Valuetainment - Episode 462： Navy Seal Instructor Now K9 Dog Trainer- Mike Ritland

00:00:00.000 30 seconds.

00:00:01.760 Did you ever think you would make it?

00:00:04.220 I feel I'm so close I could take sweet victory.

00:00:07.640 I know this life meant for me.

00:00:10.760 Yeah, why would you bet on Goliath when we got Bet David?

00:00:14.580 Valuetainment, giving values contagious.

00:00:16.440 This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to haters.

00:00:19.160 Now they run, homie, look what I become.

00:00:21.400 I'm the one.

00:00:22.480 I'm Patrick Bedevi, host of Atom.

00:00:23.860 And today I have a guest with me, Mike Ritland,

00:00:25.460 who's a former Navy SEAL as well as a Navy SEAL instructor.

00:00:29.020 We have a lot of things to talk about.

00:00:31.120 He's now a dog trainer, but he's got some real, real strong opinions

00:00:36.460 about military, about the SEALs, about women, and about China.

00:00:41.020 Very, very interesting, Kat.

00:00:42.560 Mike Ritland, thank you for coming out and being a guest on Valuetainment.

00:00:45.160 Thanks for having me.

00:00:45.980 It's a pleasure to be here.

00:00:46.820 It's good to have you, man.

00:00:47.620 Thank you for your service.

00:00:48.920 It's an honor to be in a place to be able to serve, so I appreciate it.

00:00:51.880 I feel the same way as well.

00:00:53.060 But for you, you went to Navy SEALs.

00:00:55.000 I was just a soldier, a specialist in the 101st Airborne.

00:00:58.420 You became a Navy SEAL.

00:00:59.800 At what point did you know you wanted to be a Navy SEAL?

00:01:02.620 I read a Popular Mechanics article in high school when I was, I want to say,

00:01:06.700 about a sophomore, and I had grown up swimming.

00:01:10.600 And for me, it was kind of the culmination of everything.

00:01:13.320 It was the ability to get in trouble but get away with it and be paid to do it

00:01:18.280 in conjunction with kind of focusing on the maritime aspect,

00:01:21.920 which is what I was the most comfortable with.

00:01:23.500 So for me, it just seemed, you know, reading it, I was like, well, that's it.

00:01:27.440 This is what I need to be doing.

00:01:28.780 And so from that day forward, I spent the whole rest of high school basically preparing myself

00:01:34.040 as best I could to, you know, to try to do that for a living.

00:01:38.780 And so I graduated high school at 17, had to wait until I turned 18 to actually go to boot camp

00:01:45.100 and then showed up and tried out and went straight to BUDS.

00:01:49.040 Oh, straight to BUDS.

00:01:50.220 Yeah.

00:01:50.480 Well, I went to A school for four months, intelligence specialist, which at that time you had to,

00:01:55.060 but you had to go to some A school.

00:01:57.240 But yeah, right after that I went and I was in BUDS at 18.

00:02:01.140 How old were you when you knew you wanted to be an AVC, when you read the Popular Mechanics?

00:02:03.860 About 15.

00:02:04.740 Oh, at 15.

00:02:05.500 Yeah.

00:02:06.000 So pre-15, you're not, you're undecided.

00:02:08.000 No, and I guess ironically enough, I remember being in junior high during the first Gulf War

00:02:13.560 and being just honestly scared, scared to death that our country was going to war

00:02:19.500 and being afraid that, you know, what if I get drafted?

00:02:24.220 Like, what if this is still going on when I turn 18?

00:02:26.480 Like, I was actually scared of it at seventh grade.

00:02:29.420 But just a few years later, if that doesn't speak to maturity that testosterone brings

00:02:35.360 as a pubescent teenager, that, you know, my role and ideology towards that changed dramatically.

00:02:42.860 So, yeah, as soon as I hit about 15, I wanted to do something.

00:02:46.780 Both my grandparents were in World War II and I was just very inspired by that.

00:02:50.760 So it was something for me that I just, I kind of grew up or grew into wanting to do

00:02:55.720 as I became a young man.

00:02:58.140 Would they tell you stories?

00:02:59.500 Would you sit down and want to hear stories?

00:03:01.360 Like, would you gravitate towards it from a young age?

00:03:03.500 I absolutely did.

00:03:04.680 And my mom's dad was in the Navy.

00:03:06.800 He was on a minesweeper in a fleet of 98 of them that were in the med,

00:03:11.640 and only two of them returned.

00:03:13.920 96 of the 98 were either sunk or partially sunk or, you know, disabled enough to not make it back.

00:03:21.160 And he had just, he was a cook, you know, which was kind of an interesting change of pace,

00:03:27.080 I guess, from what I wanted to do.

00:03:28.660 But just, yeah, his stories about pulling into port and being at war in the Mediterranean

00:03:33.440 in World War II was really inspiring.

00:03:36.120 My dad's dad was in the Army.

00:03:38.120 He was on the German front and actually got discharged from the Army for getting in a bar fight

00:03:45.040 and beating a fellow Allied soldier, an English soldier, actually beat him to death in a bar fight.

00:03:51.360 And so they sent him home, which that doesn't tell you how much time has changed or times have changed

00:03:56.960 and that now you'd go to prison for the rest of your life or something like that.

00:03:59.420 He would go to prison for the rest of his life today.

00:04:01.100 Yeah, that's pretty interesting.

00:04:01.840 What do you think about it?

00:04:02.560 What makes more sense, though?

00:04:03.880 To me, in this grand scope of warfare, which is ultimately what our military is poised for,

00:04:11.780 I think it should go far back to the old school.

00:04:15.040 Oh, really?

00:04:15.620 The days of hazing.

00:04:16.820 And obviously there is a happy medium.

00:04:18.600 I think you can for sure overdo it.

00:04:20.480 Back then, I think that's probably a little too far back.

00:04:23.900 But I know the difference between, say, when I was coming in in the late 90s rather as an early frog man

00:04:31.580 versus how it is now, it's vastly different in terms of our ability to kind of police our own.

00:04:38.060 I think, especially in the military, that is a necessary, I wouldn't call it an evil,

00:04:44.020 but just a necessary augmentation to units being able to keep themselves sharp, honest,

00:04:52.220 and have the right guys doing the right job for the right reasons.

00:04:57.120 Now I think that a lot of guys do it to check that box and wear the T-shirt and say that they did it.

00:05:03.540 And when it comes time to do warrior shit, so to speak, they don't want to have any part of it.

00:05:09.100 And I think that that's a huge problem.

00:05:10.980 Interesting.

00:05:11.180 And it reflects in a lot of what's going on in the community nowadays, I think.

00:05:15.480 In the community of SEALBUDs is what you're talking about.

00:05:18.080 Yes, I'd say all of special operations.

00:05:19.920 And I would even say broad spectrum to the entire U.S. military.

00:05:24.140 I think that there is a problem with it being geared more towards a social experiment.

00:05:29.600 I think the last presidential administration had some negative impacts that way.

00:05:34.600 I don't think what our society reflects in terms of how we view certain hotbed issues that are pretty polarizing,

00:05:43.100 I don't believe that it suits our military's best interest to meddle in those affairs whatsoever.

00:05:49.780 You know, to me, I like to reduce it down and keep it really simple because it is simple.

00:05:54.000 It's that the United States military has one job, and that's to go overseas and break stuff and kill people in the event of them needing to do so.

00:06:02.180 And every decision should be boiled down to, does it make us a more effective warfighting force or does it not?

00:06:09.340 If it does, then you should do it, irrespective of cost, irrespective of social heartburn that it might create,

00:06:15.480 and irrespective of really anything other than that singular goal of is this what we're here to do or not.

00:06:21.400 And it really needs to stay that simple.

00:06:23.260 Is it that black and white for you?

00:06:25.840 It is because it's unlike really every other aspect of our life or very few other ones.

00:06:31.360 It's a mission or purpose-built element where everything you do revolves around your ability to go places

00:06:41.760 and be effective in terms of a warfighting force.

00:06:45.140 So whether or not women should be in certain roles or transgenders should be allowed or any of those things,

00:06:51.700 to me I'm reminded of the Jeff Goldblum quote in Jurassic Park, which is where he says,

00:06:59.480 we've spent so much time thinking about whether or not we could or couldn't,

00:07:03.320 we never stop to think whether or not we should or shouldn't in relation to pulling the DNA out of a mosquito in amber or whatever.

00:07:11.920 And to me it's very much that way, is that trying to prove that women can do certain things

00:07:16.680 or that transgenders can fit into certain elements, to me I think misses the boat,

00:07:21.240 is that to me that's not the place to do that.

00:07:24.640 If you want to have an experiment that way, then do it in the Olympics.

00:07:28.720 Do it in collegiate sports first.

00:07:31.100 If you want to try something out, try it there where people's lives aren't on the line.

00:07:34.860 Because if you'll notice, there's a pretty stark contrast between men and women in competition

00:07:40.640 as it relates at a world-class level.

00:07:43.100 Well, in the military and especially in special operations, it's absolutely no different.

00:07:46.880 There is a huge disparity between sexes when it comes to combative everything.

00:07:52.820 Take the UFC as an example.

00:07:54.620 You know, there's a reason there's men and women's competition classes.

00:07:59.300 Why is there not a push to make that co-ed?

00:08:02.680 There's not.

00:08:03.460 Why isn't there?

00:08:04.960 Why is there a push to have women Navy SEALs and women Rangers and Green Berets,

00:08:09.020 but nobody gives a shit to have a 155-pound woman face Conor McGregor in the ring?

00:08:14.340 Why not?

00:08:15.520 Why is there not the same level of bordering on vitriol for that competitive equality that exists

00:08:22.320 when the reality of it is whether you take the Olympics or the UFC

00:08:25.940 is that everybody knows what the actual result would be, and that would be an outclassing.

00:08:31.100 And I think very few, if any, women would win anything, and that's why there are women's divisions

00:08:36.900 in both the Olympics, collegiate sports, as well as thirdly being the UFC.

00:08:42.220 That led to two different parts.

00:08:43.820 What part of that do you think is the guy at the top who runs UFC?

00:08:47.580 Because there's no way in the world he's going to tolerate that.

00:08:49.960 You know what I'm saying?

00:08:50.540 Where he's not a personality that is like, well, I think it's fair.

00:08:54.360 We have to be fair, and what about this, and people's feelings.

00:08:56.880 How much of you think has to do with him, and how much of it has to do with media pressure

00:09:01.180 and organizations to want to get to that point?

00:09:03.360 UFC-specific, unquestionably that's a factor.

00:09:07.140 However, there's no media pressure for that.

00:09:09.980 Why isn't there?

00:09:10.720 Why is there so much media pressure on female SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, etc.?

00:09:15.780 Absolutely zero when it comes to why aren't there just Olympic events?

00:09:19.660 Why are there male-female?

00:09:20.740 There's no heartburn with that.

00:09:22.640 So UFC, yeah, you could say Dana White maybe has the personality that would make it.

00:09:26.880 Bordering on impossible to do that anyway, but there's not even the effort to make that happen.

00:09:32.760 On the other hand, there's also a number of other competitive or combative sports leagues.

00:09:38.900 There's Bellator.

00:09:39.700 There's a bunch of smaller ones where there's absolutely no push for that either.

00:09:44.020 And again, I would say collegiate sports, zero.

00:09:46.460 There's crickets.

00:09:47.340 Why is there an LPGA?

00:09:49.060 Why is there a WNBA?

00:09:51.520 Why is there not a push to have all of these women who play in those leagues play in the NBA

00:09:56.280 and mandate that there's a 50-50 percentage or a 60-40 or whatever the population is to reflect that?

00:10:03.160 There's absolutely none.

00:10:04.400 Why not?

00:10:05.260 To me, the fact that there is such pushback and such aggressiveness when it comes to proving that women can do certain things,

00:10:14.200 I have no doubt that there are some women out there that can physically do certain things that any man can do.

00:10:20.380 You can watch a CrossFit competition and see that for sure there are some that could probably make it through.

00:10:26.440 My point is that from a warfighting effectiveness standpoint, it doesn't matter.

00:10:33.080 And the reason it doesn't matter is because when you interject different sexes into those types of roles, it causes problems.

00:10:40.420 My idea or fix or whatever, not that I'm individual in thinking this, there's a number of us that do,

00:10:48.640 is I would say just have female special operations units that are all female the same way Israel has had actually enormous success with.

00:10:59.160 There doesn't need to be female SEALs.

00:11:01.360 There could be female whatever special operations detachment or unit that you want to stand up from scratch and have it be all women.

00:11:08.900 I've got no problem with that.

00:11:10.100 There are a number of applications where women, I think, are better suited than men in certain, especially covert operations,

00:11:17.460 where women, especially in certain parts of the Middle East that you can relate to,

00:11:21.660 where women have far more access and far less microscope on them in terms of getting into certain areas versus not,

00:11:28.740 because they're women and they're going to be given a pass.

