Chrissy 0:02
Welcome to The Dogs of our lives Podcast. I'm Chrissy Messick, your host and owner of the nature of animals, my dog training and behavior consulting business. Get ready to hear journeys from challenging behaviors to heartwarming successes, and everything in between. Our episodes will feature personal stories from clients, colleagues, and professionals all centered around our favorite animal companion friends. Each episode, you'll gain insights and valuable tools. From those that have walked the path that you are on with your dog will discuss mindset shifts, growth, training, tips, lessons learned, and so much more. By the end of each episode, you'll feel inspired, have a deeper understanding of your dog and walk away with actionable steps to improve both of your lives. Oh, hello, hello. Today we're talking with Emily Wolf, who's the owner and founder of Summit dog rescue, a rescue here in Boulder that does amazing work. She has been running it for about 20 to 30 years and she shares her personal and professional struggles and successes. She also has a podcast called pod to the rescue. So be sure to check that out. She's also a certified professional dog trainer, and she shares how that has impacted how she runs her rescue. She also shares how Piper her dog has made a huge impact on her as well. She also shares just so much more. So I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this episode. Now let's dig in. Okay, Emily. Hello, and thank you for joining us today.
Emily 1:29
Thank you for having me.
Chrissy 1:31
Very excited to have you here because we're going to talk about rescues. And we're going to talk about probably the personal but also the business active side of it as well. And the challenges and the you know successes. I also we rescued our dog from summit dog rescue ginger. Oh, yeah. During the pandemic, yeah, four years ago. So we've had her for four years, and we love her very much. So thank you for saving her. But yes, Emily here she is the founder slash director of Summit dog rescue, and you want to tell us a little bit about your rescue that you started. Sure.
Emily 2:11
It's a small, like low volume dog rescue here in Boulder. And I started it pretty much over 20 years ago, I've pretty much been rescuing animals my whole life. It was like some weird calling that just happened upon me. It's like when things just keep happening. I couldn't go anywhere without ending up, bring an animal home. And I'm not exaggerating that. So when the internet came to be it just slowly snowballed into getting a pet founder account. And then all of a sudden we were applying for a 501 C three and and it just snowballed. It evolved organically. That's awesome.
Chrissy 2:54
So where do most of the dogs that you rescue and adopt out come from?
Emily 2:59
So when I started it, officially most of them came from Texas. And then as we evolved, more people reached out from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho. So I've taken dogs from so many states, we've even taken dogs from the Bahamas, we had asked to take somewhere between 10 in the 100 dogs a day. And I'm not exaggerating on that either. Oh,
Chrissy 3:22
yeah. And it was small scale. You can't you can't take in all those dogs. No,
Emily 3:27
we used to do there was like a, there was a real stretch last decade on a wait call those that tweet the teens or something like 2011 to 2020. We were doing like 100 to 125 dogs a year. And we also do cats. So yeah, the unsung heroes of rescue are the cats. I just love them. And they're amazing. And they don't get enough airtime. So we do usually between 25 and 40 cats a year as well. Oh,
Chrissy 3:55
wow. Okay, cool. And then how many people do you have volunteering in your organization?
Emily 4:01
So everything changed after the pandemic, it used to be a bigger operation. And we probably had like 25 to 35 back then. And now I think we're just kind of a small team of about 10 people at the most 10 to 15 dedicated people. Yes, maybe crazy. We're all crazy.
Chrissy 4:23
At the end of the episode, we'll tell people how to get in touch with you. They want to help out or anything. And you also have a podcast,
Emily 4:31
we have a podcast and tell us
Chrissy 4:33
a little bit about that but kind of relates to the rescuing. The
Emily 4:37
rescue really evolved. It used to be I always tell people, like when I really started it. 20 years ago, I watched a couple of Cesar Milan videos and thought I knew everything I know. So it really like the dogs back then that I got were just easier. That's a whole other podcast of like, what was going on back then. Bye I think society has changed and the dogs are being squished into a harder container that is making more difficult behaviors come out. I started with a few Cesar Millan videos, and I had a bunch of great dogs and we lived up in the mountains and dogs came in. And it was literally like, we were a mini version of the Asher house, like there been social media back then we would have been famous. And it just worked out. I think I rescued like two or 300 dogs like that, believe it or not, I didn't have a fence. I lived on acreage, no fence, they didn't run away. And then they got great homes, nobody returned them, nobody had issues. It was unbelievable. And then about 10 years ago, I'll remember this sweet little dog came in and she was leash reactive. And so this was like a decade into doing like real rescue. And I quickly learned that I needed to know more, an amazing trainer here, Gigi moss took me under her wing and mentored me and sent me on my way to get you know, more education. And so for the last decade, I've been a trainer as well.
