0:00
[Music]
0:18
This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:23
All right, guys, today on the podcast, we've got a special guest for you and you've heard
0:26
from him on our show before, but it was the only short period and that is Mike Ritalin.
0:29
So Mike Ritalin is a retired Navy SEAL. He's been 12 years in the Navy Seals. He's also a
0:33
world renowned canine trainer. He's been doing that for over 20 years. He's the host of the Mike
0:37
Drop podcast, which we are so indebted to Mike because part of our success with this podcast
0:42
is because I was invited to be a guest by him on his show and we did that earlier this summer
0:46
and it's worked out really, really well for us. We're so thankful to Mike for doing that.
0:50
He's also the founder of multiple businesses. So Tricos International, that's personal protection
0:54
dogs. He has team dog dog training programs. He has fueled by team dog food and treats.
0:59
That's what Roman the giant, my best friend in the world. That is what he eats. He's also
1:03
got the Warrior Dog Foundation, which we talked about here a little bit, which helps provide care
1:07
for retired working canines. He's also a best-selling author. So this dude just does tons of stuff.
1:11
So he's written best-selling books like Team Dog, How to Train Your Dog, The Navy Seal Way,
1:15
and Trident Canine Warriors. My tail from training the training, sorry, my tail from the training
1:21
ground to the battlefield with elite Navy Seal canines. He was on episode 225 of this podcast where he
1:26
talked very briefly about his ideas and thoughts as to kind of what was going on in the ground on
1:31
in Afghanistan. And a lot of you guys reached out to say, man, I really liked how forthright
1:35
he was with everything that he was saying. And you know, that's just his way, right? He's very
1:40
forthright with the things that he says. And that's why so many of you liked his opinions
1:43
there on Afghanistan. But this is what I'm going to tell you about in terms of these two podcasts.
1:47
Well, I guess I let's cap out of the bag right there. This is part one of two, okay? Because he
1:52
wrote a new book. And so that's going to be coming out next Tuesday. So if you're listening to this
1:56
right now, next Tuesday, if you're listening to this on time, he's got a new book coming out.
2:00
And he gets into a lot of political topics. He gets into a lot of very divisive topics.
2:05
And as I was preparing for our interview, I was like, man, I don't really want to kind of give
2:09
short shrift to his, you know, work in the Navy Seals and his work with working dogs and all
2:14
these different things. So I was like, I asked him, I was like, Hey, can we do one just about kind
2:17
of you as a person and some of the things that you've done with dogs and some of those cool stories
2:21
and then do another one where we get more into your opinions and where you can kind of get out
2:24
from your, Hey, you're just a dog trainer, you know, tag on your shirt and you can kind of actually
2:29
go into some of these other topics. And he was absolutely down to do that. So this is part one.
2:33
And then part two is going to be coming out here next Tuesday. But here's the thing that I will
2:36
say from the very beginning. I've told you that he's very forthright. Okay. So major blinking
2:42
language warning. Okay. If you are triggered by foul language and not really foul language,
2:47
but swearing or cursing of any kind, that is just how Mike talks. Okay. So I know this is a Christian
2:52
podcast. A lot of people that listen to this are Christians and maybe you're offended by that
2:56
language and I completely understand and I completely get it. But we've made a dedication early on in
3:00
this podcast that whatever people want to say, we want to give them the ability to say that as
3:04
long as it's within reason. And so again, if you're very offended by language like that,
3:08
you might want to skip this episode. But for everybody else, just there's your warning. If
3:11
you're listening to this with kitties near you or something like that. So there have I sufficiently
3:15
checked all the boxes that I need to check in order for you guys to actually listen to this
3:18
episode. So guys, I'm very excited to bring all my friend Mike. But without further ado,
3:23
let's get into it. Mike Ritalin, welcome back to undaunted life of man's podcast.
3:27
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the re invite, if you will.
3:31
Yeah, absolutely. Here's the thing is I don't normally do a little miniature episodes on my
3:35
podcast, but I got to say my audience was very impressed with your first performance on botching
3:40
Afghanistan. And it was a performance because you didn't actually mean any of those things
3:43
that you said, right? So you just kind of made it up off top of your head, right?
