Wes Keeling, founder and president of the Sector K9 Foundation, tells us how they’re helping to protect communities one canine at a time while also getting harder-to-adopt-dogs out of shelters.
Sector K9 Foundation’s social media:
SectorK9.org
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube
From the Dog Words archives:
0147: Dog Behaviorist Dr. Ellen Furlong
0210: The Self-awareness of Dogs with Dr. Ellen Furlong
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
Wes Keeling, founder and president of the Sector K9 Foundation, tells us how they’re helping to protect communities one canine at a time while also getting harder-to-adopt-dogs out of shelters.
Sector K9 Foundation’s social media:
SectorK9.org
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube
From the Dog Words archives:
0147: Dog Behaviorist Dr. Ellen Furlong
0210: The Self-awareness of Dogs with Dr. Ellen Furlong
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
WES 0:03
These dogs don't look at this as work. These dogs look at it as, "I get to go play my game. And let's go do it right now. 'Cause I want my ball and I want the interaction." So they crave it.
PHIL 0:16
I'm Phil Hatterman and this is Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund.
Today, Wes Keeling from the Sector K9 Foundation tells us how they're helping to protect communities one canine at a time while also getting harder-to-adopt dogs out of shelters.
If you're new to Dog Words, 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 RosieFund.org to share your thoughts. Please download, follow, rate, and most importantly, share Dog Words.
Celebrate five years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. So far in 2021, we've sponsored 30 dogs. Help us reach and surpass our goal. You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website, buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com or buying our notecards and shirts on BarkYours.com. Links are in the description. Your donations and purchases 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.
Next time on Dog Words Kristin Des Marais and Felicia Diamond join us from Bergen Spay and Neuter Alliance.
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. Thank you for joining our mission.
Joining us today from Waxahachie, Texas is Wes Keeling with Sector K9. Welcome to Dog Words, Wes.
WES 2:16
Thanks, Phil. Thanks for having me on.
PHIL 2:19
Sector K9 serves multiple benefits to the community. And I want you to tell that story. But first, how did you get involved with dogs? Have you always been a dog person, Wes?
WES 2:32
Well, I would say early on, yes. We had all kinds of dogs. We had everything from little Dachshund to German Shepherds to Rottweilers, everything else. And as I got into police work at age 21, it took me about seven or eight years to actually get into the canine world. And once I got into the canine world, I was hooked. The first time I saw dogs in a training atmosphere, I was amazed. And I said that's that's — right there, I set a goal for myself. That's what I want to do. How do I do that? Many, many years later, after handling three dogs on my own, through the police department, everything from detection work, to tracking to dual purpose, apprehension work, and being on multiple different avenues within the department, whether it be a task force operation or a SWAT dog situation, that's when I decided you know what, I'm gonna take the leap of faith and I'm gonna try this. Let's see what I can do.
PHIL 3:25
So then how did Sector K9 get started?
WES 3:28
Well, it's kind of a long story, but I'll shorten it as much as I possibly can. I would volunteer my time during my probably the last eight years of my career, I would go down to the shelter, and I saw all these dogs, and there were so many kill shelters here in Texas. So I saw these dogs there, the dogs are getting adopted, where the dogs that were curled up in the corner, and not wanting to do anything, the basically scared dogs. The dogs that were not getting adopted are the dogs that are jumping around, the dogs that want to play. They're active. They want to do something. We recognize that as genetic drive within a dog.
PHIL 4:05
A novice adopter either sees aggression or a dog that's out of control. Because those kinds of dogs the way they present in the shelter is this high energy and they're lunging at the front of their kennel because they want to come out and play. They want to meet you. And all some people see is teeth.
WES 4:27
Yes, that's absolutely 100% true. I've witnessed it myself. And I've even had to try to tell people, "Look, the dog's not aggressive. He's literally trying to play with you." This is a dog you can take and go in your backyard and spend hours with. He can do everything you want to do if you're an active person. If you're not an active person, let him get some energy out. But you're exactly right. Yes, that is verbatim what happens.
PHIL 4:49
So you see that and you recognize an opportunity?