00:11:31.000 I'm not saying that they shouldn't have a role in combat.

00:11:34.000 I think, well, for starters, they already do, which I'm not going to get into any further than that.

00:11:40.860 But there's no shortage of women that are already doing things that most people never hear about that are absolutely beneficial and worthwhile and should be applauded.

00:11:50.620 However, in my opinion, and I can say 98.9% of all other special operators' opinions out there, former or active, mirrors that same thing.

00:12:01.380 So let me ask you this.

00:12:03.080 So you're not saying no to women getting into special operations.

00:12:07.820 You're talking about separate the two and they're able to go in a different direction than maybe the men are going.

00:12:13.600 So right now, when you went to BUDS, was it all men when you went to BUDS?

00:12:17.000 Because you went BUDS what year?

00:12:18.200 It was...

00:12:18.500 97.

00:12:19.360 97.

00:12:20.020 So are you in high school class of 96 or 97?

00:12:22.380 96.

00:12:23.060 96.

00:12:23.640 So we're the same year.

00:12:24.320 I'm also class of 96.

00:12:25.420 Yeah.

00:12:25.720 So graduate 96, then you go to BUDS in 97.

00:12:28.020 There are no women in your class at all in 97.

00:12:31.500 Correct.

00:12:31.900 How about today?

00:12:33.220 To my knowledge, there still hasn't been any women that have actually classed up.

00:12:37.520 There's been a couple that have tried and have either failed or quit in the pre-training phase, which is at Great Lakes, which is in Great Lakes, Illinois.

00:12:47.300 Just after boot camp, there's like a couple-month pre-training period that is supposed to get prospective students ready to be a little better prepared for BUDS.

00:12:58.800 But none of them, to my knowledge, have made it past that.

00:13:01.160 So what's your concern?

00:13:02.180 What's your concern since it hasn't happened yet?

00:13:05.220 My concern is the principle of it is the push to make that avenue available when that very simple question of, does this make us a more effective warfighting force?

00:13:18.620 In my opinion, no, it doesn't.

00:13:20.420 In my opinion, it causes far more problems.

00:13:22.500 And so I do think it is that black and white.

00:13:25.560 When it comes to your mission is very black and white, you can reduce those decisions in terms of whether or not it makes us at a higher capacity or not very black and white.

00:13:37.020 Interesting.

00:13:37.620 So you think G.I. Jane is more of a Hollywood story and not more of a real-life story?

00:13:42.400 It's 100% more of a Hollywood story, yeah.

00:13:44.760 Again, I have seen some women in some capacities that I think physically could probably make it through training, not more than probably that I could count on one hand.

00:13:56.360 But my point is that even if, let's say there was just being liberal about it, let's say there was 20 women a year that had all of the different genetic traits and drive and physical attributes required to make it through training.

00:14:09.760 Those 20 females, in terms of their addition to the community, in my opinion, are going to far outweigh in a negative manner the warfighting efficacy of those units because they're women involved.

00:14:25.320 Wow, you really believe that?

00:14:26.840 I know that.

00:14:28.080 You know that?

00:14:28.640 I know that.

00:14:29.140 And how many of your peers would you say think the same way as you do?

00:14:31.740 I don't know a single one that doesn't.

00:14:33.300 I threw the 98.9 making the assumption that there's probably a few people out there that, you know, have been out for, you know, long enough and think, you know, yeah, hey, that's great.

00:14:42.820 But I can tell you overwhelmingly, everybody that I know and have talked to has the exact same opinion about it.

00:14:49.160 Being overseas in a forward operating base, it's one thing to make it through training where there's a safety net and there's a mental safety net where everybody that goes through training,

00:14:58.260 no matter how hard and how rough it gets, you have a primal understanding that at the end of the day, it's the end of the day, you know, and that your life isn't really on the line.

00:15:08.060 Whereas when you are in a forward operating base and everything is on the, or chaos is literally brimming day in, day out, that is a very, very different mindset.

00:15:19.360 So let's just say you were, you went to, what operations, you went on a few operations, give me one of them, just one.

00:15:26.300 So one in particular was the oil platforms that were about 25 miles off the coast in the northern Arabian Gulf, but 25 miles south off the coast of Basra in southern Iraq.

00:15:37.980 Got it.

00:15:38.280 There were a number of oil platforms that my platoon from SEAL Team 3 as well as another platoon from a different team took these oil rigs down over the course of about six and a half hours.

00:15:50.480 There was about 30 of us and we captured 23, I believe, Iraqi prisoners of war, secured the whole, the whole oil platform, took it down and by sunset had it, had it secured and had them, had them bagged up.

00:16:07.000 Intense.

00:16:08.280 Yeah.

00:16:08.620 Here's a question.

00:16:09.640 What if one of those 20 that you said per year can graduate buds was assigned to be part of your unit?

00:16:15.500 Would you feel comfortable taking that, you know, assignment and going there with another woman part of your team?

00:16:21.460 On the actions at the objective, doing the actual mission?

00:16:25.020 Yeah, I would.

00:16:25.540 Okay.

00:16:25.840 If they physically and mentally have, and this is assuming and taking for granted that no standards have been changed.

00:16:31.860 And from my perspective, the no standards being changed are there aren't female locker rooms, there aren't female birthing spaces, there aren't, oh, I'm sorry, you know, you have your period so you're not going in the ocean this evening.

00:16:43.340 There's none of that.

00:16:44.360 You are treated absolutely no different.

00:16:46.500 There's no accommodations made.

00:16:47.940 And what I think, though, is leading up until that point, if I look back and think of the amount of time that we spent getting ready to do that and the close quarters living and the things that we went through as a platoon together to get ready for that,

00:17:03.860 but I don't think a woman would have been a value-added asset in a platoon at that point.

00:17:10.400 I think it would have caused more harm than good.

00:17:12.340 For that assignment, for that specific assignment?

00:17:14.040 For any of them.

00:17:14.940 Oh, for any of them.

00:17:15.920 For any of them.

00:17:16.520 Okay.

00:17:16.720 Because the thing that's important to realize is that your time in a platoon is, you know, for those, I mean, you understand it more than most, I think, because of your time at the 101st,

00:17:26.460 is that, you know, that ability to separate yourself from the entire planet, basically, from your family, from your friends, from everybody,

00:17:35.880 and you're out in these super isolated areas doing really dangerous stuff day in, day out,

00:17:41.320 it creates a specific bond with each other that exists differently, I think, than any other aspect of our society, and it's hard to explain it.

00:17:51.680 But what I can say is that when we're in forward operating bases, and let's say, for example, there's an intelligence representative that happens to be a female,

00:17:59.940 I can tell you from experiences that that causes problems, huge problems, is that when you have 16 or 30 or 50 or 100 double or triple A personality alpha male men

00:18:12.860 that are just exploding with ego and are ultra-hyper-competitive, and now you have one or two females that are now all of a sudden in the mix,

00:18:21.900 it causes huge problems.

00:18:23.480 What way?

00:18:24.040 I mean, I kind of have an idea.

00:18:25.280 I'm just curious on what you would say.

00:18:26.260 In the way that you can imagine.

00:18:27.960 Okay.

00:18:28.240 Is that, you know, the competition that exists on who can run the fastest, on who can pick up the heaviest stuff,

00:18:33.960 on who's the best shot, who can secure a target the fastest,

00:18:37.140 because that same mentality and attitude exists towards women as well, whether it's during the workup cycle or what have you,

00:18:46.340 is that the biological differences between men and women are there.

00:18:50.180 And when you take that fraction of one percentage of the highest level in terms of professional soldiers who are at that level,

00:18:59.320 their job is to represent a nation and go to other nations and defeat them in their backyard,

00:19:06.080 kick doors in, shoot people in the face, and be the best at it, is that that causes problems.

00:19:12.960 And even in just the competitive nature between who's the best shot and who's the best athlete and everything else,

00:19:17.680 when you throw women in the mix, now you have a genetic component that, in my opinion, again, I have no doubt,

00:19:23.860 there's plenty of people that would argue, is that there is an element, and I see this a lot in dogs, too.

00:19:30.140 This is one of the parallels between humans and dogs, is that men act towards women differently, especially in this country.

00:19:36.280 Is that we are taught, most of us, from day one, is that you treat them differently.

00:19:40.420 Is that you don't put your hands on a woman.

00:19:41.980 You do certain things for them.

00:19:43.700 You protect them in the face of danger.

00:19:46.080 And so if now I have 10 or 15 of my comrades, one or two or five, or however many of which are a woman,

00:19:54.020 your genetic hardwiring, in my opinion, is going to cause havoc in terms of now when bullets are flying

00:20:01.820 and people are getting shot and blown up and are injured and some need to be saved, etc.,

00:20:06.260 is that now that throws genetic hardwiring into the mix that is never going to pan out in a positive manner.

00:20:13.020 When I was in, the whole don't ask, don't tell what's going on, right?

00:20:18.660 And I remember we'd go to clubs, and you could always tell all of a sudden,

00:20:23.040 you go to all these clubs, and suddenly you go into a gay club.

00:20:25.620 Sometimes the gay clubs were the best ones to go to because you had no competition,

00:20:30.460 because you're going in the most beautiful woman who still love to go to gay clubs

00:20:33.000 because they didn't want to be bothered, right?

00:20:37.000 So you're going all of a sudden, the market's really smart, and you're having fun.

00:20:39.720 But then one of your guys, you know, said, wait a minute, this guy's in the Army.

00:20:42.220 What are you doing?

00:20:42.820 And he starts, like, that was kind of a, so I didn't know you were gay.

00:20:46.520 Well, I am, but it was don't ask, don't tell, right?

00:20:49.020 And this was 97.

00:20:50.740 And when we got to the unit, I remember my sergeant would say,

00:20:54.820 don't ever be in a room with a female soldier.

00:21:00.160 Don't ever be in the barracks with one with doors closed.

00:21:02.620 Just don't do it.

00:21:03.760 And I said, why not?

00:21:04.400 He would sit inside and say, just don't do it.

00:21:06.220 Why not?

00:21:07.220 Then story came out.

00:21:08.280 One of the guys was in, and he's saying, dude, I'm telling you, I didn't do nothing to her.

00:21:11.540 But he went in, and he told everybody that he did take advantage of it.

00:21:15.100 He raped her, and then boom, he went in, and he did some time, right?

00:21:18.140 So, but no one knows the truth.

00:21:20.600 No one was in there to know the truth.

00:21:22.060 Where I'm going with this is the following.

00:21:23.100 How much has it changed from don't ask, don't tell to today, and now trans?

00:21:28.660 Like, I remember you're in, you're saying, hey, you piece of, you know, you think you're from L.A.,

00:21:33.480 but you're a nobody.

00:21:34.800 We're going to kick.

00:21:35.760 And they talk to you, you know, they don't talk to you like a lightweight.

00:21:39.940 How careful do you have to be with your language today when you're talking to new recruits?

00:21:44.200 I mean, I've been out for 10 years, or actually over 10 years.

00:21:48.020 I got out in November of 2008.

00:21:49.220 So just from the people that I've kept in contact with that, you know, that I value their opinion,

00:21:56.460 it's changed pretty drastically, and that's part of it.

00:22:00.200 You know, again, hazing, certain language, you know, there are certain things that, again,

00:22:05.360 this is, of course, always my opinion.

00:22:07.320 But, you know, warfare, generally speaking, is a pretty brutal business, and it's one where you really can't have feelings

00:22:15.840 that have the ability to be injured or hurt the way that we get offended in our society today with the littlest thing.

00:22:24.840 You know, from an emotional standpoint, there's a level of emotional maturity and strength that has to be there

00:22:34.080 for you to be an effective warfighter, and if it's not, I think it causes problems.

00:22:38.680 And I think, you know, the Eddie Gallagher case, as an example, I think is a good example of where there's a newer generation

00:22:46.300 of soldiers that have grown up under the umbrella of political correctness,

00:22:52.520 and I see it causing problems with cases like that.

00:22:56.220 You've got a guy who kind of grew up more in my generation under a certain way,

00:23:00.760 and as he's gotten older, bordering on being a dinosaur in the community by their standards,

00:23:07.020 you know, I see that, you know, that's where a lot of those problems come from,

00:23:12.180 is that you've got a newer crop of guys that just view the world differently

00:23:17.480 because they've grown up in a different world.

00:23:19.620 It's got to be very, you know, I remember there was a time where people,

00:23:25.240 you kind of either wanted to be a ranger or you wanted to be a special forces.

00:23:28.400 My buddy became a delta who's got more of your personality.

00:23:31.700 You know, we're going to the fifth group to be recruited to be 18 deltas,

00:23:34.700 and the last minute I come out, he gets my orders, he goes in Vicenza,

00:23:38.200 the rest is history, he gets picked up by delta, and that's the life he lives.

