0215: The Canine Stars with Keri Caraher & Ethan Wilhelm

Co-founders of The Canine Stars, Keri Caraher and Ethan Wilhelm, tell us how they entertain and educate audiences with their team of shelter and rescue dogs. Check out their online Stunt Dog School for all ages with online course like PhoDOGraphy 101 at their website TheCanineStars.com and become part of their Stunt Dog Squad community group or Stunt Dog Sho-Fur rescue transport network.

Remember to watch America’s Got Talent June 8 on NBC and vote for The Canine Stars!

The Canine Stars Social Media:
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Relevant episodes from the Dog Words archives:
0211: Best Friends Animal Society with Brent Toellner
0143: Well Groomed with Rebecca Stern

Celebrate 5 years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com.

Music for this episode is provided by alternative string duo, The Wires. Visit them at TheWires.info. Learn fiddle and cello-fiddle online — even if you've never played before — from Laurel Morgan Parks and Sascha Groshang at FiddleLife.com.

The transcript for this episode is available on the Dog Words Buzzsprout page: Buzzsprout.com/840565.

Make a donation at RosieFund.org or through our Facebook page. You can contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com. Also check out our page on BarkYours, the online mall with gifts for people who love their dogs.

Rosie Fund online:
RosieFund.org
Facebook.com/rosiefund
Instagram.com/rosiefund
YouTube.com/rosiefund

Transcript

ETHAN  0:02  
Junie was a dog that I really connected with. She was like the cutest dog ever and I'm like, "There's no reason — Junie does not need to be euthanized."

But she had been in there for two years. They're like, "Well, we gotta make room" and all this crap. 

And I was like, "No, I'm not taking her [to be euthanized]. I'll adopt her."

And like, "Well you can't adopt her because we just deemed her unadoptable."

And I'm, "Well, I'll take her then. I'll steal her."

PHIL   0:26  
I'm Phil Hatterman and this is Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund. Today Keri Caraher and Ethan Wilhelm, co-founders of The Canine Stars, tell us how they use rescue dogs in their educational entertainment act and where you can see them soon on a popular reality TV show.

If you're new to this podcast, in each episode we explore the world of dog care and companionship. "We save each other" is the motto of Rosie Fund, which simply means the more we do for dogs, the more they do for us and they already do a lot. If you love dogs, you'll love Dog Words. We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Go to the podcast page at the recently renovated RosieFund.org to share your thoughts. We welcome suggestions for topics and guests. That's the only way we know which ones you like. Please download, follow, rate, and, most importantly, share Dog Words.

Celebrate five years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com. Links are in the description. Your donations help fund the Rosie life starter kits that make sure these senior and harder-to-adopt dogs have some of the items they'll need in their forever home.

Please follow Rosie Fund on social media. Subscribe to the free Rosie Fund YouTube channel that offers great videos of Rosie, Peaches, and shelter dogs, including some exclusive content like the sweet KC Pet Project dog featured in our latest post. Thank you to everyone who subscribed and helped us secure the Rosie Fund URL on YouTube. Now to find our channel just go to YouTube.com/RosieFund.

Next time on Dog Words, we take Peaches Delight to Mixed Mutt Creamery on Kansas City's 39th Street.

The mission of Rosie Fund is to provide humans with the resources and education they need to give senior and harder to adopt dogs a better life. We thank you for joining our mission.

Today we welcome to Dog Words, the founders of The Canine Stars, Keri Caraher and Ethan Wilhelm. And at the end of the interview Keri, I'll say your last name again. And I promise I'll nail it. I just kind of mumbled through it. That time I got up all in my head. But welcome to the show.

KERI  2:53  
Glad to be here.

PHIL   2:54  
What are The Canine Stars?

KERI  2:57  
We do all sorts of things. Our main focus, though, is promoting rescue dogs through our entertainment show. We have a whole team of dogs that are mostly adopted or rescued from shelters or off the streets. And we've trained them to perform in our stunt dog shows. So they do frisbee, high jumping, dock diving. And we perform it in an entertainment format for kids and families generally at fairs, theme parks, things like that. We tour all over North America. But our mission is to inspire those kids and our audiences to adopt their own dog and then have fun playing with them competing in dog sports and just training their dogs.