WES 4:54
I do well, I said you know what, let me get one of these crazy little dogs as everybody says it is and let me see if I can try to find drugs. Well, that's the story of many years ago. But that is how it all started. That little dog, I still have her today. She was absolutely amazing. And she literally was on odor, all four odors that we train the major odors, at the time. We had her on the odors, running around cars, running around buildings, doing everything. Just all she cared about was finding that odor. And it took us about three weeks.
PHIL 5:32
Wow.
WES 5:32
And I said, "You know what? This dog has so much. Let's see if she'll track." So we taught her how to track. Took me about, oh, probably another two or three weeks? And she has so many successful tracks on the street that it still amazes me even with some of the other dogs that I've had to my career, what that little dog brought to the table, what it taught us and me individually, my family, and everybody that's involved in this. It's —that really opened our eyes to a lot of things.
PHIL 6:02
From there, you apparently expanded Sector K9. Were other people noticing what you were doing and thinking, "Hey, he may be onto something."
WES 6:12
Let's say yes and no. The public was like, "I love it!" The communities, everybody loved it. The traditionalist police departments or officers? No, they were like, "No, no, no. These dogs can't do it. They're this or that." I actually got a lot of hatred during my time of not just training the dogs, but the dogs I just told you about, we would do a canine training and group training. And they would always say, "Well, your dog can't bite." And you're right. I mean, she can. But she's not trained to protect me or do anything else. So I got a lot of flack from that, believe it or not, years of flack for that. And that's when I said, "You know what? We're gonna do this." And community has always been amazing. And I will tell you that through our time, now everybody's starting to recognize because I think we have 58 dogs out right now. And through this rescue to resource program, we don't know the breeds, we don't send them off and get what kind of breed this dog is or send a DNA test off or anything, so. But yeah, we're opening the police department's eyes, and I think the community is, is pushing that also. So it's really, really good. It's growing. And people are starting to understand that, "Hey, these dogs can do it. And they're right here. And they're free." They don't cost anything. So it's a work in progress. But so far, we've been blessed, and we're gonna keep moving forward.
PHIL 7:34
The breed it really doesn't matter, because this is the ultimate meritocracy. If the dog can make it through the training, they can do the work.
WES 7:43
Mm hmm.
PHIL 7:43
No matter what mix they might be.
WES 7:45
Right. And what I tell people all the time is people say, "How do you select a dog?" Well, it's a process, right? But I say it's kind of like getting a dog that — personality-wise we're talking about — it's kind of like getting a dog, he goes home with a jogger, right? Someone that maybe jogs two, three miles a day. Some dogs like that and some dogs are like, "You know what? I want to sit inside this air conditioned house and I want to eat my Cheetos and I want to watch my TV." But do you have other dogs that are a little bit more active and it's like, "Hey, let's go jog." That's kind of how I rationalize it to people that may not understand the working dog world.
PHIL 8:20
And you talked about someone adopting a dog because they want it to be a jogging companion, or whatever goals they have for that relationship. But they're not a professional jogger. If it doesn't work out, they adapt. It's like, "Okay, well, it's not gonna run with me." Or it might be the other way around. It might be somebody who thought they were going to get a very sedentary dog. And now, "I'm leading a more active lifestyle thanks to my dog."
WES 8:49
Yeah.
PHIL 8:49
But in your situation, the dog really does have to check all the boxes.
WES 8:54
Yes.
PHIL 8:56
And you don't say, "Okay, well, our police force is gonna be more sedentary. We're not gonna worry about drugs. 'Cause our dog — Oh, we just got a narc call? That's narcotics? We don't — our dog doesn't do that. But anything on frisbees? Have you gotten any calls about loose frisbees that need to be caught?" No, you've got to have a dog that meets that need. Then what happens if you're wrong about a dog?
WES 9:20
Well, at first we, you know, just like everything else, it took us a while to learn. So to answer that question, what we do is the dog's already trained, so we tried to adopt it out to a family or another organization that can do better things than what we can with the dog. And what I mean by that is we don't always have a lot of adopters because we're so concentrated on police work and getting with the police departments. But I would tell you, usually there's a officer within a local police department that is like, "Hey, if you have a dog that fails out or for whatever reason just doesn't have what it takes, I'll take it." So we do a lot of it with the police department, but we try to adopt it out to everyone. We don't promote that as much as we probably should. But we do have some. We do have some.