3:46
I was reading cue cards. Absolutely. Absolutely. But we're going to get into a lot of stuff today,
3:50
because there's a lot to talk about. But the cool thing is, is that we're going to be getting
3:53
you back on here very, very shortly to talk about an upcoming book that you have. So we'll leave that
3:57
to the imaginations of the listeners for right now. But the first thing that I like to do with
4:01
anybody that's a veteran, whenever you come on this podcast, as I want to know, why did you join
4:05
the military? Because I've talked about all the time, how I regret having not served, and how my
4:10
life just didn't kind of end up that way. But for you personally, growing up in Iowa and all that,
4:14
was it always your desire that you wanted to be in the military one day? Did you want to be a
4:18
commando? Did you want to be a Navy SEAL? How'd all that work out? So the my both of my grandfathers
4:24
were in World War II. On my dad's side, he was in the army and in the European front. And then
4:30
my mom's dad was in the Navy in the Mediterranean. And so kind of at an early age, I found myself
4:39
being, I would say fascinated and enamored by their service, that time period, the World War II
4:47
timeframe, to this day still just kind of is a bit of a romanticization of history. And then I just
4:57
kind of look back on it and think, you know, I wish I had been around then. It just always been
5:02
really fascinated with that time period. And just, you know, history and general military history
5:07
in particular. And so I wouldn't say that at a young age, I was necessarily, you know, driven to
5:13
serve. But in fact, when I was in junior high, when the first Gulf War kicked off, I actually was
5:22
pretty, pretty apprehensive and kind of nervous about the thought or prospect of having to go to
5:29
war. You know, I always liked that, that facet of our history. But I just kind of, you know,
5:37
was almost scared of the thought of having to go to war as a, you know, sixth, seventh grader.
5:43
And as I, you know, matured and got a little bit older and started to kind of come into my own
5:49
in high school. And that's when I wanted to do that. And so it really wasn't until about halfway
5:54
through high school, where I really kind of made the conscious decision to where that's what I
5:59
wanted to do. And I spent the second half of high school really training and, you know, reading books
6:05
and watching recruiting videos. And, you know, at that time, the internet wasn't really a thing
6:09
yet. Or certainly it was just kind of coming online. And so there weren't the resources that
6:17
there are today. You know, there was a handful of books, you know, a handful of VHS cassette tapes
6:23
of seal workouts and stuff. And that was really about it. You know, so, but I, you know, just kind
6:29
of took everything I could, you know, in terms of what that knowledge was and applied it to the
6:35
best of my ability. And then as soon as I graduated high school, it was still 17. So I had to wait
6:41
until I turned 18 and then went to boot camp right after that. But yeah, you know,
6:47
like I said, it wasn't like this lifelong thing necessarily, but I was definitely inspired by my
6:52
grandfathers. And just kind of felt like, you know, even though my parents, they had offered,
6:58
you know, to send me to college. And I even had a couple of swimming scholarships at some smaller
7:06
schools that had been kicked around or whatever. But, you know, for me, I felt a lack of, you know,
7:14
kind of that, that entitlement sense of thinking that my parents should pick up the tab. And I felt
7:19
if I'm going to go to college, I should pay for it or I want to pay for it. And just kind of wanted
7:25
to get out of my own and do something for the greater good, you know, at a pretty early age.
7:30
That's, that's an interesting thing that I've hear that I hear from a lot of people that were in
7:34
the military is that they kind of had that inkling from an early age. A lot of the people,
7:37
especially they'd go into the special operations community, these aren't people that just like,
7:41
I just graduated from college and there wasn't anything else to do. So I went ahead and did this.
7:45
It's a little bit more planned out than that. But just just curious, just quickly, you only
7:50
serve for 12 years, I say only you serve for 12 years, but typically you hear about people going
7:54
for their 20 or doing something different. But for you specifically, what was kind of the impetus
7:58
behind you getting out at around that 12 year mark? There was a couple of things. There was three
8:03
main main factors that the first and foremost that was really the catalyst to the other two
8:08
finishing, you know, or closing the deal of me getting out was, it was getting valley fever.
8:15
So it's a fungal lung infection that I contracted in the desert. And I lost about 40% of my lung
8:22
capacity. And that's basically permanent. You know, it's scars that lung tissue and makes it,
8:29
you know, pretty much impossible for it to grow back. I mean, barring some crazy new age
8:36
science or medical technology that comes online, maybe that has the ability to repair it in the
8:42
future, you know, I'm kind of stuck with that. And so that was the first thing that really kind of
8:47
changed my trajectory mentally as to what I was going to do. I mean, I'd planned on staying in
8:52
longer. I'd planned on wanting to screen and go to to dev group and, you know, do dog stuff there.
9:00
And that all just kind of got derailed. So at that point, you know, I knew that even though I made,
9:07
you know, a full normal recovery in terms of getting back to being able to do day to day stuff,
9:13
I knew that I would probably be a liability physically to to my team. And I didn't really
9:21
want to even test the water with that. They offered a medical retirement at the time.