00:23:41.800 And he did all this stuff, all the stories that he's got.

00:23:44.300 Very good friend.

00:23:44.860 We were at the same unit for two and a half years.

00:23:46.980 He worked here briefly for about six, seven, eight months.

00:23:51.560 You know, I don't know what it's like to want to be a drill instructor today.

00:23:57.660 Like, I don't know, you know, like, the hat, you say,

00:24:00.660 oh my gosh, what would it be to be an instructor?

00:24:03.000 I bet it's so cool to be an instructor.

00:24:04.700 I don't know if I would want to be an instructor today.

00:24:07.180 I wouldn't.

00:24:07.740 I mean, I was a SEAL instructor the last three and a half years I was in.

00:24:11.140 Of course, that was, you know, 05 to the end of 08.

00:24:14.060 And so even, you know, since then, times have changed drastically.

00:24:19.520 Again, I don't advocate brutality for the sake of being brutal.

00:24:24.220 I don't advocate harsh standards just because you feel like being a dick.

00:24:29.000 Like, to me, it's 100% results driven is that war is a nasty business.

00:24:34.560 You want the best guys who are going to maximize your highest percentage chance of being, A, successful and, B, able to make it home in one piece.

00:24:43.800 And to get yourself ready for things like that, you have to run a tight ship and you have to have high standards and you have to be hard on one another.

00:24:52.760 You know, the pipeline, the process that exists, the selection, whether it's for Green Braves, whether it's Ranger School, whether it's BUDS, whether it's, you know, selection for Delta or Green Team for SEAL Team 6,

00:25:05.200 All of those have one common denominator in that, you know, they are a result of this is what we need and this is the process that we have to use to get what we need.

00:25:16.580 And it's really that simple, you know.

00:25:18.100 And so when you start to interject societal driven complaints or, you know, I would call it, you know, these politically correct norms that are becoming more and more normal that really, you know, offset or, you know, really kind of fly in the face of those traditional standards that we have and maintain

00:25:39.040 and that have given all of these units the reputation and the success that they've had, you know, then that causes problems and you're seeing it unfold as we sit here.

00:25:49.320 I don't think it's going to last a long time.

00:25:51.220 I don't think it's going to last a long time.

00:25:52.820 Here's why I don't think it's going to last a long time.

00:25:54.760 Because, you know, when you think about the political correctness comes from a certain political party, right?

00:26:01.780 You're not hearing it coming a lot from maybe the Republican side.

00:26:04.840 You're hearing a lot coming from, you know, left or Democratic Party where you can't say this.

00:26:10.460 You've got to be careful with this, right?

00:26:11.460 And so then you have the independent that's kind of in the middle saying, just leave me alone.

00:26:14.460 I'm a libertarian.

00:26:15.100 I want to get to where I'll make money, but don't bother me.

00:26:17.400 What is starting to happen right now is everybody's being affected by the, you know, politically correctness.

00:26:23.140 The PC movement's affecting everybody.

00:26:24.720 So it's tough to be a comedian today.

00:26:26.720 I mean, you've got a Dave Chappelle that goes and does a stand-up and, you know, oh my gosh, you can't say something like that.

00:26:33.460 What do you mean when he's given his, I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I've watched it twice.

00:26:37.900 I couldn't believe how amazing it was on how we explained everything.

00:26:41.680 So I don't know how long this is going to last on the politically correct.

00:26:47.580 I think eventually they're going to be like, look, we can't just do this.

00:26:50.580 Somebody needs to go out there and say it.

00:26:52.680 But we'll see what's going to happen.

00:26:53.980 What do you think about that?

00:26:54.740 How long do you think this could last?

00:26:55.920 I think it depends on how long we are successful as a country.

00:26:59.540 I think that political correctness, generally speaking, or as a whole, is a direct reflection of a country's successfulness.

00:27:08.500 If you look at any other countries, we'll take your place of birth as an example.

00:27:14.380 Political correctness really doesn't exist there, at least not anywhere near in the same realm as it does here.

00:27:21.140 Why is that?

00:27:22.000 Or take a look at the Philippines or Indonesia or any places where their GDP is a fraction of what ours is.

00:27:29.200 And most of the day-to-day struggle is in survival.

00:27:32.900 Why don't they have it there?

00:27:33.940 Well, because they don't have the leverage, the flexibility, or frankly, the luxury to be pissed or offended by certain words.

00:27:41.500 Because it doesn't matter.

00:27:42.800 Because they're too busy worried about just surviving.

00:27:44.880 And so our country has been so successful for so long, no different than, say, the Roman Empire, having a similar fate.

00:27:54.460 And that, you know, it's the cycle of hard times create hard men, you know, and you know the rest.

00:28:01.240 But you get to a certain point where it's been so easy for us for so many generations to where now it's inevitable.

00:28:07.440 So to me, it's a correction is coming of some sort, whether it's another country, whether it's a natural disaster, whether it's a coronavirus type of pandemic, who knows.

00:28:17.540 But to me, the only way that I really see that political correctness umbrella being lifted off of our society is a huge kick in the nuts, frankly.

00:28:28.220 Is that that's what it's going to take for people to say, you know what, who cares about words?

00:28:32.340 I've got to feed my children.

00:28:33.760 I think it's coming.

00:28:35.740 I think there's going to be the huge kick in the nuts coming very soon.

00:28:38.560 By the way, the coronavirus, how do you process that?

00:28:41.260 To me, I think it's largely overblown.

00:28:44.100 You know, to me, I think just like with most things in the media, you've got two major components that are contributing to how big of a headline it's become and continues to be,

00:28:54.500 which is it's an election year, overwhelmingly left-run media.

00:28:59.080 And it's a way, it's one more way to further criticize the president.

00:29:03.800 I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a huge supporter or anti, I fall somewhere in the middle.

00:29:09.800 But, you know, it's undeniable, in my opinion, that the media is doing whatever they can and using any excuse that they can to try to attack them.

00:29:18.260 And that's part of it. I think the bigger factor is that the media uses anything, whether it's Kobe Bryant or the coronavirus or transgender in the military or whatever it is,

00:29:29.480 is that if they can find certain stories and headlines that separate people and piss people off and polarize this country is that what do people do?

00:29:38.940 Well, they watch, you know, and nothing will make somebody pay attention closer than being scared.

00:29:44.120 And if people are fearing for their lives, of course, they're going to watch the news 25 hours a day and try to be spoon-fed so that they're the best prepared to deal with something that, in my opinion, you know, again, is really not worth worrying about.

00:29:59.540 No more than the flu, the regular flu.

00:30:01.460 I mean, I know the mortality rate is slightly higher, but if you look at, at least from what I've gathered, is that the people who are actually expiring from coronavirus are in the same health category as the people that die or have the mortality rate bands of the normal influenza.

00:30:18.800 So I really don't think it's a big deal. I'm certainly not worried about it, I can tell you that.

00:30:23.500 What do you think needs to happen for President Trump to not get reelected? Not reelected, but not get reelected.

00:30:30.860 At this point right now, even Business Insider said, investors from the left in New York, they said, if Bernie is the nominee, we're going to go for Trump.

00:30:42.340 These are Democrats. They're saying, if Bernie is the nominee, we're going for Trump.

00:30:47.260 But what do you think needs to happen? Like, could a coronavirus getting out of control hurt him getting reelected?

00:30:54.220 For sure it could, to the depths with which is anybody's guess.

00:30:58.740 I think for sure it's a factor. I think the biggest factor, frankly, is when you see the level of support that's been garnered for a guy like Bernie Sanders,

00:31:06.600 is that it's taken full advantage of what I just mentioned, is, you know, a politically correct, soft and weak society that doesn't really understand how the world works.

00:31:17.260 You know, that there is no such thing as free college. Somebody's paying for it. Just because you're not paying for it doesn't make it free.

00:31:23.760 You know, and because social media is so manipulative and because our education system from K through 12 and especially in the universities is so ignorant to the way this country was formed

00:31:39.420 and more importantly, why it was formed, I think is scary and it speaks volumes in the fact that civics classes basically don't exist anymore.

00:31:48.300 And if you ask anybody from the, you know, from the age of even starting to be in the age of reason to say in their late 20s,

00:31:57.040 almost all of them or almost none of them can accurately and correctly answer basic tenets of our government,

00:32:03.860 of how bills are passed, of basic American history, basic world history, and kind of why this country exists, how it got to where it is.

00:32:11.180 Capitalism is the reason that a guy like Bernie even has the ability to get to where he is, which the irony is, is ridiculous with that.

00:32:19.600 And the fact that most people don't pick up on that, to me, is frightening.

00:32:23.960 And there's enough people at this point, if you see how much success he had in 2016 and how close he came, you know,

00:32:33.260 and had the entire Clinton machine against him, had CNN was against him, and the entire DNC was against him.

00:32:39.040 And he still almost beat her out.

00:32:40.800 If he had had a fair shake, he very well may have beaten her out.

00:32:45.380 Four years have gone by and now he's that much stronger.

00:32:48.260 Or I should say, our society is that much weaker and that much more willing to hand over the keys to their everything

00:32:55.060 to a guy who promises them things that he absolutely, I mean, just mathematically cannot deliver.

00:33:02.440 And the fact that people don't understand that, that can listen to that guy talk and say,

00:33:06.400 yeah, that sounds awesome, to me is frightening.

00:33:09.400 Why do you think he's getting so much momentum?

00:33:11.320 It's for those exact reasons.

00:33:13.140 It's a lack of civics classes.

00:33:15.000 It's a political correct nature.

00:33:16.800 You think that's it?

00:33:18.800 I absolutely do.

00:33:19.980 I think that our success has become our own worst enemy.

00:33:23.240 How much of that you put on the media?

00:33:25.640 A lot of it.

00:33:26.520 Not all of it.

00:33:27.200 I mean, it's a combination.

00:33:28.480 It's like with most things is that, you know, there's a multitude of factors.

00:33:32.740 The media plays a big role, but it's not the only role.

00:33:35.380 You know, our success technology, as an example, has made our lives so easy to where we don't,

00:33:41.700 as human beings, you know, for the first time in human history, in the last, we'll say, 30 to 50 years maybe,

00:33:47.180 is the first time in thousands, tens of thousands of years where our main day-to-day isn't based around just surviving.

00:33:56.400 You know, go camping in a national forest, not even at a campground in a national park or a state park.

00:34:01.020 Go into just BLM land and live out of your vehicle or out of a tent for five days a week, self-contained,

00:34:07.620 where you've got to purify your own water, gather your own food, gather your own wood, and basically just survive.

00:34:13.240 And you'll find out in a matter of hours that none of the rest of it matters.

00:34:17.260 And that's how we lived as a species forever until just very recently.

00:34:23.120 And so the technological advances that have made our lives easy changes everything.

00:34:29.900 It changes breeding partners.

00:34:31.760 It changes how you raise your family.

00:34:33.280 It changes what you give a shit about.

00:34:34.760 It changes what your priorities are.

00:34:36.620 When you completely alter all of those things that are vastly different from how they have been genetically ingrained in us for millennia,

00:34:44.880 it's a flip of a coin as to what happens.

00:34:47.860 And I think that's why you see the ridiculousness that you see at this point.

00:34:52.320 Yeah, it is ridiculous.

00:34:53.480 That's the best way of putting it.

00:34:54.480 It is craziness because I came here to get away from the craziness.

00:34:58.380 And now you're right in the thick of it.

00:34:59.500 Yeah, and it's kind of like, well, you know, America's not a great country to be in.

00:35:05.040 You don't understand what they do over here.

00:35:06.620 There's a lot better places to go to in Europe.

00:35:08.540 But everyone who's saying there's a lot of places to go to, they're not moving.

00:35:11.180 They're staying here.

00:35:11.940 Yeah, capitalism ultimately reigns king.

00:35:14.140 I mean, we lived in Iran, and we said there are other places to go to.

00:35:17.800 And people are like, well, then go.

00:35:19.020 And we did.

00:35:19.740 A bunch of people left because there's many other places to go to that's better than when we were living there.

00:35:25.800 Let me ask you personality-wise.

00:35:28.360 Do you, when you went to Bud's and, you know, you were out and you eventually became an instructor,

00:35:33.140 and so you got two different point of views, right?

00:35:35.400 You got the point of view of running with your guys,

00:35:37.620 and you got the point of view of going and doing different missions and assignments,

00:35:40.280 and then you have the point of view of being the instructor and kind of monitoring everybody and seeing that.

00:35:44.300 That guy can make you like, you know, the game you play where before the instructor's like,

00:35:48.360 so who do you think's not going to make it?

00:35:49.760 You know, 100 bucks says that guy's not going to make it.

00:35:51.340 This guy's not going to make it.

00:35:52.100 You know, whatever.

00:35:52.420 You're kind of watching everybody, right?

