|
Rescue is Just the BeginningIn this episode, Emily and Libby talk about their own rescue experiences, including “foster failures” and finding lifelong companions. At Summit Dog Rescue, we do things a bit differently; one of those things is how they advocate for modern ethical training methods backed by science. They talk about training faux pas that they used to use - methods that can even be harmful for the dog - because “it’s what people were doing.”
They talk about why they use the methods they do and the proven track record of success. They talk about the importance of mission, education, and their support of spay and neuter programs as a way to stop the cycle of needless dog deaths in America. Learn more about Summit Dog Rescue here. |
Episode Transcript
Libby 0:09
Welcome to pod to the rescue. Rescuing the dog is just the first step. We're here to help with everything that comes next. Hi, everyone. Welcome to pod to the rescue episode number one. I'm Libby. And I'm Emily. And today we just wanted to talk a little bit about who we are what we do and why. So my name is Libby and I'm a board member of SDR I have been volunteering with SDR for how many years this is going to be my fourth year here. And I have I'm the guardian of a crazy cattle dog who I rescued from SDR. She was a foster failure. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about DAISY on the podcast. Because she kind of exemplifies so much of what we do and why. But yeah, we fought I fostered her for a year before I finally finally adopted her. Thank goodness, I can't imagine my life now without her. But she was my third or fourth foster for Summit. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Emily 1:20
I think that's about right.
Libby 1:22
Yeah. And I started fostering because I was about six months out of separating from my ex husband, and I lost our dog in the divorce. And I was like, totally heartbroken about that. And so I thought, okay, you know, I need my own dog, I need to rescue my own dog. So I applied with summit to adopt. And the dog I originally applied for wasn't a fit. But I said, Well, you know, I'm interested in volunteering and fostering so I started fostering. And, yeah, over the years, I just got more and more involved. And here I am.
Emily 2:06
Here you are. Apart and starting a podcast. Yeah. Yeah. And I am Emily, and I am the founder of str. And let's see, I got involved in rescue. It was almost something that always happened in my life. Wherever I went, it seemed like someone would say, Hey, can you rescue this dog? Like, I went on a trip, we drove to Mexico, and we're camping on the beach. This was like, 30 years ago, and some nice Canadians were rescuing dogs down there. And they were like, can you take one home? So we we did? Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah. And smuggled across the border. And I kept her I ended up keeping her last. But anyway, yeah, every, I just always seem to be in situations where dogs are being offered to me. I remember, a boyfriend and I went down to San Luis Valley, and we're having lunch in a little cafe down there. And the owner of the cafe walked up to me and he said, Hey, I've got four puppies. I'm gonna go drown in a bag of river. I'm not getting it and, and he's like, Do you want one before I do it? And I was like, God, Oh, my God. And he's like, but so I went out and I looked at them, and he's like, Well, keeping that one, but the other ones are available. Here's the deal. I'll take all the puppies. If you know if you give me the one you're gonna keep just, it was someone who's going to drown the dog in reverse. So we threw them on the back of like my little extended cab and back up to Boulder fathomable homes. Oh, my God, anyway. Yeah. So I've done rescue. It wasn't until the Internet came around. I was like, wow, I can actually really do rescue, like an intentional effort to rescue.
Libby 3:59
So how long ago was the puppies in the San Luis Valley?
Emily 4:04
I'd say it had to been 25-30 years ago. Wow. Yeah. It was before my son was born. And those dogs, I knew most of the people who adopted them and I lived great lives and everybody loved them. They were great puppies.
Libby 4:19
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. Wow. So fast forward to what 2010? And you started SDR, right?
Emily 4:29
Yep. I think it was 2009. I had been involved in started a all breed rescue with a friend and then realized I didn't really like the purebred like specificity of like, is it purebred? Is it not purebred? So I started volunteering with another group that was a large dog rescue. I realized that I'm a little bit too passionate about where the dogs go, they'd be involved in someone else's Rescue. So I was like, Hey, I could just start my own pet finder account, and then it just snowballed and snowballed into, like, all of a sudden, that was a 501. C three, and then we had a Facebook page. And then we had a board of directors. And yeah, now we hadn't dication committee like it just kept going.
Libby 5:20
Wow. So, okay, so tell me more about that you were a little too passionate about where the dogs ended up. How do you think that came about? And what it what was it about finding the perfect home? That really made you click?
Emily 5:35
That's a good question. I remember when I the dog that made me want to start SDR I had found her on the internet, someone had emailed me because they knew I was involved in rescue and offered her to me. So well, this is good. The she can we can run her through the rescue that has like the money and the infrastructure, but all foster her. And she was an amazing dog. Her name was hope. And I basically like risked all our lives driving to Utah to pick her up in a snowstorm, oh, my God, and made it home. And I fostered her for a couple of months. And she was incredible. And then when she got adopted, they just said, Hey, she's adopted. So meet these folks like, on the side of the interstate. And, you know, like, I didn't have a decision. Then I heard later she was returned. And it just, it just broke my heart. I'm to have like more hands on involvement and make sure. Like, I don't know who has her to this day. Stephens still alive. You know, I just love dogs. Yeah.
Libby 6:41
Oh, my gosh, well, I can say that as a, as a person who has fostered. It's knowing where your dogs are going, where your foster dogs are going. And knowing the people and getting to know them is such an important part of the process. Like so many people tell me every single all the time. They say, Oh my gosh, I could never foster I'd get so attached. I don't know how you do it. But it's so much easier. Whenever we vet these homes, we get to know the owners, your potential. You know, I have no problem handing over my foster dog because I know that. Okay, I've just been preparing her for for this day for this family.
Emily 7:27
Right. Right. Exactly. You're a bridge.
Libby 7:31
Yeah. Yeah. And I've talked to other other folks who foster for, you know, rescues or shelters. And they're always amazed that SDR does it the way we do. You know, and that we keep in touch with our foster dogs once they are in their forever homes and things like that. So, no, I feel that too.
Emily 7:55
Yeah. And I think one thing we did learn over this snowballing 13 years, is we learned so much about how to set the dogs up six, we learned so much about how to set dogs up to succeed in their home. I think, you know, when I started this, I didn't really know much about dogs at all, I was by no means an expert. I just thought I love dogs. And so I can save them through challenges and experiences and dogs being returned dogs having issues. I think we've really learned, you know, the hard way, how to avoid a lot of problems that occur in rescues. And our thoughts for this podcast. The reason you and I both were like this is probably a good idea. Probably is because, you know, we see now especially after this pandemic year, and then hopefully coming to some sort of opening up from a year of shutdowns is that, you know, so many people have started rescues and so many people have adopted dogs during the pandemic. And what did we see? We read that 13 million people got dogs during the honeymoon. And it feels like we have a lot of information and resources now so that people can tune in and be like, oh, you know, this is what this is about, like how do I how do I deal with this issue? Is this normal? So much of dog behavior we can normalize. Men also give people like tricks and ideas, suggestions, and also be interviewing lots of experts,
Libby 9:59
right? For a while, because so much of dog rescue is transitions. And when we have done so many of those over the years, we kind of have a have an eye for all of the problems that are going to crop up during those transitions. And there are so many transitions this year from a dog being rescued to a dog being adopted to people, you know, kids are in school, they're home, they're back in school, people are working from home, they're back in the office, they're back working from home, and you know that we're about to go through another big transition where life is going to change again. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think you're just right on that we have a lot of experience, helping our adopters through this kind of thing. So
Emily 10:50
yeah, yeah, if we can help people with their transitions and understanding.
Libby 10:56
Absolutely. Okay, so speaking of everything that you've learned over the years, you became a dog trainer because of your work in rescue. Right? That is true.
Emily 11:07
Yes.
Libby 11:08
Okay, so how did that come about?
Emily 11:09
Okay. So, no, I did not really grow up with dogs. My mom was allergic. So when I started having dogs rescuing dogs, I didn't know anything. And I really thought love was all you need. And it took quite a few years of making mistakes. realize like, Huh, you know, like, I don't think I know enough to keep doing this successfully. Yeah. And so I was lucky enough to do some training classes down in Denver, which kind of got me the bug. And then I went to the Karen Pryor Academy, which is a world renowned dog Trading Academy. And I became a certified professional dog trainer, I think about five years ago. Okay. Yeah. And I'm really lucky because I spend every free moment and every available dollar going to conferences and listening to some of the premier experts in the world, in AI behavior, and I listened to talk and I behaviorist. And so what I'd like to do have tried to do with SDR is take this mountain of information. I have obsessively collected and apply it just for your average person or your average foster like, because most people don't want to spend every night going to bed listening to podcasts on canine behavior. Most people people are every walk I take, I'm like roe on a podcast. But and so many of the podcasts that I listened to are amazing, but I feel like they're geared more towards trainers or people Yeah, be obsessed with behavior,
Libby 12:57
right? Or like the super dog sports world or like that. And that's not your average dog home,
Emily 13:04
right? People just want to know, how do I get this puppy to stop biting me? How am I supposed to be the boss of my dog? Or is this a relationship where there's give and take? And I need to understand that there are different species, and how can it meet their needs as the species that they are, which is very different from us since we're primates, right, not even primates. So, you know, just taking little gems and helping people understand. There is so much misinformation out hard. Yeah. Yeah.
Libby 13:42
Yeah, sorting, sorting through all the noise is it's difficult. It can be maddening. It's and it's also really disheartening whenever you you know, I truly believe what is Brene Brown has a saying that, you know, life is better, or some such she says something like Brene Brown says that life is better when she assumes that everyone is acting from their best intentions. Yes. And I know that dog guardians are always, always have their dog's best interests at heart, you know, they're acting with the best intentions. And it's so heartbreaking when you later realize that something you were doing was making it worse. You know, I've had that moment as a dog Guardian, and I know that you've had those moments too.
Emily 14:37
Yes. So yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know, I'm older so when I was a youngster you know, I turned on the TV and saw guy Alpha rolling his dog and that was training. And one of my favorite dogs. I remember watching this TV show and he, he recommended that you like kick them in the flank, to get them to pay attention. And so God I have the sweetest, most amazing Newfoundland in the world. Because when I wanted his attention for a long time, I would do this like gentle little sidekick onto his flank, and his attention, because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. The guy on TV told me that, you know, this was, this was a long time ago, but I didn't, you know, and I had a caller. And I was like, I kind of thought of the choke collars, like the choke necklace. You know what I mean? I didn't think about like, I'm designed to show my dog put so much pressure on their throat that they start to lose. You know, so yeah, and that is uncomfortable. And it causes pain. If it even works at all. It's because it causes pain and discomfort, right?
Libby 15:52
No, I remember, I remember that, too. You know, all of this advice that was being thrown around, it's still thrown around, unfortunately, of how you need to be the alpha and alpha roll and, you know, shake pennies, shake a can of pennies at your dog to stop them from counter surfing. Right. But, you know, when you know better you do better. Exactly. And here we are.
Emily 16:24
Yeah. And I think what I always come back to for why we really don't use punishment, thing or punishment being like force fear startle? Sure, as much as possible. At SDR is that all the research like the jury is out now than an animal that is treated like that? Is your chances increase? Tremendously that you're creating a fearful animal? And that you can also create an animal that has aggression? And yeah,
so this is okay. So this is a really important point that we probably need to go into, which is that we do things a little bit differently at SDR, from other rescues. And one of those big things we do is that we are, you know, we advocate for modern, ethical training methods that are backed by science. Yeah. So like you're saying, avoiding, avoiding introducing force or punishment. And I know that we can get way into the weeds with all of this terminology. And that's not our intention.So we're gonna try to get it simple there. But tell me about your journey of moving SDR in that direction.
Yeah, when I started, education wasn't in any way part of the mission statement. But as we evolved, and I learned more and more, and believe me, I tried things, you know, I thought, okay, if I alpha roll this dog, will it become less dog reactive? Because its life depends on it being adopted, and not being reactive to dogs. But we now know that I've learned that that is the antithesis. Yeah. So you know, it's one of those, when you know, better you do better. And now that I know, you know, our whole goal is to rescue these dogs, and then have them in foster care where they learn some skills, and then adopt them into homes where they're successful. For their entire lives.
Libby 18:49
Yeah. And I think it's important to add here that isn't behavioral euthanasia, one of the number one causes of death for dogs under three yearsof age.
Emily 19:01
It's actually the number one cause of death according to the American Veterinary Society of animal behavior. The number one cause of death for dogs under the age of three, our behavior problems.
Libby 19:15
Wow.
Emily 19:17
Yeah. So which makes sense because you've got your cute little puppies, and then they become adolescents. Then around two to three, they hit social maturity. So people don't understand that what you get at eight weeks is not necessarily what you're going to have at 18 months because a lot of work the dog behaviorally healthy to age three. Yeah.
Libby 19:44
And that's kind of around the time that we see dogs being surrendered to rescue right in your ex. I mean, I don't have exact statistics on this. But would you say in your experience, that's a common,
Emily 19:56
I say our most common is like eight months to 18 Months, which is like the pure teenager years, where they no longer are paying attention just like humans. You know, they are deep in adolescence, right? And they are no longer responding to things they used to respond to from us. And they're willful, and independent, and highly emotional. So that's where you see your activity coming out. And you know, potentially barking at strangers biting the mailman, that's all that all comes out between, like eight months to 18 months,
Libby 20:34
right when they're not a cute little fluffy puppy anymore.
Emily 20:38
Exactly. I mean, you can still have a come out later in life, but that's your, let's say, that's the higher odds. Yeah. Yeah,
Libby 20:44
gosh, okay. So, all right, I know that you and I can get into the weeds of behavior for hours and hours and hours. And I know that we're going to come back to this topic and later episodes, so yes. Yeah, so cut it down. We're gonna have that discussion for an hour. Okay. So that's one thing that's different about SDR is that we, we, we use modern ethical training methods, when we're working with our fosters we screened homes, to make sure that they're not going to introduce punishment, pressure. Those types of things force into their relationships with our dogs while they're training, rescuing dogs isn't the only part of SDRs mission. We also education is important to us, like we've talked about. And also we spend a lot of our resources to support spay and neuter programs.
Emily 21:41
Yes, I do think that spay and neuter is one of the ways we can stop this cycle, still killing two to 3 million dogs a year in our shelters in America. That's unacceptable.
Libby 21:57
I think you always you'd like to say that we can't adopt our way out of the problem, right? There just aren't enough adopters for all of these dogs. All right. So this education and rescue, those are parts of SDR mission, but we also send a lot of resources to shelters to do spay and neuter programs. Right? Can you tell us about that?
Emily 22:20
Yeah, it's not as much as I would like. But we do spend several $1,000 Every year supporting spay neuter programs in the places that we get our dogs from. Most of our dogs come from Arkansas, and Texas. And I do feel like it's great that we're rescuing and my original intention for this was to just rescue dogs. But I have not seen the supply diminish at all. I see tons of rescue starting up, which is amazing. And I'm so thrilled to see that. But we still have, you know, it seems like 100 puppies come up and 100 Puppies more get offered. So I'd really like to see major effort to work on some of the spay neuter issues down there.
Libby 23:08
Yeah. Totally. Yeah. It's all part of the larger pet animal welfare.
Emily 23:14
Yeah, in a world. Exactly. Yeah. So important pieces of the puzzle, like, how can I solve this? So there's less less suffering,
Libby 23:24
right? Absolutely. That's what it's all about.
Emily 23:27
So I'm excited for this podcast, we are going to do some really great people that we're going to be interviewing. I think our most exciting is we're going to be interviewing Mitch McConnell. She wrote the book, Love has no age limit, which is just a little pamphlet that we require our adopters to read before they adopt. I think it's about $8 to download on Amazon Kindle. So amazing. Oh, my gosh, oh, amazing.
Libby 23:57
Fantastic.
Emily 23:58
So she'll have a lot of information to help us, you know, transition dogs into this new world that's opening up now. And she also talks a lot about trauma and resiliency, and how we can set up our dogs and also understand some of the traumas that they've been through. Some of these dogs have been through a lot. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. And we're gonna be interested in interviewing Jackie Johnson. She's a trainer who specializes in separation anxiety. So many dogs, you know, because they are very social animals have trouble when all of a sudden you're like, I'm leaving for four hours and you're just sit here inside. Right? So Jackie will be really great with that. And then I'm really excited about Amber who's one of the admins for a group called pandemic puppies on Facebook ads. Yeah. So She's got a lot of resources for folks who did adopt over here.
Libby 25:06
Nice. Ah, it's gonna be great. Really excited. Well, I just hope that this is helpful to other people who are either working in rescue, maybe fostering maybe bringing their own rescues or people who are rescue people who now own rescue dogs who have adopted rescue dogs. I just, you know, I just hope that we can help people and their dogs live more harmoniously.
Emily 25:39
I love that. Yeah, that would be that would be the goal is to share what we've learned, hopefully have brighter outcomes for these people who love their dogs and, or their amazing dogs. Yeah. Okay, Emily,
Libby 25:53
so you have been rescuing dogs for years and years and years now. And you and I both know, it's hard work. It's endless work. There are always dogs coming up from Texas. Why do you keep doing it?
Emily 26:07
It is hard. But it's also beautiful. There's, you know, it's one of those yin yang things of like, it's hard work. But it's great for the dogs, you see a dog who was underweight and had heartworm and limping, and about to be euthanized in a impound. And then six months later, it is running through the mountains of Colorado, with this new dog, sibling, and you know, you've created a human bond where you know, that dog is the most important thing or one of the most important things in this adopters life. So we're creating families, and we're saving lives. So that is the outcome that keeps us going. I think there's a lot of work in between packing the dog in Texas to get to that part and a lot of sleepless nights and stress. But in the end when you No, no, like we saved that dog's life. And now that dog has just an incredible life. I think that's worth it.
Libby 27:22
I agree. I think that moment when an adopter says, I just can't imagine my life without this dog. Yeah, and that's a dog that was on death row. Two months ago. Yeah, you know, you've made a connection. That is changed. Of course, it's changed the dog's life, but it's changed human lives too. And, you know, the ripple effects of putting that goodness out into the world, you never know, what's gonna come from that you're saving the dog's life. But you might be saving more than just that dog.
Emily 28:01
True, that bumper sticker who rescued you, but I know for a fact. You know, we have we, we have a private Facebook page for adopters. And it's been around so long that now dogs that we rescued 10 years ago, are starting to pass and people are going on and expressing their sorrow about losing their dog that they adopted from us 10-12 years ago, and hearing those stories about like how this dog changed the trajectory of people's lives, and, you know, welcome children into their homes and how much they learned. And then I do also like that, because we have this mission of humane education, teaching people how to treat animals. I have to say, I think that extends to their children, too. If you you know, it's like, you learn about treating dogs with kindness and gentleness and redirecting, and then you have your child, I think, it just makes the world a better place. Okay, but yeah,
Libby 29:09
I know, I totally agree with you. And I've learned so much about human behavior from learning about dog behavior. You know, and like you said earlier, we're totally different species. But it there, you know, there are similarities. All mammals learn the same. Yeah, you know, there are some basics there that, that aren't bound by our differences.
Emily 29:38
Yeah, it's interesting. And now, maybe we're getting off on a tangent. I was listening to Brene Brown. And she was talking about love and belonging, and she says, Can't have belonging without love. And she said when you don't have belonging, that is when you start to see Like, sickness and anger. And, you know, here in Boulder, we just had the mass shooting. And so we're all just still devastated by that. But we know it happens almost every day in this country. And so, you know, giving these dogs a sense of belonging and giving families and children and families a sense that they're part of something bigger than they have, you know, a dog in their lives, that loves them and they belong. I think you can only make things better.
Libby 30:35
Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree more. Daisy walked into the room and she's leaning up against my leg and just soaking up some Shin scratches right now.
Emily 30:46
Well, one of our podcasts, I do hope that some of our podcasts can go into some of the dog stories, you know, yeah, like case studies, case studies, like Daisy or even Bodie. Right now we have, he just got his X rays back. You know, one of the sweetest dogs we've ever rescued. This stone is just all heart, 90 pounds of heart. He was dumped on a farm in Texas, where people dumped dogs that they don't want and someone came out to shoot all the dogs because that's a version of animal control that they use in that particular town. And Bodie was the only one who ran away and wasn't killed by the shooter. You know, just kind of Oh, okay. Yeah. Anyway, I didn't think about that until now. Anyway, we knew that there was some issues with Bodie physically when we took him but everyone said, he's just the sweetest dogs. We're like, okay, we can do this, like we've good supporters who will help us fundraise for medical needs. We just had his dental done, which was pretty intense. He had three teeth extracted on Friday, and he has three more, it was so hard to get them out. Oh, I must have lived in a cage and chewed the down to nubs. So yeah, and then we knew he had some hind end issues. So she did X rays. He has, the list is long. He has a shattered pelvis. He probably got hit by a car when he was younger. It's an old injury. But it's created a situation where his hips, the way they are in the socket is bone on bone. So he now needs bilateral hip surgery not replacement. So it's not a it's not a huge situation. Anyway, um, but he's a really good dog and the vets are encouraging and they said, if we do this, that he will have quality of life for the years that he has left. So yeah, I mean, I was really honest with the Fed. I was like, if this is just gonna be like years of suffering, and, you know, putting him back together to suffer. I'm not into that. But they were like, No, this is a simple surgery. We need to redo the hips, get out those last teeth, and he should have like, a good quality of life. So, yeah, so No, just a story like bowties like following him. Yeah, no, it's
Libby 33:23
my gosh, well, okay, we're gonna have to do a bowtie update every single episode. Yeah, what do you think black lab? He's amazing. Oh, well, of course, he has many years of life, like good life left in him. My okay, my first dog moose, who I lost in my divorce. He was eight years old, and people still thought that he was a puppy, you know, and he was a big golden mix. And so yeah, oh
Emily 33:47
my gosh. Yeah. So,
Libby 33:50
God, I am so glad that we're going to help him
Emily 33:53
to Oh, I know. There's still good in the world. We just focus on it. Yeah. Yeah, totally. So we're excited for people to tune in and follow us. If you're a dog lover, dog rescuer we are here we're gonna be doing at least twice a month
Libby 34:11
hits Yes. And we're gonna help to also open up a some kind of communication channel. So you can ask us questions and we can like do some Q and A's and, you know, we don't know yet. If that's gonna be on Patreon or what but we'll, we'll figure it out. And we'll you know, put links in show notes, wherever show notes go. We're figuring this out as we go along.
Emily 34:37
It's the pandemic podcast, just get off the ground.
Libby 34:46
Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, don't forget to rate and review. It helps other folks like you find the show. To find out more about our programming and adoptable rescue dogs. You can visit summit dog rescue.org thanks to Mike pesci for the original music and to Alex Lee Ammons and for the love media for graphics production and editing. See you soon on pod to the rescue
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Welcome to pod to the rescue. Rescuing the dog is just the first step. We're here to help with everything that comes next. Hi, everyone. Welcome to pod to the rescue episode number one. I'm Libby. And I'm Emily. And today we just wanted to talk a little bit about who we are what we do and why. So my name is Libby and I'm a board member of SDR I have been volunteering with SDR for how many years this is going to be my fourth year here. And I have I'm the guardian of a crazy cattle dog who I rescued from SDR. She was a foster failure. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about DAISY on the podcast. Because she kind of exemplifies so much of what we do and why. But yeah, we fought I fostered her for a year before I finally finally adopted her. Thank goodness, I can't imagine my life now without her. But she was my third or fourth foster for Summit. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Emily 1:20
I think that's about right.
Libby 1:22
Yeah. And I started fostering because I was about six months out of separating from my ex husband, and I lost our dog in the divorce. And I was like, totally heartbroken about that. And so I thought, okay, you know, I need my own dog, I need to rescue my own dog. So I applied with summit to adopt. And the dog I originally applied for wasn't a fit. But I said, Well, you know, I'm interested in volunteering and fostering so I started fostering. And, yeah, over the years, I just got more and more involved. And here I am.
Emily 2:06
Here you are. Apart and starting a podcast. Yeah. Yeah. And I am Emily, and I am the founder of str. And let's see, I got involved in rescue. It was almost something that always happened in my life. Wherever I went, it seemed like someone would say, Hey, can you rescue this dog? Like, I went on a trip, we drove to Mexico, and we're camping on the beach. This was like, 30 years ago, and some nice Canadians were rescuing dogs down there. And they were like, can you take one home? So we we did? Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah. And smuggled across the border. And I kept her I ended up keeping her last. But anyway, yeah, every, I just always seem to be in situations where dogs are being offered to me. I remember, a boyfriend and I went down to San Luis Valley, and we're having lunch in a little cafe down there. And the owner of the cafe walked up to me and he said, Hey, I've got four puppies. I'm gonna go drown in a bag of river. I'm not getting it and, and he's like, Do you want one before I do it? And I was like, God, Oh, my God. And he's like, but so I went out and I looked at them, and he's like, Well, keeping that one, but the other ones are available. Here's the deal. I'll take all the puppies. If you know if you give me the one you're gonna keep just, it was someone who's going to drown the dog in reverse. So we threw them on the back of like my little extended cab and back up to Boulder fathomable homes. Oh, my God, anyway. Yeah. So I've done rescue. It wasn't until the Internet came around. I was like, wow, I can actually really do rescue, like an intentional effort to rescue.
Libby 3:59
So how long ago was the puppies in the San Luis Valley?
Emily 4:04
I'd say it had to been 25-30 years ago. Wow. Yeah. It was before my son was born. And those dogs, I knew most of the people who adopted them and I lived great lives and everybody loved them. They were great puppies.
Libby 4:19
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. Wow. So fast forward to what 2010? And you started SDR, right?
Emily 4:29
Yep. I think it was 2009. I had been involved in started a all breed rescue with a friend and then realized I didn't really like the purebred like specificity of like, is it purebred? Is it not purebred? So I started volunteering with another group that was a large dog rescue. I realized that I'm a little bit too passionate about where the dogs go, they'd be involved in someone else's Rescue. So I was like, Hey, I could just start my own pet finder account, and then it just snowballed and snowballed into, like, all of a sudden, that was a 501. C three, and then we had a Facebook page. And then we had a board of directors. And yeah, now we hadn't dication committee like it just kept going.
Libby 5:20
Wow. So, okay, so tell me more about that you were a little too passionate about where the dogs ended up. How do you think that came about? And what it what was it about finding the perfect home? That really made you click?
Emily 5:35
That's a good question. I remember when I the dog that made me want to start SDR I had found her on the internet, someone had emailed me because they knew I was involved in rescue and offered her to me. So well, this is good. The she can we can run her through the rescue that has like the money and the infrastructure, but all foster her. And she was an amazing dog. Her name was hope. And I basically like risked all our lives driving to Utah to pick her up in a snowstorm, oh, my God, and made it home. And I fostered her for a couple of months. And she was incredible. And then when she got adopted, they just said, Hey, she's adopted. So meet these folks like, on the side of the interstate. And, you know, like, I didn't have a decision. Then I heard later she was returned. And it just, it just broke my heart. I'm to have like more hands on involvement and make sure. Like, I don't know who has her to this day. Stephens still alive. You know, I just love dogs. Yeah.
Libby 6:41
Oh, my gosh, well, I can say that as a, as a person who has fostered. It's knowing where your dogs are going, where your foster dogs are going. And knowing the people and getting to know them is such an important part of the process. Like so many people tell me every single all the time. They say, Oh my gosh, I could never foster I'd get so attached. I don't know how you do it. But it's so much easier. Whenever we vet these homes, we get to know the owners, your potential. You know, I have no problem handing over my foster dog because I know that. Okay, I've just been preparing her for for this day for this family.
Emily 7:27
Right. Right. Exactly. You're a bridge.
Libby 7:31
Yeah. Yeah. And I've talked to other other folks who foster for, you know, rescues or shelters. And they're always amazed that SDR does it the way we do. You know, and that we keep in touch with our foster dogs once they are in their forever homes and things like that. So, no, I feel that too.
Emily 7:55
Yeah. And I think one thing we did learn over this snowballing 13 years, is we learned so much about how to set the dogs up six, we learned so much about how to set dogs up to succeed in their home. I think, you know, when I started this, I didn't really know much about dogs at all, I was by no means an expert. I just thought I love dogs. And so I can save them through challenges and experiences and dogs being returned dogs having issues. I think we've really learned, you know, the hard way, how to avoid a lot of problems that occur in rescues. And our thoughts for this podcast. The reason you and I both were like this is probably a good idea. Probably is because, you know, we see now especially after this pandemic year, and then hopefully coming to some sort of opening up from a year of shutdowns is that, you know, so many people have started rescues and so many people have adopted dogs during the pandemic. And what did we see? We read that 13 million people got dogs during the honeymoon. And it feels like we have a lot of information and resources now so that people can tune in and be like, oh, you know, this is what this is about, like how do I how do I deal with this issue? Is this normal? So much of dog behavior we can normalize. Men also give people like tricks and ideas, suggestions, and also be interviewing lots of experts,
Libby 9:59
right? For a while, because so much of dog rescue is transitions. And when we have done so many of those over the years, we kind of have a have an eye for all of the problems that are going to crop up during those transitions. And there are so many transitions this year from a dog being rescued to a dog being adopted to people, you know, kids are in school, they're home, they're back in school, people are working from home, they're back in the office, they're back working from home, and you know that we're about to go through another big transition where life is going to change again. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think you're just right on that we have a lot of experience, helping our adopters through this kind of thing. So
Emily 10:50
yeah, yeah, if we can help people with their transitions and understanding.
Libby 10:56
Absolutely. Okay, so speaking of everything that you've learned over the years, you became a dog trainer because of your work in rescue. Right? That is true.
Emily 11:07
Yes.
Libby 11:08
Okay, so how did that come about?
Emily 11:09
Okay. So, no, I did not really grow up with dogs. My mom was allergic. So when I started having dogs rescuing dogs, I didn't know anything. And I really thought love was all you need. And it took quite a few years of making mistakes. realize like, Huh, you know, like, I don't think I know enough to keep doing this successfully. Yeah. And so I was lucky enough to do some training classes down in Denver, which kind of got me the bug. And then I went to the Karen Pryor Academy, which is a world renowned dog Trading Academy. And I became a certified professional dog trainer, I think about five years ago. Okay. Yeah. And I'm really lucky because I spend every free moment and every available dollar going to conferences and listening to some of the premier experts in the world, in AI behavior, and I listened to talk and I behaviorist. And so what I'd like to do have tried to do with SDR is take this mountain of information. I have obsessively collected and apply it just for your average person or your average foster like, because most people don't want to spend every night going to bed listening to podcasts on canine behavior. Most people people are every walk I take, I'm like roe on a podcast. But and so many of the podcasts that I listened to are amazing, but I feel like they're geared more towards trainers or people Yeah, be obsessed with behavior,
Libby 12:57
right? Or like the super dog sports world or like that. And that's not your average dog home,
Emily 13:04
right? People just want to know, how do I get this puppy to stop biting me? How am I supposed to be the boss of my dog? Or is this a relationship where there's give and take? And I need to understand that there are different species, and how can it meet their needs as the species that they are, which is very different from us since we're primates, right, not even primates. So, you know, just taking little gems and helping people understand. There is so much misinformation out hard. Yeah. Yeah.
Libby 13:42
Yeah, sorting, sorting through all the noise is it's difficult. It can be maddening. It's and it's also really disheartening whenever you you know, I truly believe what is Brene Brown has a saying that, you know, life is better, or some such she says something like Brene Brown says that life is better when she assumes that everyone is acting from their best intentions. Yes. And I know that dog guardians are always, always have their dog's best interests at heart, you know, they're acting with the best intentions. And it's so heartbreaking when you later realize that something you were doing was making it worse. You know, I've had that moment as a dog Guardian, and I know that you've had those moments too.
Emily 14:37
Yes. So yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know, I'm older so when I was a youngster you know, I turned on the TV and saw guy Alpha rolling his dog and that was training. And one of my favorite dogs. I remember watching this TV show and he, he recommended that you like kick them in the flank, to get them to pay attention. And so God I have the sweetest, most amazing Newfoundland in the world. Because when I wanted his attention for a long time, I would do this like gentle little sidekick onto his flank, and his attention, because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. The guy on TV told me that, you know, this was, this was a long time ago, but I didn't, you know, and I had a caller. And I was like, I kind of thought of the choke collars, like the choke necklace. You know what I mean? I didn't think about like, I'm designed to show my dog put so much pressure on their throat that they start to lose. You know, so yeah, and that is uncomfortable. And it causes pain. If it even works at all. It's because it causes pain and discomfort, right?
Libby 15:52
No, I remember, I remember that, too. You know, all of this advice that was being thrown around, it's still thrown around, unfortunately, of how you need to be the alpha and alpha roll and, you know, shake pennies, shake a can of pennies at your dog to stop them from counter surfing. Right. But, you know, when you know better you do better. Exactly. And here we are.
Emily 16:24
Yeah. And I think what I always come back to for why we really don't use punishment, thing or punishment being like force fear startle? Sure, as much as possible. At SDR is that all the research like the jury is out now than an animal that is treated like that? Is your chances increase? Tremendously that you're creating a fearful animal? And that you can also create an animal that has aggression? And yeah,
so this is okay. So this is a really important point that we probably need to go into, which is that we do things a little bit differently at SDR, from other rescues. And one of those big things we do is that we are, you know, we advocate for modern, ethical training methods that are backed by science. Yeah. So like you're saying, avoiding, avoiding introducing force or punishment. And I know that we can get way into the weeds with all of this terminology. And that's not our intention.So we're gonna try to get it simple there. But tell me about your journey of moving SDR in that direction.
Yeah, when I started, education wasn't in any way part of the mission statement. But as we evolved, and I learned more and more, and believe me, I tried things, you know, I thought, okay, if I alpha roll this dog, will it become less dog reactive? Because its life depends on it being adopted, and not being reactive to dogs. But we now know that I've learned that that is the antithesis. Yeah. So you know, it's one of those, when you know, better you do better. And now that I know, you know, our whole goal is to rescue these dogs, and then have them in foster care where they learn some skills, and then adopt them into homes where they're successful. For their entire lives.
Libby 18:49
Yeah. And I think it's important to add here that isn't behavioral euthanasia, one of the number one causes of death for dogs under three yearsof age.
Emily 19:01
It's actually the number one cause of death according to the American Veterinary Society of animal behavior. The number one cause of death for dogs under the age of three, our behavior problems.
Libby 19:15
Wow.
Emily 19:17
Yeah. So which makes sense because you've got your cute little puppies, and then they become adolescents. Then around two to three, they hit social maturity. So people don't understand that what you get at eight weeks is not necessarily what you're going to have at 18 months because a lot of work the dog behaviorally healthy to age three. Yeah.
Libby 19:44
And that's kind of around the time that we see dogs being surrendered to rescue right in your ex. I mean, I don't have exact statistics on this. But would you say in your experience, that's a common,
Emily 19:56
I say our most common is like eight months to 18 Months, which is like the pure teenager years, where they no longer are paying attention just like humans. You know, they are deep in adolescence, right? And they are no longer responding to things they used to respond to from us. And they're willful, and independent, and highly emotional. So that's where you see your activity coming out. And you know, potentially barking at strangers biting the mailman, that's all that all comes out between, like eight months to 18 months,
Libby 20:34
right when they're not a cute little fluffy puppy anymore.
Emily 20:38
Exactly. I mean, you can still have a come out later in life, but that's your, let's say, that's the higher odds. Yeah. Yeah,
Libby 20:44
gosh, okay. So, all right, I know that you and I can get into the weeds of behavior for hours and hours and hours. And I know that we're going to come back to this topic and later episodes, so yes. Yeah, so cut it down. We're gonna have that discussion for an hour. Okay. So that's one thing that's different about SDR is that we, we, we use modern ethical training methods, when we're working with our fosters we screened homes, to make sure that they're not going to introduce punishment, pressure. Those types of things force into their relationships with our dogs while they're training, rescuing dogs isn't the only part of SDRs mission. We also education is important to us, like we've talked about. And also we spend a lot of our resources to support spay and neuter programs.
Emily 21:41
Yes, I do think that spay and neuter is one of the ways we can stop this cycle, still killing two to 3 million dogs a year in our shelters in America. That's unacceptable.
Libby 21:57
I think you always you'd like to say that we can't adopt our way out of the problem, right? There just aren't enough adopters for all of these dogs. All right. So this education and rescue, those are parts of SDR mission, but we also send a lot of resources to shelters to do spay and neuter programs. Right? Can you tell us about that?
Emily 22:20
Yeah, it's not as much as I would like. But we do spend several $1,000 Every year supporting spay neuter programs in the places that we get our dogs from. Most of our dogs come from Arkansas, and Texas. And I do feel like it's great that we're rescuing and my original intention for this was to just rescue dogs. But I have not seen the supply diminish at all. I see tons of rescue starting up, which is amazing. And I'm so thrilled to see that. But we still have, you know, it seems like 100 puppies come up and 100 Puppies more get offered. So I'd really like to see major effort to work on some of the spay neuter issues down there.
Libby 23:08
Yeah. Totally. Yeah. It's all part of the larger pet animal welfare.
Emily 23:14
Yeah, in a world. Exactly. Yeah. So important pieces of the puzzle, like, how can I solve this? So there's less less suffering,
Libby 23:24
right? Absolutely. That's what it's all about.
Emily 23:27
So I'm excited for this podcast, we are going to do some really great people that we're going to be interviewing. I think our most exciting is we're going to be interviewing Mitch McConnell. She wrote the book, Love has no age limit, which is just a little pamphlet that we require our adopters to read before they adopt. I think it's about $8 to download on Amazon Kindle. So amazing. Oh, my gosh, oh, amazing.
Libby 23:57
Fantastic.
Emily 23:58
So she'll have a lot of information to help us, you know, transition dogs into this new world that's opening up now. And she also talks a lot about trauma and resiliency, and how we can set up our dogs and also understand some of the traumas that they've been through. Some of these dogs have been through a lot. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. And we're gonna be interested in interviewing Jackie Johnson. She's a trainer who specializes in separation anxiety. So many dogs, you know, because they are very social animals have trouble when all of a sudden you're like, I'm leaving for four hours and you're just sit here inside. Right? So Jackie will be really great with that. And then I'm really excited about Amber who's one of the admins for a group called pandemic puppies on Facebook ads. Yeah. So She's got a lot of resources for folks who did adopt over here.
Libby 25:06
Nice. Ah, it's gonna be great. Really excited. Well, I just hope that this is helpful to other people who are either working in rescue, maybe fostering maybe bringing their own rescues or people who are rescue people who now own rescue dogs who have adopted rescue dogs. I just, you know, I just hope that we can help people and their dogs live more harmoniously.
Emily 25:39
I love that. Yeah, that would be that would be the goal is to share what we've learned, hopefully have brighter outcomes for these people who love their dogs and, or their amazing dogs. Yeah. Okay, Emily,
Libby 25:53
so you have been rescuing dogs for years and years and years now. And you and I both know, it's hard work. It's endless work. There are always dogs coming up from Texas. Why do you keep doing it?
Emily 26:07
It is hard. But it's also beautiful. There's, you know, it's one of those yin yang things of like, it's hard work. But it's great for the dogs, you see a dog who was underweight and had heartworm and limping, and about to be euthanized in a impound. And then six months later, it is running through the mountains of Colorado, with this new dog, sibling, and you know, you've created a human bond where you know, that dog is the most important thing or one of the most important things in this adopters life. So we're creating families, and we're saving lives. So that is the outcome that keeps us going. I think there's a lot of work in between packing the dog in Texas to get to that part and a lot of sleepless nights and stress. But in the end when you No, no, like we saved that dog's life. And now that dog has just an incredible life. I think that's worth it.
Libby 27:22
I agree. I think that moment when an adopter says, I just can't imagine my life without this dog. Yeah, and that's a dog that was on death row. Two months ago. Yeah, you know, you've made a connection. That is changed. Of course, it's changed the dog's life, but it's changed human lives too. And, you know, the ripple effects of putting that goodness out into the world, you never know, what's gonna come from that you're saving the dog's life. But you might be saving more than just that dog.
Emily 28:01
True, that bumper sticker who rescued you, but I know for a fact. You know, we have we, we have a private Facebook page for adopters. And it's been around so long that now dogs that we rescued 10 years ago, are starting to pass and people are going on and expressing their sorrow about losing their dog that they adopted from us 10-12 years ago, and hearing those stories about like how this dog changed the trajectory of people's lives, and, you know, welcome children into their homes and how much they learned. And then I do also like that, because we have this mission of humane education, teaching people how to treat animals. I have to say, I think that extends to their children, too. If you you know, it's like, you learn about treating dogs with kindness and gentleness and redirecting, and then you have your child, I think, it just makes the world a better place. Okay, but yeah,
Libby 29:09
I know, I totally agree with you. And I've learned so much about human behavior from learning about dog behavior. You know, and like you said earlier, we're totally different species. But it there, you know, there are similarities. All mammals learn the same. Yeah, you know, there are some basics there that, that aren't bound by our differences.
Emily 29:38
Yeah, it's interesting. And now, maybe we're getting off on a tangent. I was listening to Brene Brown. And she was talking about love and belonging, and she says, Can't have belonging without love. And she said when you don't have belonging, that is when you start to see Like, sickness and anger. And, you know, here in Boulder, we just had the mass shooting. And so we're all just still devastated by that. But we know it happens almost every day in this country. And so, you know, giving these dogs a sense of belonging and giving families and children and families a sense that they're part of something bigger than they have, you know, a dog in their lives, that loves them and they belong. I think you can only make things better.
Libby 30:35
Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree more. Daisy walked into the room and she's leaning up against my leg and just soaking up some Shin scratches right now.
Emily 30:46
Well, one of our podcasts, I do hope that some of our podcasts can go into some of the dog stories, you know, yeah, like case studies, case studies, like Daisy or even Bodie. Right now we have, he just got his X rays back. You know, one of the sweetest dogs we've ever rescued. This stone is just all heart, 90 pounds of heart. He was dumped on a farm in Texas, where people dumped dogs that they don't want and someone came out to shoot all the dogs because that's a version of animal control that they use in that particular town. And Bodie was the only one who ran away and wasn't killed by the shooter. You know, just kind of Oh, okay. Yeah. Anyway, I didn't think about that until now. Anyway, we knew that there was some issues with Bodie physically when we took him but everyone said, he's just the sweetest dogs. We're like, okay, we can do this, like we've good supporters who will help us fundraise for medical needs. We just had his dental done, which was pretty intense. He had three teeth extracted on Friday, and he has three more, it was so hard to get them out. Oh, I must have lived in a cage and chewed the down to nubs. So yeah, and then we knew he had some hind end issues. So she did X rays. He has, the list is long. He has a shattered pelvis. He probably got hit by a car when he was younger. It's an old injury. But it's created a situation where his hips, the way they are in the socket is bone on bone. So he now needs bilateral hip surgery not replacement. So it's not a it's not a huge situation. Anyway, um, but he's a really good dog and the vets are encouraging and they said, if we do this, that he will have quality of life for the years that he has left. So yeah, I mean, I was really honest with the Fed. I was like, if this is just gonna be like years of suffering, and, you know, putting him back together to suffer. I'm not into that. But they were like, No, this is a simple surgery. We need to redo the hips, get out those last teeth, and he should have like, a good quality of life. So, yeah, so No, just a story like bowties like following him. Yeah, no, it's
Libby 33:23
my gosh, well, okay, we're gonna have to do a bowtie update every single episode. Yeah, what do you think black lab? He's amazing. Oh, well, of course, he has many years of life, like good life left in him. My okay, my first dog moose, who I lost in my divorce. He was eight years old, and people still thought that he was a puppy, you know, and he was a big golden mix. And so yeah, oh
Emily 33:47
my gosh. Yeah. So,
Libby 33:50
God, I am so glad that we're going to help him
Emily 33:53
to Oh, I know. There's still good in the world. We just focus on it. Yeah. Yeah, totally. So we're excited for people to tune in and follow us. If you're a dog lover, dog rescuer we are here we're gonna be doing at least twice a month
Libby 34:11
hits Yes. And we're gonna help to also open up a some kind of communication channel. So you can ask us questions and we can like do some Q and A's and, you know, we don't know yet. If that's gonna be on Patreon or what but we'll, we'll figure it out. And we'll you know, put links in show notes, wherever show notes go. We're figuring this out as we go along.
Emily 34:37
It's the pandemic podcast, just get off the ground.
Libby 34:46
Thanks for tuning in. If you liked this episode, don't forget to rate and review. It helps other folks like you find the show. To find out more about our programming and adoptable rescue dogs. You can visit summit dog rescue.org thanks to Mike pesci for the original music and to Alex Lee Ammons and for the love media for graphics production and editing. See you soon on pod to the rescue
Transcribed by https://otter.ai