ETHAN  3:41  
Yeah, the show is really high energy, fast paced, you know. We use popular music and we encourage cheering and stuff. But it's just at the end the feel is, you know, you can do this type of stuff with your dog at home and you can build a wonderful relationship and, you know, all dogs have their own personalities. And if you spend time learning how to connect with them, you can really kind of grow your personalities together.

PHIL   4:03  
How much does the training adapt to the dogs' personalities? Do you pick out a dog you think, "Here's the trick we're going to teach it." And as your training, you realize we're going to go a different direction. Or maybe they teach you that, "Here's what I want to do."

ETHAN  4:19  
That happens all the time. All dogs have their individuals and have their own personalities. We don't like the dogs to be robots. I mean, you can train any dog if you want to be super strict. And every every single time they have to do it perfect and but like I said it creates a robot and we don't like to have robot dogs. We want people to be able to see that our dogs are like their dogs at home. We take whatever they do naturally. So if we have a dog that's just constantly bouncing up and down, "Oh, maybe she's gonna be a good high jump dog." So we're really focused on high jumping with that dog. And if we have a dog that is bad at high jumping but doesn't mind, like, crashing through stuff, then we'll still train them how to high jump but we'll train them how to like jump through all the bars, and then grab them and run around. Because like, then we have comedic relief in the show. And then it's like, "Oh, that dog didn't do it. But it's hilarious." We'd like to build on what all the dogs as individuals like to do, and kind of build our show around what we know that they're going to do.

KERI  5:16  
Right, I don't think we're necessarily good dog trainers. But what we're good at is seeing what a dog is naturally amazing at, and we bring that out in them. So we like to highlight the dog's natural abilities.

PHIL   5:29  
You're more of a coach than a trainer. Like the coach who adapts to their personnel. You're the Bill Belichicks. Like, "This is our personnel. We're gonna be a running team. We're gonna be a passing team. We're gonna be whatever is going to capitalize on the skill set we have."

KERI  5:43  
Yeah, we're gonna go to a shelter or rescue group, and we're looking for a new dog. And we need a new big dock diving dog on our team to fill a spot of one of our retired dogs. We're not gonna just pick out a dog based on looks or breed and say, "We want that dog" and then try to train them to dock dive. We're gonna go and find a dog that we know already loves to swim, already is big jumper, already wants to play all day long, wild and crazy, loves toys, great with people, and we're gonna go adopt that dog. And that's why it's really truly better to go and adopt a dog that's maybe an adult already or a year old, versus getting a puppy. You don't know what you're gonna get with a puppy. You can try to mold it. But again, we don't like to force it. We like to find dogs that are already naturally good at something and then we help bring out the best in them.

PHIL   6:33  
We discuss that a lot on this show that the adopter, the forever home, needs to find the right fit. So if you're open about, "We want to grow with this dog and to see what it becomes and we want to adopt a puppy." And you're willing to put in the work to train and socialize that dog, great. But if you're looking for a particular personality, or particular traits, that shelter dog that's already an adult, a lot of times has notes on some very specific attributes that it has, especially if it's had doggie day outs, and has been in a foster home for any amount of time, they can tell you. "Here's this dog's potential."

ETHAN  7:16  
People have talked to us at the end of our shows about you know, "We want to try adopting our first dog. What breed of dog should we look for?" And I say, "Well, you shouldn't look for any breed of dog. You should maybe talk with the people at the shelter and tell them about your lifestyle. What you like to do. How long are you at work during the day. How much time do you have for the dog? And then they'll help you to decide."

But I really like to push like first time dog owners to just adopt an elderly dog. A lot of people don't even realize how many their dogs get old and maybe they have a health problem or two and they just decided to dump them at the shelter. They've spent ten, fifteen years with somebody that they've grown this attachment to. And then they end up living their last couple of years in a cell, basically. And so I really like to push especially first time dog owners, you know, maybe this dog has two or three years left and somebody has abandoned them. If you're wanting to learn how to connect with a dog, this is a really good opportunity to give an old dog just a couple years. And then you can learn about dogs and what kind of maybe for your next dog, what kind of lifestyle and what kind of dog you're looking for.

PHIL   8:18  
The videos we post on Rosie Fund YouTube channel — which is a free subscription everyone — and as well on social media, we focus on senior and harder-to-adopt dogs. And the harder-to-adopt to dogs sometimes do have issues that make it a better fit to be in the home with someone who's an experienced dog owner. But a lot of times the senior dogs, we'll describe them as, "This is a starter kit dog. This dog is ready to go right out of the box." That it's potty trained. It's great on the leash. It knows all the basic commands. And you just have to be firm and consistent. And it will maintain that good behavior for you.

