One of the things that is a challenge for me is complex thoughts. What I discovered when I brought the dog home was the things that we practiced were very much real life, but they weren’t exactly the same. For example, we would go to Walmart once or twice a week, and we would grab a cart, and we would go shopping. We never bought anything, but we went through all the motions and through the checkout and all of that. And so when I brought my dog home, I thought, “Not a problem, I’ll go do the grocery shopping.” Well, what’s a big problem? What I discovered is that instead of pretending to go look at the vegetables and put them in a bag, when we actually have to unfold the bag, and you’ve got to make sure that your dog is safe and your cart is positioned right, and he’s not going to get his tail run over, actually doing it all by yourself was harder than I thought. But I don’t even think about it now.

It got me out of the house, off the couch. Well, and I also have responsibility. I mean I’m married, but my kids are grown. I live with my wife, we’ve been married for a long time. We, we started together in 1971, she’s a tremendous partner and is incredibly supportive. And so she would do the grocery shopping. I just couldn’t stand all the chaos going into Walmart, just not a place I would go on purpose. But I mean they took us on the light rail. We went through the airport. We went through TSA and screening. We knew we were going to the Vancouver mall or to Walmart almost every day, to the point where it was no longer an event. It was no longer a challenge. It wasn’t something that you had to kind of build-up for, be concerned about. It was just, do the same things in your practice, the same commands, et cetera. And the dogs are trained.

I think the big difference, and they made it quite clear, the expectations were that we had a responsibility to the dog, and the dog was to help us and take care of us, but it was reciprocal and had to be equal. One of the things I really like about what Shannon does, she talks about fairness all the time to the dog. If you have undue pressure or an unclear command, you confuse the dog. She has a long driveway, and every day, they would bring the dogs out to us, and we would put their gear on them, and we would just walk along the oval driveway, and it settled the dogs down and got their brains thinking right. It was also very good for the vets. Because it was kind of a long oval, I don’t know how long ago the nickname came about, but they call that NASCAR.

So you know, they bring the dogs out. Shannon says, “Okay, NASCAR, everybody.” And we walk around, and she watches us with the dogs, and when the dogs were ready and when we’re ready, then we start training. But I still do NASCAR every morning because I live in a cul de sac, and it just gets me up and the dog up and gets us with a shared vision.

I take a hundred percent complete care of the dog. Golden retrievers have two coats, an undercoat, which is very thick, it’s like a sponge. So, every time he has to go out, it takes me a good half an hour to dry him when we come back in. So, five times a day, I’m drying and brushing him. So, it occupies my time. It gives me the ability to have something to do that somebody is depending on me to do. But I think to be honest with you, it’s, it’s the unconditional love that that dogs provide, and the support. When I’m walking down the street with my dog, every third or fourth step, he is checking me out. I’ve never had a dog do that before.

The fact of the matter is that the dog is watching me all the time. If I get up and go to another room, the dog gets up and goes to another room. That bond is only getting stronger, and in my opinion, will only continue to get stronger. But I take a great deal of pride when I take him out with me, whether we’re just going to walk for exercise or whether we’re going down to the VA.

Thank you. I don’t know that anybody could put into words the difference it makes. I’m 72 years old, and I thought that pretty much everything was in the rearview mirror for me. But for the first time in for the first time, I’m looking forward. I don’t think it’s just the dog though, to be honest with you. I think it’s the, the people, the commitment. Ovie is phenomenal. Shannon is, I’ve never met anybody like Shannon. She’s focused like a laser beam. She’s committed. She works incredible hours, but the love that pours out of her for her service dogs and for her service vets that she’s helping, it’s appreciated. But it’s also genuine and it matters. I would tell you that if you met her in person, you’d never forget her. She’s doing amazing work. She’s an amazing woman.

Well, I was concerned at first because although I’m a dog lover, I thought I was too old to train another dog, so I wasn’t going to have another dog. But I think the commitment that they have at Northwest Battle Buddies, not just to the veterans, but to the team of veteran and dog, and their ability to handle them differently, I thought was fascinating. Because typically, my experience in life has been “one size fits all” –they teach everybody the same way to do the same thing no matter really what it is. But that’s not true at all of Northwest Battle Buddies. They’re gonna leave with the same skills, and they’re not going to leave until they have learned the skills and demonstrate the skills consistently, but everything is focused on the relationship between the dog and the vet.