My Dogs Help Me Stay Sober

I talk about how having dogs help me stay sober

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to Rock Bottom is the normal. This is Brian. Um, I kind of wanted to talk about dogs. I have my dogs with me right here. Uh this one. Say hi, Budge. This one is Budger. I've had him the longest. He's gonna be three in August. Um this one is Caleb.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

He will be three right before Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Um I think that I think that dogs are super important in sobriety or like, you know, pets or kids, like anything that kind of like relies on you. I know that like I have a lot of I have a lot of the tools that I've built over time. And like I'm really strong in my sobriety. Like I'm I'm able to play the tape forward and see what would happen if I drink. I'm able to take accountability. Like I'm able to do all this stuff that I fucking talk about all the time and I preach and I just like won't shut the fuck up about. Uh but probably the main thing that keeps me sober over everything else is these two. I think that I like I think that deep down, even if I didn't have those tools, even if like the urge was too much, and I just like you know, lost lost the tools in the process and like I was like about to drink, I think that I'd be like, who the fuck's gonna like feed my dogs? Right? Who's gonna love my dogs to the full capacity? Because they need so much love and attention and just like they need someone to be there 100% of the time. They need they need a responsible person to be there for them and care for them and give them love and affection. And I think if I started drinking again, I think I would not be that guy and I wouldn't be able to do it. And I think that that's probably like the biggest thing that keeps me sober. I I'm like fortunate enough that I so I got Budger, the black one here, I got him, I had just moved out of my like I had just moved out of my brother's house. I was probably like a year, it's probably like a year and a half sober at this point. And I moved out of my brother's house and I moved into my own apartment. First time I'm living alone in sobriety, right? Like that's a huge pivotal moment, pivotal moment is living alone and being continuing to be sober. Because like no one's there. There's just your own accountability because like no one's there to like double check on you, no one's there to make sure that you're staying sober. It's just you. And in the past, when it was just me, like I lost to addiction 100% of the time. Like it always, it always got me. And I lived in that apartment for about a month before I got budger. And I gotta say, like it was it was a long month. I I don't think that I could have potentially have lasted very long if I didn't get something to throw myself entirely into. And if it was just like a normal dog, I don't know if I would have been fine either. But instead I got Budger, who Budger is 100% of the time a crazy lunatic. He is 100% like when people say Australian cattle dogs are blue healers, and like everyone's like, oh, they have a lot of energy. Like, absolutely, yes, that is Budger. Budger has all those characteristics of a cattle dog. He he pushes the boundaries of all the rules all the time. He's constantly hurting, he's constantly sprinting around. You can go on walks and walks and walks. I mean, even now we still walk, you know, several miles a day, and we have to do it in the morning or at night because Arizona's hot as fuck. But we were constantly walking, we were running around. We're he could play fetch with his ball from the time he wakes up until the time he has to go to bed. And when he was a puppy, he didn't really have fetch yet. Like he didn't know how to do it. So he was he was crazy. And I got him, and he was probably too young to be away from his mom. And he had a hard time like figuring out just like life. Like he like would, you know, poop and pee all over the apartment. Body training was really hard. He didn't sleep. He would sleep like these little tiny intervals at a time and then be up and just causing chaos the rest of the time. And that kept me on my toes. That kept me sober that, you know, like I'd I was so sleep deprived. It was like having a baby. I was so sleep deprived from Butger that I was just I was out of it all the time. But he ended up, you know, we grew on each other, we gained each other's trust, and now he's my best friend. And I wouldn't trade him for anything, even though he is like crazy, and he's the only one out of both of them that bark at literally everything. His anxiety is so high, it's crazy. Um, and then probably like eight months. So I got budger in October, and then that following March, I Caleb was at a local shelter, and he was a Louisiana Parvo dog, which he came from a Parvo shelter. Um, and then he was at a Humane Society, and he was like a really quiet, cute dog. He had his really big head, really big paws, but like a little body. And I went and met him, and he was he was just like quiet and like he just like laid down. And then I liked I liked how quiet he was because I thought that he would offset Budge, and I thought that getting Budge like his own dog, you know, might help. It might help with Budge's anxiety, it might give him an actual job, right? Like take after this, take after your little brother. And so I brought Budge around to the Humane Society to meet him, and they could care fucking less about each other. And I was like, okay, like they'll they'll grow on each other for sure. And I got Caleb back to the house. I was like, you know what? Like, I'll take him. I got him back to the house. Our picture's actually on that adoption website still, which is pretty cute. Um got him back to the house, and him and Budge like didn't even look at each other. And Caleb didn't get out from underneath the couch. He didn't trust anybody. He but he really didn't want to be there, he didn't trust anybody, so he didn't understand like what the rules were. He was really hard to train, he didn't really sleep, like he was he was really hard to gain his trust. Like Budge, Budge just kind of like came like naturally, but eventually I gained Caleb's trust, and now Caleb is one million percent obsessed with me. And him and Budge play together sometimes, and like they'll like snuggle up together sometimes, and they'll you know, they'll do brother stuff, but for the most part, they're pretty like they're two separate dogs that I have to pay two separate attentions to. And that that keeps me sober. Like knowing that I have to come home and deal with Budge's craziness and deal with Caleb's love, like deal with Caleb's love. I get to be loved by Caleb and I get to deal with Budge's craziness, that keeps me sober. Like if I if I was if I was drinking, like I don't know, I don't know what I would do. I don't know how I would be able to handle being a full-time dog dad. I mean, like, outside of me being able to just like do my job and work and be like a functional human being, like I don't know how I would be the dog dad that I am now. And I think failing at that is probably the hardest pill to swallow for me. Like whenever I get the urges, whenever I have like bad days, like whenever I'm like, you know what, a fucking drink just sounds so good right now, right? Like just being drunk around other people in a like a bar setting or like a really fun fucking sports game, like being drunk anywhere sounds so good right now. Like I just I think about these two, and I think about me and how they see me. And like I couldn't imagine seeing both of them just like sad. I think that that would break my heart if they were just like depressed dogs because I I was falling short on like my duties. Like that's that's awful to think about. And I hope that if you have pets, maybe they can help you get sober or stay sober, or maybe this will be like what pushes you to like get a pet. I think like I think they're really important. I think it doesn't have to be a dog, like not everybody is a dog person, cats are important, like get a fucking snake. I don't give a shit. Like whatever whatever it is that like you have to take care of and that'll keep you sober, I think is so important.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So I don't know. Take take with that if as you will.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Now, if you're listening to this on like a Spotify or an Apple podcast, like maybe hop over to YouTube and watch it, and you get to see the video of just the two dogs. Because they're both pretty cute and they're they're pretty photogenic most of the time. Caleb's just this big lumpy boy who just loves to sleep all the time, and Budge is a guy that has to wear a thunder vest because he has so much anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Come here, Budge. Come here. Yeah, and I hope that maybe this will help.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