KERI  8:19  
Yep.

PHIL   8:24  
So get yourself ready to go out of the box dog with the rescue dog. How did you start out, first of all, The Canine Stars? And then how did that become something that was focusing on rescue dogs? Or was it the other way around? Were you already focused on rescue dogs and then canine stars grew out of that?

KERI  9:22  
We actually were not focused on rescue dogs when both of us started. I got my first dog as an adult out of just an ad in a newspaper. A litter of puppies. And she was a Great Dane because that's what I wanted. So I bought her and then saw dog agility on TV, actually, when she was a puppy...

PHIL   9:41  
And you thought, "Great Dane would be perfect for that!"

KERI  9:45  
I didn't know! So I ended up signing up for my local puppy classes. And they happen to have dog agility equipment there at our graduation. And so I started doing that and got interested in that and then she turned out to be fabulous at it.

PHIL   10:01  
Good girl.

KERI  10:02  
She ended up being the top Great Dane pretty much ever in agility. Won the first championships of the breed in agility. We competed all over at the national championships in the US and Canada. So that's how I started traveling with my dog and competing. Actually, Ethan and his whole family always competed with their dogs, as well, in starting out in agility. Right? Then we started doing flyball racing because you find these other sports. And then we got other dogs that happen to be good at Frisbee. So we started doing frisbee and dock diving. And when you travel all over the country competing with your dogs, you end up meeting other people. We found out about these entertainment shows where you can bring your dog and perform. And we actually got invited to perform with some of the other companies. So one of the big companies out of Canada, they were doing shows in Denver, and they like to bring in just different breeds into their shows so that there's a big cast of different types of dogs and stuff in the shows. And so they...

PHIL   11:05  
And that's good marketing. 'Cause if it's always twenty Border Collies and Australian shepherds doing the agility people go, "Okay, well, that's neat." But if they look out and go, "There's a black lab! I have a black lab!"

KERI  11:17  
Exactly. So we started performing with them. And Ethan, I think you ended up coming to one of the shows with me where they hired me in Canada. We just started traveling around. And when you're competing in dog sports, you're judged. It's a competition. You're competing against other people. And if your dog makes a mistake, you lose. There's a lot of stress involved in competing. Not as much fun if you're serious.

ETHAN  11:50  
Plus you gotta pay.

KERI  11:51  
Yeah, yeah. And you got to pay a bunch of money to do it. Right.

PHIL   11:55  
It's no fun to pay to lose.

KERI  11:57  
Right, right. So then once we started working at these shows where it's entertainment, and for fun, and all the audience has never seen a dog do this kind of stuff before. Basically, no matter what your dog does, it's amazing. And the crowd goes wild. Cheering. Screaming. Whether you have a perfect performance or not, your dog is just a superstar. And that's absolutely the best feeling. And when you're competing in dog sports, you only get that feeling if your dog won the national championships. That's about relevant.

ETHAN  12:34  
Yeah. We do a show at the Calgary Stampede in a 5500 seat arena. And our sound person, there's laws that the volume that we produce as production, it can't go past a certain decibel level. And so he has a meter, and it's like 120 decibels, I think. So if our stuff reaches that it clips so it can't go any louder than that. But it also measures the ambient decibel noise.

PHIL   12:58  
Yeah, it can't differentiate between what's coming from your speakers and what's just, yeah, ambient.

ETHAN  13:03  
Yeah. And so we finished the show. And he came up to me and said, "The audience reached 190 decibels on that show." I didn't, like, I didn't understand. "Oh, that's crazy." We go, "We're supposed to stop at 120 decibels." And like thunder, his 180 decibels. So we literally brought thunder to this arena. And I'm like, it's just like, that's not something that you can do competing or anywhere.

PHIL   13:29  
Yeah, 'cause yeah, you've got everybody on your side. They're not cheering for one dog over another. They're cheering for every dog. Every performance.

KERI  13:37  
Yeah, there's no losers. There's no mistakes. If your dog poops in the middle of the show... 

ETHAN  13:43  
That's gold.

PHIL   13:43  
Standing ovation.

