March 13, 2025
Beyond the Vest: The Real Impact of Service Dog Partnerships
Beyond the Vest: The Real Impact of Service Dog Partnerships
What does it take to transform a puppy into a life-changing service dog for a veteran? Susan and Brandon pull back the curtain on this remarkable journey at Assistance Dogs of the Heartland (ADH), a Nebraska-based nonprofit with a powerful mission. Inspired by her family’s military service, Susan founded the organization to give back to those who have served. Brandon, his sister Grace, and other dedicated board members work tirelessly to match specially trained service dogs with veterans in need.
Susan and Brandon share personal stories about Susan’s military father, reflecting on how his experiences shaped their deep respect for veterans. When Susan and her late husband, Andy, acquired Bonafide Dog Academy in 2019, they saw an opportunity to expand their nonprofit arm specifically to support veterans through service dog partnerships.
This conversation reveals the meticulous process behind training service dogs like Hope, Harper, and Skye—dogs currently preparing for veteran placement. The selection process is rigorous, ensuring that each dog has the right temperament and health background. Training is intensive, costing approximately $20,000 per dog, and involves an innovative puppy raiser program where community volunteers help nurture future service dogs.
What stands out most is their commitment to thoughtful matching. These aren’t just dogs being handed out—they are carefully paired with veterans based on lifestyle compatibility and mutual benefit. The dogs learn specialized skills such as deep pressure therapy and develop an intuitive understanding of their handler’s needs. As Susan beautifully explains, “The thing that sums up a dog best is unconditional love... It doesn’t care what car you drive, it doesn’t care what job you have. It cares about you.”
ADH relies on community support to sustain its mission—whether through donations, volunteering as a puppy raiser, or spreading awareness. The goal is to build a sustainable pipeline of service dogs for veterans who might otherwise wait years for assistance through other programs. If you’re inspired by their mission to create life-changing partnerships, visit assistancedogsne.org to apply, or learn how you can help transform a veteran’s life through the extraordinary power of canine connection.
Enhancing Lives Through Canine Companions
At Assistance Dogs of the Heartland, our mission is to transform lives through the power of specially trained service dogs. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals with disabilities, veterans, and those facing significant challenges by providing them with loyal, highly skilled canine companions. Our service dogs offer essential support, fostering greater independence, confidence, and a sense of security for our clients.
We believe in the extraordinary bond between humans and dogs, and our goal is to harness this connection to create positive, life-changing experiences. Each dog in our program undergoes rigorous training to ensure they meet the highest standards of performance and reliability. Our training process is tailored to address the unique needs of our clients, ensuring that every service dog is perfectly matched to provide the support and companionship required.
📍 Follow & Support Us:
🔹 Facebook: Assistance Dogs of the Heartland
🔹 Website: assistancedogsne.org
📧 Email: assistancedogsne@gmail.com
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Assistance Dogs of the Heartland
05:15 - Family Military Heritage and Connections
10:22 - The Purpose and Training of Service Dogs
18:47 - Dog Selection and Responsible Ownership
27:25 - The Puppy Raising Process
39:31 - Finding Veteran Matches and Future Goals
56:42 - Impact and Community Support Needed
01:04:05 - Closing Thoughts and Next Steps
Transcript
WEBVTT
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connecting the dots, connecting his guests to the world, creating more connections.
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Welcome to the connection.
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Meet your host.
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Author, coach.
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Air coach, air Force veteran Jay Morales.
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Thank you for joining in and, as always, the connection.
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I love talking about how I get connected to the right people, to good people.
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Sometimes it takes three to four times to hear the message.
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Sometimes the connection gets lost by distractions in the world.
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But the next two guests I have are mother and son team.
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What a great story about what they do for veterans, but just what they do in general, the history of their family.
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We'll talk about adoption, international adoption.
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We'll talk about the business and then we'll talk about what impact they want to make.
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So today I have Susan, el Presidente and Madre, and we have Brandon, and they're with Assistance Dogs right here, assistance Dogs of the Heartland.
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I'm going to put the actual.
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You can see there there's the website.
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Actual, you can see there, there's the website.
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So check out assistancedogsneorg and you'll be able to see it in the show notes as well.
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So, with that being said, brandon, who reached out to who or how did we connect?
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Oh yeah, you know Dr Jamie Seaman, dr Fit and Fabulous.
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You know her from school.
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Take me to the tailgate.
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Well, I've known Jamie since I would have been in fifth grade, so known her a long time.
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Her older brother is in my class.
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I graduated from Waverly high school back in 2001 and so I've known the both of them for years.
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Um, jamie has got involved in so many cool things, uh, as she's progressed in her career, and um, I've, I've, I've still going to annual golf trip with her brother.
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Um, you know they've been hosting a tailgate for years.
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Um, she's been on shows, she's uh, mrs, uh nebraska, so a lot of things.
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So, and I know she's involved in fifth of march, yeah, uh, which I thought could be a great connection for what we do.
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And so, um, yeah, and I I've reached out to her.
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I talked to her a little bit about it last fall and um kind of made a more serious push on it um, recently.
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So, and luckily she said so, and luckily she said, well, I know some people, let's connect the dots per your intro, and yeah.
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And then we started talking about a couple of weeks ago, about what we do and what 55 March does.
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That's awesome, so that's perfect, because I'm going to keep everyone on the cliffhanger.
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Everyone's going to go.
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What is it?
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What is it?
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What is it?
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Susan?
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I met you at coffee, but we have crossed paths before, again, mission briefings and things at the 50 mile march, but again, sometimes we just we as people don't listen very well.
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I should say I, susan, tell me what your business is, tell me what your nonprofit is, and then bring us to where we sat for coffee, all the way from us to where we sat for coffee, all the way from there to where we sat for coffee, and then Brandon will come back.
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Yes, so my business is Bonafide Dog Academy, purchased it February 22nd 2019 from the previous owner.
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We've been involved in the business training dogs through that company for many years, so the opportunity came for us to purchase it.
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So we purchased Bonafide Dog Academy and when we purchased it, there was also a nonprofit attached to it, and that nonprofit did raise money for police dogs for training different things out in the community, and we thought it would be a really good thing later on to use it to provide service dogs to veterans.
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And you have a passion for veterans, let's both of you.
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I want you to talk about dad for a second, or husband.
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So your husband was in business with you all the while.
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Is that right?
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Yes, yes, my husband, we, yeah, we started the business, or we purchased the business, like I said, february 2019.
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And from the time we started the business, like I said, february 2019.
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And from the time we started the business, we immediately started trying to come up with a game plan for the nonprofit.
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So we visited a couple of different states and a couple of different service dog organizations to figure out what direction we wanted to take, how we wanted to do it, if we wanted a brick and mortar, or what we were going to do.
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So we traveled, like I said, to several different places and that brought us probably into maybe late summer.
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My husband even went to Texas and did a training with Service Dogs Inc in Dripping Springs, texas, and learned how they trained rescue dogs, came back home and unfortunately, was diagnosed with cancer in September of 2019, and he passed away November 1st 2019.
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Okay, and he served our military.
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My husband did not.
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Oh, okay, your, what is the?
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my father did.
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Yes, your father, sorry, your father, that's right.
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So, your father, can we go back?
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Can we go back there too?
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So tell me what you know of your father's service, or what did he talk about?
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Anything, anything about it.
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Sure, my father was a career military man, um his last.
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He is a young child.
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I remember most him being in Vietnam, um, he did two or three different tours.
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I remember as a little girl standing um Norfolk Naval Air Base, um, or the at the shipyard they're waiting for ships to come in.
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And I remember I have many brothers and sisters saying is that our dad?
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Is that our dad?
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Because he was gone for quite a long time at a time and all these men were there and we would try.
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Is that our dad?
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Is that our dad?
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And so I was one of the younger kids.
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I was one of the younger children, so probably my memory wasn't as good as theirs, but I remembered I was always in awe of the just the camaraderie and being a part of my father used to take him on his ship and everybody was always so nice to us.
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He even had foreign dignitaries come to our home for dinner at times.
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I remember we had Captain Matsumoto from Japan came to our house for dinner and I remember, boy, we got briefed the kids all got briefed on how we were going to act and what we were going to do.
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I bet so, yes, it was a fun.
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It was fun but stressful, I think childhood I think it was stressful.
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My mom was left to bear a lot of the duties, obviously of parenthood when my dad was gone.
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A lot, yeah.
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No, and that leads me so, as time goes on, were you able to meet your grandfather?
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Oh, yeah, okay, yep.
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So I was born on the yeah, I was born on the East coast and was very close with them growing up and they were, they were very close to uh too.
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So and then when fast forward a little bit, but when we moved to nebraska I was in fourth grade, but I made it back quite a bit and always stayed there.
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Um, so I just remember my grandma and grandpa having completely different schedules.
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Grandma would stay up very late reading, she, she, loved to read, and grandpa would be in bed by, like you know, nine o'clock, up by about five.
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So he was always up early making coffee and just really good memories.
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Really good memories with him.
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So let's talk about anything service related or anything that makes you you haven't.
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You have a affinity or you have a passion to support veterans.
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Now and I heard that from you and your mom when we sat at Story's coffee shop the other day Tell me what that foundation is built on or what are some of the experiences that shaped that outlook for you, Brandon.
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Well, I think it was both both of my grandparents, um, both of my mom's side and my dad's side.
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Um, so, uh, there was definitely like a a little, uh definitely a feeling of respect towards towards both of them.
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I was always intriguing, uh, I would always ask them.
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A lot of respect towards both of them, I was always intriguing.
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I would always ask them a lot of questions.
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Didn't get a lot of answers, probably that I wanted, but loved looking at their travels, just looking at plaques on the wall, pictures, things like that.
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I remember my dad's father, Mac.
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Um, he had he was a naval aviator and he had in the basement of their home spoons from all the airlines he that he frequented throughout the world, so he had 40 different spoons.
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He stole the spoons, I guess.
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A lot of relics, um, there were just a lot of relics around, and he was very worldly, uh, knew the capital to every nation in the in the world and, um, just, uh, I had a lot of respect for, for both of them, and so I think um, and my dad and my mom, given you know, get kind of, given their upbringing, had that sort of embedded, you know, throughout their lives.
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Yeah, I mean, it's very apparent when both of you talk like there's no question and there's no doubt in my mind of what you think of our veterans or our military, and the why.
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And now you're on a mission, you know, to truly continue to serve in one of the most selfless ways, right?
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I mean we're talking about service dogs, right, and that's such a wide array and I think today, I think service animals or service dogs get kind of a bad rap or not a bad rap, but they're used as a crutch and I want to address that later too.
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But I want to bring your vision together first and I want to talk about what it is that you want to make an impact with the world with, and what your challenge is.
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Let's talk about, not challenge, but what's the next step for assistance?
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dogs of Nebraska of Nebraska, I would say our next step is we do have three dogs that we have.
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So I talked a little bit earlier about kind of what service model we were going to use when Andy and I decided that we wanted to raise the dogs and be puppy raisers and be active and not just leave it to somebody else to do, because raising a puppy though it's hard, but we wanted to make sure they got off to a great foundation and a great start, and having experience in the dog training world, I think that equipped us for that dog training world.
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I think that equipped us for that.
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So we that's kind of been our, um been our vision is to is to do the puppy raising.
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So these dogs are um a little um hope.
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The golden retriever just turned a year old and the two lab girls are 11 months old, so the next step for them is we're looking for veterans to match them with.
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And let's talk about that.
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Just when we say veterans, right, so everyone wants a dog Everyone's going to say I need a service dog, everyone.
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I think there's a responsibility that that, that people or that the recipients have towards earning a dog.
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I think there's a responsibility.
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It's not a gift, it's not some thing that, oh, happy birthday, like.
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That's not what we're doing here.
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We're matching these dogs with the right people.
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Brandon, when we were speaking, you were kind of talking about some things that not requirements, but talk about, like I'm going to share here on the screen your website and it's going to talk about the.
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It's going to talk about the application process.
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So why don't you talk to me about the application itself?
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Not the process, but just the application.
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So tell me, as a first step, obviously, tell me about that.
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Yeah, sure.
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So I mean, on the website there is an application link, there is a little bit of a questionnaire.
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We want to know the background, the applicant's background, years of service, kind of what branch they were in a little bit, a glimpse of their life a little bit, and just get a good feeling about whether we think there's, and just get a good feeling about whether we think there's initially a need here.
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I think you know we want to really match well, we want it to be something that's going to last for a long time and the dog and the veteran are going to benefit greatly through their relationship.
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So, um, really we need quality, quality applicants, uh as far as the ability to look after the dog, uh, care for the dog, uh, attend training with the dog, uh, through the through the process, um, to really mold the dog into the service dog that they, that they need and will benefit from, and that can be different levels of of depending on what the needs are for the veteran.
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Right, and I want to talk about responsible Susan.
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So you know, hey, I can balance the checkbook.
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I got a pretty decent job.
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Like it takes more than that, it takes time, it takes like this is your dog is a member of your family and that's how you want, that's how I think that you know a dog owner should be thinking about it and I think too often I see mismatches just in society with I see an owner and I see the dog and it's got this service dog jacket on it and I can just in my gut know that this person I can't say if they need it or not, but their responsibility towards the dog or their what do you call it their relationship, their relationship With their pet, with their family pet, is not there.
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You can see it and then you can see the dog in stress.
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So talk about ideally.
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Um, you know, if Jay Morales now I'm just one type of person, right If Jay Morales has a stable family, one child at home, three grown kids who are gone.
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I've had dogs before and this is not me applying, by the way I had King and I told myself I'm never going to get another German Shepherd because I miss King too much.
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Chewy is chewy.
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But I promised myself like, oh you know it's got to be the right dog.
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But you know, let's say I had a case manager.
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Let's say I was going through one of our program partners and I wanted to apply for a dog.
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What are some of the qualities in my lifestyle that that fit the dog?
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I'm not saying that this is the must have, but let's talk ideally, right?
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I mean I'm going to start first offense.
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Like you can't have a dog with cement in an apartment.
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I'm sorry, it just doesn't work.
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Could you Maybe?
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But is it more ideal for someone who has a fenced in area?
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Whether they rent or own doesn't matter to me.
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Simple, right, we think it's so simple.
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What else is important?
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Susan, I would say that you have the time and that effort, that you want to put the time in, because dogs do not train themselves.
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They will not train themselves Weird, they won't.
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So you have to have the time to spend with the dog.
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You have to really I mean, I'm a passionate dog person.
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I know you are, jay Brandon is I really believe you have to believe in the healing power of dogs?
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I really believe that that's.
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You really have to believe that they're not just really have to believe that they're not just an animal that you feed and take on a walk.
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They will I just really honestly believe they will be a great partner for you and they will.
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I guess the thing that sums up a dog best is unconditional love.
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No matter what happens in your day, you can walk in the door and your dog's tail's wagging and it's excited to see you.
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And it doesn't care what car you drive, it doesn't care what job you have.
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It cares about you.
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That's so good, it doesn't care.
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It's true, your friends care what kind of dog you are, what kind of car you drive.
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But I think you said something key.
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But we as a human Right.
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So sometimes, when people say I'm getting my dog trained, well, there's training programs that just train the dog, which that's a one way training.
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I think humans need just as much training to learn how to reciprocate to the dog, to learn how to reciprocate to the dog.
00:19:58.622 --> 00:20:10.067
So, brandon, let me ask you this Is it important that you see, how important is it for you to reciprocate time and affection to your dog?
00:20:10.912 --> 00:20:11.454
Well, I think it's.
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I think the time and the dedication overall, if you are to expect results and they are to be a part of your family and they are to you're going to get what you want out of them.
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It takes just as much effort to put in and I've seen that with kind of watching from afar for my mom's business.
00:20:32.761 --> 00:21:01.873
I'm not involved in the day-to-day but um, and just being involved, um, and having dogs and growing up with dogs, um, my dad used to spend countless hours training um for hunt tests, field tests, obedience, different things, agility and um, I think anyone, I think people have this, this idea I'll take them to a few training classes and then I'll bring them home and they'll just be.
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They'll be what I want them to be and that's just so.
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That's so far from the truth.
00:21:05.930 --> 00:21:08.936
The classes and the little bit is just a tool.
00:21:08.936 --> 00:21:19.184
It's a tool, but you have to reinforce it through the connection with them, like over and over again, daily, daily, to make things work, and I think that's that connection that you get.
00:21:19.184 --> 00:21:27.103
You can't you know, if you put in, um the effort you're, you're going to get a great result.
00:21:27.103 --> 00:21:31.438
Um, but it takes, takes time and um little bits every day.
00:21:32.861 --> 00:21:33.803
Absolutely, susan.
00:21:33.803 --> 00:21:34.183
You like.
00:21:34.183 --> 00:21:35.511
You look like you want to add to that.
00:21:35.511 --> 00:21:36.094
Please do.
00:21:38.157 --> 00:21:38.679
No, it's.
00:21:38.679 --> 00:21:44.255
You know, when we're talking about time, it's only snippets of time.
00:21:44.255 --> 00:21:49.423
A dog doesn't have a long, long attention span that you can go on for.
00:21:49.423 --> 00:21:57.857
And training and you probably know this, jay, from King or from Chewy You're going to it's probably going to be a good training session.
00:21:57.857 --> 00:22:01.170
Um can be 15 minutes.
00:22:01.170 --> 00:22:13.296
But if you do it a couple of times a day or 20 minutes a day, um, you know it doesn't have to be hours on end and you're probably not going to get good results because your dog is going to check out they're not going to their.
00:22:13.296 --> 00:22:23.701
Their attention span especially um, a young, adolescent lab doesn't have the greatest attention span, but over time and it's just practicing all the time.
00:22:23.701 --> 00:22:29.867
It's just little things and you practice it and eventually they get it.
00:22:29.867 --> 00:22:37.318
And being consistent that's another key is just being consistent, letting the dogs know what you expect from them.
00:22:39.050 --> 00:22:47.125
I want to move to the psychological effect or the behavioral effect of a dog or a human towards a dog and the dog towards human.
00:22:47.125 --> 00:22:51.077
I am not trained, I have no background in this.
00:22:51.077 --> 00:22:54.480
I have zero formal education.
00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:58.690
Matter of fact, I probably haven't Googled much, but I'm going to use some deductive reasoning.
00:22:58.690 --> 00:23:01.952
Matter of fact, I probably haven't Googled much, but I'm going to use some deductive reasoning.
00:23:01.952 --> 00:23:14.686
When you show something outside of yourself that you love it, or you dedicate the time to show and display love, it's almost too difficult to not share in that yourself.
00:23:14.686 --> 00:23:43.751
Am I right, Like if I'm loving and I'm showing and I'm taking care of?
00:23:43.751 --> 00:23:53.643
I mean, I know people neglect themselves, but introducing your service dog to other people is not just hey, this is not some dog you just purchased at a kennel and now you're just going to feed it.
00:23:53.643 --> 00:23:56.906
Let it go to the bathroom and let it be in family pictures.
00:23:56.906 --> 00:24:03.198
Bathroom and let it be in family pictures.
00:24:03.198 --> 00:24:06.707
This is a lifelong companion which I think the service animal relationship is different, am I right?
00:24:06.747 --> 00:24:07.028
That's correct.
00:24:07.028 --> 00:24:14.082
Yes, expand on the relationship and all the things that they should and shouldn't do.
00:24:14.082 --> 00:24:26.135
When it comes to the therapeutic part of having a dog, because you said it is very therapeutic and healing let's talk about the healing.
00:24:30.570 --> 00:24:31.432
The dogs.
00:24:31.432 --> 00:24:37.104
So we train our puppies from early on.
00:24:37.104 --> 00:24:45.778
They are a part of our home and our family and Hope was living with the puppy raiser and she had the same experience and they're very.
00:24:45.778 --> 00:24:49.104
They've been given and shown love.
00:24:49.104 --> 00:24:51.516
So they give you love and they show you love.
00:24:51.516 --> 00:25:00.522
And, yes, I let them on the couch because that's where probably some, a veteran is probably going to sit and watch TV or do whatever, so the dog is going to be there with them.
00:25:00.522 --> 00:25:02.096
So, yes, the dog is on the couch.
00:25:02.631 --> 00:25:08.844
I sit down on the couch and one of the labs will come up and they constantly want to be on you.
00:25:08.844 --> 00:25:14.579
They want to be right up next to you and it's I really honestly believe it's early on.
00:25:14.579 --> 00:25:23.755
That's how we were nurturing to them and they just automatically will come and just sit and it's amazing how you can.
00:25:23.755 --> 00:25:45.500
They already do like deep pressure therapy and we haven't formally given that a cue to say you know or has been trained for service dog work, press and Sully will press and give you pressure on your leg.
00:25:45.500 --> 00:25:58.117
Maybe that's going to be for someone who has who's starting to get anxious or whatever, and the dog's going to press against them and lean into them, and so it's there inherently.
00:25:58.117 --> 00:26:04.273
It's amazing, jay, how much they are intuitive and they just automatically will do those things.
00:26:06.137 --> 00:26:07.781
I know there's a connection in Brandon.
00:26:07.781 --> 00:26:15.624
You know, have you witnessed or a part of yourself, you know, a dog knows when you're stressed out.
00:26:15.624 --> 00:26:21.800
I mean, is that, oh yeah, how have you seen that?
00:26:21.800 --> 00:26:23.692
Or have you experienced that yourself?
00:26:26.457 --> 00:26:26.978
I think a lot.
00:26:26.978 --> 00:26:29.983
Well, I think first, firsthand.
00:26:29.983 --> 00:27:01.041
I think, when my family was was kind of going through my dad's illness years ago, you know he couldn't quite do what he wanted to do or what he was able to do, and I would, when I'd go over to the house and see my family, there would always be one or two dogs like inherently right next to him, giving him attention in a kind of a stressful.
00:27:01.041 --> 00:27:22.085
And they know, they know the situation, they know the situation was a little off right and and, and they knew something was was a miss and they were really there for him, um, during just an odd, weird kind of time, and um, um, and I saw that kind of, and I saw that for shana.
00:27:22.085 --> 00:27:25.214
We still have a couple of those dogs today.
00:27:25.214 --> 00:27:42.002
So, um, even the stressful, the stress of you know that my mom goes through as a business owner and comes home and, um, she has dogs that are very attached to her, so she can tell you some funny stories, I'm sure.
00:27:42.703 --> 00:27:51.615
Well, you know, susan, the other thing too is I think what I know a service dog is not for is to talk it off a ledge, which I mean.
00:27:51.615 --> 00:28:13.796
There are people that are beyond the need of a service dog, right, I think I don't know what the psychiatric or the mental health status should be, but when someone is abusive or they're going to the dog for counseling, that is not the right, that is not what it's for.
00:28:13.796 --> 00:28:19.493
I think it's to be aware, it's to spend time, it's companionship, it is not to go.
00:28:19.493 --> 00:28:21.339
You know what Hope.
00:28:21.339 --> 00:28:25.621
You know what happened today, could you believe?
00:28:25.621 --> 00:28:27.457
I mean that's and I've seen it.
00:28:27.457 --> 00:28:32.913
I've seen them take and lash out against their dogs Like caution people against.
00:28:32.913 --> 00:28:40.125
You know, or tell me about that when you see people mistreating their service dogs.
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