00:35:53.820 Like when you go to a wedding with your friends, and when we were in the Army,

00:35:56.860 you know, you got drinking buddies, and you go to the wedding, you would say,

00:36:00.220 how long do you think?

00:36:01.240 Nine months?

00:36:02.200 18 months?

00:36:03.080 You know, maybe, right?

00:36:05.120 And you would...

00:36:05.520 If he's deployed half the time.

00:36:06.420 If he's deployed half the time, she's at the club.

00:36:08.680 So you would sit there and you would talk about this stuff.

00:36:10.920 But do you see a trend?

00:36:14.280 Do you see a trend with who makes a good seal and who doesn't?

00:36:20.140 Like, do you notice any commonality?

00:36:22.640 Because personality-wise, you have a different personality than some of the other seals I've sat with.

00:36:28.320 But what do you see as a commonality, similarity between the guys that make it?

00:36:32.480 Well, so there's two points I would bring up.

00:36:34.560 There's actually a third perspective that I gained in being at a seal team for a number of years.

00:36:40.280 And so I had the student experience.

00:36:42.560 I had the instructor experience.

00:36:43.800 But I had, you know, the opportunity, I would call it,

00:36:47.180 to also observe students after me that were coming to the team and how well they did.

00:36:52.220 You know, and during that period, you know, was there a difference?

00:36:56.000 Are there trends even with the new guys?

00:36:58.420 And I think it's human nature to always think it was harder back when I did it

00:37:01.840 and, you know, the next generation is soft.

00:37:03.440 There's an element of that to everything that I'm saying.

00:37:06.160 However, I will say that, you know, the commonality that exists here,

00:37:11.140 your second question, just very plainly and simply,

00:37:15.380 is that the process is what that commonality is.

00:37:18.620 And that's the beauty of the process that is BUDS is that what you don't realize as a student,

00:37:23.480 and maybe they do now because the gig is up, I think, much more so than it was when I was a student

00:37:29.400 in terms of prospective students being able to game the system a little bit

00:37:33.340 and know, you know, what all the evolutions are and what the standards are and et cetera.

00:37:36.680 But there's still enough of a cloaked element to that process that exists

00:37:42.920 and just the fact that physically and mentally it is hard.

00:37:46.380 I don't care who you are.

00:37:47.400 You know, you can't show up in good enough shape to make it.

00:37:50.780 There's going to come a point in every individual that shows up there

00:37:53.340 that's going to have to rely on his mind.

00:37:56.220 And so the commonality that exists between frogmen, even to this day,

00:37:59.900 even though the process, in my opinion, has maybe wavered a little bit,

00:38:04.960 is that you still have instructors that were put through by instructors

00:38:08.220 that were put through by instructors, you know, going all the way back to the early 60s,

00:38:12.720 you know, in the Vietnam standards, that there's still an element of that

00:38:16.440 that just gets passed down from instructor to student during that process.

00:38:21.360 And so even now, I know some guys that I worked with that are now still instructors there,

00:38:26.300 that are still hard asses, that are still, you know, doing the over their shoulder

00:38:30.180 and making sure that the students are earning it, you know, and thank God for that

00:38:35.640 and that the product, I think, is still adequate.

00:38:38.820 But it's absolutely different, you know, and it's different because of all of the

00:38:42.540 aforementioned PC crap.

00:38:45.200 Sounds like you like the PC stuff a lot, you know.

00:38:47.860 I'm a huge fan.

00:38:48.200 It's like you're a big fan of it.

00:38:49.200 I thought for sure you were going to wear like a Pro PC shirt when you came in here.

00:38:52.080 This is, actually.

00:38:52.700 This is a Pro PC shirt.

00:38:53.800 It's blue, right?

00:38:54.360 Blue is Pro PC, isn't it?

00:38:56.300 So let's talk about dogs.

00:38:59.320 So what happened with the transition of, you know, doing what you're doing

00:39:03.540 to now becoming a dog behavior?

00:39:04.960 How did that happen?

00:39:06.060 Two things.

00:39:06.640 One, I grew up a dog guy in northern Iowa, a lot of duck hunting dogs,

00:39:11.120 labs and, you know, bird dogs, generally speaking.

00:39:14.720 So I was always a huge fan of dogs growing up.

00:39:16.720 I was always a dog guy more so.

00:39:18.560 I mean, everybody, you know, has it or a lot of people have dogs growing up.

00:39:21.100 I was really into it.

00:39:22.120 Having said that, as I came into the Navy and started to kind of, you know, see in certain

00:39:28.860 glimpses and different elements of the military and how they use dogs, that's when I really

00:39:32.900 became enamored with that application of them.

00:39:35.860 You know, I always marveled at, you know, a dog or any canine's ability to use its nose

00:39:41.020 and to, you know, deal with environmental challenges that we would have a harder time with.

00:39:46.800 But that was, you know, enormously magnified when I actually started to see them kind of work

00:39:52.260 and what they were capable of.

00:39:54.140 And so on a deployment to Iraq, there was a group of Marines in the area that we were in,

00:40:00.460 and they had an explosive detector dog that basically was responsible for saving the lives

00:40:05.440 of a number of young Marines.

00:40:06.920 And for me, that was where everything kind of clicked and went from just being, you know,

00:40:11.160 a casual, you know, hobby or observation where I looked fondly on it to where we've been in a

00:40:19.100 situation like these guys God knows how many times and we've never had a dog with us.

00:40:22.940 Why not?

00:40:23.480 And so from that point on, which is in early 03 until as I sit here, I just have not been able

00:40:29.960 to satiate that desire to learn more and more about dogs, specifically to their use

00:40:34.560 with apprehension and detection and military and police type of work.

00:40:37.960 So, you know, it's been a, you know, the majority of my adult life kind of dedicated to really

00:40:44.520 honing and mastering and trying to be able to educate as best I can, whether it's police

00:40:50.800 canine handlers, military handlers, trainers, civilians, et cetera, and kind of putting it

00:40:55.880 all together.

00:40:56.440 And, you know, the unique thing about dogs is that whether you're talking on, you know,

00:41:01.160 a high-speed explosive detection dog at a federal law enforcement or special operations

00:41:07.320 unit or all the way down to, you know, the neighbor's labradoodle that's knocking your

00:41:12.560 kids off of his bike, the way that you train those dogs and a lot of the elements of just

00:41:19.020 basic operant conditioning and basic canine psychology are the exact same.

00:41:23.480 A and B may be very different, but the way that you get there is largely the same.

00:41:28.460 When you were with the Marine guys, do you remember some of the guys' names?

00:41:31.000 Like, were you close to some of them?

00:41:32.440 I wasn't even there for the actual operation.

00:41:34.780 They were operating in an area that we were in, and it was basically hearsay is that, hey,

00:41:40.200 they had this bomb dog that found a grenade booby trap clump in the entrance of a, not

00:41:45.980 a cave, but kind of a hole in the wall of a berm, basically, and a dog found, sat on and

00:41:53.200 indicated on a couple of grenades that were booby trapped right there, and that was it.

00:41:56.840 And for me, again, it was just, we've been all over this country doing all sorts of different

00:42:01.340 operations and raids, and we never had a dog with us, and for me, that was the slap in

00:42:05.400 the face or the light switch of saying, you know, Christ, why are we not using these dogs

00:42:09.660 in that same capacity?

00:42:11.220 I had an old acquaintance who was in the Marine, and he was all about training dogs.

00:42:16.280 He eventually wrote a book about it.

00:42:17.320 He's an actor right now.

00:42:18.160 He does something in movies right now.

00:42:19.340 The guy's name was Mike, but I thought maybe there was some kind of, that would have been

00:42:23.260 wild if there was some kind of a connection there.

00:42:24.740 So, you're doing that now while you're SEAL, did you start training dogs then or not yet?

00:42:30.760 That hasn't happened yet until you get out.

00:42:32.420 On the civilian side, I did.

00:42:33.960 Okay, got it.

00:42:34.560 So, at that time, you know, in 03, 04, the start of the Iraq war, our, meaning special operations

00:42:42.400 use of canines was extremely limited.

00:42:45.760 I mean, it was basically non-existent.

00:42:47.140 And so, as we grew as a community, just like any other element that you're adding to your

00:42:53.160 warfighting force is that that takes, you know, years to really develop a level of competency

00:42:57.700 where when employed overseas in actual combat, it's an actual asset and not a liability.

00:43:03.760 It takes a long time to get to that point.

00:43:05.640 And so, you know, I was training, you know, with Dutch Shepherds and Malinois and German

00:43:10.820 Shepherds and different dogs in those same or similar capacities with either sport clubs

00:43:16.720 or, you know, if I could get my hands on, you know, training DVDs or police canine training

00:43:23.320 books, which, you know, there's been quite a few of them out over the years, or going

00:43:27.060 to police canine seminars or anything I could get a hold of.

00:43:30.460 You know, I was buying dogs that were being imported from Germany and from Belgium and from

00:43:35.660 Holland and training with them and working them myself and doing a lot of things, kind

00:43:41.100 of learning through the school of hard knocks.

00:43:42.780 And so as I got closer to getting out and in that same 2004 timeframe, one of the biggest

00:43:49.860 reasons I got into dogs was I got a fungal lung infection where I lost about 40% of my

00:43:56.140 lung capacity.

00:43:57.440 I was offered a medical retirement at the time.

00:44:00.400 And at that time, I had my first child on the way.

00:44:04.680 I had no college degree and no plan of getting out anytime soon.

00:44:07.940 And so with that wrench in the gears, that shifted of saying, okay, well, I need to go to

00:44:12.760 figure something out.

00:44:13.900 And so that coupled with, you know, the light switch moment of overseas of already having

00:44:20.180 that, I was on convalescent leave for about nine months.

00:44:23.880 And during that time, I was laid up most of that time and just was enamored by dogs and,

00:44:29.980 you know, breeding theory and veterinary medicine and conditioning and you name it.

00:44:34.700 And the more I learned, the more interested I was.

00:44:37.680 As I got closer to being a civilian is when I was offered a position on the West Coast to

00:44:44.180 be a canine handler and turned it down to get out and start my own canine company.

00:44:49.720 And, you know, just like joining the Navy and wanting to be a SEAL, I've really always

00:44:54.160 taken the most bang for your buck approach in terms of my decision-making process.

00:44:58.800 And as much as I wanted to stay in and be a handler, physically, I wasn't 100% convinced

00:45:05.600 that I would be able to do it and not be a liability to the team, as well as I felt like

00:45:12.120 my impact would and could be greater felt by starting my own company and training lots

00:45:17.340 of dogs, handlers, running courses, things of that nature.

00:45:20.200 Which dog do you find to be your favorite one to train?

00:45:24.200 Is there any specific one for war, for military, if there is one?

00:45:28.200 For sure, the Malinois and the Dutch Shepherd, which in my opinion, there will be people that,

00:45:32.660 you know, will give me a hard time for saying this, but I view it like a chocolate lab and

00:45:36.880 a yellow lab.

00:45:37.680 In my opinion, it's basically the same dog.

00:45:40.440 But the Malinois and the Dutch Shepherd, I think are, if you're looking at just the basic

00:45:45.980 breed standard, I think percentage-wise you find more dogs in those two breeds than any other

00:45:51.820 breed that successfully have what it takes to do that type of work.

00:45:57.200 Interesting.

00:45:58.560 When it comes down to dogs, training dogs, so obviously for you, you do this professionally.

00:46:04.800 Can anybody get good at training dogs as well?

00:46:08.120 Anybody.

00:46:08.600 Anybody that's just, you know, an engineer at Raytheon says, you know what, I also want

00:46:12.220 to know how I can train my dogs better.

00:46:13.780 Can I get better at it or is it better off me sending my dogs to somebody who's an expert

00:46:18.640 to train and then it comes back to me?

00:46:20.360 Everybody can get better at it.

00:46:22.260 Okay.

00:46:22.680 To me, it's no different than really any other skill set.

00:46:25.480 And you could take, you know, carpentry or bricklaying or brain surgery or being a chef

00:46:31.240 or what have you is that the people that have a natural innate ability or a knack for that

00:46:37.920 type of work, whatever that type of work is, in this case, dog training, are the ones who

00:46:42.300 are world-class coupled with the passion, desire, drive, commitment, and consistency, just

00:46:48.440 like building a business or anything else, is that, you know, if your goal is to be a

00:46:52.980 good dog trainer, your genetics are going to limit the level at which you can attain in

00:46:58.900 terms of being world-class or just good or decent or great or whatever.

00:47:03.120 Your drive and consistency and desire and will to succeed is what's going to at least allow

00:47:09.480 you to cap or maximize that genetic potential, just like in every other, you know, affirmation

00:47:15.180 to that thing.

00:47:16.200 So, you know, to me, unquestionably, I mean, the whole reason I started my online training

00:47:20.620 program was to help people do it themselves.

00:47:24.120 Yeah, there are some people that are probably just better suited to hand their dog off to

00:47:28.480 somebody and have most of the training or even all of it done.

00:47:30.800 Even in the dogs I deliver for, say, personal protection is that I spend a lot of time educating

00:47:35.800 those new owners on how to handle the dog, how to think like the dog, how to view the

00:47:40.300 world from the dog's perspective because dogs, you know, their mind works more like a calculator

00:47:46.720 than it does our mind.

00:47:48.380 What do you mean by that?

00:47:49.060 We think in a language.

00:47:51.100 Think about the amount of information that you and I have exchanged just in the half hour

00:47:55.520 or so that we've been sitting here.

00:47:56.740 It's enormous.

00:47:58.500 Human beings overwhelmingly are verbal.

00:48:00.420 We think in a language, you know, we conversate in a language, we dream in a language, you

00:48:04.020 think about your goals in a language, daydream, et cetera.

00:48:08.000 Dogs don't, right?

00:48:09.480 Well, how do they view the world?

00:48:10.880 Well, they view the world in simple association.

00:48:13.440 So a dog's world is A plus B equals C with everything, you know, whereas ours is mostly

00:48:19.360 verbal through either text or verbal communication.

00:48:22.300 So understanding that is really the backbone of being a successful dog trainer is that if you

00:48:29.100 don't look at the world through the dog's eyes and think about his interactions the way

00:48:34.820 he views them, no different than, you know, a boss with their employees, a coach with his

00:48:39.760 athletes, a teacher with their students, a parenting unit with their children, is that

00:48:45.700 you've got to be able to relate to whoever it is that you're trying to teach, train, coach,

00:48:49.480 educate, et cetera.

00:48:50.520 If you don't, what happens?

00:48:52.840 You know what you're talking about.

00:48:54.520 They have no idea what you're talking about.

00:48:56.260 And so most people's biggest problem is that they don't view the world through the dog's

00:49:01.100 eyes, which is, again, a simple association.

00:49:03.220 That's where basic psychology and very, very simple tenets of operant conditioning come into

00:49:09.320 play.

00:49:09.900 So to move dogs and move people, what are the similarities and what are the differences?

00:49:17.360 So if I'm trying to move a dog versus moving a person, is there some similarities?

00:49:20.740 In terms of moving them how?

00:49:21.880 Not moving, like driving them, motivating them to take action.

00:49:25.880 There's almost no difference.

00:49:27.580 Almost no difference.

00:49:28.320 Almost no difference in that.

00:49:29.840 Take any of your employees here, right?

00:49:31.520 Is it what motivates them?

00:49:33.080 Well, human beings have a currency system that equates to everything else that they're

00:49:37.320 driven for.

00:49:37.940 Now, if you took away currency, right?

00:49:40.120 Human's ability to hold and possess and value currency, go back to, say, bartering days.

00:49:45.560 Well, that's exactly what that is.

00:49:47.220 And so the key for the human being in terms of training the dog is actually very simple,

00:49:51.480 is that you have to find out what motivates the dog.

00:49:54.640 And then you use that to motivate the dog.

00:49:57.000 The problem is that some dogs will bite through your hand to get to a tennis ball because they're

00:50:03.340 that driven for it.

00:50:04.600 Some dogs, you could bounce it off of their forehead and they wouldn't even look at it.

00:50:08.060 Some dogs love attention.

00:50:09.480 Some dogs hate it to the point where actually going away from them is a reward.

00:50:13.320 Some dogs' food drive as such similarly is that some act like, you know, that they don't need

00:50:22.360 to eat for the rest of their life.

00:50:23.520 Some, even though they're overweight, act like they're starving to death.

00:50:27.420 We've all seen the fat lab not picking on anybody, but that'll break through a cabinet

00:50:33.380 to get to a box of milk bones that he can smell in a kitchen.

00:50:36.680 So it's really, it's understanding, you know, A, how that dog views the world, and then

00:50:41.940 B, finding out what that dog is motivated for.

00:50:44.760 And then the last component, equally simple, but where people fail is that they're lazy,

00:50:49.440 is it's setting up the environment for success.

00:50:51.780 We do the same thing with our kids, right?

00:50:53.580 You don't try to teach arithmetic at Disney World.

00:50:56.180 Why not?

00:50:56.640 Because they're distracted.

00:50:58.080 Look at a classroom.

00:50:59.020 Well, it's very focused.

00:50:59.980 It's quiet.

00:51:00.500 It's organized.

00:51:01.240 There's rules.

00:51:02.540 There's tenets of principles that set those kids up for success.

00:51:06.760 Same thing when you're training employees to do something.

00:51:09.080 You're not going to do it at Starbucks, or at least I hope not.

00:51:11.520 Why?

00:51:11.920 Because they would be distracted.

00:51:13.540 So with dogs, it's no different.

00:51:14.700 I see people, you know, trying to train their dogs at dog parks or on walks or in their living

00:51:20.220 room when there's nine kids running around and a cat and a squirrel and whatever else,

00:51:24.180 and the dog's not paying attention to them.

00:51:25.960 So it's using the environment coupled with whatever they're motivated for in conjunction

00:51:31.020 with understanding how they view the world, all joined together for a very basic principled

00:51:37.500 system on how to reinforce the dog for doing what you want and how to use consequence to

00:51:43.620 extinguish what you don't want.

00:51:45.180 And it's really that simple.

00:51:46.680 All I'm thinking about is my dogs is where I'm going.

00:51:48.920 Well, your kids are the same way.

00:51:50.240 Yeah.

00:51:50.520 You know, they're all different.

00:51:52.280 The way you're describing it is very interesting that some dogs just don't.

00:51:55.500 I mean, these two are complete opposite personalities.

00:51:58.880 Right.

00:51:59.000 Just like with kids, you know, excuse me, you know, a lot of times, I mean, I can tell

00:52:02.840 you I have three siblings.

00:52:04.100 All four of us are polar opposites.

00:52:06.080 None of us are alike.

00:52:07.400 Even within the same litter, you know, just because they're your dogs at your house, you

00:52:11.460 know, I'm assuming they're either different breeds or come from different litters at a

00:52:14.240 minimum.

00:52:15.280 All of those things, you know, the way they were raised, whatever their breed components

00:52:18.920 are, their genetic traits that are passed down from their parents, you know, what type of

00:52:23.620 stressors or not, the female had while she was pregnant.

00:52:27.300 You know, what was the whelping environment like?

00:52:29.460 What were the first six to eight weeks like in terms of human interaction versus not?

00:52:33.440 You know, there's a multitude of factors.

00:52:34.980 But the fact is, is that whether you're taking an eight-week-old puppy that had all of those

00:52:38.880 things, you know, in its favor or to its advantage, or you're getting a four-year-old

00:52:43.800 rescue shelter dog that's an absolute train wreck, the way that you're going to approach

00:52:48.480 training that animal is exactly the same.

00:52:51.480 Are you a cat guy or no?

00:52:52.840 I like cheetahs.

00:52:54.220 I like big cats.

00:52:55.540 I mean, to me, I like any animal that can provide something.

00:52:57.760 So small domesticated cats, I like feral cats, mausers that, you know, will keep the riff-raff

00:53:04.740 out of a barn.

00:53:05.600 Or like there's a calico cat that kind of runs around my dog kennel that keeps mice at

00:53:12.360 bay.

00:53:12.580 You know, there's a lot of dog food and other things that entice rodents and vermin to come

00:53:18.380 around.

00:53:18.940 And this tomcat, he's pretty nasty.

00:53:22.060 You know, he doesn't sweat the dogs and he keeps the riff-raff out.

00:53:25.400 So for me, animals, generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of just companionship.

00:53:30.580 I love companionship of an animal that also provides something.

00:53:34.180 I mean, that's why I like working dogs in all different capacities.

00:53:37.660 So you were never inspired to want to train cats?

00:53:40.560 It depends.

00:53:41.760 Small cats, small domesticated cats.

00:53:43.020 I mean, if you were taken like...

00:53:45.400 I would have trained these cats, by the way.

00:53:46.980 The same way.

00:53:47.960 I would use markers and reinforcement.

00:53:50.140 I'd use food with them.

00:53:51.900 I probably wouldn't mess with catnip or with toys or things of that nature.

00:53:55.600 I would feed them through training.

00:53:57.880 A big misconception people have is that you're going to starve a dog.

00:54:00.760 The way I like to couch it, and I go over it in my online training, but as I take...

00:54:05.220 I use crates and food initially, just like we went through boot camp, right?

00:54:09.140 Is that you're conditioning a dog to behave how you want.

00:54:12.640 However that is, however it is that you want the dog to behave, is that you're setting yourself

00:54:17.340 up for success by saying, okay, I'm going to remove the white noise by using a classroom-like

00:54:23.520 environment to say, here are the things I want you to do.

00:54:26.280 And you do that by waiting for them to happen, marking them, and rewarding them.

00:54:29.820 So I would do the same thing with a cat.

00:54:31.140 I would use the cat's food if I wanted to, and they did this during the Cold War, actually.

00:54:36.080 They actually used cats to spy on other nations' meetings and places of government alignment

00:54:45.640 and what have you, and that they would train cats to have listening devices or small video

00:54:50.860 recorders or a host of other different things.

00:54:54.000 But they would train them using markers and reinforcement to go, you know, spy on Russian

00:55:00.560 meetings, basically.

00:55:01.780 But they did the same thing in World War II with pigeons.

00:55:04.560 They would use pigeons to peck at navigation boards to steer bombs.

00:55:09.940 I mean, it was the world's first smart bombs, was pigeon-driven munitions in World War II.

00:55:14.160 Very interesting.

00:55:14.740 Using the same mechanism.

00:55:15.800 How have dogs been used?

00:55:17.300 Obviously, IEDs, I know some of them, but what are some of the ways dogs have been used?

00:55:21.100 Well, to me, what's interesting about dogs is that if you go back to, say, the first recorded

00:55:27.060 history of man combating one another, canines were used in a lot of the same capacities, whether

00:55:33.560 it's carrying things, messaging, or protecting, is that dogs were used very similarly to how

00:55:40.360 they still are.

00:55:41.140 And when you look at the scope of mankind and how it's evolved from a combative sense in

00:55:47.020 terms of state-to-state military, et cetera, is that, you know, now you've got smart bombs,

00:55:52.360 you've got laser-guided munitions, you've got FLIR video and infrared and thermal and

00:55:56.520 all of these different platforms that, you know, 20-pound brains have developed over the

00:56:02.300 years.

00:56:03.240 The one thing, okay, and this is the only thing other than the human being that we still use,

00:56:08.440 are canines.

00:56:09.160 And to me, if our nation's tier one and tier three assets, our nation's most elite special

00:56:15.460 operations forces have dogs actually out in front of them, protecting them, we don't use

00:56:21.540 anything for anything other than that it works.

00:56:25.160 You know, and the fact that our nation's best are deploying overseas, taking canines with

00:56:29.960 them, ought to tell you that there's still a very, very effective and relevant warfighting

00:56:34.320 tactic.

00:56:34.440 That's intense, what you just said right there, very intense.

00:56:37.260 Some of the famous dogs in wars was Chips, right?

00:56:42.900 Chips is one with Patton.

00:56:44.700 Apparently, this one got a Purple Heart and a Silver Star, but they took it away from him

00:56:48.420 because they said dogs are equipments, right?

00:56:50.920 And then you got Nemo, was a Vietnam War.

00:56:54.060 This guy killed, this dog killed two Vietcongs.

00:56:57.500 Then Cario was obviously the famous one.

00:56:59.400 I want to hear your thoughts.

00:57:00.260 And then Lucas won with Iraq, and he was the one that was off-leash, just going around

00:57:05.420 collecting IEDs.

00:57:06.940 So, Cairo, did you get a chance to work with him?

00:57:10.920 Did you know the person that worked with him?

00:57:12.880 You know, how did that story become as big as it is today?

00:57:15.720 Sure.

00:57:16.200 I have not worked with the dog at all.

00:57:18.940 I have spoken with his handler, Will, who actually has a book coming out in, I don't know, a

00:57:25.160 month or two.

00:57:25.800 That's nice of you.

00:57:26.580 You put a plug in for him.

00:57:27.600 Yeah, well, he's a brother.

00:57:28.820 Will, this guy likes you.

00:57:29.740 That's a good friend right there, Will.

00:57:31.000 Will Chesney.

00:57:32.720 The book is actually called No Ordinary Dog, but it's basically the chronological account

00:57:38.560 of the Bin Laden raid through the dog's eyes, the way I understand it.

00:57:41.860 I haven't read it yet, but so Will, give me an advanced copy maybe.

00:57:45.440 But to me, that really highlights, and frankly, that raid in and of itself is really what catapulted

00:57:53.320 me into the national spotlight.

00:57:55.700 I was just at the right place at the right time.

00:57:57.940 I had just left the West Coast Multipurpose Canine Program, or was on the way out, basically,

00:58:04.160 when that raid happened.