KERI  13:45  
At the end of the show, when the kids go home at night, they're going to be talking about that dog that poops during the performance. And they're gonna be laughing. Like, that's the best. That might be the highlight. Yeah. So I mean, we have a whole team of trainers from all over the world. We have, I don't know at least 20 different people. And most of them have regular jobs, as well. And they mostly compete with their dogs, as well. But any day of the week they'll skip a competition in order to come on tour with us and perform at a show because it's just so fun and rewarding to entertain with your dog versus competing.

ETHAN  14:22  
And you get paid.

KERI  14:23  
Yeah. And you get paid.

PHIL   14:25  
It's a win-win. You have fun and you get paid as opposed to paying and being stressed.

KERI  14:30  
Yeah, so we've booked shows in Alaska, all the way down to Mexico City. We had shows in Bermuda. So like, "Who wants a paid trip to Bermuda with their dog?" Like, hello. We're pretty much the luckiest people on earth to be able to do this.

ETHAN  14:44  
Yeah.

PHIL   14:44  
For the last year. I'm guessing your travel might have changed from what it was previously.

KERI  14:50  
Right. Yeah. So we were down in Florida doing a fair down there when COVID hit in early last year and then basically everything was canceled since then. Where In 2019, through the whole year, we were only home one month total. Like we were home one week here, two weeks here, and one week there. That's it. We were traveling the whole rest of the year. So then 2020, we're in Florida, and we come home and we're like, "Wow, this is what it's like to be home." It was weird. And we spent a couple months like doing projects around the house.

ETHAN  15:24  
Got the lawn mowed.

KERI  15:25  
Yeah, mow the lawn. Like we got to get actual plants in our house. Because we're here to water 'em. So that was cool. And, yeah, we just were, like, bored. And we were kind of hoping shows wouldn't cancel. But as more and more canceled...

PHIL   15:39  
Yeah, for the first few weeks, you're thinking, "Oh, well, we have a break for a few weeks."

KERI  15:44  
Right.

PHIL   15:44  
And then as weeks turn into months, you realize, "This isn't turning around on the timeline that I was expecting, I'm gonna have to maybe change a few things." So what did you have to change? Everything?

KERI  15:57  
Basically, by then, yeah, towards the end of 2020 — I think it was like November — we decided that we were going to do an online dog training school. Stunt dog school. So that we could connect with all of our fans and continue to inspire kids to do this fun stuff with their dogs. And so we did an online competition. And we actually picked out five students that were from different countries to do our youth performer mentorship program.

ETHAN  15:58  
Yeah, well, first, it started as just we wanted to pick five kids from around the world and kind of start teaching them how to become performers with their dog and how to take their dog training to the next level. We were thinking maybe we would get five kids. And we ended up getting, like, 75 entries around the world.

KERI  16:42  
From like 13 countries.

ETHAN  16:44  
Like, we had to pick five of them and we're like, "Well, we can't leave these other kids hanging."

KERI  16:47  
Yeah.

ETHAN  16:47  
And so we like scrambled to make this online platform and then decided to just do a whole school with a curriculum from there. But it wasn't — the original idea was like, "Well, we have some spare time. We can help a couple kids learn how to..." And then in the future, when we're back to doing shows we can bring them to some of the shows. And then it just turned into this whole huge thing.

KERI  17:07  
Yeah. So then we opened up the stunt dog school for all the kids that didn't make it into the mentorship program. And we still have, I think we had 60 students in our first set of classes. Now we've got those classes built. So we're gonna be able to continue the online school even once we start going on tour again traveling. Yeah, it's really exciting because we can reach students in different countries all over.

PHIL   17:28  
Before I move on to learn more about your upcoming shows, you say you're still doing the online training. How does someone access that?

KERI  17:37  
Our website for the stunt dog school is at Training.CanineStars.org.

PHIL   17:43  
Okay. We will put that in the description. Click through.

ETHAN  17:48  
We're actually putting in a bunch of new courses. We have a course now from a girl that we know that does dog photography. She's just opened up her course that's just totally about dog photography and how to take your dog photography to the next level.

KERI  18:00  
Yeah, she's one of our trainers.

ETHAN  18:02  
And then we just opened up another course this weekend that's starting a dog training business from one of our other trainers who she's a full time doctor in New York. So we're also just building on these other courses on top of our main three, which was advanced canine stunt dog training and then foundation training for kids. And then we have a foundation course that's gonna be for all ages.

KERI  18:23  
Yeah. So now we started it was just a school for kids ages 12 through 18. And we had a lot of complaints that that was not fair and adults wanted to do it, too. So now we also are offering all ages classes. All the classes are just 30 bucks a month and they start every quarter. And they're three month long classes.

PHIL   18:42  
Everybody wants to have fun with their dogs. I haven't looked at the description for the photography course. And maybe she has a requirement about what camera you have. That you have to have a DSLR or something. But with smartphones, those are better cameras than a cheap DSLR. Photography you can take...

KERI  19:00  
They are.

PHIL   19:01  
That has potential. But you have to know how to use it. How to frame the shot. How to use the different settings. 'Cause you can use the auto features but there are settings that will give you great photos. And as someone who works with rescue groups with Rosie Fund — we go into shelters and we'll take pictures and videos — some of the dogs have such sad photos on the shelter's website. That doesn't reflect that dog's personality, that dogs potential. And the good photo can go a long way in helping a potential adopter visualize how that dog might fit into their life. So taking this class is gonna to help someone out there who's a volunteer who's not looking to start a photography business, who just wants to take better pictures, maybe have their own dog, but also have shelter dogs to help them get adopted.

ETHAN  19:48  
Yeah, so you can take the course with just a phone. She's teaching basic photography stuff. So you're like learning about shutter speed and how to use that, which you can control on your phone and do that, too. But a lot of it is going to be framing, like you said, and how to pose your dogs so that they look cuter and stuff like that. So definitely not a requirement to have a fancy camera or anything. I'm doing it with a little Sony interchangeable lens and I think you did yours with your phone.

KERI  20:12  
And I've got an amazing story. For a few minutes here.

PHIL   20:16  
We're counting on it.

KERI  20:17  
But it starts out with the photographer of a shelter. And it's because of one photo that was taken. We were performing at the Alabama fair and there was a photographer there. She came over. Saw our show. Took a few pictures and sent them to us afterwards and we became good friends. And then maybe like a year later, I posted around with some friends that we were looking for some dogs that we wanted to adopt, specifically to perform at this entertainment show in Branson, Missouri. And she saw my message. She contacted me and showed me a picture of one of the dogs that she had taken photos of at this shelter in Florida where she just goes around as a photographer and volunteers at shelters. And she does amazing photos. She does an awesome job. And that makes such a difference. But I fell in love with this dog just from that photo. Then she went back and took a video of the dog playing ball. The dog was crazy. I thought she'd make a great flyball dog. So we ended up adopting her and then training her for this project. So she started at this show for a while. I think she was there maybe six months or a year. So this dog from the shelter is now starring at the show. And then at some point, something happened to her during the shows. She started shutting down and not wanting to do that anymore. So part of our contract when we figure out a dog to adopt for like a show or a TV movie, anything else, we do a contract that the dog comes back to us. So that we have responsibility for the dog for life. And so she came back to us. We worked with her. She was fabulous. Started performing in our shows. She traveled to Mexico. Up to Alaska. She's traveled all over on tour with us. And then November last year, Ethan went to Hollywood and was on Nickelodeon's new show Unleashed. And she was one of the stars of that show. She performed on Unleashed. Ethan won the episode with her and a couple other dogs. And then the coolest thing is that recently we just went to LA and did auditions for America's Got Talent. And that dog was one of the stars of our audition. We're not supposed to talk about the results. But I will say that somebody famous requested a selfie with her after the performance. That's how awesome it was.

PHIL   22:41  
So when is that episode supposed to air?

KERI  22:44  
Right now they're telling us June 8. We should be the second episode when America's Got Talent 2021 season, I think it's season 16, starts June 1.

PHIL   22:55  
If that changes, let me know and I'll update our listeners. But you're also on social media.

KERI  23:01  
Yep.

PHIL   23:01  
So listeners, you can cut out the middleman — me — and just follow The Canine Stars on social media. And I'm sure you'll keep all of your followers updated on any changes. That sounds like a movie.

Yeah.

Someone should option that.

ETHAN  23:14  
What's really cool is that these people in Branson had contacted Keri. And they wanted us to train dogs to do flyball and agility for their dinner show. And they were going to buy puppies from a breeder to do this. And Keri basically said that we weren't going to do it unless they adopted dogs that were going to be euthanized.

KERI  23:33  
Right.

ETHAN  23:34  
And so she talked them into adopting shelter dogs. Because...

KERI  23:36  
And they loved the idea and they announced it in their show, "Hey, this dog was from a shelter" and everything was awesome.

ETHAN  23:41  
It was cool, because it wasn't something that they had even thought of as a possibility. And we're like, "Well, our business is built around promoting rescue. So we'll find the dogs that will be good for it and dogs that are gonna be euthanized. We would like to adopt and give a second chance." They were cool with that. So now all the dogs in the show are rescue dogs, which is really cool.

KERI  23:59  
Yeah.

PHIL   23:59  
The emotional side of me, just in principle, is, "Let's save some dogs' lives. If we can. Make that part of the show." The media consultant part of me is, "That's a no brainer!" Market this show with these dogs that you've rescued. And while that may seem a little jaded, or, I don't know, unsavory that you're exploiting these dogs, if it saves their lives and brings attention to other dogs getting saved because people will then see the potential of what a dog can bring to your life, even if it has had a rough start that led it to be in a shelter.

ETHAN  24:42  
Yeah, I think there's a big stigma around performing dogs and performing animals which in some aspects it definitely should be there. There are animals that are abused and taken advantage of and forced to perform that don't want to perform. I think that watching a dog that is loved and has been trained with positive reinforcement training, you can see in their body language that they want to be there. And they're having a great time and that the trainer that they're with loves them. And that's one thing that we always make sure that we're rewarding the dogs and giving positive reinforcement no matter what they do. Especially if we're training them to do something, we will work through problems that they have. But during the show, no matter what they do, they're good. Just the fact that they're out there and trying is wonderful. They get hugs and kisses. It's really offensive, sometimes we get people all the time telling us that we're abusing the animals and we're forcing them to do things and it's just, "Look at their body language."

One of my first jobs when I was 16, I worked at a shelter as a caretaker for the dogs. And I was under the impression it was a no-kill shelter when I started working there. And it was just me and another guy that were the caretakers for the dogs. And one day the lady comes back and she tells me I have to take a dog down to get euthanized. And I was like, "Why does he need to get euthanized?"

And she's just said, "Because he's unadoptable."

And I was like, "Because he's a pitbull?" So I took him down to get euthanized. And at the time...

KERI  26:05  
Yeah, And once you see that, you just, yeah...

ETHAN  26:07  
At that time, yeah, um, I was kind of brainwashed into thinking that it was the right thing to do.

PHIL   26:12  
Well, you're 16.

ETHAN  26:14  
And I, but I just saw the caretaker of the dogs, right. And because we didn't have a veterinarian, it was just a small shelter. So I take him down to a vet in town. Sometimes when they euthanize a dog — sorry to get graphic here — they don't get the dosage right and the dog starts panicking. And they have to do it again. And I just remembered, as somebody that the dog trusted, he was looking at me like I'd...

PHIL   26:34  
Oh, that breaks your heart.

ETHAN  26:36  
Freaking out and I was like, "This isn't necessary. I should have helped him. I should have taken him home." I didn't think about that at the time, but like looking back on it now. I euthanized five dogs while I was there. And they told me that, "You gotta take Junie next week." And Junie was a dog that I really connected with. She was like the cutest dog ever and I'm like, "There's no reason — Junie does not need to be euthanized."

But she had been in there for two years. They're like, "Well, we gotta make room" and all this crap.

And was like, "No, I'm not taking her [to be euthanized]. I'll adopt her."

And like, "Well you can't adopt her because we just deemed her unadoptable."

And I'm like, "Well, I'll take her then. I'll steal her. I don't care." Like, "You could adopt her to me or I'm stealing her and then we can get the cops involved."

And I ended up quitting that job and I took Junie with me. She was a pitbull. And you'd watch the people walking, looking at the dogs and they see the pitbull and they just go down to the next next room. And if it's a pitbull, and these pitbulls just sit in there. A lot of them are wonderful dogs. Like Junie was the sweetest dog in the entire world. And once we took her home, she got into her element. And she was bringing shy dogs out of their shell and playing with them. And we trained her to do flyball and she ended up being one of the fastest pit bulls and highest pointed pit bulls in flyball for a while. You see stuff like that. And working there, I saw dogs that had been abused. I've seen dogs have been used for dogfighting. We've seen real cruelty and abuse. And people need to understand that when we're performing with our dogs doing something that we love to do with them, and that they love to do with us and they're dogs that have come from this abuse, it's almost offensive to them to call what they're doing abuse when they've changed their lives around. They've learned to trust humans again and they're playing with a frisbee, you know?

PHIL   28:16  
Well, there's so much to unpack here. First of all, obviously, I'm opposed to euthanizing a dog when it's not a quality of life issue. But to do that to a 16 year old. "This is your job. You gotta do it." What else are you gonna say? And for you to finally get to that breaking point of saying, "Enough is enough." I commend you. But I certainly don't fault you for anything before that. Because any 16 year old is going to do what their boss is telling them to do.

ETHAN  28:45  
Yeah, now I feel tremendously guilty about it. And I remember those dogs and I see 'em sometimes, you know. I think about him quite a bit. I remember doing that to them. But in a way, I'm kind of grateful that I experienced that because it's kind of really put this fire in me that we should be working harder to save dogs that are being needlessly euthanized. There's something like around 3500 pitbulls are euthanized every single day in the US. Around 6000 dogs and cats total and over 50% are pitbulls. So it's really ignited a passion for pitbulls and just a passion for working through dogs that might be a little difficult.

PHIL   29:18  
Two episodes in the Dog Words archive that I will link in this description. One is a couple weeks ago we had Brent Toellner on who is the director of national programs, I believe is his title, with Best Friends Animal Society who has the goal of eliminating pet homelessness in the United States by 2025. And making every shelter a no-kill shelter, and they've made great strides toward that goal but still a long way to go. It's doable. And one of the things he talks about is when he helped start KC Pet Project — which is the animal shelter system in Kansas City, Missouri, that was not a no kill shelter before it was privatized and became KC Pet Project — was when they were talking about building a better facility for the animals that someone on the city council said, "Well, what's the point? They're just going to euthanize them anyway." Well, let's talk about that too. Well, maybe we shouldn't be euthanizing them. The reason not to have a better shelter isn't because we're going to euthanize them. Maybe the problem is we're euthanizing these dogs unnecessarily. And then the other thing I want to make sure I let people know to go back and listen to our interview with Rebecca Stern, the filmmaker who did the documentary Well Groomed. When we had her on to talk about competitive dog grooming, and there's a scene in the documentary. It's from a talk show. And one of the competitive dog groomers is being confronted by another guest on the talk show, who's basically doing what you described happens where people say, "You're abusing these dogs." And she just says flat out, "Look at these dogs. Do they not look happy? Do they not look thrilled?" The time that they spend primping and washing and cutting and getting these dogs ready. She said, "If a dog didn't want to do it, you wouldn't be able to be a competitive dog groomer. And I have dogs that do not want to do it. And they don't. I don't force any dog because you can't force a dog to have fun." And if it's not having fun, you're not going to win the dog grooming competition. You're not going to win the agility competition. And you're certainly not going to have an entertaining show full of dogs that hate their lives.

KERI  31:39  
Right. We are not groomers so we take the dogs that don't want to get groomed. That's a lot of our dogs are pitbulls, are short haired dogs, because we you know, we don't want to deal with that. But yeah, definitely. I'm sure they're picking out specific dogs, that were right and will enjoy that.

PHIL   31:58  
Yeah, and if you watch the Well Groomed documentary, you can see not only that the competition dogs enjoy getting primped and prepped. But you can also tell they know when, "Now I'm on stage." Can see they turn it on that, "Okay, yeah, I'm — my hair is all up and ready to go. And this is my moment."

ETHAN  32:20  
Yeah, our dogs definitely — you'll hear if somebody talks to the microphone or something and makes an announcement or the music starts. They start erupting. They go crazy.

KERI  32:31  
Yeah.

PHIL   32:32  
It's like a pro wrestler. It's like, "That's my song! That's my music!"

ETHAN  32:35  
Well, sometimes, like if we're driving in a car or something and the song from the show comes on the radio, they'll start barking.

KERI  32:42  
Yeah, Arrow who's Border Collie — wait, is he 14 or 15? 

ETHAN  32:45  
He's 15, now.

KERI  32:46  
He knew with some of our opening songs, when he hears it, he starts barking. He knows he's like, "Show time!"

PHIL   32:53  
Yeah, Border Collies, sometimes they're smarter than we want them to be.

KERI  32:58  
Yeah, they are.

ETHAN  32:58  
Absolutely. Smarter than me for sure.

PHIL   33:01  
Yes, they can humble us. So we've got your online schools. We've got your America's Got Talent coming up. What shows do you have on the calendar, yet? Or people just need to go to your website to see what your schedule is?