Chrissy 6:01
Yeah. And to be clear, you do not endorse any Cesar Milan. Oh, gosh, no,
Emily 6:05
unfortunately. But it's just that, you know, I try to remember that because the more we know, the better we do. But I also feel like we have a tendency as humans to the more we no judge, look back, look at others and judge. And I try to remember, I knew nothing. And I made lots of mistakes. And I just happen to be around extremely forgiving dogs and resilient dogs who let me make those mistakes. You know, I'm sorry, I did. But now I know better. And I try to do better. And we have the podcast so that other rescuers don't have to like do that two decade journey to get to where our rescue have happens to be privileged enough to be now where we have so many so much knowledge available to us. Our board has three trainers on it. You know, we have so many great connections, like if we need information, we can call you we can call the behavior vets like we have resources that are just unbelievable now, right?
Chrissy 7:05
So what's the name of your podcasts and what's the purpose of it.
Emily 7:08
So it's called pod to the rescue. And I would say 80% of it is behavior support for rescue shelters, fosters and new adopters, just so that they literally have an easy rescue focused access to information so that they don't go down the rabbit hole of the internet. It's super clear now from all the research and all the science that we don't need to use fear, intimidation, or pain to train our dogs. And not that any dog should be trained that way. But rescue dogs have so much trauma, the majority of them have trauma. So why would you want to use force and control and fear with a traumatized being who most of the time came here from someplace else, and they're just trying to get their footing, the most important thing is for them to feel safe. So if we have a training philosophy, which is all over the internet of using force and intimidation and fear, you're just undoing any progress you could make there and, and I always say anyone who's rescuing dogs or adopting dogs, they've got a huge heart. They love dogs. So they just need the right information. Because who wants to hurt a dog but if you think hurting the dog could help the dog. I think you can be talked into that. Right? So but when you really learn that that's actually the opposite of what you should be doing, then you do better because you have that information. Right?
Chrissy 8:32
And so your approach with the podcast and the rescue is more positive reinforcement, safety, trust in the relationship versus out of fear.
Emily 8:42
Exactly. humane education and a lot of troubleshooting. Just what do I do when I bring my dog home? Why do we promote using a harness over just a collar? Why do we give them time to decompress? What does decompression look like? We have a lot of interviews with experts as well, like Dr. Patricia McConnell came on like Lukashenko came on to talk about aggression. So it's not just us we do you know, interview experts in the field. Right,
Chrissy 9:10
perfect. Okay, so is there a specific dog or dogs that kind of made you want to start a rescue?
Emily 9:16
No, literally, like I drove down to Baja in like 1991 and we found a dog on the beach and we smuggled her back to America and I would go on a road trip with my boyfriend and I remember we went for lunch in a little restaurant and the the guy who ran the restaurant was like, I'm about to go drown these puppies in a river. Do you want one and I was like, Oh my God, I'll take all four Yeah,
Chrissy 9:41
so it's just more strays seeing strays and that kind of thing that made you want to help out?
Emily 9:46
Yeah, everywhere I've gone I've always been a rescuer. Okay, cool.
Chrissy 9:51
So tell us a little bit about yourself in the environment that you live in. And you have Piper which is your big puppy. Tell us a you know briefly Be a little bit about your environment and Piper. So
Emily 10:02
we live down in the city now. I left the mountains and I live in Boulder. And during the pandemic, I adopted my appearance A's, which Chrissy you had something to do with that. Chrissy told me that she was meant to be with me. And I was meant to be with her and that we had a soul contract. And I think that is really, really accurate. Like, she is one of my greatest teachers. She is not easy. But she is a deep, wise old soul. She mirrors back to me a lot of the things I need to learn. And she's also pushing me to get out of the city. So I'm trying to leave boulder because she can't handle boulder. And I think I could I could live here just because we're comfortable. But I'm a mountain girl. I was never meant to be in the city.
Chrissy 10:49
Yeah. And she's a she's a mountain girl. So you guys are working your way back out to the mountains,
Emily 10:55
right? Yes. Oh, yeah, within the next couple of years.
