Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Human Animal Connection Show, where we believe
we can communicate with all animals. Join us as we
explore the thirty three principles and healing methods of the
Human Animal Connection. As animal lovers, we know that you
share our commitment to making the world a kinder place
for all creatures. Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power
of the Human Animal Connection.
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone to the Human Animal Connection Podcast. I'm your
host and the executive director of the Human Animal Connection.
And somebody my guest is being licked, which is wonderful.
Why her dog Shadow will meet shadowed Lee in just
a moment. But I want to say thank you so
much for being with it with us here today, and
we're going to be talking with Lee Atherton. She is
the CEO of Phoenix Rising, which is service Dogs who
save lives and Hope for four Pause, which is about healing,
purpose and second chances. So their mission is to get
life saving service dogs into the homes and hands of
people with PTSD and mental health disabilities whose lives are
at risk. And we've taught talked a lot on our show,
of course about therapy dogs, and so it's only fair
that we give service dogs their chance to shine, and
that's what we're going to do in today's episode. So Lee,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 3: So tell us a little bit about Shadow, the dog
that was just giving you a little face wash, which
we'd love. Tell us question Anima.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shadow is my service dog. I've had him for
about eight years. Three years ago, time flies, he was
diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a month to live.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: We call him our miracle dog now. So that was
pretty devastating. I hadn't had him for too long. Long
story short. He went to a local animals school, tought
medical school for veterinarians, and was put on in a
clinical trial. They kept saying, you know, if he makes
it through the chemo, you might get six months. So
we had He made it through two months, a pretty
intense chemo, and he survived that, and a month went
by and I still had him, and go all the
way to six months and he was still doing really well.
They declared him in remission after a year, and then
after two years they declared him cancer free.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: It was absolutely amazing, wonderful.
Speaker 3: And what kind of cancer did he have?
Speaker 2: Just curious? He had lymphoma and there are three types
if I understored it correctly, three types of philymphoma, and
he had the most aggressive. So because of all of that,
we had to get his successor, and I found another
black lab. His name is Phoenix. My daughter have adult kids.
My daughter said, when you get your new dog, you
really should name it Phoenix because you're taking something terrible
and making something good out of it. So Phoenix was
rising from the ashes. So we did. We got the dog.
His name is Phoenix Rising.
Speaker 3: And that's the dog you have now that I was
just seeing, you.
Speaker 2: Were seeing Phoenix. Yes, I still have Shadow. He's under
my feet. Okay, all right.
Speaker 3: Okay, so wonderful. So tell us a little bit about
how Phoenix and Shadow have impacted your life. What have
they allowed you to do you couldn't do without them.
Speaker 2: Shadow has saved my life literally. I had a family
crisis back in twenty sixteen that led to some pretty
significant PTSD. For about two years, I found it difficult
to work to get out and be in the midst
of society. I had anxiety, panic attacks, and a couple
times actually was contemplating suicide, and he sensed that and
got very crazy and interrupted my thought process and any
attempt I had at that. He's also been a day
to day companion who recognizes when my anxiety is starting
to ramp up and is able to alert me before
it gets the better of means tell us.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you how he does the alerts,
because I know different dogs will have different alerts, and
it's definitely important for the person to be able to
recognize an alert. So tell us about the alerts that
Shadow and Phoenix have used with you.
Speaker 2: So it took a while because I had to figure
out what is it I do that you know, there's
a chemical change within us that dogs can recognize, but
I also had to pay close attention to what were
my mannerisms, if any that changed. So one for me
that was very easy for Shadow to pick up on
at Phoenix is that I shake my foot and it
starts out just to little bit worse. The anxiety gets
the faster that foot is shaking. So Shadow is trained
to be aware of when I start shaking, and he
just comes over and he nudges me until I acknowledge
his presence, and yes, switch gears, kind of switch gears.
And it's pretty amazing, you know, dog's amazing. I absolute
notice it from across the room right I'm thinking he's
sound asleep, mm hmm, and all of a sudden he's
bopping up and coming over to me.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's wonderful. Now, was he trained by an outside
trainer or did he learn to develop this ability to
recognize your mood to himself?
Speaker 2: A little bit of both.
Speaker 3: Okay, some of.
Speaker 2: It he recognizes just intuitively. We did have an outside trainer.
We do have one who trained us as a team.
And how long did that training take? For Shadow, it
was about a year and a half. Okay. He is
an unusual dog in hedn't really have puppyhood. So one
of the things that he had to be able to
do was be wild and crazy playing with people or
with other dogs or whatever, and stop on a dime
when I said to We never did that because he
never got wild and crazy enough. So his personality led
to easier training. Phoenix, on the other hand, is still puppyish.
You can see that by him jumping up and licking me,
and he's taking a little bit longer, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, and it's important to understand that every
dog is a little different and that their training is
going to be different the time and their training and
their natural abilities. I mean, I find, you know, involuntary shelters,
about twenty percent of dogs that I see have the
potential to become therapy dogs, you know, the ability to
read people, the desire to please, the desire to comfort,
and so on, and so it's a relatively small percentage
of dogs that really this is their purpose in life.
And that doesn't mean that if they don't have that purpose,
they're a bad dog. It just means that, like people,
they're differences in what are purposes, what brings us passion,
what is the natural zone. But it's so amazing to
meet a natural you know, when you meet a dog
that just really has this ability and can read you
from across the room or across the house or whatever.
You know, it's just very exciting to see that. Yeah. So,
I know you've also gotten involved in helping others. Tell
us about your work, your mission and how you help
other people get service dogs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's expensive. I live in Massachusetts where needs
is located. New England Assistance Dogs and they were recognized
in the field of providing service dogs. Yet I was
looking for one initially. Before I got Shadow, I had
gone to needs and back then eight years ago, was
forty five thousand dollars get a service dog. Yeah, by
the time I finished train mean Phoenix, it'll probably be
a good thirty five forty thousan dollars. A lot of
people don't realize the expense, yes, and there are a
lot of people who can't afford that, right. You know
a lot of people who have two members of the
family who are working can't afford it, never mind someone
who's on disability and not getting the pay that others
get it. Yeah, a mission of mine is just in
recognizing this and going through it twice. I've got to
do what I can to help others get dogs. Why
don't train them any of that. I act as as
a collector of support in many ways and then disperse
that support to people in need.
Speaker 3: That's wonderful, It's really wonderful. And even even for people
who have the funds. The availability is the next big issue.
You know that it takes a year, two years something
like this to get a dog ready for service work,
and the dog don't will maybe not have more than
an eight or ten year career, and so this is
an an ongoing issue. Yeah, so how have you gathered support?
Are you fundraising or what is it you're doing?
Speaker 2: Fundraising? Yes, And the project that I'm working on now
is an anthology, so getting fifteen or twenty authors service
dog owners who have a story to share. The book
will be called Phoenix Rising, Stories of Service Dogs Saving Lives.
And my vision is to get each chapter sponsored by
individuals or you know, organizations, group of people coming together.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's wonderful. That's wonderful. And one of the
things that I've noticed is that, well, there may be
some breeds that are maybe a little bit more likely
to succeed. It really is not breed specific. You know
that there are that there are dogs that you would
the last dog you would expect to become a service
dog is. I have met soldiers with teacup poodles, you know.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, I have seen it all.
Speaker 3: I've seen very large dogs, I've seen smaller dogs medium.
It's really important not to assume that one breed guarantees
success or that one breed precludes success. You know, it's
just amazing to see when you meet a dog that
has this individual ability. And would you say that when
you meet dogs you can get a sense, oh, this
would be a great candidate for service dog training or
is it something that's just a complete mystery. What's been
your experience.
Speaker 2: I have a little bit of a sense. I'm really impressed,
excuse me, by people who train service dogs how they
can look at a dog and get a pretty good
sense fairly quickly. Yes. And the steps they go through
to assess a dog. It's a fascinating process.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 3: It's absolutely fascinating, and we're so grateful for those people
who do that work and it's so important. We have
a program for high school students. It's called Canines Teach Compassion,
and we bring therapy dogs into the classroom to help
kids who are in counseling. But one of the things
that's unique in our program is that we also bring
dogs who are candidates for therapy dog and we ask
the kids, the teenagers, to evaluate do you think this
dog has a good chance?
Speaker 2: Yes or no?
Speaker 3: And let's you know, give them a score up. You know,
ten is a perfect score, and of course no dog
isn't perfect. Who are coming in but it's amazing how
accurate the students are. They see dogs that are fully trained,
fully certified, who've been at it for years, and then
they see a dog walking into the classroom who has
not had training, but we believe has potential. And so
far the kids have been really accurate. We brought in
one German shepherd, older gentleman, eighty two years old and
a walker, and he really wanted his dog to become
a therapy dog. And sometimes you know, people have good intentions,
but it's not necessarily the dog's intention, right, So big
old German shepherd, which could be a little bit intimidating
for some people, but incredibly gentle dog, incredibly sweet, and
the kids, after one visit they said yes, and we
proceeded with getting him for the training. He's in his
process of testing now, he's gone through his first i
think two levels of testing. He's passed and we have
identified some areas that we still need to work on,
but basically he's going to make it. And so it's
very rewarding for the kids because I let them know
he passed his first test, he passed his second testing,
and they get to isay it is because of you kids,
which is really true, because I mean I probably would
have passed him anyway, But I tell the kids that
they were really instrumental in making sure that this dog,
who's a fairly young rescue dog, will have a career
and we'll touch so many lives. So yeah, it's very sweet.
It's very sweet to see that happen. Very sweet.
Speaker 2: I bet.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So now is your dog on duty twenty four
to seven or does your dog get time off? How
do you balance let's say, the responsibilities of working as
a professional service dog with being you know, a dog
that needs to reset and relax and all that, and
how do you balance that?
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 3: What's your routine?
Speaker 2: There's really no routine in my life, so that's hard
to answer that particular piece of the question. But I
think the time off that Shadow gets that he recognizes
he can chill a little bit more than he otherwise
would is for my husband's home because he can take
over some of that keeping an eye. I think when
he was younger, it was it was more delineated because
my need was much more intense when he was younger.
So if we were if we are out and about
and he's got his vest on for him that's yep.
I'm working, there's no question, and I make a point
of one days, especially where it's a long period of
time when we're out, that I take the vest off
and I just say go have fun. Here's your marrowbone.
Enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Yes, don't worry about me. Yeah, that's wondicul Yeah. So
important for those of you who are working with service dogs,
with therapy dogs, you probably know this already, but just
to say it in case is that dogs who have
responsibilities to paying attention to humans need time where they're
not on duty, where they can reset and relax. And
especially for the therapy dogs who are working with people
with trauma, you know they are taking on that energy
and they know a chance to reset and recharge and
not have any responsibility. So that's wonderful.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's important for any dog handler to really
become familiar with, in general the signs of stress and
a dog, but in particular how do this their dog
express it in their unique ways. It's to be paying
attention to that and when you start seeing some of
that stress, say yep, they've absorbed too much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, time for a break.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: We in one of our classes we as this dog
has passed now, but a rescue greyhound, a former race dog,
and her name was Mochi. She could give people the
most intense gaze and love and sweetness and just melt
anyone right. But she had about a twenty minute window
and then she was done. And so we just said
to a person, Okay, Mochi's done, you go home. You know,
because it's an hour long class doesn't mean you stay
for an hour. Mochi has twenty minutes of absolute pure
devotion and then she's done for the day. You know
she'd come back next week. But you know, it's just,
you know, that was kind of unique. Most most of
our dogs are good for an hour, but we want
to really encourage people not to do more than an
hour if you're doing therapy dog work. But of course
service dog work, service dogs are on duty for a
tremendous amount of time. So we're going to take a
short little break. But when we come back, i'd love
to have you maybe preview a couple of stories that
might appear in your book.
Speaker 2: I would love to All right, I'll be right back.
We'll see you in just a moment. Don't go anywhere.
Real people real stories.
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Speaker 1: Hey friends, if you like what you're hearing and want
to learn more, check out doctor Joseph's book, The Human
Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and Ourselves, or visit
the website The Humananimalconnection dot org to book an online consultation.
Thank you for loving animals. Now back to the show.
Speaker 5: Let's Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to The Human Animal Connection. I'm your host,
Genie Joseph, the executive director of The Human Animal Connection.
You can learn more about us at the Humananimalconnection dot org.
And today I'm speaking with Lee Atherton about working with
service dogs that can really change lives. So I know
you had a story you were telling me about on
the break, about a dog named Nellie who was working
with a person who had severe social anxiety, couldn't go
out in public. Tell us about how Nelly helped that person.
Speaker 2: I smile. I remember when James is Nellie's handler. I
remember when James first met Nellie. He had had some
trauma in his life that led to depression and severe anxiety,
and he just was He became home bound on disability
for several years, he got Nelly and that was the
first time I had seen James smile in years. It
was so beautiful to see. And Nellie worked with him,
you know, same as shadow. Nellie was taught what James's
simples were, what to pick up on when his anxiety
was going. But Nelly did things like make him get
out of bed, make him go out and take Nelly
for a walk. And he got to the point where
Nelly helped him in social situations by creating a boundary
around him, by standing between him and others when the
need was there, and over time helped James thrive. And
James now is out there a successful adult with a
full time job and being able to work to be
in many different situations in life.
Speaker 3: Nelly made that and Nelly goes to work with him,
does Nelly.
Speaker 2: Nelly goes to work with him. Wonderful, a little bit
of a challenge because he works out of high school.
So I'm sure you know that all the kids are
going to want to be patting Nelly and yeah, stay
away from Nelly. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think our listeners know that a service dog
is not a dog that you can go up and
pet because they are working and they need to be
paying attention to their human. A therapy dog, on the hand,
is all about being pet so you just need to
know the difference. And sometimes you can tell by the
vest or how that dog is interacting with the person.
But when in doubt, just ask. So that's the secret, right, good, Okay,
that's right. And then I know you had a young
boy who had epilepsy, severe hiplepsy, and he had to
have an adult with him twenty four to seven, which
as a child is not so difficult, but as a
teenager that is not so easy. So tell us about
that dog and that story and that boy.
Speaker 2: Yes, So his mom is a breeder of Black Labs
and specifically wants to raise service dogs, potential service dogs,
so she had some understanding of what they could do.
And i'll she advocated for her son and was able
to I don't remember all the details, but she had
his blood tested for what are the chemical changes in
his blood when a seizure is coming on and was
able to identify that and then have a service dog
in training that she trained to recognize that particular change.
So now you know, he can go take a shower
with his service dog with him, or he can go
out with friends with this service dog with him when
long before there's he's ready to crash on the floor.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, So that's so wonderful that that, you know,
the blood that would be inside the boy when he's
about to the dog could train to recognize the scent
even if the blood was in the boy not in
the rifle. That's that's just truly amazing.
Speaker 2: So I think it's it's smell.
Speaker 3: Their sense of smell is amazing, but I think it's
more than smell. If you want to ask me my
personal opinion, I could ask you your opinion, but I
think that they're working on a whole set of senses
that are above and beyond what we normally think of
as everyday senses. And yeah, yeah, it's really amazing to
see animals who are sensing that. And about ten percent
of dogs without any training at all, and I'm talking
about rescue jobs and shelters. We'll go home with somebody
who has not had the ability to have a forty
five thousand dollar YAR service dog training program and the
dog will learn to alert for different things. So it's
amazing their abilities. And I think, if anything, we should
have enormous respect for their sensitivities, even if we don't
completely understand them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now, sometimes we talk about on this show animal
communication as in telepathy, as in the ability to communicate
thoughts and ideas and emotions to dog, or to read
the thoughts and feelings and emotions of dogs. Where are
you on the on the thought process of animal communication
in terms of telepathy?
Speaker 2: I think they have an amazing way to communicate.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't have the words to explain it to someone,
but I watch the way Shadow looks at me. Sometimes
I say, you know, he's he's not looking into my eyes,
he's looking through my eyes and into my soul.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's amazing powerful, It's so powerful. And I
think that one of our missions in the Human Animal
Connection is to educate people about the inner lives of animals.
That they do have thoughts and feelings, emotions, opinions, you know, desires,
understandings that are beyond what we usually think of. And
the more we recognize that and respect that in animals,
I think the better humans can be towards animals, right.
Speaker 2: You know, and bring out the best in them.
Speaker 6: Yes, when we know that black lab a is not
going to be the same as black lab B or
C right and look and explore and be curious.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I know for some dogs in service training
from puppies, and I'm talking about eight weeks old puppies,
they begin training them to look at humans in the eye.
And you know, this is not natural for all animals,
because for some animals, looking in the eye can be
a sign of aggression or intimidation. But we and we
teach our therapy dogs at this Also we have the
high school students. One of the first things they do
is teach the dogs how what we call focus.
Speaker 2: That's the que we use.
Speaker 3: We'll put a treat right to the top of our
nose and in the second the dog is eye contact.
They get to treat and then once they know it,
then we introduce the word. But the reason why we
use the word focus is because we also then teach
the teens that they can focus. The way they use
their thoughts can either help or harm them. So that's
why we use a very human word. Some people just
look at me, which is fine, but we use the
word focus because we're cross trending the humans as well.
Speaker 2: I like that I use focus, but I hadn't thought
of that.
Speaker 3: I Yeah, Yeah, it's a really good it's a really
good word because it's something that doesn't come up in
routine conversations more like look at this or whatever. It
might be confused for the dog. So having a word
that's a little bit unique like focus, I think is
very good. And what we do is once they learn
how to make this focus, we teach them to do
it for a little bit longer duration and get used
to the idea that that looking a human in the
eye is a good and safe thing. And when we're
on therapy dog viausit's you know, when the dog looks
you in the eye, you feel so seen and loved.
It's a yes, that's it's a great thing. It's a
great gift that we can do, is share all this
loving gaze, you know, a soft gaze, not a hard stare,
but you know, a loving look is is just a
great gift from one being to another.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And how how often are we as humans in this
crazy chaotic world we live in, How often do we
truly feel seen?
Speaker 3: Very rarely? Very yeah, yeah, you know, even with our families,
even with coworkers, you know, people we see all the time,
and and we're also busy in our heads, you know.
So that's what I think animals can bring to us,
is that moment of peace and presence and just the
simplicity of just gazing into another being's eyes and recognizing
there's a there's a soul in there. You know, it's
not just a you know, a robot in fur or something.
You know, it's it's a sentient being, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: How can people get in touch with you and support
your work?
Speaker 2: My website Phoenix Rising dash s DSL for Service Dogs
Saving Lives dot com and there they can fill out
a contact me form, my emails, there, my phone numbers.
I would love to hear people's stories, their thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wonderful Well, Leah Atherton, thank you so much for
the good work that you're doing with your own dogs
and with helping other people and getting the word out
about how service dogs can transform the lives of many people.
So thank you.
Speaker 2: And thank you. This has been enjoyable. Thank you good
and thank you for all you do.
Speaker 3: Well. Thank you so much. And you can learn more
about our work at the Humananimalconnection dot org and you
can read my book The Human Animal Connection that explains
our thirty three principles of healing, the work that we've
done with shelter dogs and rescue dogs, and how many
of them have become therapy dogs that have transformed lives.
So we'll see you on our next episode.
Speaker 2: Bye for now.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning into The Human Animal Connection Show.
Please visit our website, the Humananimalconnection dot org. There you
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