recipe and for me, a lot of my life is uncontrollable and things that feel like it's chaos and out of control and I can't like check things off a list. My, I wake up and I have a list and I go to bed and that list is still almost always the same because emergencies popped up that I had to tend to and then I don't have time for the things. So like it feels so good to be able to sit down and go chop these onions Check.
Speaker 3:Put this there Done Paprika Check. I know how to cook tofu so many ways. You guys, you don't even know.
Speaker 3:I can make you tofu anything at this point, like I've. I've learned a skill set that feels good, that I'm proud of literally every single time I would finish this meal, I would take a picture of it and send it to like my mom and be like look at me, your girl's growing up domestic yeah, yeah so like that stuff where I could check something off and like that helped my mental health so much to be like I'm putting my phone away and I'm going to accomplish something that is going to feel good at the end.
Speaker 3:So those are my three things.
Speaker 1:Therapy one time.
Speaker 3:We'll get back into it. I'm not even kidding Like I need to, like I you know how like comedians make jokes, like because they've got shit. I make jokes because I've got shit for sure. So I will get back into therapy. But yeah, massages and cooking, I love it. What?
Speaker 1:about you and you moved into a new house. I feel like that was a big deal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was a big deal. The dogs all have rooms. Now it's a three-bedroom house. The dogs have rooms. There's an incontinent. It's a three bedroom house. The dogs have rooms. There's an incontinent. My house was called the incontinental end. It's what I called it that a long time ago and then, like it, people, people really, you know dug it and I um, I have mugs that say the incontinental in that. A team member made me stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Come on, I have. I have, um, a sign that our team made me, that they gave me at our holiday party, like two years ago. That says the incontinental inn, established 2020 or whenever it was, and it's hanging in their room. So like the incontinent girls room is there, and like lately, when it's like, okay, I've cleaned all the, but still got to do. The incontinence Like it makes them sound like they're like a girl gang. The incontinence like they're like the plastics but they're the incontinence. There's three of them in there, yeah they're resilient.
Speaker 1:You literally need a reality show. They're resilient.
Speaker 3:Honestly, it would be hilarious to just watch them all day long, like that is. That's also something that has helped me is just being around the dogs, like as frustrating, obviously, as it can be to like every time I turn around I'm like, oh my god, you're pooping again, but like it's, it's really. That's helped my mental health too, just like being able to spend more time with them. I'm here less so I can spend more time with them, and that has been really helpful too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what about you? It's that's gonna be a tough one to follow that is so tough.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been saying I need to go to therapy for years and I've never even gone to one.
Speaker 2:So you're one-upping me.
Speaker 3:I was gonna say I'm on the hill.
Speaker 1:Um, I am normally a gym girly. I love going to the gym. Um, it's my time away from. Honestly, it's where I'm off my phone and I can just like focus on myself. I broke my hand earlier this year and then I have struggled to get back into it, but I am slowly getting back into it. But I love going to the gym. I run, I like to run like I ran a half marathon earlier this year. So, exercise for myself, that's not what the dogs You're literally a.
Speaker 1:Malinois yeah, yeah, no, I was going to say it turns out, people can be.
Speaker 3:That sounds like you couldn't pay me to, but like I love that for you.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, this is why, when I was like training for a marathon and I brought a Malinois home.
Speaker 2:I was like wow, perfect yeah.
Speaker 3:No not perfect.
Speaker 1:Disaster. But no, so I do that. I mean I do have like a nine to five job. That.
Speaker 3:I don't do anything with dogs Crazy.
Speaker 1:Minor detail, minor detail, minor detail I do.
Speaker 1:It does force me to not think about the dogs, but I it's dog related, but I think I, especially this year, I've like really dug deep into like all of my trainer friends have now become my actual friends, into like all of my trainer friends have now become my actual friends and doing the dog stuff as um like bite sports and um just sports in general with with my dog. I love sports so I watch a lot of like watch football. I guess that's something I do for myself, um, for as long as the dogs, let me sit on the couch, um, but like I love sports and like obviously I love hanging out with my dogs, like it's one of my favorite things. So actually doing like fun activities with them is something that's great for my mental health because we're building relationship. I'm learning, like we're learning together. It's fun because I love the people that I hang out with, I love the community that I've built with it. So even I mean it's a cop out because it's dog related, but it is like.
Speaker 3:No, it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of people can relate to them and just like training or whatever it's like it's actually like fulfilling, like it's well and I have to do a lot with my dogs, so doing something with them, that's fun for me, fun for them. We're learning. I feel like I'm growing, they're growing, our relationship is building. You know, things like that, like that has really been huge for me.
Speaker 2:I feel like this year, sports are really big for a lot of dog trainers because, like we're so like let's be real Pet training pays the bills, right, like that's just what we all have to do behavioral mod, and so it's like an outlet.