Chrissy 10:59
So you kind of already touched on this a little bit. But just going back to your childhood, you were always rescuing animals and bringing them home. And that that sounds like it was just a major. Like it's your calling. So how many animals did you have at a time? And what did your parents were your parents like what is happening?
Emily 11:19
So you know, my parents, weirdly, my mom was allergic. So we didn't actually have a lot of animals growing up, I had a horse and a couple of times, we got to have bunnies. But the time that I lived with my parents, we would I would like bring home an animal and then we would like quickly rehome it and they were not they were not into it. So yeah,
Chrissy 11:41
you've literally been doing it your whole life. Yeah. And so what is your previous experience with having dogs or other animals? Like I guess in regard to since you are a dog trainer now, I guess that aspect of your experience with behaviors? Did you Was it something that you were aware of? Or that you've just gradually have come to learn over time?
Emily 12:02
I think I came to learn a lot. I mean, I think if I looked back at probably everything I was doing 20 or 30 years ago, I'd mostly be sat you know, judgmental about but I know I've really always had this like deep connection with the animals. Like it wasn't just like, shoes, oh, dog, you know, like they, I really have always connected with their soul or spirit or whatever you want to say like, I see their emotions and their empathy. And so it's a connection. So I was never extra harsh. But you know, like my horse were bridle. This was like 30 years ago going like going to bareback because I didn't like using the saddle. And so I think I was always attuned, but I didn't know anything. So I just did the best I could, which I'm sure included a lot of mistakes. Same here. I've
Chrissy 12:52
made a lot of big mistakes until I really started learning and actually becoming aware of like, what was really going on, because I too thought, Oh, I know a lot about dogs and I know a lot. And then I was like, Oh, I don't know anything really? Yeah,
Emily 13:07
well, actually, a small side note would be in 1989. I
Speaker 1 13:12
lived in Portland, Oregon. And I had this big dog that I had rescued as soon as I moved out of my parents, I was like, by the way, here's this 110 pound dog I just rescued from the shelter. And he actually bit some people. People were like, well, you have to take them to obedience class. And I said, Oh, well, okay, so I went to this class in Portland, and it was choke chains. Squirrel moment, a choke chain, also known as a choke collar, or a slip chain, or a check chain, or a correction chain is a metal link collar that tightens around the dog's neck when pulled, often used as a training tool for dogs that pull on walks. And this is a very aversive technique, it does not need to be used if you just teach your dog how to walk nicely on leash. And there's other issues to consider as well, such as are they getting enough enrichment, physical and mental stimulation, and it also can do a lot of damage to a dog's neck. So choke chains are not needed at all. And
Emily 14:09
she showed us how to put the choke chain on and how to do a really harsh correction. I was like, I can't do that. And she said, well, then you're gonna have to leave the class. I said, Well, can I just stay in the class and learn the other stuff? And she was like, No, and you're you're not welcome here. And we laughed and she's like, but you're gonna ruin that dog because he's already bit people. And I actually have to give myself a little credit. I just did environmental management, which is one reason why Atlanta Nederland the house is like half a mile from the road is because Woodrow that people if he was by the road, so, you know, like he would have chased bikers and right so we were like, well, we'll just live far from the road. Yeah. So without knowing anything, I'd still made choices based on my animals. Yeah.
Chrissy 14:55
And you did management and so really not knowing like that edge. educational aspect of behavior you had more of your intuitive empathetic safety kind of stuff that you utilized and just common sense type stuff. And
Emily 15:11
he was interesting were like, even though I knew nothing, I very quickly within like a month of having him realized if I put my hand over the person's hand who was coming in it created like a ritual of this person is okay. So he would sniff their hand with my hand on top of it, whereas now we tell people not to sniff hands, but and then he was fine with anyone. The only people he bet would be people who like walked in on on strangers. Yeah, strangers. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, that's always fun to hear. Hear everyone's history with animals.
Chrissy 15:41
So tell me what brought you and Piper together? Where do you adopt her from and what made you feel connected to her?
Emily 15:47
It's a long story. That's a whole podcast. I had a different I had a different foster during the pandemic named Leila. It was beautiful peonies, and she had two exceptional applicants at the end of like when we got her ready for adoption. I'm only one dog. And so Piper was in Alameda, California. And a friend of mine out there rescues livestock Guardian dogs. And so I was like, well, let's bring Piper in, and she could go to the other home. But by the time I flew out and brought her back, they had found a different dog through evergreen Animal Protection League, which I was totally fine with. But then I had Piper and I was like, I don't know if she's my dog. And like she was so shut down. Because she came to me in a prawn collar and a shock collar and they treated her poorly. She was so shut down that I didn't see like any wild spirit in her. So I wasn't sure if she was my dog. But you were like, Oh, she is your dog. And I just trusted you which kind of funny that I did that because at the time, I didn't really feel a connection. But I was like, I trusted what you said. And you were right. 100% I can't imagine life without her. Oh,
Chrissy 16:56
sweet. And now I guess that kind of brings us to been your challenges with her being shut down when you got her. Just kind of briefly if you want to go over like your journey since you've gotten her like her coming out of her shell. And I know barking is one of the one of the challenges. And so just kind of briefly go over your challenges and how you guys have worked through some of those. She's a livestock
Emily 17:23
guardian. So she's been bred for the last 2000 years to bark and go through what they call ritualized aggression. Where your robber I remember her. I knew that when I got her, but she didn't bark at all. She just was super shut down. We threw out the prong collar and taught her how to walk nicely on leash and like little by little, she was like, Oh, I can express myself. So you know, she's really turned into this amazing wild being like her wildness is real. I'm actually reading rewilding your heart. I'm Marc Bekoff, and I feel like she she rewild it and I rewelded with her. So that's how she's my teacher. But you know, like anything wild in there's always that part that's like, Dear God, we live in the middle of frickin North boulder. Right. And the other night, there were coyotes one block away. Yep, yep. Yep. Being a two in the morning. Well, Piper was like, Oh, I know what to do. I need to spark for the next five hours. Dear God, so you know, I have to get up out of bed. I have to go get treats. I have to calm her down. I have like at two in the morning. You know, it's like I understand put on white noise like, luckily, it's Monday and I haven't gotten an animal control call. But you know, people here don't love a livestock guardian in my backyard. I have to tell you. It's not she doesn't fit in here. I say. It's like having a bear in North boulder. It's not like having a dog.
Chrissy 18:50
A lot of people will change their environment, their life because it fits the needs of their dog. You know? And not not everyone can and will, which is fine. But some people do. And she loves it up there when you guys go up there. She's in heaven, right?
Emily 19:04
Oh, yeah. And she barely barks up there. She's just calm. And you know, she's just happy watching things. Like she only barks if something's right near us. But down here, there's always noises and it's hard. Yeah, yeah, it's hard for her. And that makes it hard for me and
Chrissy 19:19
yeah. Okay, so moving on, to talking about challenges that challenges that you've had in the rescue world and I guess talk about whatever comes up for you, and how this has affected you personally.
Emily 19:33
Oh, okay. So challenges in the rescue world. I mean, it's heartbreaking. So many people say, you know, I could never do that, you know, it's just, you fall in love with these little beings. And I mean, I can I've tried to not look at all the pictures of all the please because that breaks my heart. When I hit delete. I might as well be the one putting the syringe into you, you know, like, there's so it's terrible. So that's the number one challenge To the great things to present like the the happy tails, you know that every day we check our email, and we've, you know, we've tried to, like, have ways we have an auto reply, but like, it's just depressing. I mean, yeah, we get all these people and you know, they all love their dogs, I always say like the the email, start with a heavy heart, you know, so we get tons of people in Colorado with a heavy heart, like the dog, but the baby or you know, like all these stories, and you just feel for every single person and every single dog. That's, that's the hard part.
Chrissy 20:32
I mean, I totally get it. So personally, what do you do, to help yourself be able to continue working in spite of that with your
Emily 20:42
rescue? You know, we diminished our numbers intensely, you know, from the 100, we're down to like, 15 to 20 dogs a year, we'd support the dogs when they're in the rescue. And then we as much as adopters are open to it, adopt the or support the adopters, because we really want to make sure that it's a good fit. That's the most important thing, you know, which comes with its own backlash, where people are like, well, I want that dog. And I don't understand why you won't give it to me. And it's like, because we just know from what we know from his dog, it's not a good fit. Yeah. So just trying to make sure that that fit lasts forever. Now, having done this for so long, we used to never get returns. Now, our return rate is ridiculously low. It's like 1%, or something like that. Yeah. But we have this year, we had two returns from people who adopted seven years ago, and one of them like, really amazing people. And he had snapped at their kids. And they did everything, right. And they were just good people. And it was like, unfortunate. And they kept him until we found him in amazing home. And that was a great one. The other one, they had struggled for three years with the dog peeing in the house, once they came out of lockdown, he couldn't transition and they'd never hired a trainer. And they called us and luckily he was we did find him another home. But when you adopt a dog out, you know, you hope that they'll be there forever. And you know, they were all technically my dogs. My mic, my name is on 700 or 800 microchips right now in this whole country. So it's a little overwhelming if you think of it like when people think, oh, I want to do rescue. It's like, really? Because like, when the phone rings, I get a panic attack, you know, 10 o'clock phone rings, that's never a good thing. Yeah, so it's definitely, if we're talking about like rainbows and unicorns, like, it is very few rainbows and unicorns.