It helps me. I know that it helps me one million percent. And I think that is I think that it's so important. And I mean, this with if you pair this with accountability, pair it with playing the tape forward, you know, like all these tools that I've talked about through all these podcasts, these videos, just me fucking ranting about shit, like if you pair it with all that, there's no reason that you can't be successful in sobriety. I mean, I am, and I I say it all the time, you know, like, because people are like, oh, I wish I could be sober. You can be. Like, literally, if I can do it, if I can come back, if I can come scratching back from where I was, right? Drinking a half gallon a day, detox, withdrawals, relapse, like you name it. Like I've been through, I've been through fucking hell and back, psychosis, like I've I've been through it all. And if I can get through all that, and and I'm not like incredibly smart or like good at many things, like you know, like I just kind of like go with the flow for the most part. But if I can do this, like any one of you guys can do this. Like, you just have to find what works for you. Like, this is what works for me, and that's I'm sharing what works with me, and maybe it'll work with you. So maybe let that just like resonate. Again, my inbox and like my shit's like always open. You guys can reach out to me no matter what, if you're having problems, if you need someone to just like fucking talk to. If you get a dog and you want to send me dog pictures, that's like actually the best thing, the best case scenario. For me at least, the guy I love. I love seeing dog pictures. Send them.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Um yeah, you know, just get a dog, get a pet, be accountable, uh play the tape forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

I can't, you know, say those three more. Like this is this is a pretty good success uh story. It's a good success formula, like it's uh it's there for your disposal, you just have to do it, and you just have to you just have to take those first steps, and those first steps are hard, and you need you know, you need a team behind you, or at least like some people behind you that support you in your decisions, and that's important.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

And also, you know, when you're first sober, like buy yourself shit.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Go buy yourself some stuff. Like, I think sobriety in itself is such a reason to get yourself little treats from time to time. Like I'm constantly getting myself little treats because you know, I'm fucking killing it, I'm doing great. Sobriety's fucking hard, and I'm conquering that shit every single day. And I get my two co-pilots with me, and I think that that's I think that's huge. Uh so anyway, let me know. Slide in my DMs whenever you want. Um, I am looking for more people to interview. So if you know anybody, let me know so I can, you know, get in touch with them, or if you're somebody, you know, get in touch with me. And let's chat and see if we can get you on an episode. Because I I want to hear everybody's story. I think everyone else wants to hear everybody's story. I think the sobriety stories are so clutch and they're so key and they're so huge. Like they're they're important and they're interesting 100% of the time, and they're quintessential in getting everybody else to be sober or keeping everybody else sober. So just let me know again, sliding my DMs. Um thank you.