Army Veteran Starts Foundation Honoring Our Working Dogs

In August of 2009, Triple Canopy took over the task order, but I was asked to stay with the company as they went on to change their name to Xe and U.S. Training Center. I accepted a position at Camp Grizzly in Kabul, Afghanistan solely to gain the experience of handling an Explosive Dog in both theaters. There I was assigned as one of the primary Explosive Detection Handlers to U.S. Ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, and I was a member of teams Anvil 1 and Anvil 2 to conduct advances of classified meetings between U.S. and Foreign Dignitaries throughout Afghanistan.

During my two years overseas, I worked hard to finish my education and receive my Master’s in Security Management from Bellevue University. I have always felt to compete for jobs at the highest level of your career field your operational experience should be equal to your academic background. That combination allowed me to take a position with the ATF at their National Canine Training Center outside of D.C. in Virginia. Even though I felt I had one of the best K-9 Handling jobs in the world, and probably was the highest paid at the time, I knew becoming an Instructor and Course Developer with the ATF would further my career in the direction that I wanted it to take me in the K-9 field.

While at the ATF from 2010-2015 my knowledge and experience in K-9 training really took off. I was fortunate to enter government service as a GS-13 based on my background, experience, and education. I was given the immediate responsibility to train, instruct and certify K-9 Handlers in multiple federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency and many other state and local departments working specifically in explosives detection. I made over 100 trips out to Yuma, Arizona during those five years to work with the Military Working Dog (MWD) program. There I was providing Home-Made Explosives training to over 1,000 MWD’s prior to their deployment to high-threat areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan. I was also involved in developing and instructing the agency’s first off leash detection program, SEEK (Search Enhanced Evidence K-9), and the agency’s first SRT (Special Response Team) dual purpose patrol/explosives detection canine. I instructed explosive detection canine courses for the U.S. Department of State’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program to include the first class conducted outside of the U.S. in the program to the Special Action Force in the Philippines. This program was vital to our national security providing training to our allies in 21 International countries. While I was at the ATF, I was honored to be recipient of the Johnny A. Masengale Memorial Award, which is given out nationally to those who made outstanding contributions in the explosives field. I feel it is equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize of my field and it has been one of the highlights of my career.

After about five years at the ATF, I felt that I was getting stale instructing every day. I strongly feel for any teacher to stay sharp, they must stay relevant in the operational setting. Therefore, I left the ATF in 2015 to take a position as a Field Canine Coordinator with DHS/TSA. I felt that the Passenger Screening K-9’s at our nation’s airports were playing an important role to our national security and I wanted to lend my expertise to this area to oversee some of the teams in the operational setting. For a short period of time, it was nice to be managing teams who had the responsibility of securing our nation’s airways, but there were some other factors to the job that began to make me question the purpose in my 24-year career up to that point. Part of my job was to retire and replace K-9’s in the national program when they became too old or medically incapable of performing their job. This would include me signing a contract on behalf of the government to give the K-9 to the handler but thus releasing the agency and the government of any liability or responsibilities.

What I noticed is that right when these K-9’s who served so much for our country needed our assistance they were being retired, and all funding from the agency they served was being removed. Even though most of the handlers were being able to keep their K-9 partners, they were also adopting all the bills from their medical needs that came with it. Bills that were once being paid for by Police Department, Military, or the U.S. Government but were no longer available to them once they retired from service. After training and working with over 2000 K-9’s in my career, I didn’t feel that this was right, so I decided to do something about it.

In March of 2016, while I was still in government service, I started a national non-profit called Project K-9 Hero to help retired Police K-9 and Military Working Dog Heroes with medical care, food, and death benefit assistance. These were the areas that I saw a need for and based on my background I felt I could be a voice for these heroes on a national level. I continued to work in the government until January 2017, and by then I felt I had built my non-profit and my private K-9 consulting business, K-9 Solutions International, up enough to make that leap out on my own.

I was able to get K-9 Flash back in retirement in 2013, from the Yakima Police Department as she needed a home. Flash had helped me build my career to what it is today, and I owed her a good retirement since once again she needed a place to stay. She now has Lyme Disease affecting her joints at the age of 14. K-9 Flash had totaled up 3,000 deployments and over 2,200 Narcotics related finds and seizures in her long career, and just like most Police K-9’s there was no funding available from the millions of dollars in drug tainted currency and assets she seized in her career. Since Flash’s situation inspired me to start Project K-9 Hero, I named her our national Ambassador and wrote a children’s book based on the true story of her life called, “K-9 Flash Becomes a Hero.”

That first year, I worked hard to just get my foundation off the ground, filing the proper paperwork with the IRS and the State, establishing the right business and social media accounts, gaining corporate insurance, creating a logo, and developing a website to sell items for donations to promote our brand. I started with 12 dogs, whom I knew who needed help in retirement with medical care. I raised $50K in year one, while still working my full-time job in the government, basically through word of mouth and social media. Once I decided to take that leap at the beginning of 2017, Project K-9 Hero received in over a half million dollars in donations and took in more K-9’s with special needs or who are a financial burden on their handlers. In 2018, we are projected to take in one million dollars in donations providing medical care at 100% to over 35 special needs K-9 Heroes throughout the United States with another 50 applications in waiting. While I still work my private K-9 consulting full-time, I have not taken any salary from my non-profit at all up to this point. It is truly my passion, where I volunteer no less than 60 hours a week of my time to ensure that this program is as successful as it can be, and I give back to the K-9 community that built me.

Project K-9 Hero is looking at building its admin office and rehabilitation/re-homing facility next year in Tennessee. Our Ambassador, K-9 Flash, was awarded the National Law Enforcement Dog of the Year honors this year by the American Humane Hero Dog Awards, this past September. Her national award is a testament to her Police K-9 career and continued service to taking care of heroes like her with medical care. Flash inspires children all across America about one of the most honorable professions in the world.

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