Chrissy 22:34
Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about those rainbows and unicorns. Okay. Really quick. Are there things personally to like, help you with your mental health? You know, doing this that you do? Is there anything that you do to kind of support yourself emotionally?
Emily 22:51
I'm trying more and more like I actually was hospitalized twice in the past 10 years for like, major life threatening things that they couldn't figure out why someone my age would have and I was like, oh, it's stress. Right? So getting our numbers down, we have the best little team of people right now. And that's really helpful. It used to feel like it was mostly laid on on my doorstep. And now that it feels like there's a team, which is really helpful, right? And then just for like, self care, I'm trying to like spend more time up in the mountains or like, go see my son, and we go to the ocean, like things that like refill my cup. You can't do anything for the dogs if you're running yourself ragged. Exactly. Yeah.
Chrissy 23:36
That's, that's helpful. Thank you. Tell us a couple rainbow and unicorn story. You know, just like some of the good things that you've seen from having a rescue. So
Emily 23:45
the good things are like we have rescued, you know, probably over 1000 1500 dogs, and we have this page. It is amazing. And we have this page, the adopters page. And you know, seeing these people over the years, like who've had these dogs their whole lives and seeing how like they got this dog, I might have had it for like three months, and then it went to them and I entrusted them with this being. And then their whole world changed because of this dog like we've we had one lady write to us. I remember the dogs she got, she ended up moving back to Germany, she took her dog with her and she sent all these pictures of him like hiking in the Alps. And he was her soulmate in Europe. And I was like, oh my god, I remember him. He was just like on the euthanasia list in Oklahoma. I know and like and then another one that really touched me was the dog and I'm gonna cry. But like, I remember the lady. She seemed very nice. She, you know, she came and got this dog. And then she wrote when he passed and like she'd have three children. And I went through her Facebook page, you know, and you could see like, he was part of their family, you know, and you're like, wow, that family was like centered around that dog that I pulled from a euthanasia list in Texas and those children's lives will be changed. because they grew up with this amazing dog, that's like the ripples, you know, you're like, okay, it might seem like you're just saving this one dog and what does it really matter when there's 8 million, you know, on Euthanasia lists right now, but the ripples go out and people learn to be more connected to animals because they've adopted an animal with some humane education component.
Chrissy 25:21
Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing. Like, you know, being where you are, you are just right in the middle of it. Unless somebody reaches out and says, This is how this dog changed my life, you don't see how that dog may be changed 20 people's lives, right? Even though you might not see it, like, even Gingy. Ginger here, you know, she's changed all of our lives. She's changed, like, in our neighborhood, people's seeing her learn how to make doggy friends. Because when we first got her, you know, she was like, stay away from me dogs. Yeah. But now she's like, making friends slowly, with all the dogs in the neighborhood. And all the people in the neighborhood are like, Oh, how are you doing that? You know, so it's just, you know, those little ripple effects that you brought up that maybe you can't see, but it's making a change, you know, in the world, hopefully, spring. Okay, so what has Piper or other dogs taught you about rescue?
Emily 26:18
What have dogs taught me about rescue, I would say that we all need to just slow down. Everyone needs to slow their world down, like the dogs would prefer to go slow and smell every little smell out there and not be pushed into things really fast. And I think our world has gotten so intensely fast. So I don't know if that really answers that question. But I feel like the slower we can all go, the better it would be for dogs and there'd be less need for rescue. Yeah,
Chrissy 26:49
no, it, it answers it perfectly. And like you said, not forcing and just going at the dogs pace. Every dog is so different, just like every human is so different. And so really getting to know them and who they are. Everybody's not the same. So going at their own pace. Yeah. And
Emily 27:08
managing our expectations. Like, I think we all want that perfect dog, we have it in our mind of like Lassie and it can go to brew pubs and they can do all this and like, we have to accept our dogs and all beings, where they are and just stop trying to like force them into little boxes. Like as much as I love Piper, you know, if you were like, hey, what would you like, I wish she wasn't such a big Barker. But I got a livestock guardian. I mean, it's readily available on Google what they do for a living. So like, This is who they are, and not being like, I'm gonna fix this or
Chrissy 27:44
Yeah, and working with it. I mean, a big part of acceptance is not necessarily letting everyone run over you. But acceptance is being like, Oh, this is who they are. And this is what they need. I'm going to let go of what I thought and then work with what we have. Exactly,
Emily 28:02
right. Like I have window film, and we have white noise, and we walk during off hours, like all those things, right? And then just being like deep breaths, I love her. She's mine forever. I'll never write a with a heavy heart letter about her. Right, right. Yeah. Okay,
Chrissy 28:19
so what has changed about your relationship with dogs in general, by learning how to work with dogs and rescue, and your training approach, and you talked about that a little bit already, you know, when you kind of first started your rescue and what you were kind of learning and then how that has changed how your approach has changed. Until now how you interact with dogs, I guess,
Emily 28:39
it's definitely been like a curve where once i i started training, I became really into training, I wanted to like have them be doing things, you know, like, sit down, stay on target, like all these cool things that I can have my dog do. And then I wanted everybody to know, sit down, stay touch all those things. What I'm realizing in the last like four years, I've evolved, I'm evolving, thanks to so many teachers that I, you know, get to learn from that. It's so much more than that. It's like the relationship and connection. And I think I always knew that, but I got kind of sidetracked by the like, oh, I can make the dog do cool things. And I always say there's a million dogs on the euthanasia list today who know how to sit. And so sitting is not that important. So like now it's more about like, even now, like we require all our adopters do three training sessions. We always say like, we'd love you to do 500 Because like you're learning and the dogs learning, like training is a lifelong thing. And they hear training and they're like we need to come up with another word than training because we need to go beyond training. It's about establishing that connection and that relationship and I love rewarding behaviors that I want to see more of and the dogs light up when they know they're getting it right and I would never use any like harsh corrections buddy It's really that connection. It's all it's really the connection. I mean, you could have a dog in 50 different behaviors and still rehome it because you don't have a connection. Right,
Chrissy 30:08
right. You know, if the dog loves training and learning, then that is, you know, a way to connect with them. But then some dogs don't. Yeah, and it's like a matter of finding how you guys connect with each other. And that's a huge thing. When you're looking at What Kind of Dog Should we get? You know, like, what kind of lifestyle can we have together that we both love? I don't like calling myself a dog trainer. I like to call myself like a dog and human coach. Yeah, you know, or something like that. Because it's, if people just could learn to have a healthy, connected relationship with their dog, I think that would decrease the amount of behavior issues by a ton. I mean, yeah, there's needs to be there needs to be some safety training and boundaries and that kind of stuff. But if we would all learn to have like, a healthy relationship and acceptance of some things. I mean, there's no research on this, but I think the amount of behavior issues would be greatly decreased.
Emily 31:08
I think so too. I actually did Kimbro fees family dog mediation course. And I thought that was really excellent. Because she she talks a lot about that it's less about the way we train but more creating that relationship and, and explaining to people like your dog needs these species specific things like smelling on a walk. So can you you know, add 15 minutes into your day so that they can stop and smell. I think that's so important. It is interspecies communication, like we have brought another species into our home, people starting to realize that, like, I don't think I realized that. And I think that's one of the biggest things I have learned in the last decade is like, Oh, my God, it's actually a dog. And it's a canine and under primate, like, I think I think that's when you really, like take that in deeply. It's like, of course, there's going to be things that are annoying to them, I'm sure like, Why do I get in that box and wash myself off with water? Like every two days? Like they're Piper's like, bathe me once every two years? And I'm happy, you know, we were totally different.
Chrissy 32:12
Or why does that human sit on that comfy thing? And stare at that box? For Yes, for
Emily 32:19
hours? Or the phone? You know, like, Yeah, our phones. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's
Chrissy 32:25
a whole other podcast, right? Yeah. Okay, so where are you? Now you've actually talked about this a little bit. But where are you now in this process? And what are your next steps? If you want to talk about the rescue, you can or if you just want to talk about personal stuff, you can but yeah, whatever you feel you want to share?
Emily 32:43
I think the rescue and you know, the personal training stuff will be pretty similar, which is just keep going with education. And then I think that education is hopefully going to take some turn to like relationship focus, like, of course, we're dealing with dogs that are just coming in. And we want like talking more about the relationship aspect of like really building that bond. I think that's something we've missed in the dog training world, realizing that that's why we have them is because we want that love, and that connection and that relationship with another species. So how do you make that connection and feel that deeper? Yeah,
Chrissy 33:18
I'm creating a course online course of just how to have a healthy relationship. So keep an eye out for that.
Emily 33:24
I love it. Okay,
Chrissy 33:27
so is there any negative wisdom, or anything else that you would like to share with our audience or someone that's going through the same journey or someone who might be thinking about starting a rescue? Oh, my
Emily 33:38
goodness, okay. So if you were thinking of starting a rescue, I would say find a rescue that aligns with your philosophy and volunteer there for a while because I would not let my best friend start a rescue. It's all encompassing. I mean, to really be that person like you, you own a dog for the rest of his life unless you want to do something like be like, we don't take back returns, you know, and even when it's in Foster, you're legally responsible. So it's never happened to us knock on wood, but like if a foster dog bit someone, we have insurance, but you're still in a lawsuit like and just emotionally like the things it's just a lot. And we're all unpaid. Like, this is a volunteer position. I mean, right. I wouldn't be in a mansion right now. If the hours that I use rescuing dogs I had had, like a law degree and been doing legal work,
Chrissy 34:31
right? Yeah. So any negative wisdom for someone who is like, Okay, this is my life's purpose. You know, I guess for the personal or emotional support, what would you recommend for them to do?
Emily 34:47
Um, you know, there's some great Facebook groups like shelter worker groups and rescue groups, maybe get on there to make some connections. I have really great friends and stuff. People luckily, having done this for so long, like all over the country, I have like good friends in the shelter in the keys. And you know, I have good people in Texas that I talked to, like, you network into this incredible like that's the bonus is you meet some of the best human beings in the world doing this. So as you do it, you do connect with these incredible beings. And then you lean on them for support. And you guys create like a web of support. And that's the way to do it. Yeah.
Chrissy 35:29
So it sounds like you would say, have a community, have a community, have a system or a plan. And then really, for your personal health, find ways to decompress and fill your cup up. So it sounds like those are the some of the ways that you would suggest, yeah,
Emily 35:49
but if you can just join a different rescue and be involved with someone else's journey. That would be my biggest thing, because there's no vacations. I mean, I've been in Europe and one of our dogs got lost. And it trashed our vacation because we're in a different time zone. And I had to be on the phone all night talking about this dog that was lost during a snowstorm in Boulder and my son was like, What are we doing? And I was like, There's a dog lost. I'm sorry, you know, that's ox? Yeah.
Chrissy 36:16
Okay. And then. So just one more time. We shared this at the beginning, but if anybody wants to support or help you, how do they reach out to you? And then what is the name of your podcast again? Okay,
Emily 36:28
so it's pod to the rescue. And we are always looking for any help anyone has to offer on getting it out more in the world. We've had over 50,000 downloads, but I do have big dreams of being like, you know, out there and every home. So if anyone wants to volunteer there, and then our rescue was summit dog rescue, and you can actually volunteer with us virtually and help us read applications or helping any of the admin there's tons of admin, just so you know, with running a rescue. Okay. Yeah.
Chrissy 37:02
Perfect. Okay. Well, thank you so much for being on and just sharing your story and about rescue life and your personal life. And you and Piper and Okay, great. Well, thanks
Emily 37:13
for having me.
Chrissy 37:14
Oh, well, there you have it. Thank you so much for listening. And I hope you got some words of wisdom and some nuggets that you could take away with you. If you'd like to talk to Emily about anything she shared. You can reach her at WWW dot summit dog rescue.org. Or if you want to check out a podcast, it's apt pod to the rescue. Dogs truly are special beings and can change lives. If we're open to what they have to teach us. This not only impacts you and your dog but can also make a positive impact on the world. If you're finding value in this podcast, the best way to support us is by leaving a review up to five stars and sharing it with your family, friends and fellow dog lovers around the world. Lastly, I'd love to connect with you. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at the nature of animals and visit my website at WWW dot the animal nature.com Until next time, be curious, show compassion and have courage.