PHIL 10:06
And the dog that fails is a dog that doesn't track or doesn't recognize the scents. But it's still been trained to sit, stay, walk on a leash, be a good dog, just not a police dog. Just as there are some people who might want to be a police officer but can't make it through the training doesn't mean they're a bad person.
WES 10:30
Right.
PHIL 10:30
You can still date this person. You can still marry this person. They just don't have what it takes to be a police officer.
WES 10:36
Right. So you gotta understand these dogs, you know, the dogs that are on the street, they may be searching cars at three o'clock in the morning on the side of a highway where the 18 wheelers streaming past 60,70 miles an hour. Not every dog, and you're right, not every human is comfortable in that situation. That being said, yes, it does take a very special dog to be able to do this line of work. And we as humans always say work. These dogs don't look at this as work. These dogs look at it as, "I get to go play my game. And let's go do it right now. 'Cause I want my ball and I want the interaction." So they crave it. So in the police world it is work. But if you really think about it, these dogs don't understand it as work. They look at it as they're gonna get to go around this car. And if they find this odor they get their ball. If they go around the car and they don't find anything they still get interaction.They still get their ball,. They still get to play the game. So it creates this huge, I would say it's kinda like a professional baseball player. That's all they think about. They go home, they're like, "How does my swing get better?" I don't know that these dog digest it like that. But in reality, they go home and they're like, "I can't wait to do it again. I can't wait to do it again."
PHIL 11:48
Everyone at least intuitively recognizes the body language of a stressed out or insecure dog. Its tail's tucked. Its head is down. Its ears are down. Just the way its eyes are set. And you'll see dogs like that at the dog park and you think, "You need to take that dog home." And you see that in the shelter. You see dogs like that. You never see that with a service dog or a police canine going through the airport with their drug sniffing dog or at crowd control. Those dogs look focused and content.
WES 12:23
Mm hmm.
PHIL 12:24
They're loving life.
WES 12:26
Yes, well, I think they're loving life. But they're also taught that they're the frontlines.You know what I mean? So they can be confident. They can be stimulated and be like, you know what? They're confident. They know their job. They know what they're out there to do. And once they understand it, it's absolutely amazing to watch them just grow as time goes by and they get more experience. It's the greatest rush to watch a dog come in a year, year and a half and watch that dog's progression through training and through exposure and through just doing what they're taught to do. But getting better each and every day. It'll literally bring tears to our eyes at times when we sit there and watch these dogs and we understand their background on some of the rescue dogs. It's rough. So when they go out and they do all these things they get better and they thrive. And what we've taught them to do or we've assisted we got a small part of getting them to their career. It's heartwarming. And it's gratifying. And for me, there's no better feeling in the world. It is absolutely amazing.
PHIL 13:29
Is there a specific rescue or group of rescues that you work with? Or how do you find the dogs?
WES 13:35
We work with rescues all over the United States. I mean, I'm in Texas. So we worked with rescues in New Jersey, Miami, we're working with one now in Illinois, we've worked with Pennsylvania. So the way we find our dogs is I think our name is finally getting out to that, "Hey, this is what we do." And these shelters are starting to recognize that, "Hey, I got a dog that no matter what happens the dog wants his ball. And he's just crazy, just ready to go." Not crazy, but very, very energized. And so we have a series of testing. Very, very simple testing that we put on our YouTube channel. And we put that on there so that these shelters or these individuals can look at this and they don't have to understand police terminology. We don't put any of that. We try to make it as simple as we can. And we show you what to do with a dog and then we say, "Do this and then send us the videos." And then we usually schedule an interview and we talk. So we don't have one or two shelters we work with. I'm open to any and all. I don't care about the shape, the color, the breed. I don't care in talking about shelters. I don't care if you're a three man shelter or if you're a complete 150 person operation. I don't care.
PHIL 14:51
That really fits with the spirit of what you're doing. That, yeah, we're not going to pigeonhole the dogs or the rescue groups or the shelters. We just want to find the best dog.
WES 15:01
Yes, that's right. And in these shelters, the more and more I talk to shelters, there's so many good individuals out there with good hearts that are trying so hard to get these dogs out of here.
PHIL 15:14
Well, it gives another option beyond just the foot traffic that wanders into your shelter. It expands your consumer base to Sector K9 and other groups that are doing what you're doing to recognize, "We got this dog that intimidates people. It's a great dog. We see it 'cause we're with the dog every day as staff and volunteers. Somebody who spends three seconds walking past this kennel doesn't get it."
WES 15:14
Right. Yeah, that's the dogs we're looking for.
PHIL 15:48
So a rescue group can reach out to you. How do they do that?
WES 15:51
Same thing. I tell everybody we're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. We have a YouTube channel. Talking about YouTube, we're fixin' to start putting a lot of content that we haven't put up, yet, on there to show us walking into the shelter's. Us actually testing the dogs. Us training the dogs in how we do that. So I would say how the easiest way is a lot of people do Facebook, but our website is set up that you can send us an email. It sends it right to us. And we can either get me on that or we can get one of the other officers on it and get you a call back and kind of understand what you have. And then just explain to you what we're gonna need to either accept the dog or not accept the dog.
PHIL 16:34
The description for this episode has a link to SectorK9.org. Or it's easy to find "sector" and then the letter K and the number 9 dot org. And I'll also link to your YouTube channel. The other side of that is a police department wanting a dog. Do you have police departments you already work with? Is that a limited number? Or is that just like with the shelter's that anybody who's a police department or beyond police departments are there other organizations that you train dogs for?
WES 17:07
It's wide open. I don't like to limit ourselves. I don't like to limit police departments, you know, police officers or departments that are anywhere in the United States. We have dogs in Kentucky. We have dogs in Pennsylvania. We have dogs in pretty much all over the place. I can go down the list. So we don't limit ourselves in that aspect. We don't say we're only going to do this. And this program goes right into kind of what the dogs are. I don't care how big the police department is. I don't care how small the police department is. I have dogs with literally one officer, the chief and the dog. And that's all there is. That's not something negative. That's something that that department would never ever, ever, ever be able to afford some of the dogs that we see on TV
PHIL 17:51
Mm hmm.
WES 17:51
$20,000 dogs fully trained. Well, we're doing it and we're saying it's gonna cost you nothing. We're gonna donate the dog to you. Here you go. It's a way for smaller police departments and larger. We don't care about the size to come in and to obtain the dog because as a canine handler and the chiefs that are on our board that have dogs through this program, and have graduated through this program to get other dogs is really, really special to have the dog part of a police department. There is no better PR tool in a police department in my experience than a police canine that doesn't want to try to rip your head off. A dog that literally doesn't look like a police dog. It's got this big cool police collar on and a lot of times they'll have the harness with a badge it says, "Police K9." Well, they jump these dogs out of the car and people are like, "What is that?" Because we don't know the breed. It can be anything.
PHIL 18:45
Yeah. It doesn't look like the dog in a movie.
WES 18:47
Yes. So they get these dogs out and the dog just runs over and starts waggin' his tail. Like your lab at home or your lab whatever breed's at home or your neighbor's dog or your mom's whatever. Whatever relation you have to a dog most of the time is not a German Shepherd. It is not a Belgian Malinois, which is very traditional police dogs or Dutch shepherds. So these dogs connect instantly to the community. I think every police department out there deserves the opportunity to get a dog and to have that part of your department. So that's the police side goal of everything.
PHIL 19:22
They're a great ambassador for mixed breeds, for rescues, and for police departments, first responders.
WES 19:29
Sure.
PHIL 19:30
Have you gotten any feedback as far as the benefits that having a canine can deliver to the officers just having that as your partner or even if you're not its handler, just the other officers in the department?
WES 19:46
Well, yes, obviously the camaraderie, right. The camaraderie with the dog running in. A lot of these officers will let these dogs off leash and the dog just runs around the police department. Most of them will go to the secretary's office or their designated places. That person has treats in the side of his drawer, that every time the dog comes in, the dog gets his treat. Well, the dog's conditioned to go do that. There's so much laughter that we hear. And there's so much of tension easing within the department. It's almost — I hate to use this word because police officers don't like to admit this — but it's almost a comfort dog within the police department. Another thing that I never really looked at until last year, and I had a lot of time off in COVID and a lot of downtime within COVID. And I started thinking and I hear these stories. I'll talk to officers that are within our program, outside of our program. Officers I've known for 17 years, you know, with my time in law enforcement. And what we don't concentrate on is the mental health of what this dog brings to the individual officer. There's something special there. And what I mean by that is if you get out on a bad call, and we see those calls, where we get officers kind of get not treated so nicely, let's just leave it like that. They're not treated with the respect that I feel like they deserve and or they get on a traffic stop, or someone's not too happy that they got pulled over for speeding in a school zone or whatever the case may be. Well, these officers that have that bad experience they get back in their car. Well, there's a metal cage that this dog's in and all you hear is the tail, you know, slap and get some metal and he's sticking his head through the windows like "Hey, dude! You wanna play ball?"
