Summary: Hello everyone, this is Krista with Episode #139 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Because I'm going to be expanding my Wag Out Loud business with exciting things in store, I wanted to let you know that as of January 2022, I will go from releasing weekly episodes to bi monthly episodes. Putting this show on is super important to me, but to do it right, and all on my own, I've decided to bring you the same awesome guests and content, but just with a lesser frequency. So that will give me more time to work on other fantastic projects in the canine health and wellness space. So stay tuned for some exciting future announcements. Did you know this? Dogs recognize that when you leave, your home is full of your scent. And the longer you are gone, the more your smell dissipates. So if you have a regular routine, your dog will learn that at a certain scent level, you will return home. How amazing is that? Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Larry Kay is a best-selling dog author and award-winning dog filmmaker with two million Facebook fans at Positively Woof. Larry's keynote speeches, workshops, and Dog Hugs video podcast emphasize his passion for dog tricks, positive dog training, animal rescue, and celebrating our human-animal bond. Welcome dog lovers to a another amazing episode of the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. I have no doubt that today's guest is going to teach us a few new tricks. We have Larry Kay with us who is a best selling and award winning dog author and dog filmmaker. Yay! Larry, thanks again for being on the show. Would you please introduce yourself and tell us how you got into trick training and filmmaking with shelter dogs? Krista, thanks so much for having me on your show. Yeah, the way I would typically introduce myself is I am Larry Kay, best selling dog author and award winning dog filmmaker with 2 million Facebook fans at Positively Woof. And, you know, as I thought about getting ready to come on your show today, and I know you like to have your guests introduce themselves. I think what would really give context to my background and how I got here is to say that I was at a crossroads in my career in media. I've always been a writer and producer of Creative Media. And I was mostly known in children's media. That's where I had really developed a reputation throughout the 1990s. And working with Disney and the Muppets. I wrote TV cartoons for the Pink Panther. I was trained at Hanna Barbera. And in fact, the late Bill Hanna was one of my mentors. Wow. So I and I taught filmmaking also at NYU and have a graduate degree in television and from Syracuse University. So I was at this crossroads since like, what's next I'm kind of done with the kids thing I was my my marriage of my long term marriage had broken up and my passion had drained out of my career, which was just as scary as being alone. And it was time to reinvent myself. And so I first did a project created a children's DVD that remember those things? that would teach the little ones, preschoolers how to be safe and successful around dogs. And it has puppetry and animation and original songs and good lessons, all these kinds of things that I got good at in the children's space and did it in the dog space. And at the end of the project, which ended up it's called Animal Wow. it's out of print. You can't even find it anymore. Yeah, I'll probably release it at some point in this thing called the cloud. And I loved the dog thing so much. It's like, I gotta do more of that. How can I do it? So I think I want to, I brought to the space, my background in filmmaking and long form writing and was fortunate enough to be able to do some excellent books. And given that filmmaker’s bend, I really knew that there was a way to bring filmmaking to the dogs and bring dogs to filmmaking not that other people haven't done before. But what's the place where I can make a contribution? Sure. And I got really passionate about shelter dogs. And so, um, you know, we've heard the conversation that shelter dogs, homeless dogs, used dogs, as I like to call them, you know, are somehow less than, and I like to take a seeming liability and flip it around. So that where's the hidden asset? How might they be really cool? in a special way that non shelter dogs are cool. So what is inside of every homeless dog? There's this undiscovered movie star. Then just thinking of this project, Dog Rescue Stars, trick training and filmmaking with homeless dogs. In order to get Yeah, in order to get them the best kind of stardom. A loving home forever. Oh Larry! I am so excited to dive into this. So you are going to cover dog tricks save lives. Yeah. And Larry, is it true that the most common reason that owners abandon their dogs is for behavioral issues? Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, I call it lack of training. And you're right, it's behavioral issues and they're correctable, two biggest ones are for people giving up on dogs are soiling the house. And chewing and barking. Those are the biggest reasons, all of which are correctable. Right. It's just these people didn't give them a chance. Yeah. And I get it. It's, you know, sometimes it's really hard. I've had my butt kicked by shelter dogs more than once, where, where I'm ready to give up. But I just know that it's like, okay, what can I do? And I just keep working at it. And suddenly it clicks. It's like, wow, got another one. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about this Dog Rescue Stars program from start to finish? What does that look like? Sure. What is it a workshop. It was supposed to start last year before the pandemic. And, yeah, I've been designing it for a number of years. And it's basically trick training and moviemaking with shelter dogs, you know, I'm developing also the workshop for pet dogs. And we'll be piloting it here in Los Angeles. And my sweet spot is to is going into shelters to do this with dogs who are needing a home. So the full workshop is two and a half days. And I also do a single day workshop as well. And it attracts volunteers to take the workshop, trainers and filmmakers. And what shelter wouldn't want to have volunteer trainers and volunteer artists come in and volunteer at their shelter? Sure. So by showing those categories of folks this pretty cool and in some ways very easy way to train dogs and get them rescued, get them hopefully homes, it becomes not a burden on the shelter or local rescue organization. But instead it increases the pool of resources brings in fresh blood, more trainers, more artists and in the products that they create ie the films and other social media. It attracts more adopters and more resources. Plus it not only gets the dogs adopted, it helps the local rescue organization, but it also adds to the conversation, transforms the conversation of how cool rescue dogs are. How inside of every rescue dog is this undiscovered star. And it's our job as the talent agents, we’re the detectives to figure out this puzzle. It's a win, win for all really. Yeah, well the dog too. Well, exactly. the volunteers this is all live going on live, or is this a pre recorded workshop? It's a live in person workshop. And I've been developing it for some five plus years, I started this project before I wrote The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever. And it was what inspired me to write that book and bring on Chris Perondi, who's a master stunt dog performer, as a co author. And from Chris, I learned all kinds of stuff about trick trading. We're gonna get into some tricks too here today. So everybody stay tuned for that. Larry, did you tell me before that you have had 80 shelter dogs go through this program that were successfully adopted already? Yeah. Including one very unruly Australian Cattle Dog, who when he first came to the set, you could barely touch him. He was scary. And this dog had a history. He’d been adopted twice and given up on twice. And this Australian Cattle Dog, you know, was basically on death row, and it might have been three strikes and you’re out. But fortunately, this shelter Pet Orphans here in Van Nuys, a part of Los Angeles pulled this dog off of death row and gave him the perfect name for a scary dog. Spider. Well, when Spider and 11 other dogs were presented to my film set, and we began making the film, you know, Spider could just barely sit still for five seconds. I mean, you just couldn't touch him. And so while the most of the other dogs, you know, they could sit and stay and even learned a few tricks. Naturally, almost all those dogs got adopted later. But a month later, nobody had come for Spider. So I began to volunteer to walk him. And little by little, he began to open up to me. So he looked at me instead of avoiding eye contact. So when he looked at me, I began to shake with some hand signals. And I introduced him to the agility course, which he loved. And he smiled. So I decided I was up for a really big challenge Krista. I brought Spider home forever. He now knows more than 50 dog tricks. That's amazing. When I first adopted Spider, our veterinarian needed three vet techs, just to examine him. Now, we perform dog tricks in the waiting room. I love it. And and she says he's a completely different dog. You know, so trick training transformed Spider’s life. You know, it made him sociable. And it certainly built our bond. And I believe that trick training can do that for every dog that there is a trick or tricks for just about every dog. Okay, well, Larry, we are going to take a quick commercial break, and we are going to come back and get into trick training. And maybe you can even teach us a few tricks. So, we'll be right back. Thanks to our friends at AnimalBiome for sponsoring today's episode. They are brilliant at applying science to improve your dog’s health. Did you know that 60-70% of your dog’s immune cells are located in the gut microbiome? And when their microbiome is out of balance, it can lead to inflammation associated with GI and skin issues. My dog Winston was tested and the results were shocking! He had way too many harmful bacteria and too few strains of the beneficial bacteria. No wonder his immune system was always compromised! Thanks to the AnimalBiome team for getting him back on track so that he can live a much healthier life! Isn’t it time to test your dog’s gut health? Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off!