00:58:06.260 And when it did, I think the vast majority of American citizens had just realized that

00:58:13.920 special operations were using dogs.

00:58:16.120 And not just dogs, but these laser-guided fur missiles, as a lot of people refer to them

00:58:20.640 as.

00:58:20.980 And the things that they were doing with them blew a lot of people away.

00:58:24.180 And so I was approached to actually do the book, as opposed to me approaching a publisher.

00:58:31.360 They asked me to do it.

00:58:33.620 Obviously, I ended up doing it.

00:58:35.300 And then a 60 Minutes piece followed shortly after.

00:58:38.160 And so all of that really just catapulted me into a national spotlight, undeserved.

00:58:44.800 But just, again, I was the guy at the right place at the right time for it.

00:58:49.180 And so it was a neat experience and something where it was the national interest in that

00:58:56.120 dog and that raid and knowing that using dogs to do explosive detection as well as apprehension

00:59:01.900 and thwarting ambushes and insurgents that are hidden in false floors or fake furniture

00:59:08.780 or things of that nature that a lot of people just didn't realize how valuable these dogs

00:59:13.400 are for even our nation's finest.

00:59:15.740 Yeah, that's wild.

00:59:16.480 By the way, how many dogs do you have yourself?

00:59:18.660 Your dogs?

00:59:19.540 Just mine, personally.

00:59:20.700 I've got three.

00:59:22.060 But it varies quite a bit.

00:59:23.920 What kind of dogs?

00:59:24.940 They're all Malinois.

00:59:25.800 All of them?

00:59:26.320 Yeah.

00:59:26.640 So you're fully committed to them?

00:59:27.960 You believe they're the best of the best?

00:59:29.720 I honestly don't.

00:59:31.760 It's not that I think they are or I don't think they are.

00:59:34.700 For me, I look at the dog completely irrespective of breed and sex.

00:59:40.540 Interestingly, an interesting dichotomy from the military standpoint.

00:59:43.740 Very politically correct.

00:59:44.900 I can respect that.

00:59:46.040 I mean, it's just the nature of it is that, you know, I've come across females that were

00:59:49.980 absolutely good enough where you're not integrating them with other male dogs.

00:59:54.860 I can tell you, if you had to operate in packs of 16 dogs, I would not put females in for

01:00:01.200 the exact same reason.

01:00:02.320 When it's just one handler and one dog, there are females occasionally that you come across

01:00:07.260 that are every bit as good as a male dog for that application.

01:00:10.760 But it's just the handler and the dog, and that's the huge difference.

01:00:14.700 My point is, for me, it's the dog.

01:00:17.640 If it's a German Shepherd, if it's a Pit Bull, if it's a Rottweiler or a Doberman, I don't

01:00:21.080 care what it is.

01:00:22.220 My test is what it is, irrespective of breed, sex, and whatever.

01:00:25.740 And so the dogs that pass it are the dogs that I like.

01:00:28.640 Are some easier to train than others?

01:00:30.580 Absolutely, they are.

01:00:31.900 Just like with people, some are more cognitive, some are more operant, some are quicker to

01:00:36.360 learn.

01:00:36.740 Some of them, you know, have their ability to offer behavior, which translates to me being

01:00:43.280 able to free shape a lot of the things that I want faster, is higher.

01:00:47.180 There are a number of tests and batteries that you can do to kind of gauge, you know, how

01:00:52.300 cognitively driven a dog is or not.

01:00:54.780 And that certainly plays a role.

01:00:55.960 But for me, the number one trait that I look for in a good working dog for me to own myself

01:01:01.520 is heart, just like I look for in people.

01:01:04.300 Is that I want a dog that when I get in a bite suit and I pick a fight with this dog and

01:01:08.760 I make that dog realize and understand that I'm there to take his soul, is that he pushes

01:01:14.800 back even harder and says, you know, I'm going to take yours instead.

01:01:17.980 And very few dogs actually possess that.

01:01:21.080 Here's a question for my baby boomer community.

01:01:23.480 Yeah.

01:01:23.780 Do you believe you can teach old dogs new tricks?

01:01:26.700 If they're genetically inclined to be taught, absolutely.

01:01:30.380 What does that mean?

01:01:31.620 Well, so just like, you know, we'll take MMA as an example, is that there is a physicality

01:01:37.080 component that exists that once you get to a certain age, you're not going to be as fast,

01:01:40.840 as strong, be able to recover as quick, et cetera.

01:01:42.780 But, you know, you know the name Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or Conor McGregor, not just

01:01:47.960 because of the training, right?

01:01:49.780 Anybody can train hard, can work with the best people on the planet.

01:01:53.800 You can put them with all the same coaches that Tyson, that Ali, that McGregor had.

01:01:58.220 If they don't have the genetics to allow them to get to that level, you'll never know their

01:02:03.080 name.

01:02:03.520 And so with dogs, it's the exact same thing.

01:02:05.500 And so when I test a dog, I'm looking at their genetics.

01:02:07.860 I don't care if they have tons of training, no training somewhere in the middle is that, you

01:02:11.760 know, it's their genetics that are going to dictate where I can go with that dog.

01:02:15.100 Mike, you know, my wife wants a chow chow dog, okay?

01:02:18.800 Sorry, I hear that.

01:02:19.680 No, I'm kidding.

01:02:21.680 I'm kidding.

01:02:22.940 I love chows.

01:02:23.820 I love all dogs.

01:02:24.940 I got to bust her chops a little bit.

01:02:27.320 She's just, she just wants more dogs.

01:02:29.660 And so I'm willing to, you know, kind of see what she says, you know, what experts will

01:02:34.440 say about this.

01:02:35.140 And then we got three kids, an eight, a six, and a three-year-old, right?

01:02:37.880 And I hear stuff about dogs.

01:02:40.340 You hear about how pit bulls are with kids or this and that.

01:02:43.860 What's your experience been with pit bulls or chow chows?

01:02:46.240 Have you had any?

01:02:47.260 I have.

01:02:47.700 I mean, I've had experience with, at this point, I can't think of a breed that I haven't had

01:02:51.600 some interaction with, whether it's helping one of, you know, an owner of a certain breed

01:02:57.100 work through some issues, et cetera.

01:02:59.180 And my take, again, is that, you know, the breed is a very, very general and generic starting

01:03:04.080 point.

01:03:04.780 To me, breed is like race, you know, is that while in some instances there may be certain

01:03:11.540 breed characteristics that are generally consistent throughout the breed, I've seen enough

01:03:18.800 individuals, both good and bad and high and low and everything in between of every single

01:03:23.420 breed to say that, you know, good dogs are where you find them.

01:03:26.360 And it's the individual that's going to dictate, you know, where your right and left flank is

01:03:31.220 in terms of what you can do or not do with them.

01:03:33.000 And what I would say is that irrespective of breed is that, you know, if you're going

01:03:37.180 to a breeder or a shelter or whatever, one of the lessons I actually teach on my online

01:03:41.960 training is how to evaluate a dog.

01:03:44.500 To me, that's instrumental.

01:03:46.120 It's no different than, you know, if you're looking to hire somebody, like you're not going

01:03:49.100 to say, oh, it's a black male and he's this age.

01:03:51.800 So yeah, you're the guy.

01:03:53.720 No, you're going to interview him.

01:03:55.380 You're going to see what his skill set is.

01:03:56.640 And so to me...

01:03:57.340 How do you interview your dog, though?

01:03:58.600 Well, very similarly is that just like I was talking about, you want to look at what they're

01:04:02.280 motivated by.

01:04:02.980 You got to find Dr. Doolittle.

01:04:04.200 Like I got to go on.

01:04:05.040 No, no.

01:04:05.340 Figure out where to speak to him.

01:04:05.820 You just need to subscribe to my online training.

01:04:07.680 That's what it is.

01:04:08.880 That's really all you have to do.

01:04:10.940 The, I mean, the reality...

01:04:13.280 By the way, a plug.

01:04:14.340 Teamdog.pet.

01:04:15.680 Teamdog.pet.

01:04:16.440 Go ahead.

01:04:16.700 You were saying.

01:04:17.200 I mean, so it's a series of similar tests, no different than an interview, is that you

01:04:22.780 have to look at, you know, what do I want out of a dog, right?

01:04:25.480 And everybody's situation, scenario, family dynamic is going to be different.

01:04:28.880 If you're a 96-year-old, slightly built female that, you know, needs a walker, a nine-month-old,

01:04:35.260 140-pound Great Danes, probably not your best bet.

01:04:38.000 Yes, it's a good assessment.

01:04:39.240 You know, just as one staring you in the face, you know, thing.

01:04:44.040 But unfortunately, a lot of people, they walk through a shelter and I feel bad for that

01:04:48.120 dog or that dog is cute.

01:04:49.700 Let's pull that one out.

01:04:50.740 But to me, you're not doing you or the dog any favors by adopting the wrong dog.

01:04:55.860 And this is something I catch hell for on a regular basis is that, you know, the adopt-don't-shop

01:05:01.400 mentality, while sounds great, and if you don't really think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

01:05:07.180 I would just ask anybody who revels in that mentality to stop and think for a second, is

01:05:12.880 that ask yourself, are our shelters underfunded?

01:05:16.240 No.

01:05:16.480 They're the best funded and most well-equipped of any time in our society's history.

01:05:21.540 Are they really?

01:05:22.020 Because most people don't, I didn't know that.

01:05:23.560 They are really fun.

01:05:24.580 I mean, they're everywhere and they're full.

01:05:27.240 Well, why are they full?

01:05:28.500 Most people think it's because not enough people are spaying and neutering their dogs.

01:05:32.940 Again, my perspective, having spent a couple of decades now seeing dogs in shelters, pulling

01:05:38.720 some of them out and actually training them and them ultimately winding up in our airports

01:05:44.320 for TSA sniffing bombs, dogs that I've pulled out of shelters that were of that caliber.

01:05:48.960 Can't take any dog that does that.

01:05:50.480 But my point is, is that for all of the people that say, be a responsible dog owner and spay

01:05:56.540 or neuter your pet, my twist on that is that if you as a prospective dog owner have that

01:06:01.980 little ability to control your animal from breeding, you should not have an animal.

01:06:06.560 You shouldn't have a dog, period.

01:06:07.680 I would go with maybe a goldfish or something that's way easier to contain than a dog.

01:06:12.740 Because if you can't keep them from having puppies, you've got no business teaching them

01:06:17.000 how to heal, teaching them how to not knock kids over, steal food out of the trash, et

01:06:21.100 cetera.

01:06:21.700 Like that's one of the most basic tenets of dog ownership is don't let them breed, right?

01:06:27.300 And so the reality of the overpopulation or the filling of shelters that exists is primarily

01:06:35.640 in the people that are breeding dogs at that lower end of the spectrum, right?

01:06:40.500 That are the couple hundred dollar Craigslist or whatever type of environment where people

01:06:47.020 are buying them, whether it's out of a shelter or out of the paper, is that if everybody was

01:06:51.620 educated enough to be able to evaluate dogs and say, no, yeah, it's a cute puppy.

01:06:56.740 It's got shitty nerves.

01:06:58.200 It's scared of its own shadow.

01:06:59.920 It won't eat, right?

01:07:01.740 And it's shivering in the corner.

01:07:03.160 I'm not buying it.

01:07:04.160 Well, guess what?

01:07:04.740 Now your demand doesn't exist, right?

01:07:07.720 Because everybody, and I get that the road to hell is paved in good intentions.

01:07:12.260 Everybody's heart is in the right place.

01:07:13.660 They see the shivering pit bull in the corner and they want to save that dog.

01:07:18.500 I'm not saying necessarily do or don't do that.

01:07:20.880 What I am saying is that if we raise our standards as a society, then as soon as people stop

01:07:26.720 spending two, three, five hundred dollars on newspaper classified Craigslist ad pets, the

01:07:32.720 demand for them goes away.

01:07:34.100 People will stop breeding them.

01:07:35.540 The only reason people are breeding them is because people are buying them.

01:07:38.500 It's that way with drugs, with guns, with anything.

01:07:41.260 And so to me, it's a paradigm shift.

01:07:43.020 The other thing to keep in mind is that shelters, God bless them, do you really think it's in

01:07:48.740 their best interest to be empty?

01:07:50.860 No.

01:07:51.880 Think about that for a minute.

01:07:53.200 If you run a shelter and you've got five staff and you have no dogs in your shelter,

01:07:57.020 what are you out of?

01:07:57.840 A job.

01:07:58.800 What are you also out of?

01:07:59.960 Funding.

01:08:01.840 It's also, I think it seems to be lost on most people that when you go to a shelter, how

01:08:07.280 many of those dogs are free?

01:08:09.140 Almost none of them.

01:08:10.460 You know, it's usually a few hundred dollars between a spay and neuter fee and an adoption

01:08:13.920 fee and a processing fee and a blah, blah, blah fee.