KERI  33:15  
Yeah, we do have some coming up. I did get one cancellation today for a fair that we were supposed to be in Oregon in, I believe, August. And that's been canceled. But we've got as of now, we do have some coming up this summer in Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, Kentucky, Texas. And then we're expecting to head back to California for America's Got Talent, as well. So...

PHIL   33:42  
Would I be out of line and telling our listeners that if you're looking for some family friendly entertainment to book there's an opening in August that just came up?

KERI  33:57  
Yeah, for sure. Although we are planning on America's Got Talent that ends up going through September. So really, we're kind of holding off on booking anything. And so we finish up with that. And we're looking forward for a big 2022. So...

PHIL   34:13  
Well, I encourage anyone out there who does operate any sort of fair or dog show or big corporate event or any number of things that would just be a perfect fit for this. Go ahead and reach out to The Canine Stars so that whatever paperwork is necessary and whatever venue requirements they might have, you can have all that nailed down. So when they are available, you can book them for your event. Definitely watch for them on America's Got Talent and have fun with your kids. Have fun with your family. Have fun with your dog. Do some of this online dog training because as The Canine Stars have demonstrated, you don't have to do it for the competition. It's actually more fun just to do it as a great activity, a bonding opportunity with your dog. And again, the photography school, great for anybody who volunteers or works at a shelter, for anyone who just wants better pictures of their dog, check out The Canine Stars. That's all gonna to be linked in the episode description. Before I let you go, any parting shots? Any great questions I forgot to ask?

ETHAN  35:18  
Just want to reiterate again that dogs have their own personalities. If you spend time with them, and really connect with them, they can become the most important thing in your life.

KERI  35:28  
Yeah, I think everybody listening to this knows that. Right?

ETHAN  35:30  
Yeah. I mean, I think all of your...

PHIL   35:33  
But you're giving them good evidence, good ammunition to share with their friends and family who are maybe looking to find some direction, find something with which they can bond as a family that maybe gets the kids off of a mobile device and out into the park and fresh air and sunshine with the family and the dogs.

ETHAN  35:57  
And they're always there for you.

PHIL   35:59  
Yeah. Your dog's not gonna let you down. We've said this many times on the show. Dogs make us better people. Because we try to be the person they think we are. And and they deserve that. And we deserve that. We deserve to be better people and dogs help us get there. Keri Caraher and Ethan Wilhelm, founders of The Canine Stars. Thanks for sharing this message of positivity and hope for better lives with dogs and keep up the good work in educating people and inspiring people.

KERI  36:34  
Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun.

PHIL   36:44  
I'm Phil Hatterman and you've been listening to Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund.

Thank you to Keri Caraher and Ethan Wilhelm, co-founders of the canine stars. Links to all their social media are in the description. Check out their online training including PhoDOGraphy 101 at their website CanineStars.com and become part of their community group or rescue transport network. That's also where you can subscribe to the newsletter so you'll know when they're bringing their dogs to an event near you. And, of course, don't forget to watch them on America's Got Talent, June 8 on NBC. Download the America's Got Talent app now so you're ready to vote. Download in the App Store or Google Play.

Next time on Dog Words we take Peaches delight to the Mixed Mutt Creamery on Kansas City's 39th Street.

A big thank you to alternative string duo The Wires featuring cellist Sascha Groshang and violinist Laurel Morgan Parks for playing the wonderful music you've heard on today's and previous episodes of Dog Words. Supporting The Wires supports our mission. Learn more about The Wires at TheWires.info and download their music on iTunes. Check out FiddleLife.com and learn to play the fiddle and cello-fiddle online from Laurel and Sasha even if you've never played before.

Celebrate five years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate on our recently renovated website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the website store or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com links are in the description. Your donations help fund the Rosie Life Starter Kits that make sure these senior and harder-to-adopt dogs have some of the items they'll need to start their new life in their forever home.

As always, please download, follow, rate and share Dog Words. This helps us with sponsorships then Rosie Fund can help more dogs. Support Rosie Fund by following us on social media and please subscribe to the free Rosie Fund YouTube channel. Our latest post features a sweet KC Pet Project dog.

Send us your comments, questions and suggestions at RosieFund.org. And let us know if you would like to be a sponsor or a guest of the Dog Words podcast.

Thank you for listening and remember, we save each other.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai