Who would have guess that a moment of boredom with a K9 while serving in Qatar would turn into a non profit supporting struggling veterans later. For Air Force veteran Corey James this chance to support a K9 with training turned into a passion for dog training. His non profit, Freedom Paws Service Dogs, trains various breeds as service dogs for veterans and first responders. Corey discusses how they train and important information about training, owning and handling service dogs. If you are curious if a service animal is right for you, then you need to check out this conversation!

Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:

https://www.freedompawsservicedogs.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-james-7031ab1b0/

Battle Buddy Podcast Links:

https://linktr.ee/battlebuddypodcast 

Transcript from Episode 57 with Corey James:

Keith McKeever 0:02

Welcome to the battle buddy podcast, Keith McKeever. Welcome back to the battle buddy podcast. I'm your host, Keith McKeever got Corey, James with freedom. Paul service dogs with me. Welcome, Cory.

Corey James 0:14

Hey, thanks, Keith. I really appreciate it.

Keith McKeever 0:16

No, I'm glad to finally have you on. I think so far in in 50 Something episodes that I've put out, I think you're the second local guest I've had. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's, that's number one we were talking about earlier, Jeff Sykes talks. He talks a lot about his service dog and how his dogs, you know, really, he's on his third dog Wrigley now and how all three of his dogs have been really beneficial to him at different points in his life and his journey. So absolutely. It's, he's got a great story. So anybody who's listening to this, you should definitely go back and listen to episode one. In that, I think that really paints a good picture as to the impact of the service dogs. Absolutely. So but before we get started, just tell us a little bit about your your military story.

Corey James 1:03

Yeah, sure. My military story, I joined the Air Force of August 1998. Did that till about 2000, October 2007. Three deployments spent a year in Korea. All that stuff that I got out and came right back to the garden on I think the program was Palace front or pilot, maybe pilot, I think is one of the I don't I know it was one of them. But I basically, there was no break in service, I joined the Air Guard before I left active duty. So and that I did that till about October 2013.

Keith McKeever 1:39

Had to be a completely different experience than going off active duty. And coming back it was

Corey James 1:44

it was a lot different. It was definitely it was definitely culture shock. It really was.

Keith McKeever 1:49

But it does surprise me. I know, when I was stationed at Scott Air Force Base, we had a lot of guard and reserve there. Sure. You know, when those guys have kind of come around on their weekends or whatever. And we had some guys that were active Guard active reserve. It's just different. And it's

Corey James 2:03

it is it is definitely one I like one better than the other. I thought they were well, I liked them both. But they were just different.

Keith McKeever 2:12

Yeah, yeah. That would be it would be interesting to be more on a first name basis. I don't think it was that much. From my perspective anyway. Because we were both Air Force Security Forces. Yeah, so like, a little different than the rest of the airforce. Anyway, sometimes you see the rest of the Air Force bases and stuff like that. It wasn't really like that active duty. It was kind of like that a little bit. From time to time.

Corey James 2:35

I'll speak for the 1/82 out of Peoria. I can tell you right now, none of that stuff happens with any of those cops. It's very strict. It's still I still have friends out there. It's it's still, you know, they were held to a higher standard kind of thing. And that's they still promote that out there. I mean, they're great, guys.

Keith McKeever 2:56

Yeah, that's always pounded into your heads, isn't it? Yeah. From from from day one in tech school.

Corey James 3:02

Yeah, we know, I kind of had the same thought as you. I thought I'm going to leave active duty and go guard because I had deployed with some guard guys. and I were like, That's kind of more my, I think that'd be really nice. And then I got to the guard. And I was like, Oh, wow, this might even be a little bit, you know, a little bit more intense and active duty was. That's no joke.

Keith McKeever 3:22

I guess I can see some reasons why especially if you're not seeing everybody every day, we had that we had we had sharpen staying on top of things we had

Corey James 3:30

some of our payment champion man would, you know, was prior army. You know, I mean, so you get some, just their mentality is different. And I mean, I think it was a great thing. I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything, but I definitely thought I was coming from activity to guard and things would be kind of more chilled out. I guess. That wasn't the case.

Keith McKeever 3:50

Have some more barbecues, right? Yeah. Yeah. Run routes of first names.

Unknown Speaker 3:55

Sure. Sure. Sure.

Keith McKeever 3:56

Absolutely. So yeah, I know. We talked about it a minute ago. You were you were not a canine handler when you were. But you've got an interesting story about how you kind of got into dogs. So

Corey James 4:05

yeah, yeah. So I get asked that a lot. I get asked, you know, where you you, you can handle the military? No, I wasn't. My very first deployment was to Qatar, Qatar. And whenever tomato tomahto Yeah. So over there. I was standing on post one night. We were we were at the search bid. And the guy was out working with dog. And then he he wanted to do some training right there on the spot. He asked if anybody would like to volunteer as a decoy. And most obviously, most of the cops said, No, we don't want to do that. And I thought it'd be pretty cool just to see and I did that once and pretty much after that. Kind of had the bite. Yeah. So yeah.

Keith McKeever 4:56

Yeah, I like I told you earlier I was I was asked multiple times times, you know, and it was like, Yeah, sure, sure. I'm not doing that. Right. I was like with the other guys that were with you, right? So, so how'd you get into fast fast forwarding? Anyway? I know you've been around here for for a few years training dogs. Sure. How did that all develop?

Corey James 5:17

That developed, um, I was looking for I, I was kind of spiraling downhill, lots of alcohol, all that Rick kind of ran the gamut of all that stuff. And came home one day, and my wife was pretty much like I'm done. You know, unless you want to get help try to get some help. That didn't work. And then she used to train dogs for blind. So she already had kind of a background and somewhat, you know, service dog. And we started talking about that. And she said, I really think that a dog, you know, would help you. And he did, and he has, and that's kind of where this all started from. This wasn't this wasn't supposed to be a big it was supposed to be we were gonna try to help one or two veterans a year type of thing. Maybe every couple years. And there's, there's a, there's a lot of guys and gals who need help. So obviously, there's a lot more need than what I anticipated.

Keith McKeever 6:17

Yes, it was definitely a lot of need. And I can I know, I've seen a lot more service animals over the years. Sure. Seems like the willingness for people to go that route, the need to get it. Probably the funding for it, and a lot of for a lot of places, like it's just more available. Sure. Just great to see for sure.

Corey James 6:37

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think there's a lot more, there's a lot more, you've seen a lot more service dogs a lot more help out there. There's also, you know, for every so many people that are doing it, right, there's people that are just they're just taking their pet, you know, I mean, they're just buying a vest off Amazon and just throwing it on the dog. And so some sometimes service dogs get a bad rap, you know, due to that. But again, you know, I think overall, service dogs are definitely changing lives.

Keith McKeever 7:06

Yeah, there's a big difference there between a service dog, and when I guess they kind of call emotional support animal, something like that. It's just buying a vest. They're untrained. I know, because of talking to Jeff, it's a lot of time that goes into training. Training for the dog.

Corey James 7:25

Right. So when I first met Jeff, he asked how long how long the program was? And I said, two years. And I mean, he was kinda like, Are you kidding? You know, two years, that's quite a bit, I might we just want to make sure that dogs train properly, blah, blah. But just another one a true test a what a service dog can do? It truly, I mean, his story is phenomenal. And yeah,

Keith McKeever 7:49

absolutely. So what what does that training look like for the dog? You know? So stuff like that? Yeah. So

Corey James 7:58

we have a three tiered training, you know, program set up. It basically goes from beginner, intermediate to everything more skilled, and then freedom pause. We have our own test. So we we put them through the paces, but then we have a test at the very end that we also do that freedom pause trainers have created. Okay,

Keith McKeever 8:23

yeah. About I'm sure it's different on the breed of the dog, or the intelligence and the temperament of the dog and all that stuff, but and by how many hours typically take a training for the for the actual dog 300 300 300 hours.

Corey James 8:38

That's, I mean, this is, uh, you know, that's a good way to put it. I know, a lot of I mean, I've worked with a lot of people that their dogs have five or 600 hours in. I mean, it just depends, you know, on the individual, and everything. But I mean, 300 hours is the minimum for us.

Keith McKeever 8:55

Yes, that's the minimum for you to be certified in all that is obviously ongoing training hands

Corey James 9:02

on training, almost constantly training.

Keith McKeever 9:05

So we should all know, and knowing real well, from our time in the military, right, right.

Corey James 9:10

That's right.

Keith McKeever 9:12

Right, you know, stay on top of it. So what about the owner, though? Like, cuz I know, Jeff was going through some training and stuff like that as a hey,

Corey James 9:22

yeah, there's a lot of, you know, it's May it's more or less, just making sure that that the handler that the veteran first monitor that they that they understand that they understand, you know, what, what the commands are, what the commands mean, and when to give those commands and when not to. There's a lot of times and I know it's a joke kind of around here, but a lot of times, even Jeff will joke around about it. Say I think you spent more time training me than you did the dog. You know, and sometimes that's we spent a lot of time with people, you know, and that's just, that's the nature of this.

Keith McKeever 9:57

Makes sense. You're taken to untrained beings. dog in a human, and you're teaching them to really 100% be there for each other dependent.

Corey James 10:07

Exactly, exactly.

Keith McKeever 10:10

Yeah, because I mean, you know, the dog, dogs not going to eat without food, right? care of that, you know, the pampered and all the way that really shouldn't be painful to write. He started off as an untrained, I guess you'd call it pet before they get trained, sure, into a service animal, but they still need just like we do that quality of lifetime. Absolutely. You know, as Jeff would probably he processor with his dog who's named Wrigley Go figure. Right? Right. would not be surprised if Wrigley sits there and watches cubs games with Jeff.

Corey James 10:44

Oh, I know. 100% sure that she does. He's He's sent me photos of her and him on the couch watching the game doesn't surprise I know that

Keith McKeever 10:54

doesn't surprise you don't name your dog after a famous baseball stadium. Right? If you don't sit and watch watch the games that the dog sell, right? wouldn't ask to like the different breeds and stuff like that. So is there certain breeds that you train with? Or I guess, what are the thoughts on like, what should somebody look for?

Corey James 11:13

Okay, so we're not, we're not brief, specific. And other than like that, I feel all dogs are great at you know, certain things, you know, they're just like, they're human, they're just like a human is certain things you're great at, I'm not gonna be great at so, you know, I would say some of the early things are just getting all of the checks done all their LFHS. And you want to make sure that the dogs you're getting are, are going to, they're going to have the best chance of passing. You know, so we like to have our our veterinarians look at the dogs first, you know, kind of give them a once over. And then the other thing is just at the end of the day, not all dogs are gonna make it through. You know, that's the other part of this. It's kind of tough, kind of,

Keith McKeever 12:01

I mean, it's just like basic training and military, right, like, right, everybody walking the streets today, we'd be able to make it to that training.

Corey James 12:07

That's right. That's right. You know, and then you know, I mean, we have some, some vets come in, and they don't realize, you know, how you say it's 300 hours, and it could take up to two years. But until they're doing this for a while, they're like, Man, this takes up a lot of time, you know, you know, and then sometimes it's, you know, they may feel, you know, I don't really need the dog as much as I thought I did. Sometimes it's that, you know, I mean, yeah, it's almost something new every day.

Keith McKeever 12:36

I bet. Yeah. So what happens in a case like that? So if a dog is getting trained, does that is, I guess, is it typical? That a handler and a dog come together as a package? Or do you go find dogs for people or

Corey James 12:53

household? Yeah, essentially, when they when they come to the program, we already have dogs. And then it's, we've already kind of vetted the breeders and, you know, we've had the checkups done and everything. So by the time they come here, we've already we already have dogs here. And then it's just trying to pair them with which one works best with them.

Keith McKeever 13:13

Okay, what goes into that? Because I'm kind of curious because I can tell you, Oh, it's a person. So like, if I had a dog, it would have to be like, short hair doesn't shed much doesn't bark much. Probably a medium sized dog instead of a large breed dog. Just to fit with my lifestyle. Just okay, is an example. So like, how much does of that goes into pairing a dog with with

Corey James 13:36

a lot of it? I know a lot of it does. You know, poodles poodles are a breed I honestly have never worked with before now. And I had heard a lot of horror stories. And I'm telling you, there's some of the most intelligent awesome dogs but they're also hypoallergenic. So a lot of people you know, that have difficulty breathing or sunlight, you know, they they don't, or they don't want all the hair. You know, those dogs shed less, you know? And yeah, so it's, you got to get the best fit. But at the end of the day, it's like, we have to pair you with a dog that's going to help you the most.

Keith McKeever 14:12

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I'm just kind of curious. Of course bias might come into what is there any certain dog breeds that you've trained that you don't think generally make as good of a service dog?

Corey James 14:31

I got to word this correctly. I think with the right trainer, any dog and it may not be you know, if you took three trainers, they're all going to have five different ways to get one task done. Of course, so you know, I don't know me personally, I thought the hardest dog that we've trained was probably a mile because belt Belgium out there. It's it's a it's a working breed and they're they're hydrate, they're high strong. They're amazing and they're still We're smart. See, but I said that before, and we just got a mile probably five months ago. And she's amazing. Like, totally, I mean, like, night and day, the first one, you know, amazing dog, just high energy and high wanted to be working all the time. You know, I make sense. And again, that's good. It's for some people that may be good. Like for this particular guy, it was great. He was a he was a cop in the Air Force as well. Then he did in like, 20 years as a as a regular cop. And I mean, he runs with the dog, you know, keeps up with the dog till he hurt his foot. But yeah,

Keith McKeever 15:42

yeah, you wouldn't want to put somebody who's so I guess some overweight with go running with him. Right?

Corey James 15:49

Yeah, just like me. So yeah, like, that's a lot. You know. And again, it's, but we try to, we do try to work with people on what they what they're looking for, and what really what they need, you know, and then it's kind of up to the team here to decide, well, let's see what we can do.

Keith McKeever 16:05

Okay, I'm sure you kind of see like, certain breeds more, more frequently. So yeah,

Corey James 16:10

absolutely. Labs, let Labradors that we have, that's the majority of dogs that we have, are going to be Labradors. We have called poodles. We've trained some Mallow was a couple of German Shepherds. That's pretty much it. So the program works where we have breeders that donate the dogs. So essentially, it's us, it's us, reaching out to them and seeing who wants to donate on the next class, I guess, you know, I'm saying. So it's really comes down to who is donating to us and what breeds they're what breeds they breed.

Keith McKeever 16:50

Gotcha. What's the strangest breed that you've ever trained? That you wouldn't think of? Probably?

Corey James 17:00

Portuguese water dog.

Keith McKeever 17:03

I can't even imagine what that looks like. I'm imagining small.

Corey James 17:06

It's smaller. Yeah, it's smaller. Quite a bit of hair. But it's another one of those hypoallergenic situations. They don't, they don't shed a lot. I know she, she got a bath the other day and came out and literally in like three minutes was dry. So kind of just weird. Yeah, that probably be the weirdest dog that I've worked with.

Keith McKeever 17:29

I figured it'd be something when I when I'm thinking of like, valid laws and labs, medium to large breed dogs. There's got to be a small one somewhere out of left field,

Corey James 17:42

and again, I mean, she's awesome. She is amazing. But definitely, I would have never guessed that'd be a dog. We wouldn't we would work with.

Keith McKeever 17:51

There's a ton of breeds out there. And

Corey James 17:53

I said it's something new every day, man. I don't know.

Keith McKeever 17:56

How many dogs are you training at one point in time? Currently, we have 1313. And I take it since your wife train dogs for the blind. She she involved in the day to day training to

Corey James 18:08

data that she's a school school teacher during the day. Okay. All right, that she helps out at night. Know that the big thing how this foundation operates is it's all volunteer base. So there's no one getting paid. Everybody's here. But when I tell you, this is not me, I get thanked all the time. People want to give me all the record. That is not me. I just have there's a team of people that volunteer here. They're the ones that they're the ones that do the training. We have trainers who volunteer, they're the ones that do the events, they help us raise money. So without them like this thing wouldn't be anything seriously.

Keith McKeever 18:45

Awesome. That's good to know. That's really good to know. And it's it's awesome to have volunteers too. Because, you know, when somebody signs up to volunteer for something, you know, they're given it 100% And they're absolutely and their passion into it. So, you know, that's, that's better than I said earlier, you kind of hinted at, you know, some for every couple of good trainers out there. There might be some bad ones and yeah, yeah, nonprofits in general. There's good ones and bad ones that do some do more and some do less and yeah, so that's, it's a good thing. And I know you guys have built build up quite quite a reputation and following here locally. We're trying so I know you have those. The fundraisers down there at the poor brothers. Absolutely. Boys, a couple of shirts. They were actually wearing them because I was wearing your T shirt. The Air Force symbol T shirt. Oh, nice. Yesterday. Awesome. Well, actually what I like for today I was like, ironically,

Corey James 19:41

right? Yeah. Shout out to Robbie, poor brothers. He's always supported these veteran events. I know he supports community as well and a lot of things but especially when it comes to veterans, he's always he's all in

Keith McKeever 19:56

and he's done some stuff for our local honor fight have been there a few times. Sir, that's awesome. Thanks for some of the service organizations as well. So yeah, it's a it's a great company. So if you're having to listen to this, you got to go down to poor brothers. And you got to support those guys

Corey James 20:12

get out there. I'm telling you, they got they got everything from the best beer in town.

Keith McKeever 20:16

Yeah, absolutely get some ice cold beer he can't can't be down on these nice. Right? Absolutely. So. Yeah, I think it's mostly kind of the questions I had to, I'll give

Corey James 20:33

you one that you didn't. A lot of people will ask this. It's deep. If they have their own dog, they say do I have to have a professional train my dog? For it to be a certified service dog? And then you do not. You can buy your own dog and train the dog yourself?

Keith McKeever 20:52

How many people do you think are actually doing that?

Corey James 20:55

I think there's more than we think. I mean, I don't honestly, I don't have a number on that. But I get asked that question a lot. And I've looked into it. And yeah, there's no, like, you can buy your own dog and do it. The thing is, too, is like, it's, some people could really could do that. And it could possibly help them. I know, we have volunteers that that puppy raise for us. So that's another part of this. And they, you know, they kind of see how well this helps. But the dog helps them during while they're just puppy raising, you know,

Keith McKeever 21:30

ya know? So that's interesting. So the 300 hours to train? Yes, sir. Is that a like a law? That has to be three? Oh, no.

Corey James 21:40

It's just you're just It's ours? Yes, sir.

Keith McKeever 21:43

Is there like a legal limit? To the amount of training? This is this is interesting, thinking about bringing their own, like, how many hours? And what are they really putting into it? So the

Corey James 21:51

I know that the the international standard is 300 hours, with 60 hours being public access work. So out in the public, taking the dog to store taking the dog to dinner with you. So 60 hours of that has to be just doing that alone, or the 300.

Keith McKeever 22:11

Okay, so what kind of places? That's a good question, what, what kind of places do you go to that are the best for that kind of training?

Corey James 22:24

Well, I mean, there's quite a few. I mean, to give you a whole list, is there You mean, like,

Keith McKeever 22:31

what's the what's like, what's the most stressful or one of the best places to test some of that out? And

Corey James 22:37

definitely, so we like go into poor brothers in the heights. Because in the summer, when it's nice out, there's always people walking by always people walking through the crowd, you know, and it's just getting the dogs engaged in that everyday lifestyle that that veteran, you know, that may be his lifestyle. The other places like go into Walmart. There's a lot of the big box stores are always really good about training in there, Lowe's, Home Depot, Menards, those type of stores never had any problems. They're going to train and there's plenty of noise and people and kids and everything. Yeah,

Keith McKeever 23:13

correct me if I'm wrong, that's kind of what you're looking for. Is the absolutely focus on the handler. And, and I'm not get distracted by Absolutely. All little kids running around.

Corey James 23:23

Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. I know. That's the, you know, that's what we use. But honestly, most of our people have way more than three, they have a lot more than 300 hours.

Keith McKeever 23:32

I bet

Corey James 23:35

doesn't take long to wrap. No, no, it doesn't.

Keith McKeever 23:38

And I know I think I've seen on your Facebook page too, you know, pictures of you guys turn in a Walmart stuff like that. Other public places, I'm sure like the ballpark is good. And downtown

Corey James 23:49

anywhere there's noises and where you can get them out and about. We usually have probably three times a year we have, we have the local fire department come over. And they'll we'll have the horns going and they'll the sirens going, you know, you gotta get it. We're just trying to get them used to everything.

Keith McKeever 24:09

Yeah, just mass confusion, like basic training, right? Screaming yelling things and you got to stay laser focused, right? You already got to be on your, on your game. is right. So and that's awesome. So so how could should somebody reach out to you for about training or?

Corey James 24:33

Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can reach out to us. You can reach out to us on our website. I see you have that at the bottom. Freedom, Paul services.org. You can reach out to us on Facebook or any of the socials as well. The other way is you can call me or you can text me directly. And my phone number is 309-669-7917

Keith McKeever 24:58

awesome. I will up had the links and stuff in the show notes for anybody who who happens to watch or listen. That's great. Yep. So if somebody wanted just just general advice they could reach out to you to just Oh, absolutely,

Corey James 25:14

yes. So you know, and another thing we do a lot is just going a lot of times, it's it's going out to speak at a school or, you know, speak here, speak there. And it's for us, it's just getting the word out, you know, so we love doing that, too. If anybody's interested in just having us come and talk to them, sometimes as a church, some, we pretty much have gone almost everywhere to speak. So if that's something somebody will be interested,

Keith McKeever 25:40

that's awesome to know. I think it's something good for people to think about, too, if you've got to, if you've got a business maybe, or an event or a venue, like, especially like Reno's going to be busy, you know, reach out to you or any other service dog training, absolutely. Nonprofit out there. Say, Hey, look, I got this going on, like, you know, open invite. Come on out and do your thing. Right,

Corey James 26:02

right. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 26:04

Yeah. So I just kind of curious to just popped in my mind. Another question. How do you do you do any training with the airports

Corey James 26:13

and fleet and now I just potations stuff? Yeah,

Keith McKeever 26:17

I know, before. So some Wounded Warrior stuff. And, you know, keeping an eye on an airplane must be interesting.

Corey James 26:24

It is, we've had that happen more than once, dogs traveling, we do do training out of the Peoria airport, they've been very good about allowing us to come out and walk through the line when they're slow. You know, and again, that's everyday, but we try to get out there too, as much as possible, because that's where the dogs can really learn in the real world. But part of this, if the veteran is traveling, we tried to do that. Not until the set the second tier of training. So the dogs are a little bit older. They're a little bit better, more paying attention. Yes, sir.

Keith McKeever 27:00

Because they're trying to pay attention to the stressors. Absolutely. Yeah, we all know how stressful that is going through airport security. Of like, I'm sitting here thinking of like, you know, where would I want to train a dog at, you know, be the stressful places for me, like you got to Walmart, the grocery store waiting in line, you know, where would you get anxious?

Corey James 27:22

And that's like, yeah, crowds from you know, for me is a big one. Like, the lot of people. You know, I try to stay away from that stuff. As much as possible. But yeah, that's one of them.

Keith McKeever 27:35

Yeah, yeah, crowds. Crowds would be a big one. I know, that doesn't really bother me too much, unless I'm like, in the middle of the crowd. actually happened at the butterfly a few years ago. Like they're like, you grab this bullhorn and go make announcements. I'm like, I'm fine. If I'm floating around people. But don't make me put put me right smack dab in the center, right, somebody with me? And I'm like, I, I left there. And I'm like, I'm never doing that again. I have never putting myself in that situation. So much anxiety. Oh, yeah, I had a problem with it. And I was just like this. Right. Not doing that again.

Corey James 28:08

I don't blame him.

Keith McKeever 28:09

So you know, but the mission had to happen, you know, like volunteering. Right? First get it done. Somehow called down about later, right? Not the first time if, as a volunteer, they put me in a situation I didn't expect over there. But right. You know, you run into all kinds. So yeah. Awesome. So any any other advice? Or nuggets of information we should know about service dogs?

Corey James 28:34

No, I think that's about it. I said, if you have any questions on service dogs, or your you know, if it's just I don't know, if I need a service dog, I don't even that just you give us a call. You can email us like I said, you can write as many socials, or you can go to the website, and then we have a communication link in there too.

Keith McKeever 28:51

Awesome. Is there anything off the top of your head that you that you can think of that? Somebody maybe shouldn't have a service dog, then? Based on that question.

Corey James 29:03

I just think you have to know that it's a lot of work that goes into it. It's and I know, there's places that they they train the dog fully, and then then they pair them are as we require the veteran to come to the training class. So that's, you know, that's kind of the difference there. Yeah, kind of building that rapport to build that rapport earlier. And yeah, I just think I think it works better when they're part of the process.

Keith McKeever 29:34

Totally makes sense. Yeah. Now I'm thinking about it like, like a marriage. Like, you know, we tough to have a good successful marriage if you just kind of met someone under voting, right? dating for a little while beforehand. Sure. Sure. Right, weird analogy. It works man works. It absolutely works. So I appreciate you coming on on the podcast Corey, and it kind of shared with us about the service dogs and what you do and kind of what that takes because, you know, I really hope that a lot of our veteran brothers and sisters who might need one can take this and say, All right, it's time. Let me reach out to you please reach out, we reach out to some other organization, whatever and figure out how to get the ball rolling, please reach out. I think it's, I think it's a difficult. It's a difficult thing to look at, like, nobody. Unless you and you're in the business. Nobody else knows where to start. What's Oh, how do you how do you do this?

Corey James 30:28

Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I totally agree. And I said any questions, it doesn't matter. The other thing, real quick is, even if you're not from here, and you're from Southern Illinois, like a lot of us work, work together. So we know we can never help everyone. But we're all in this together. So if you're from Southern Illinois, there's a chance we know another business like ours that is running down there. There's another nonprofit, you know, around Chicago, you know, canines for vets, they're huge. They're great people. That's the other thing just because you don't live in your area don't like don't not reach out, you know, it's still still reach out if you have any questions.

Keith McKeever 31:07

At the end of the day, we're just, you know, we're all here to help people. Absolutely your way I tried to do it my way. Yeah, just reach out and communicate collaborate. Makes.

Corey James 31:19

Absolutely. Well, Keith, I want to thank you again, I truly appreciate you having me on.

Keith McKeever 31:23

Yeah, no problem. And you know, it's my goal to to educate, inspire our brothers and sisters, you know, to better their life in some way, shape or form, whether it's just being educated on what service dogs are, or somebody taking the leap and making a contact saying, I want a dog because I want to better my life. Absolutely. I want to figure this stuff out and and navigate this with less pain and discomfort and anxiety and depression and all that good stuff. So that stuff. Yes, but you know,

Corey James 31:50

I Yes. Well, hey, again, man. It's been great and keep doing what you're doing as well. I appreciate everything you're doing for guys and gals out there.

Keith McKeever 31:59

Thank you. So all right, Cory. I once again, I appreciate it. And we'll drop into the back room and play the video play the outro But hang around for a minute. I want to pick your brain on something. Absolutely, man. All right, there you go. Folks. If you're interested in a service dog, you now know where to reach out. You can find out more resources on my website for all kinds of different things about what he podcast net and if you're struggling national suicide hotline numbers 800-273-8255 or text 838255 And don't forget to go like, share, follow subscribe to all of our social platforms.