Erika’s family is a tad…
unusual.
Their lives revolve around dogs.
Dogs are one of the most truly selfless creatures on our planet.
They expect nothing and appreciate everything.
Erika runs Green Dogs Unleashed
an all-volunteer, special-needs, rescue organization.
They arrange foster parents for surrendered animals that are difficult to place
give vaccinations
and pay for spaying
and veterinary care.
"Hi buddy!"
They run a therapy dog program,
including testing
and training.
and a public awareness campaign about blind and deaf dogs.
"Good boy! That's a very good boy!"
Deaf and blind dogs can perform every function that any typical hearing or seeing dog can do
only they can do it better because they’re not distracted.
They’re not intimidated by loud noises,
they have no thunder anxiety,
and they’re super in tune with their people.
" Good down, Magic!"
How do they pay for it al?
In part by holding all sorts of classes
from obedience
"down and sit!"
to tricks
and offering play therapy sessions.
The whole family is involved.
Finn, 12, helps with the play therapy
and with his partner Rogue
who is deaf
has won the junior dog frisbee world championships.
Zoey, 9, trains Fig,
"Push!"
who is also deaf and partially blind.
"Silly pup!"
Oliver, 6, helps with setup.
Even 3-year-old Eden pitches in.
Not to mention 6 family dogs,
several cats,
an unknown number of chickens and guinea hens,
and goats.
"Do it again?"
Erika’s husband Kevin is a nurse.
"Keep doing that? Nooo."
For the first 20 months of the pandemic he lived in his RV
to keep his family safe.
"I see. Can you tell me what kind of symptoms you're having?"
We spent a lot of time apart which really brought us closer together.
I don’t know where we’d be without him.
He’s the complete backbone of our family.
"Oh come on - I'm 50 pounds!"
We couldn’t do any of the stuff we do if Kevin wasn’t doing all the things behind the scenes
and I feel like sometimes I get a lot of the praise
but the reality is he makes the show run smoothly
so that I can go out and do all the things that I do.
On top of everything,
Erika and Kevin homeschool their four children.
"Climb."
The dogs are a part of their daily curriculum.
"Figgy, settle!"
In their school, in their education we integrate a lot of enrichment training with the animals
and I think that that teaches them a lot of patience.
It teaches them to slow down when they’re in a hurry.
It teaches them to redirect when things don’t go exactly the way they want.
Sometimes we just have to pivot in life and the dogs really assist in teaching them that.
"Crawl! Good Girl! Good Job!"
It also teaches them responsibility.
"You're dropping a bunch of it!"
Finn studies while helping watch the play therapy session
and each child is learning how to train their own dog.
But for Erika, there’s one lesson that trumps all the others.
I want them to be kind. That it.
Just flat out kind to other people,
kind to other creatures,
kind to our planet
and definitely give more than they take.
"How are you? What is this? That's desert."
But Erika and Kevin also realistic about the world we live in.
I really want my kids to grow up and be self-reliant.
I think that they need to be able to do things on their own
and not expect those things to come from other places.
In return they give their kids tremendous freedom.
Part of having free range children is allowing them to explore the world around them.
And yes, they fall. And they cut their knees.
And they bruise their elbows.
But what have they learned?
“What part of you is going to whack into the tree?”
I think it’s important that children learn resilience.
I think that they need to be able to bounce back.
Especially in the world today.
"Keep trying! Pull up hard!"
Turns out that how Erika raises her children
is very similar to how she trains her dogs.
First – find something that makes them go bananas.
Makes their tail spin around like a propeller.
Not just the normal back and forth business but around in circles –
whether its hot dogs or bacon or cheese -
Some dogs like pickles.
The second thing is you need to get their attention.
"Ready?"
The greatest thing to do is to make ourselves interesting in the moment.
Good boy! Okay!
That might be flailing their arms
or throwing a little party for them.
If the human’s having a good time, the dog’s gonna have a good time.
Building a relationship that’s based on trust
and teaching the dog that we’re not going to guide them
into something that is dangerous or uncomfortable
that they can look to us for direction
and we’re gonna help them through it and they can overcome an obstacle.
And finally…
Some of the most important things are patience,
Patience,
and patience (laughter).
But in the end, you get it all back a hundred times over.
I believe that animals - and dogs in particular -
were put into our lives to teach us really good lessons.
And a lot of those lessons are being selfless.
A dog gives absolutely 100% to their owner.
They love unconditionally and with everything that they have.
And I think that humans really have a lot to learn from that.
if you can only save one dog –
you’re just saving one dog
but to that one dog you’re saving their whole world.
"Good boy!"