Speaker 1:That's like fun dog training yeah, it's fun and like when you're working, yeah, and when you build that relationship, I think you can learn so much, even for pet dog training oh yeah, for sure it's like the relationship is completely different. Yes, um, but, and it's just I. I love now I'm learning to love, like the dog training world, now that I'm like really embedded in it. Um, but just yeah we'll convert you soon to be a dog trainer the
Speaker 2:like.
Speaker 1:I feel like the for in my, my like life is that fosters are my pet dog world. Yeah, I like doing foster home visits and teaching them how to do a place command and why they shouldn't let the dog do certain things, whatever the things that I feel like trainers deal with with pet dogs. And then, yeah, the sport world is where it's so fun to see. It's the opposite the dogs work but it's. But it's also the opposite from what you said with, like the rescue world is that I've always been and I'm not totally converted like obviously I love the rescue world. I think that you could get a malinois from a rescue any day and they could be a competitive sport dog, yeah, and I'll, I'll take that to my grave.
Speaker 1:But, um, I see, it's like the first time that I've seen why you would breed a dog, um, and if it's bred correctly and like all the things. Like it was the first time, because from the rescue world, we're all haters against the purebred dogs, we're like stop breeding dogs, blah, blah, blah, blah, um, but there is some like I see it now. Yeah, I'm like, no, like, if you do it right, it's the ones you know, the backyard breeders, and the ones that are just the bad breeders, that are giving them the bad rap.
Speaker 1:But those are the dogs that end up in rescue in shelters and they're all like genetically messed up because like that's why they're not. So yeah, it did open my head, my mind, to like the breeding dog world, like I'm still a rescue girl through and through, but, um, but it's the opposite from what you said because I'm like no, now I'm like the other side, yeah I'm like no, fuck breeders.
Speaker 2:But now I kind of I yeah, I'm like okay, like it's the it's the backyard breeding that's like the worst, but like when you work with a good breeder, like you realize how difficult it is to actually get a well-bred dog, because one they cost a ton of money. There's a huge vetting process, right. They like interview people and they're like I don't know, you know, like you can't just go out and get like a well-bred sport dog. You will be vetted and interviewed by a good breeder. You're not going to return that dog.
Speaker 3:You jumped through so many hoops. I have seen and heard of breeders that are like no, the dog also must come back to us which is the policy we have here because we care about the dogs. I think we end up. You know, we do see the worst of breeders.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, for sure we see the genetic.
Speaker 3:You know everything going on. That's a nightmare. And then we see I got my dog from a breeder and they are ghosting me when I'm saying I want to return the dog.
Speaker 2:But see, that's a horrible breeder.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that's what we see. You know, I I don't ever see anything, that is, I don't see the positives at all, because that's not what we're faced with at all here, um, so, yeah, it's, it's something where, um, we just see the ones that are doing it wrong, and then that is like we pick up the pieces every time, every time, yeah, and it's so frustrating, but oh yeah, for sure, yeah yeah, so, but I but the sport world opened me up to like, okay, I get it, but, like you said, they're well vetted.
Speaker 1:However, I do think it would be a great story to have a. I don't know that dennis could ever compete. He's like, he's like a little too shy. I think you would be surprised. Yeah, we'll see where we can get. We're working on it, but low expectations, you know no expectations.
Speaker 1:We're just doing it for outlet and to build his confidence and whatever. Um, but uh, a dog like him that couldn't fight for himself in a field and then to now like go out there and just like, like not win, but just, you know, go out there and be able to compete in a sport dog thing would be like I feel like that's, that would be amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it'd be like that would be so fun to see him like out there and feel like, feel confident, out on a field and us work together, like this green ass girl just taking a Malinois who's like also like not doesn't know what they're doing, um, and then be able to do that. So the story. But obviously it's a lot of work, so there's like there's both sides to it where I'm like you could buy a dog and it it's still hard, but you could also rescue a dog and you can work through it and get to the same point yeah, one of my friends, clayton.
Speaker 2:He got like a completely green dog, like no one ever expected him to go anywhere with this dog and like they just bonded so well. And he like, what did? He? Did he just trial, he just did his twos in psa nice like him and this dog are so impressive.
Speaker 2:And it was just like this random little, you know, like he's like I feel like Nikki's just like the little engine that could you know that's so cute, yeah. And it's like you know he didn't go to the best breeder and like do all of this stuff. It was just like you know, here's this like green dog, like see what you can do with her. You know, yeah, so it you would be surprised, like what's possible?
Speaker 2:or even like toma's dog, like toma didn't get him from like puppyhood like he got him spinning around in a crate like barking his head off all day, and now he's gonna like compete with him yeah, you know, that's what those obviously those stories like are the most endearing, but they're hard and not every dog is like cut out for it, so I also get that part.
Speaker 2:So if you're even like minka, like I got her to do sport with her and like she's just a little baby cuppy cake. My mom, you know, like she's just like. I just want to sit in your lap and I'm like I feel like that's it.
Speaker 1:You know, like all right, she's like, I don't want to do that yeah, don't me be scary. I feel like that's kind of the other part of breeders is that, like there's still misbehaved well-bred dogs, oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:And so it's like I feel like people are like well, if you go through a rescue, you don't know what you're going to get. But I always preach like the foster-based rescues are the best way to go. Yes, we have eyes on them, we have a behavior team, we have a foster team, we have like so many eyes on these dogs and we can match you with like such a. Obviously dogs are unpredictable in some way, but we know kind of what you're getting. Yeah, and you can go to a breeder and get a puppy and it could just be like you know just not raise them poorly, you could fuck them up.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I'm looking at the person going if I got a puppy today, I would raise that puppy poorly.
Speaker 1:I know myself I'm not getting a puppy.
Speaker 3:I'm not getting a puppy because I'm not going to do that to a dog.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that they could just be supposedly well bred, but like, actually just have behavior issues from the start. That too.
Speaker 3:I'm always looking to the person what did you do?
Speaker 1:this dog was perfect just like a little kooky, you know they don't all come out perfect well I want like.
Speaker 2:So dog sports, I feel like are becoming more popular. Like you know, like shane seminar that's where we met it's like people want to get into the sportier side of things. You not you, but like these types of people are not in the advanced levels of training where they need to go out and get this like perfectly well-bred dog. Go and get a dog like river river would be a phenomenal personal protection dog. Like I know that if we put a little bit of training on him he would light up and, like no one would you know, come near us. I'm not going to open that can of worms because he's going to a pet home, you know. But like all of these, like newer dog trainers who want to get into the sport so bad. Like get these Malinois that are ending up in shelters and work with them and you're not going to be a good trainer, right? So like, learn on these dogs. These dogs need people who are willing to put in the work and just try.
Speaker 3:You're saving their life. You're saving their life, and how rewarding when you finally get the outcome that you've worked really hard at. Yeah, that's actually why I love fostering.
Speaker 1:Because I can put my hands and I thought I was going to get through a lot of fosters and then I ended up with one for a long time. But like the idea you can have your hands on so many different behavior like dogs with so many different issues that you have to work through and they all are coming from a different background and like working with these just worry. But getting your hands on so many dogs that from different abuse and like the skill set that you develop in I.
Speaker 3:I literally, but for my hope I don't maybe have an incontinent dog for the rest of my life just because my body hurts. But like I might honestly, because when you have the skill set, I think you're doing a disservice to. Not Now it's like OK, I know, it's actually not that hard, I could do this and bring it on.
Speaker 2:But see, that's how I feel about trainers taking the behavioral fosters. Yeah, because it's like if you have the skill set, do something helpful. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:If you're going to train like well-bred dogs all the time, you'll learn, but like not as much as you learn from those dogs, like you're gonna learn a lot from those dogs yeah, it's easy to train, like everybody talks about, like, oh, malinois are so tough, blah, blah, blah, it's.
Speaker 2:Malinois are easy to train when they're well-bred. Yeah, you know like when, if you get the perfectly well-bred malinois like those, dogs are easy to train easy, to please smart easy to please like's not. That doesn't impress me. Like get a feral doodle.
Speaker 3:Get the feral doodle. Let's see how you train Riding them up Yep, let's see how you train that, oh my gosh, it's always the like I feel like we have.
Speaker 1:They're bully dogs, but they're just like one, not the high drive, like wanting to work bully breed dogs. They're the ones that are just like Elliot is one that comes to mind and they just have like half of a brain cell.
Speaker 3:Elliot's a really sweet boy with a very smooth brain, very we actually think that he's like we do think that they're special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he is, there's just like not a lot going on up there and that's where you really have to like those are hard to train and they're not fun, and one of our volunteers- took him and actually worked really freaking hard with him.
Speaker 3:He's a volunteer on the behavior team and is just interested in training Also not a trainer by any means, and he knows that but like, worked hard with him and did good work and Elliot was like doing stuff that I was like, damn Elliot. Ok, I've seen Elliot on Instagram wearing some little glasses, like being so fricking trotting down the street when he used to like rip your arm off Like cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, oh, elliot, and trainers would like would be so good at that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:And just show that like, and a lot of them like need the experience too.
Speaker 2:Like newer trainers, it's like they they have all of this knowledge and they spend all this time like learning all this stuff and going to all the seminars it's like get your put it to work get your hands on dogs. Go, walk some dogs in a shelter, go, you know, take dogs to learn by doing, because oh yeah you don't always like.
Speaker 1:You don't always know what you're doing, it's just instinctual. You're like oh, that didn't work, I'm gonna do something different. It's not always like yeah, you can't learn that on a camera, like watching somebody else do it, and you're like well, what if they don't do that?
Speaker 3:perfectly like they did for you. You have to just do it, yeah, and these dogs we rescue not only so resilient, but also so grateful, like, so grateful, like the level of gratefulness. I've never actually encountered dogs. Like specifically to like the dogs from the streets of TJ, like seeing them, just like experience things for the first time. Like, while it's frustrating to have to be the one to experience, those things for the first time with them.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, it's so worth it. Sheet for the first time with them yes, yeah, it's so worth it. Just the gratefulness of just I mean it's unmatched, like seriously, and all the days where I think most of us are like ripping our hair out, like why do we do this, like this is so frustrating and not worth it. It's like then you just get a glimmer of that and you're like worth it.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is the hardest, dogs love the hardest. And I I said that ever since I met dennis and I was like man, like you are a pain in my ass, but I freaking love you so much and you love me I could tell, yeah, and they, you can just feel that connection with them and that's how it was with marty and lauren like you're like you, I know, you know, I love you, even though you're giving me a hard time yeah like I feel it you guys are doing amazing stuff.
Speaker 2:Like I'm so impressed.
Speaker 3:Thank you and we want you to work with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will. We want you to work with us all the time and move to Encinitas. Hey, you literally do not have to convince me, and we want you to adopt a crusty chihuahua.
Speaker 3:Yeah, coming tomorrow to a van near you, coming to a van near you, literally this van.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow You'll have to convince him.
Speaker 1:I think he's convinced. He said I want to see my new dog.
Speaker 2:Come on. You can convince him for the Mal too, if you can get the Mal to stop having diarrhea.
Speaker 1:Wait. Honestly, it's better today have you.
Speaker 2:I think we're on the right track.
Speaker 1:We can't have any more poopy dogs in the van.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I feel that. Yeah, okay, okay, a couple more days and then we got you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, can you tell the people where to find you. Yes, um, on instagram, after you just got finished talking so much. Um, no, uh, seriously, please do follow there, because that is where you'll see all of our dogs that need support in some way or the next at the animal pad. We're on Facebook too. Just don't send me a message. Also, the animal pad dot org is our Web site. You can read all about us. If you're in San Diego, we accept volunteers and would love you in any capacity. Honestly, we allow people at our facility in la mesa or we have so many virtual positions you don't need to be in san diego actually to volunteer with us. We have volunteers literally all over the world. Um, so yeah, the animal padorg and social media is just at the animal pad, across all the platforms.
Speaker 2:Awesome, and what do you guys need?
Speaker 3:You know we need fosters badly. That would have to be like local San Diego, so I guess that makes it a smaller group. But if you're listening from anywhere else, we have an Amazon wish list that is very helpful for a lot of the dogs that we have here that need very specific items. We update it and put things on as we get a dog that really enjoys a certain toy or a certain food. We're going to put Mr Samson Mal on some good food.
Speaker 2:Some firm up, some firm up. We need some of that for him.
Speaker 3:So wish list. On Amazon. You can find us too if you just search the animal pad and then, obviously being an all donation based rescue, um, if you head to our website, there's a spot to donate to, and then um, on through instagram, there's always a spot to donate to and you can kind of see firsthand some of the dogs that your money will be going toward and affecting.
Speaker 1:So amazing oh and from the behavior. Yeah, yeah, let's go. Since the behavior dogs are around the longest, they're the hardest and the hardest to find homes for, as meg has been saying this whole time. Any trainers, virtual too, like, if you want to do, if there's a virtual seminar that we could have our fosters go to? Um any tips and tricks, like we also can promote you as a trainer. We have, like, some of our dogs get you know they move across the country and we have uh trainers that we recommend from all parts of the? U, so if, if you live somewhere else, we'll we can refer you out.
Speaker 2:Um, but any help, uh graphics virtual seminars, anything like any help that you think would be, uh, beneficial to us.
Speaker 1:Like we do our best, but a lot of us are just volunteering our time and these dogs take a lot of time. So even coming and just working with some do our best, but a lot of us are just volunteering our time and these dogs take a lot of time. So even coming and just working with some of our kennel dogs or working with our fosters if you're local, um, if you're not able to take a dog yourself like anything is really helpful for getting these dogs out and adopted and helping with their behaviors you will not regret it, yeah and we're always down to help transport.
Speaker 2:so if you're not like in in the San Diego area and you guys want to place dogs with trainers, I can help you out with that. So if you're a trainer and want to get involved, reach out to me, send me a DM. But thank you guys so much. This was genuinely so much fun.
Speaker 1:You guys are the best. Thank you for investing time into rescue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and talking to us about it.
Speaker 1:Honestly it's like melts my heart.
Speaker 2:Oh well, thanks guys, I will. We'll come up with something that we can work together with.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, and thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time. Bye.