PHIL 21:24
Yeah.
WES 21:24
"You wanna go out? Let's go find some drugs. Like, I don't care. Whatever you wanna do." You know, that's special. It does really good for your psyche. It does really good for your overall demeanor and your mental health.
PHIL 21:36
Yeah, the therapeutic value of that smile, that tongue, and that unconditional love, and how present a dog is.
WES 21:46
Yes.
PHIL 21:46
And then how that flows to the human. That you can't help but be present and in that moment with that dog and not think about either how you were treated as an officer or what you've just seen as an officer, regardless of how the community or that citizen might be treating you. I know you guys see the worst of humanity. That you go on calls that you can't even talk to your family about because you don't want to burden them with what you've seen on your shift. You don't have to talk about it with the dog.
WES 22:23
He's there. And it's crazy how they know. They are experts in reading nonverbal behavior from us humans. I can tell you stories about myself but I'd rather tell you stories about what these other officers are telling me. And they get in and they're like, "Man, I'm just you know..." Maybe they had a whatever the bad experience is or negative experience, they get back in, and this dog will literally if he's sad, the dogs not all crazy hyper like the dog will come and put his head on the shoulder of the officer as you sit in the driver's seat. And literally will be like, "Hey, I got you." But they understand. Whatever way they do it. Right. And I'm not a dog psychologist, so I don't know. But they understand when it's time to be calm and loving. And then they also understand that there's a time to be, "Hey, he needs to be like he needs to go play ball. So I'm gonna to be wild and crazy back here. And we're going to go play ball." It's just absolutely amazing how they understand those two emotions and how to approach that. And they're animals. It's crazy. It's awesome.
PHIL 23:24
Yeah, they're so empathetic and intuitive. We've had a few dog behaviorists on the show, but in particular, Dr. Ellen Furlong who studies it talks about how dogs read us faster than we can even understand.
WES 23:42
Right.
PHIL 23:42
That we think it's because I said something. No. The dog before you even said a word...
WES 23:49
Yes.
PHIL 23:50
...has already figured out what you're thinking, what you're feeling. And it's going to respond as a guilty dog or a happy dog or a helpful dog based on how it has read you in just a split second. In just a blink.
WES 24:05
Yes. Right. Yep. I truly believe and what I teach is they understand nonverbal behaviors. They understand the emotions that are going through us. And that goes into a lot of our handler teaching. You know, if you're having a stressed out day, you can't get the dog out and be like, "Oh, yeah, let's go find it. Yeah, okay." And kind of down, right? He may need you that day. It's a team atmosphere. So when he gives it to you, you have to give it back. Get him out on the road, and say, "Hey, bub, let's go. Let's go find this." And get those three year-old voices goin' and the dogs just eat it up. And they are ready to rock. So that is probably the hardest thing to teach new handlers. But as they get it and as they do it more, it's really, really good. It's absolutely amazing. And that's what we teach as a team. So the dog brings the guy up. The guy's got to bring the dog up.
PHIL 24:58
If you trust your dog, if you trust your partner, they will make you a better person. They will make you a better officer.
WES 25:04
Yes. 100%? Yes.
PHIL 25:06
Well, let's get these dogs out of shelters. Let's get police departments that want a dog, or more importantly, need a dog, which is all of them. Let's get these dogs out there serving the community and helping police forces. Follow Sector K9 on Facebook. Subscribe to their YouTube channel. As I say all the time about the Rosie Fund YouTube channel, it costs you nothing.
WES 25:31
Right.
PHIL 25:32
But by subscribing and watching a few of those videos, that means more people are going to find those videos who may not otherwise know about Sector K9. Who may have a dog that would be a great candidate. Or may be in need of one of Sector K9's dogs. So connect with Sector K9. Any final thoughts for our listeners, Wes?
WES 25:51
Please, just like Phil said, the more attention that this brings, whether you can't donate, right, but if you subscribe and you share something, maybe on Facebook or on YouTube, or on Instagram or whatever, if you just share it, we show the world that these dogs can do it. They show the police departments that, "Hey, this option is here. It costs you nothing." And they're trained to a national standard. Also, if there's any content that you want to see us, we're not the greatest at making videos, okay, we've been cops since we were 21. So if there's content that you would like to see, please send us a message on YouTube or send us a message on Facebook or whatever you would like to see help us build our content that you the citizens and people that like what we do kind of guide us down the road of showing you what you want to see. So we always have dogs, and we always have all kinds of looking dogs. They're always different. Like we have a poodle right now that we're training for detection work. It's...
PHIL 26:52
What a fun story to follow. Even if you're not a police department, you're not gonna to adopt this poodle. But what a fun story to follow.
WES 27:00
Right. Yeah, amen. That's what we need. Just share it, follow it. If you have a question. We're very quick to reply. So anything that we can do to help, we're here.
PHIL 27:09
And I'm gonna piggyback on a great point that you made. And I haven't touched on in a long time on this show, request content. And as you said, you're not professional filmmakers. You're not looking to enter any of this in a film festival and win awards. But just coming up with ideas for content, when you're already working however many hours a week as a police officer and then volunteering your time for this organization. You can't think of, "Oh, well now what could we come up that would be a cute video or clever video? Or what is our audience looking for?" When you get that either Facebook message or email that, "I'd love to see a dog doing..." It's like, "We have a dog doing that right now! We just need to film it! And then post it!"
WES 27:22
Yes.
PHIL 27:25
So please share ideas for SectorK9. Share ideas for Rosie Fund. Share ideas for guests for Dog Words, guests or topics. Let us know. We've gotten suggestions where once we heard it, it's like, "Well, that's obvious. Why didn't we think of that?" Thank you listeners. Help us out. And the other side of that is the audience thinks, "Well, if I've thought of it, and they haven't done it, it must be a bad idea."
WES 28:23
Yeah, no, no, no, no. There's no bad ideas. Ever.
PHIL 28:25
It's not a bad idea. We just didn't think of it. You're probably smarter than we are. Help us out.
WES 28:29
Yes. Exactly. Thank you.
PHIL 28:31
So thank you, again, Wes Keeling in Waxahachie, Texas for not only serving, obviously, but then volunteering to help start this wonderful organization and find a purpose for these shelter dogs and a home for them and helping your fellow officers by providing these trained dogs. I encourage our listeners, anything you can do to be involved. Donate, follow, like, share. all those things that you know you can do, by all means, and the links are in the description that will help you do that. Wes, thanks for joining us today.
WES 29:09
Hey, Phil. Thanks for having us on. We appreciate it. Thanks for sharing the word.
PHIL 29:18
I'm Phil Hatterman and you've been listening to Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund.
Thank you to Wes Keeling, founder and president of Sector K9 Foundation. Links to SectorK9.org — that's "sector" the letter K and the number 9 dotorg — and all of the related social media are in the description. There are also links to the Dog Words episodes we referenced in today's interview. If you find an old episode you like, be sure to share it with your friends.
Next time on Dog Words, Kristen Des Marais and Felicia Diamond join us from Bergen Spay & Neuter Alliance.
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. When choosing the music for each episode of Dog Words, I try to find something from The Wires that fits with the tone of that episode. By no means have I played every song from their catalog. There's much more from The Wires than what you hear on this podcast. Learn more about The Wires at TheWires.info and download their music on iTunes. Check out FiddleLife.com and learn to play 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. With your help we've already gotten to 30 dogs.You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the website store, buying a t-shirt at bonfire.com or putting some of our merch in your cart when you shop at BarkYours. Links are in the description. Your donations help fund the Rosie Life Starter Kits that make sure the senior and harder-to-adopt dogs have some of the items they'll need 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 looking for a forever home. Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions at Rosie fund.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.
DISCLAIMER: This document is a transcription obtained through a third party. There is no claim to accuracy on the content provided in this document and divergence from the audio file is to be expected. Some content may be omitted, particularly when there is crosstalk.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai