Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs Podcast, the show for dog lovers who
see dogs not as toys or tools, but wise souls worth our respect and care.
I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.
I talk to poor some humans, people who do great work for dogs and their people.
So come and join us for today's conversation.
Anke: Hello and welcome, Joe.
I'm super excited to have you here.
Joe: Thank you very much.
I'm, I'm stoked to be here and honored and blessed that you've
chosen us to be on your show.
I
Anke: mean, people who are going to listen, they can't see you've got your,
your, um, What's it called now, blanking
on
Joe: the word?
Anke: Logo.
Logo, well, yeah, yeah.
Basically, it kind of shows already where we're going.
But before we go there, why don't you give people like the two minute bird's eye
overview where you're based and, you know,
Joe: what's your business?
Copy that.
So I'm Joe Gianti.
I'm the CEO and founder of Canine Heroes for Heroes.
We're based out of the United States in Northeast Ohio.
Our mission is to provide service dogs to veterans and first
responders at no cost to them.
So, we have found the absolute benefit these dogs can have in the lives of our
veterans and first responders, giving them the life they want to get back to.
So, that's kind of what we are.
We're a 501c3 non profit, so we are completely funded
through charitable donations.
And we have a full service kennel that we partner with called American Canine
Dynamics that is close to me that does anywhere from pet obedience up to
police dogs and then of course not all our service dogs, um, they train, so.
And I help as well, obviously.
Well,
Anke: uh, yeah, I mean, I always find, you know, people in the military, they
get trained to go out into combat, but they're not really getting a
lot of support when they come back.
Joe: Yeah, I found that as well in, you know, I'm a veteran support organization.
I'm not a veteran, so that's one of the things I make clear right off the bat
because I have such respect and admiration for anybody that has put on the uniform.
Now, as you and I spoke, you know, they're not going to see the
video, but I'm a little gray in the beard, so I'm too old to serve now.
This is how I'm going to give back.
And how I got into this space was, um, growing up as a lifelong martial artist.
My instructor was a police officer.
Then I spent some time at the Virginia Military Institute.
A lot of the guys I went to school with ended up going in the service.
Um, buddies from high school.
You know, so that, and my father was in the military as well.
So that military and first responder has been part of my life.
I just chose a different path early on in life and that admiration
and love for what they do.
And, and I always tell a veteran, sometimes I'll hear them say, well,
I was just this, or I was don't know.
There is no just, you put on the uniform.
I didn't.
There are many that did not, no matter what you did in the service, you served.
No matter what you did as a first responder.
So, as I say, the military protects our freedom, the first responders
protect our life day to day.
So, that's why I got into this space, and I know If you follow
me on social media, you'll see often pictures of myself and Loki.
Loki's my service dog, and Loki's the face of the business, because people
want to look at his face, not mine.
Can't blame him at all on that one.
So he's a good ambassador for the business, and I know what he does for me.
And I know we don't compare traumas, that you're not supposed to do all that,
but I haven't been through anything compared to what these military and
first responders have been through, but I know what Loki does for me.
I'm a better person.
Because that dog's in my life.
If he's not with me, I'm not happy.
You know, it's rare that he's not with me.
He goes everywhere.
You and I spoke a little earlier.
He was at the gym with me this morning.
You know, he goes to the store with us.
He goes, uh, grocery shopping and out to restaurants.
And what these dogs can bring to our veterans and first
responders is, is unbelievable.
Their abilities, and you know this as well as I do, are, are boundless.
It seems like we're teaching dogs something new every day.
Yeah, I'm
Anke: curious about two things, like you sort of, you know, hinted at what these
dogs bring to, you know, veterans lives.
So basically, you know, when somebody struggles with trauma, whatever the kind,
whatever the trauma is, you know, so what do you find are the main or perhaps
unexpected things that a dog brings and also what makes a dog a service
Joe: dog?
So, one of the things I think it brings up to a lot of them
is that sense of purpose again.
And they're no longer just caring for themselves, they have
another living being to care for.
So, what these dogs do, it varies depending on what the individual
needs, but all of our dogs are given some basic foundations.
One of the important things, and I'm working on it with Loki,
and it's not something I need at the moment, but I train him for
it, it's deep pressure therapy.
So, the dog And whatever the trigger of the individual is, whether it's
they freeze, or handshakes, or they tense up, the dog will sense it,
and the dog will either Lay on the person, nudge the person to break their
concentration on whatever they're on now.
Okay, now I've got to focus on my dog.
So what makes a service dog?
They have to perform three tasks.
That's the American with Disabilities Act.
I don't know if it's different, you know, in other countries.
But they have to perform at least three tasks.
for that individual.
You know, so we've got the deep pressure therapy.
Does the dog need to go and pick up your keys or your medicine?
Or a lot of times if a veteran or first responder is out in public and
they're a little tense because a large crowd will teach a block and a cover.
The dogs may be behind you.
So now you know that space behind you is safe or he'll be in front of you.
And now you've got that distance in front.
One of the things I've actually worked on with Loki is he'll do a center between
my legs, but his face will be behind me.
So I've got the comfort of him between my legs.
I know I'm got distance in front of me, but I also know he's looking behind me.
Or if he's in that cover in front of me or block in front
of me, he'll be looking behind.
So that's something we've worked on.
It's just a way of giving that individual that sense of comfort
and support when they're out.
Now it's not an emotional support animal because there's a difference.
They're doing an actual task and that leads into kind of another thing.
People often ask, well, why shouldn't you pet talk to or acknowledge a service dog?
Service dog is working.
If that dog, if you're letting somebody pet your service dog, now
that dog's going to look outward for support, for love and affection,
and it breaks them from their job.
So, that's why you don't want to pet a service dog, or even acknowledge,
a lot of times I'll tell people, can you please just ignore my dog?
He's working.
And that way he's doing his job.
Now, Loki knows, and we teach this, when the vest is on, I'm working.
When the vest is off, I'm a puppy.
And initially when we trained, made a big deal of that vest going on and
him knowing, okay, I'm in work mode.
And I, when we, before we get out of the car, I'll say harness, he
dips his head in the harness, we put it on and he goes into work mode.
I
Anke: love that.
Actually, I used to have a neighbor who was blind and he had a guide dog
and you know, cute as hell, right?
It was so difficult not to try, you know, but, but yeah, you know, so
you kind of know like you're not allowed to because yeah, he might
fall over because he's not looking at
Joe: where his person is going, right?
It is hard for people not to want to pet a dog.
Me too.
I want to go out and pet every dog I see.
I love them all.
But what I love hearing now and I'm starting to hear more and more of it.
When I'm out in public walking with Loki and a little kid, Oh, mommy, daddy, a
doggie, and you'll hear the mother or father say, Hey, that's a service dog.
You can't pet him.
And they start explaining why.
So that makes me happy that that knowledge is starting to get out there.
Podcasts like this and some other ones I've been on are going to further
get that out there because we don't want to interrupt that dog's task.
So
Anke: how does one go about teaching?
You were mentioning before, you know, somebody was actually trying to.
So if I was to think, well, actually, you know, Spanish Master Poppy
Lea might make a good service dog.
Like, how does one go about teach a dog those tasks?
Joe: We start from a puppy on our, in our organization.
Now, there are people that take rescue dogs and God bless that they do.
But I'm a small startup, so I want to know the complete
history and providence of a dog.
So we're raising 'em as puppies.
We're doing that conditioning, we're getting 'em out in public.
We're socializing them, seeing how they react in public and to other dogs as well.
People don't, like Loki doesn't go play with very many other dogs.
They don't need that.
Socialization is just being in the same space, not wanting to go and fight each
other, or even go up and sniff each other.
So, we're checking the temperament of the dog.
We're seeing how, what kind of drive do they have.
You and I kind of spoke a little bit earlier.
I get asked, are all dogs, are all our service dogs German Shepherds?
No, not at all.
Loki is a very high drive, working line German Shepherd.
You can't give that to somebody that's not very mobile.
Or not very active because it's just going to be a recipe for failure.
So there's that, you know, you're socializing them.
You're seeing, you're using food lures and treat lures as you begin that training.
And just seeing how their temperament is.
Do you, do they have what's necessary?
And then we pick the dog for the individual.
There's people we've had come up and say, Oh, I want a Belgian Malinois.
Well, do you want a dog on crack that you're going to have to deal
with every day of your life and he's high drive, there's no off switch.
It's sometimes people see the dogs on the TV, they see them
in the movies, I want that dog.
Yeah, but that may not be what's best for you.
And our ultimate goal is what is best for them.
And to steer them in that direction.
Now we think Chocolate Lab, Golden Doodle, Golden Retriever, you know,
whatever the dog may be, that's what we think is best for you.
And then the cost of these dogs vary depending on what
they're being asked to do.
So you can go anywhere.
We give a range of like 15, 000 to 30, 000, all depending on what tasks you're
asking these dogs to do, because it's a lifelong learning process for them, and
you have to constantly be working with them so that they know what you want.
I would say if Loki's not doing something.
Correctly, it's because I failed to properly teach him how to do it.
It's not his fault.
He can only do what I taught him how to do.
Yeah.
Anke: So do I understand this correctly?
Like your company, what you do is you train the dogs and you match them up.
With a person.
And then train the person, right?
Because that would be
Joe: a big part too, right?
The hardest part about training any dog is training the person.
Because they have to be consistent.
You are absolutely right.
So, we'll give all the dogs this foundation.
They'll have the basic obedience, the sit, the stay, the down, the retrieve.
But then we start gearing them towards tasks.
They'll all get the block and cover and the deep pressure therapy.
And then we'll start expanding upon that.
Yes.
So once we have that, the veteran or first responder will come in and start
working with the dog as well so that they know what the dog's commands are.
And, you know, we continue that training as well when they're done and we send
you home, it's not just, here's your dog, you know, get out, don't ever come back.
You become part of the Canine Heroes for Heroes and American Canine Dynamics
family, and we're going to have that follow up care, that follow up service.
The blessing is I've.
Collaborated with many other non profit service dog companies, and one in
particular called Mutts with a Mission, which is in, um, southern United States.
Said, hey, why should you start your application process from scratch?
Here's ours, make it work for you.
So they gave, it was a 20 page document, they said, here.
Change it and make it work what works for you.
So what a blessing that was.
And, you know, another one, Forgotten Coast Canines, they're in Florida.
They did basically the same thing.
And they've, you know, I've had a lot of mentors in this, which is, which is just
wonderful because again, why start over?
That makes such a difference, doesn't it?
It's, it's night and day.
There's another one called Project Canine Hero.
They're a huge non profit.
They provide medical care, rehab, and rehoming for military working dogs.
I mean, they're huge.
They bring in millions in donations.
I don't think I had started Canine Heroes for Heroes more than a month.
The CEO and founder of that reached out to me on LinkedIn
and said, How can I help you?
And we had a, we had a conversation.
So it's, it's been a blessing, the people I've run across.
People like yourselves, who are trying to get that word out there.
We've got to give Michael a shout out.
He, you know, he got us in contact with each other.
And there's going to be many more events we're going to do together.
The goal is I don't have to be the person to provide every dog.
I just want to help you get one.
If I get a call or a text or an email from a veteran or first responder not near me,
I give them other other organizations they can reach out that might be able to help
them faster and it'll be closer to them.
Anke: Yeah, I think that's such an important piece, right, to build that
network because I always find like all good things come through people you
know and if you come, if somebody comes like recommended, there's a whole.
It's a trusted relationship.
It's a whole different starting point as if somebody, you know,
emails you out of the blue, you know, building that network is critical.
Joe: Yeah, you're absolutely right.
If, you know, Michael introduced us together.
Hey, if Michael gives you the stamp of approval, that's good enough for me.
I know I've got several people that vice versa.
If I say, Hey, this guy is a friend of mine or vice versa.
Okay.
Yeah.
It gives you that extra set of comfort knowing.
You're already starting off with a good, reputable company, and that's the thing.
Good, reputable company.
Our goal is to put out, yeah, we're going to get as many dogs out there
as we can, but we want quality dogs, so we're not going to rush them.
You know, dogs come back sometimes.
They just, it's not a good fit.
It doesn't pair up well.
They'll come back.
It's just part of the nature of the business.
Hmm.
I mean,
Anke: you know, I'm, I'm, but like you said, okay, so who got disqualified?
Like the owner or the dog, right?
Or is it the match?
Or where, where if there are problems, like, I mean, I guess
you never know, like until
Joe: you actually try it, you know, but You can have both.
You can have the dog and the, and the individual be disqualified.
The, the application process is pretty extensive.
We need to know that you can actually take care of this dog in a safe, healthy.
Um, positive way.
So we, I've had people come, we, we attend a lot of events and I've had
people come by the, the booth we're at and I, you just know it would not be.
In the dog's best interest or a dog's best interest to get with that individual.
And that's, that's a hard pill for them to swallow sometimes, but
I'm going to make people angry.
I know I can't make everybody happy.
So I'm going to do the best I can.
And, and however that plays out is how it plays out.
Anke: But, I mean, the last thing you want is to give a dog to
somebody who doesn't take care
Joe: of them well.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, I mean, the baseline is pretty simple in that way, isn't it?
Yeah, it absolutely is.
You know, we need to know you can care for, we need to know that you want it.
We're going to be doing a, um, a post on November 10th, which is the Marine
Corps birthday, on a dog that we were able to place with an individual.
As it's more of an emotional support dog, he wasn't looking for a dog and the dog
wasn't necessarily looking, well the dog was looking for a new home, but now they
can't, you know, they're inseparable.
So it was, it was, it was nice to know we could help beyond the service dog.
We found a dog that needed a new home and you'll see why on the 10th.
And an individual that, yeah, you know what, I'll take them.
And then it just became a pair that, yeah.
So we want to be a resource for as many things as we can,
whether it's just knowledge based.
And I tell these veterans and first responders, I know I have not been
what you've been through, but I can be an ear to hear, and I can
be an active participant in the conversation, or I can just listen.
And there are so many veteran support organizations, individuals like myself
out there that are willing to do that, even though we don't have your
same experiences, we're here for you.
We'd rather.
hear you, then go to your funeral.
Not the truth.
Anke: So where can people get in touch?
What's the
Joe: best way to reach you?
So right now, the best way is through social media, either on
LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.
We're K9 Heroes for Heroes.
It's the letter K, number nine, and the number four.
Still working on the web page, but, um, yeah.
So social media is the best way right now.
Or, if you go on any social media, my email, my phone
number, everything's on there.
Shoot me a text, shoot me an email, smoke signals, whatever you got.
I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.
Awesome.
Anke: Well, thank you.
Thank you so much.
I, I kind of can't wait to continue that conversation because I think it's such
important work and really heartwarming
Joe: for, on all fronts.
I appreciate it so much.
Thank you for having me on.
I look forward to working with you a lot more in the future too.
I know we've got some, we've got some things planned for
the not too distant future.
For sure.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe, and leave a review so
other dog lovers can find the show.
If you haven't already, head over to soul touched by dogs.
com and sign up for weekly doggy cuteness tips, recommendations, and personal
stories to warm your dog loving heart.
And if you know a pawsome human you think I should interview,
I'd love an introduction.
Email me at Anke.
That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.