01:08:16.400 Is that, you know, ultimately what are you doing?

01:08:18.760 Well, you're still spending money on subpar dogs that are now being fueled by these backyard

01:08:25.320 poor standard breeders that are filling shelters, that are filling backyards, not adhering to

01:08:30.780 basic tenets of breeding practice and theory and genetic selectivity.

01:08:36.220 That if more people did that and more of the consumer was better educated to be able to

01:08:40.920 identify, no, I want nothing to do with that dog, then that problem.

01:08:44.900 It would suck for, you know, a few years, but those tides would turn if people would

01:08:50.440 be much more staunch advocates for good genetic breeding practices, vice tugging on the heart

01:08:56.500 strings and just grabbing whatever dog needs to be saved.

01:08:59.620 Define suck for a few years.

01:09:01.180 What does that mean?

01:09:01.740 Because to do that, some of these dogs, if they don't have a home, you got to do something

01:09:05.160 to them.

01:09:05.500 Right.

01:09:06.000 And so you would have a bubble burst, just like, say, the housing market in the late

01:09:12.360 2000s, is that, you know, there would be an excess of dogs that nobody knows what to

01:09:18.100 do with.

01:09:19.100 You know, but again, let's say, you know, the happy medium is you have no-kill shelters

01:09:23.820 that, you know, you just house them.

01:09:26.020 But if you have educated people that say, this dog has no business being adopted out,

01:09:32.060 does that mean that you kill them?

01:09:33.320 No, not necessarily.

01:09:34.660 But what it means is that they don't get adopted out.

01:09:36.660 Because if they don't get adopted out, now there's not room for something to take their

01:09:40.080 place and just continue that shitty, vicious cycle that exists and continues.

01:09:43.840 I mean, this number should scare everybody.

01:09:46.680 3.3 million dogs are surrendered to shelters every single year.

01:09:51.060 Why is that?

01:09:51.640 All the things I just talked about.

01:09:53.740 About 8.3 million?

01:09:54.940 3.3 million, and that's every year.

01:09:56.920 And that's 800 and some odd thousand on average are euthanized every year, which breaks down

01:10:01.360 to over 2,000 dogs every day.

01:10:04.940 All right?

01:10:05.260 2,000 dogs every day are euthanized, and just in this country alone.

01:10:09.720 Well, if the Bob Barker, don't forget to spay and neuter your pets at the end of Price

01:10:15.200 is Right, and the Adopt, Don't Shop campaigns that flood Facebook on National Pet Day, et

01:10:20.460 cetera, and the breeders who get chastised for having selectivity in their breeding practices,

01:10:29.040 if all of those things didn't happen, you wouldn't have these problems.

01:10:34.200 Again, in my opinion, is that you've got to raise the standard.

01:10:37.360 How big is a dog?

01:10:38.680 I have friends that are breeding dogs, and they make these some money out.

01:10:41.200 But how big is the dog breeding business?

01:10:43.160 Well, it depends on what you're breeding for.

01:10:46.100 I mean, I do very little breeding because it's a terrible business to get into if you're

01:10:51.080 doing it right.

01:10:52.720 It's a terrible business to get into if you're doing it right.

01:10:56.020 Right.

01:10:56.300 Because, like, let's say I find, you know, male A and female B that are both consummate

01:11:02.460 textbook examples of what I'm trying to reproduce.

01:11:05.180 And I will say this, is that from my perspective, if you are breeding dogs for anything other

01:11:12.700 than those two things, is that this is a consummate, perfect example of what the breed standard

01:11:17.680 is and should be, you should not be breeding those dogs.

01:11:20.820 That's my philosophy on it.

01:11:23.600 Even when I do that, let's say there's a litter of eight dogs, is that there's going

01:11:27.840 to be a few of them that are really nice.

01:11:29.600 There's going to be a few of them that are average, and there's going to be a few of them

01:11:32.460 that are a little below average.

01:11:34.200 Not always.

01:11:34.900 Sometimes maybe most of them are great.

01:11:36.460 Sometimes most of them are less than great.

01:11:39.100 My point is, is that to be able to breed those dogs and spend the time that you have to spend

01:11:45.280 with them to make them maximize their genetic potential, which is separating them, right?

01:11:52.380 As an example, a lot of people leave puppies with their mom and together until they're eight

01:11:56.500 weeks old.

01:11:57.060 Why?

01:11:57.340 Because it's easy.

01:11:58.360 A lot of people justify it by saying, well, it's what nature intended, et cetera, et cetera.

01:12:02.200 Well, it is if they were left in that environment.

01:12:05.460 Well, here's the kicker is that they're not, right?

01:12:07.940 Is that every one of those dogs' ultimate goal is going to be to either be with a family

01:12:12.520 or with an individual human being, right?

01:12:15.320 And so my philosophy, which has helped me out tremendously in terms of producing nice

01:12:21.420 dogs, is taking each of those individual puppies and separating them from their mom and

01:12:27.340 from their litter mates far sooner than eight weeks.

01:12:29.880 I want to get them paired up with a human being or several human beings as fast as possible

01:12:34.920 so they fall into that routine.

01:12:36.520 The longer you leave them with their litter mates and their mom, the harder it is to pull

01:12:40.480 them when they're older.

01:12:42.020 And the more trouble you're going to have in terms of exposing them to environmental factors

01:12:47.500 that may sketch a dog out a little bit.

01:12:49.260 Loud noises, Home Depot, et cetera.

01:12:50.780 How big is the business, though?

01:12:52.160 Are people making money?

01:12:53.380 Is there people making real money?

01:12:54.880 Not real.

01:12:55.300 In my opinion, not real money.

01:12:57.040 Like a million-dollar-a-year income, no one's making that kind of money.

01:12:59.280 No, absolutely.

01:12:59.600 Six figures, yes.

01:13:01.540 There's probably a few breeders that have the ability to make six-figure businesses,

01:13:08.240 but I would say it's very, very few.

01:13:11.400 What does the market pay the most for?

01:13:14.960 I mean, I'm not really in that market, but from what I gather, just based off of clients

01:13:21.040 that have problems, it's a lot of the designer breeds.

01:13:23.360 It's certain colors of, say, French Bulldogs, Golden Doodles.

01:13:27.320 All of the mix, you know, the Cockapoos, the, you know, whatever.

01:13:30.320 It's the mixing of breeds and creating these fad designer breeds, I think, is a big problem.

01:13:36.560 But then you take any of the more popular breeds, whether it's Labs, Rottweilers, Pit Bulls,

01:13:41.040 whatever, each of them kind of have their niche in society that exists that fuels that demand

01:13:47.420 for backyard breeders and sub-breeding practices.

01:13:51.600 Got it.

01:13:52.260 On a side note, you know, these dogs, when they come back, you know, I've read multiple articles

01:13:58.160 that even dogs can sometimes experience PTSD.

01:14:00.980 Absolutely.

01:14:01.500 What does that look like when dogs are experiencing it?

01:14:03.780 Again, it's very similar to the manifestation that exists in human beings.

01:14:08.800 The key component, just like I was talking about earlier, it's a simple association, right?

01:14:13.200 So with human beings, we have the ability to use logic and reason to try to understand

01:14:18.320 or be bothered by what happened to us in combat or in a traumatic environment.

01:14:23.700 With dogs, they're making that simple association, right?

01:14:26.220 So let's say a dog is averse to gunfire because it's been, you know, it's making that A plus B

01:14:32.380 equals C association with gunfire, you know, being in an armored personnel carrier, A plus,

01:14:38.880 you know, gunfire, B equals C chaotic, stressful environment for an extended period of time

01:14:44.160 where my nerves are shot and I shut down, right?

01:14:47.040 And then the next night you go out, you're in an armored personnel, you know, A, gunfire,

01:14:50.980 B, I shut down, C, night after night after night.

01:14:54.100 And so now the presence of A, it may be an armored personnel carrier just rolling up

01:14:58.560 and the dog starts shivering and blows its anal lines and shuts down.

01:15:01.460 It's, you know, when A plus B equals C enough, the mere presence of A equals the anticipation

01:15:08.320 of C.

01:15:08.880 And so the good news with that is that you can use that same logic of now replacing those

01:15:15.460 with something positive.

01:15:16.760 So let's say it's gunfire, which is very common, or helicopter noises.

01:15:20.720 So now I'm going to pair playing tug or ball or feeding or playing fetch or something like

01:15:26.420 that with gunfire, but it'll be like a .22 caliber from, you know, 600 yards away where

01:15:31.920 you barely hear it.

01:15:33.160 And that is just occasionally present while we're playing tug or playing ball or experiencing

01:15:37.340 positive things, and then you just slowly stair-step it.

01:15:40.060 Think of it like a piggy bank.

01:15:42.140 You've got positive and negative coins.

01:15:43.700 And if you've got 400 negative coins as it relates to gunfire, you want to put 500 or 600

01:15:49.040 as it relates to something else.

01:15:50.820 It makes sense.

01:15:51.740 Now I'm starting to realize why one of my Shih Tzus has PTSD due to my oldest son.

01:15:58.160 It's very obvious.

01:15:59.760 My oldest son is nonstop with him, and I see his reaction to it.

01:16:04.120 Are you a religious man, by the way?

01:16:05.620 I am not.

01:16:06.160 You're not a religious man.

01:16:07.100 I am not.

01:16:07.420 No.

01:16:07.620 Do you think all dogs go to heaven?

01:16:10.240 I think that, I believe in the rainbow bridge, I'll call it that.

01:16:14.040 I do believe that, or I guess I would say I'm cautiously optimistic that dogs go wherever

01:16:20.440 any of us go if there is such a thing.

01:16:23.060 So if there is such a thing as a heaven, you think it's filled with dogs?

01:16:25.660 God, I hope so.

01:16:26.740 I don't know if cats are going to make it, though.

01:16:28.360 I think the cool ones will.

01:16:29.740 The cool cats are going to make it.

01:16:31.740 To finish up with a couple of serious topics here is, I'm from Iran.

01:16:39.780 Obviously, you had some experience being over there as well.

01:16:42.700 What are your thoughts?

01:16:43.880 What are your thoughts about what's going on there?

01:16:45.600 How bad could it be?

01:16:47.400 And what needs to happen?

01:16:48.840 I guess this would be my last question on that topic is, how bad is it really?

01:16:53.300 And what needs to happen for the Middle East to kind of calm down and for there to be less

01:16:58.160 friction?

01:16:58.500 I think similarly with Corona or any other headline, I don't think it's as bad as it's

01:17:04.400 made out to be.

01:17:06.020 That's not to paint a picture of it being a picnic, but I think in some ways it gets overhyped,

01:17:12.380 especially when you have a far-left media and a right-wing president.

01:17:16.420 Anything he does or doesn't do gets ostracized, and I think further inflames or fans the flames

01:17:22.680 of that conflict.

01:17:24.260 Having said that, it's hard for me as a former military member, and this may surprise a lot

01:17:31.020 of people, but it's hard for me not to put myself ... I do so much projecting with dogs

01:17:36.460 is that I find myself doing the same thing with other nations, other militaries.

01:17:42.760 I'm not going to be naive or deny the fact that if Iran decided to build an Air Force

01:17:48.840 base in Mexico, that we wouldn't have some heartburn about that.

01:17:51.620 Or if China had an aircraft carrier group 45 miles off the coast of San Francisco hanging

01:18:00.480 out, that we wouldn't get our panties in a lot over it.

01:18:05.060 To me, there's obviously an element of trying to strike a balance of having a presence in

01:18:11.980 a region where it seems like there's a necessary level of involvement.

01:18:17.620 On the same token, to me, warfare, again, when I reduce it down to the most simple equation,

01:18:26.140 which I am a firm believer that some of our world's most complex problems actually require

01:18:32.500 the simplest of solutions.

01:18:34.180 I look at foreign policy no different than a bar fight.

01:18:36.580 It's that you walk into a Chili's and the shit has hit the fan in there and you've got

01:18:41.900 Iran and every country in the Middle East and America, everybody's fighting.

01:18:46.820 Well, when you walk in there, I don't care what you do.

01:18:50.020 I don't care if you get involved, you're going to piss somebody off.

01:18:52.600 If you don't get involved, you're going to piss somebody off.

01:18:54.560 If you take this person's side, you're going to piss the opponent off.

01:18:57.000 You know, so there's no way to get involved in foreign policy militarily without having

01:19:03.020 that ripple effect that we learned a painful lesson, as did Russia in Afghanistan in the

01:19:09.400 80s, 70s and 80s, is that you cannot have a presence somewhere without it pissing somebody

01:19:15.400 off.

01:19:16.280 That's the reason Al-Qaeda exists, you know, because of Kuwait.

01:19:20.440 That's a very good point.

01:19:21.060 So to me, I look at it very simply, is that if we're going to decide to step into that

01:19:27.300 bar, and I'm not saying don't step into it, I'm just going to say if we decide to step

01:19:30.940 into it, is that it better be all in, it better be absolutely necessary to maintain our way

01:19:37.980 of life and our standard of American security, and when you go in there, there are no rules.

01:19:43.760 A lot of people don't like hearing that.

01:19:45.260 I fully subscribe to the Civil War, Tecumseh Sherman mentality of, you make it so god-awful

01:19:52.380 that the other side wants to stop fighting because you've made it, it's so miserable

01:19:57.060 on them.

01:19:57.680 You subscribe to that mindset.

01:19:58.960 I absolutely do, but there's a caveat, and it's what I just mentioned, is that you don't

01:20:03.300 step into that unless it's absolutely necessary.

01:20:06.480 If it's absolutely necessary, and we as a country are all behind it and say, yes, we have to get

01:20:11.360 involved here, then you go there, and you leave it to your military, which that's what

01:20:15.520 their job is, is to go over there and absolutely wreck shop, and whatever it is, whether it's

01:20:22.120 destroying an enemy, wiping a certain population off the planet.

01:20:26.520 Really?

01:20:27.280 Like that far if necessary?

01:20:29.680 I mean, to me, if we're going to involve our troops, otherwise you're going to see exactly

01:20:35.360 what you've seen, right, is you see, I mean, let's take Afghanistan as an example.

01:20:39.640 What have we really gained 20 years later?

01:20:42.680 You know, now we're trying to meddle in a peace deal with the Taliban, which is, you

01:20:46.940 know, like licking a Chinese doorknob in terms of safety right now.

01:20:50.560 Like it's fragile at best.

01:20:53.700 It's dicey.

01:20:54.640 It's gas food, or it's gas station sushi, right?

01:20:57.400 You're not, it's not in your favor that it's going to pan out, right?

01:21:01.820 So we're still messing with it, and if you look at, you know, hills that were taken

01:21:06.840 and fobs that were secured and this region that we overrun and then gave it back, and

01:21:11.460 the same thing in Iraq, you know, and I don't look at any of my friends.

01:21:15.200 I've got a lot of them that have lost their lives.

01:21:16.800 I don't look at their lives in vain.

01:21:19.240 I view it very simply is that we all volunteered to, you know, write a blank check up to and

01:21:25.980 including our life payable to the United States government for them to use us in the

01:21:30.560 way that they see best fit, and that's honorable, you know, and it doesn't matter how they use

01:21:34.820 you.

01:21:35.020 You do the best of your ability, and how they use you is their business.

01:21:38.320 It's the country's business.

01:21:39.860 You know, we all served our purpose, and we did what we did because we wanted to, and

01:21:43.800 so, you know, I think that's honorable, and I don't view any of the deaths in vain, but

01:21:48.880 I would also say is that to prevent, you know, further people from dying for reasons that

01:21:54.640 are hard to really explain as to why it was necessary and how it's validated is that,

01:22:00.140 you know, you've got to look at things of saying, okay, if we really need to go there,

01:22:04.820 then you do whatever you have to to keep the other side from fighting.

01:22:09.080 I mean, we did it in World War II.

01:22:11.260 Was that the right call?

01:22:12.520 I don't know.

01:22:13.180 You know, I wasn't alive then.

01:22:14.380 It's been long enough to where I'm not privy to the information that, you know, gave our

01:22:19.980 government the decision-making process to say, yes, we're going to drop, you know, these

01:22:25.880 types of munitions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but what did it do?

01:22:30.700 Well, it stopped the war that fast, you know.

01:22:34.080 Right decision?

01:22:34.760 Did we make the right decision with that?

01:22:36.020 Like I said, I don't know, you know, not having been alive then and not being privy to

01:22:40.700 what it was like then and, you know, sitting in on intelligence briefings where I'm being

01:22:46.020 told, here are all the fronts and here's the supply routes and here's our casualties

01:22:50.580 and here's where our finances are and here's where our country, I mean, I don't know all

01:22:54.100 of those things, you know.

01:22:54.840 Let me ask you, for the way you process issues, when do you think it would make sense for America

01:23:00.540 to use it again?

01:23:02.300 Because that's not been done for a while.

01:23:04.500 What does another nation go to push the buttons or cross the line for us to say that

01:23:10.240 acceptable, based on your opinion?

01:23:11.860 Yeah, I mean, so based on my opinion, I would say a level of threat with which you can undeniably

01:23:19.740 prove that there is a level of existential threat to the safety and security of our homeland.

01:23:28.160 You know, if you can say, yes, absolutely, if we don't do this, our nation will fall,

01:23:32.900 to me that justifies it.

01:23:34.440 That's really the only circumstance that I can come up with.

01:23:37.580 Got it.

01:23:38.120 Yeah.

01:23:38.720 I think most people would agree with that if you were saying to get to that point.

01:23:41.860 Well, and so, you know, to bring it back to my, you only get involved if necessary.

01:23:45.640 There's a lot of things.

01:23:46.700 The Sherman, Sherman principle you were talking about.

01:23:48.280 Right, is that that's in our country, is that if we don't defeat these guys, our way

01:23:54.040 of life disappears.

01:23:55.760 And so he did what he had to do.

01:23:57.200 Our way of life disappears if we don't defeat these guys.

01:24:00.600 Right.

01:24:01.140 Got it.

01:24:01.540 Who is the biggest threat we have today, based on your opinion?

01:24:04.420 What do you think it is?

01:24:05.200 Us.

01:24:06.720 100% us.

01:24:07.840 I think we will screw ourselves over far before anybody else does.

01:24:14.240 Wow.

01:24:16.000 In which way?

01:24:17.700 In the way that I've been harping on in terms of-

01:24:20.300 Aside from that, anything outside of that or no?

01:24:22.180 No, I mean, you divided, you stand, united, or united, you stand, divided, you fall, is

01:24:28.360 that that mentality is far more toxic, poisonous, and dangerous than any outside threat.

01:24:35.180 Look at 9-11.

01:24:36.600 You know, 9-12, we were undefeatable.

01:24:40.260 You know, that's wisped away over time, but that level of attack on us does what?

01:24:47.440 Well, it unites everybody where there was no Democrat, no Republican.

01:24:50.240 100%, no question about it, yeah.

01:24:51.340 Everybody was 100% ready to go just rip the heads off.

01:24:54.460 You think we need another crisis like that?

01:24:56.220 I mean, need-

01:24:57.260 You think man needs it to come, you know how sometimes, like if, I know you're not a religious

01:25:02.720 man, but you think God created the system in a way where you lose a father, then a mother

01:25:08.420 for you to realize the value of life.

01:25:10.740 Like, do you think we almost need a crisis to realize how lucky we are to live in a nation

01:25:15.140 like this?

01:25:16.140 For sure.

01:25:16.800 I think there's an element of suffering, required suffering, that is built into the human condition.

01:25:23.040 That, you know, when I look at some of the most successful people in the world are also

01:25:26.560 some of the most miserable people in the world because they lack challenge.

01:25:30.020 I think just like uber-successful people, just like our country is, is that if you're

01:25:35.720 successful and comfortable enough long enough, you get complacent to where, you know, you

01:25:40.620 fail to find purpose.

01:25:42.880 And I think, you know, that's one of the most dangerous mindsets that a human being can possess

01:25:47.260 is when they lack purpose and they're comfortable.

01:25:50.100 For full disclosure, you're not talking about the most successful people are the most miserable.

01:25:54.100 It's people that are no longer driving for a purpose bigger than them.

01:25:57.200 That's kind of what you're trying to say.

01:25:58.480 Yeah.

01:25:58.660 But you're not just saying somebody that's a millionaire or a billionaire.

01:26:01.240 Not necessarily.

01:26:02.180 But, you know, I mean, to me, when you see a guy like, say, Chris Cornell, you know, the

01:26:05.660 lead singer of Soundgarden, hanging himself, you know, or Robin Williams, or, you know, obviously

01:26:11.300 there are some troubles there.

01:26:12.560 But I think if you open it up to a more 30,000-foot view on just this country, our country is the

01:26:17.580 most successful, wealthy, technologically advanced, and comfortable it's ever been in the

01:26:22.460 history of ourselves.

01:26:24.040 What are we also the most depressed, the most ADHD-ridden, the most pain, narcotic, and anxiety

01:26:33.460 medication addicted that we've ever been, and arguably the most divided and miserable we've

01:26:39.940 ever been as a country?

01:26:40.900 I don't think that's an accident.

01:26:42.780 I think it's a direct correlation of, again, the technological advances.

01:26:46.560 And how that translates to dogs is that, you know, we've got access to the most information

01:26:51.500 as it relates to dog training that we ever have via the internet, right?

01:26:55.420 Even with that, you know, there are more people struggling with their dogs now than ever before

01:27:00.300 because there is a disconnect from nature.

01:27:03.140 And training a dog is a borderline primal experience.

01:27:06.540 And so I think it all kind of just fits together.

01:27:09.440 I've got to tell you, man, I really enjoyed this.

01:27:11.040 I didn't know what to expect when you were coming in.

01:27:13.460 You thought it was going to suck.

01:27:14.520 No, because the way you speak, man, when you're speaking, you're telling them like this, this

01:27:18.800 could be, but I tell you, you're a ridiculous storyteller.

01:27:22.760 And you're the kind of guy that if I was, I would have loved to have served with you because

01:27:27.240 you have a side of your humor is ridiculous.

01:27:30.100 You're sensing.

01:27:31.060 Is it the Yogi Berra sense humor where you're like, yeah, I almost have to be smart to understand

01:27:35.760 because there's like a three-second delay.

01:27:37.340 You have a little bit of that.

01:27:38.700 I mean, I pride myself on more on the highbrow side than the low, but...

01:27:42.740 I appreciate that.

01:27:43.800 It's very obvious.

01:27:44.600 You're very sensitive.

01:27:45.440 Are you an April baby or when's your birthday?

01:27:47.480 July.

01:27:48.100 July what?

01:27:49.480 Towards the end, Leo.

01:27:50.880 I'm a Leo.

01:27:51.100 You're a Leo.

01:27:51.680 Huh.

01:27:51.960 Interesting, man.

01:27:53.180 Yeah.

01:27:53.580 Interesting, your Y-rank.

01:27:56.240 Are you a big reader or no?

01:27:57.600 I am.

01:27:58.480 Very interesting.

01:27:59.640 Okay.

01:28:00.660 Again, I really enjoyed it.

01:28:02.120 Going back to it, teamdog.pet.

01:28:05.420 Any information on what you do with dog behavior, they can find it on there.

01:28:09.220 Can you tell us a little bit about that website, what I'm going to find when I go on?

01:28:11.760 Sure.

01:28:12.140 So it's as simple as I can make it in terms of expounding on the tenets and principles that

01:28:18.300 I've spoken about as it relates to dog training and just giving you video representations of all

01:28:23.880 of the things that I'm talking about.

01:28:25.100 I have a book called Team Dog as well that I had enough people read it and actually ask

01:28:30.760 if I would make videos and start a YouTube channel or whatever.

01:28:33.420 So I started an online training.

01:28:35.460 It's $99 for unlimited access for a year.

01:28:38.940 That's it.

01:28:39.740 That's it.

01:28:40.400 And I get in there every Monday morning and I answer questions in forums.

01:28:44.340 I interact with people every week.

01:28:46.500 Very cool.

01:28:46.940 So I wanted to make it very affordable for your average everyday dog owner so that we

01:28:51.520 could at least try to get rid of that 3.3 million number.

01:28:56.500 And between my philosophy on breeding and raising that criteria in conjunction with trying to

01:29:03.200 educate dog owners how to evaluate, how to train their existing dog and live a little

01:29:07.360 more cohesively, I wasn't looking to retire on it.

01:29:10.860 I just wanted it to be worth it for people to do.

01:29:13.200 Much, much, much respect to you, Matt.

01:29:15.620 But like I say, I know when I meet somebody that's sincere, you are so sincere.

01:29:20.240 You're a man on a mission with what you believe in with your dogs.

01:29:23.340 The man is a three-time New York Times bestseller for a reason.

01:29:26.480 With that being said, Mike, thank you so much for coming out and being a guest.

01:29:28.820 I really enjoyed it, brother.

01:29:29.700 This was great.

01:29:30.420 Thank you for having me.

01:29:31.180 Thanks, everybody, for listening.

01:29:32.440 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.

01:29:36.980 Give us a five-star.

01:29:38.460 Write a review if you haven't already.

01:29:39.940 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,

01:29:43.560 Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

01:29:45.920 Just search my name, Patrick Bid David.

01:29:47.860 And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

01:29:52.660 With that being said, have a great day today.

01:29:54.480 Take care, everybody.

01:29:55.220 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - May 01, 2020

Episode 462： Navy Seal Instructor Now K9 Dog Trainer- Mike Ritland

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