9:28
When I was diagnosed with it and first was in and out of the hospital with it. And, you know,
9:34
for me at that time, I was like, [inaudible], I don't, I don't have a degree. You know, I've got my first
9:39
child on the way. I like, this wasn't my plan. I have nothing lined up. You know, I don't really
9:45
know what the hell I would do. You can't live off of a medical retirement with a family, really,
9:50
man. So it's like $2,300 a month. And so, you know, I was just like, is there anything else we can do,
9:57
you know? And so I was very fortunate to work for a couple of really good guys at the time. And
10:02
they worked some back room, you know, upper enlisted deals and got me over to the basic side,
10:10
because I had to be away from anything that was irritating to your lungs, which is pretty much
10:15
every job in the SEAL teams, minus being a bud's instructor. So I was fortunate enough to go over
10:22
there for a couple of years and kind of make as good a recovery as I could. And then at that point,
10:26
I could have tried to go back to a SEAL team, like I said, but I just, I didn't feel confident
10:35
in my own ability to really be an asset and not be a liability. So that was kind of the big thing.
10:42
On top of that, you know, we had had our first child at that point and then we had had a subsequent
10:48
second. And so that certainly played a role in me not wanting to be gone for their entire
10:54
childhoods and what have you. And then last but certainly not least is that just as I got more
11:00
senior in the military, the more I kind of saw behind the curtain and really didn't like what I
11:07
saw and no different not to get into politics too much because I know we're going to do that on the
11:12
next episode. But you know, seeing what you're seeing now with General Millie and just a lot of
11:19
the upper echelon in terms of the not even going to use the word leadership, we'll call it [inaudible]
11:24
the brass in our military is that it's just it's disheartening, it's sickening. And I just didn't
11:32
like what I saw. You know, I saw that, you know, the higher guys got up, you know, the more the
11:38
decisions they made were more about promotion and what it would do to their career or not.
11:42
Then it did have to do with it, you know, just being the right thing to do and taking care of
11:46
the boys. And this is the right thing to do for the sake of it being the right thing to do. And so
11:51
all those three three things combined, it actually made it fairly easy to pull chocks and get out
11:58
of the military. You know, I try to always live my life, not not looking at things like, you know,
12:05
well, if I don't do this, then I'm going to regret that or whatever, it's just, you know, I make the
12:09
best decision I can with the information I have at the time and try not to look back. And, and I
12:15
haven't, I mean, I love the time that I was in the military. I missed the guys. I missed, you know,
12:21
some of the job that we did, but but I don't regret getting home. I wouldn't be around that
12:25
today had I stayed in. And I love where I'm at right now. So, you know, ultimately, I think it was
12:32
the right call. I appreciate you going into that detail and we'll certainly get into what you've
12:36
done after the military here in just a second. But I guess a great place to start is what
12:39
well is because, you know, a lot of people want to talk to seals about what was it like being
12:43
cold, wet and sandy? Was Buzz was Buzz hard? Was it, you know, was it difficult carrying a boat on
12:48
your head? I'm not really interested in that because I think we all know the answer. But I
12:50
know that there's a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be in a special operations capacity
12:56
and specifically as a Navy SEAL. So from your perspective, in terms of the generalized public,
13:00
what, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about being a Navy SEAL?
13:05
The thing that stands out to me kind of immediately when being asked that is the assumption that we're
13:11
all a certain type of person. And by that, I mean, primarily physically or even just personality wise,
13:20
how guys come across a lot of times when people meet seals are like, you know, I wouldn't have
13:26
thought that, you know, that that's what most seals are like. You know, most seals are, you know,
13:31
five, nine to six, one, you know, 175 to 210, you know, not small guys, but not, you know,
13:38
[inaudible] Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo or anything either. There are guys that are, you know,
13:44
big physical Adonis like that. But most of us aren't. You know, most of us just look like,
13:49
well, the guy looks like he was probably an athlete in high school and then still works out and is
13:54
in decent shape. You know, but that's it. You know, as guys get older, I think there's more of a
13:59
contrast because most 25 year olds, if they're not total shipbirds are in decent shape, you know,
14:05
because it's hard not to be almost unless you're just a total lazy prick. But, you know, as I'm
14:12
getting into my mid 40s and stuff, and I think you see a kind of a bigger separation of, you know,
14:19
what most guys in their mid 40s look like versus guys that continue to take care of themselves
14:24
and work on that kind of stuff. But that's, I think the biggest thing is that most people
14:30
assume that everybody looks like, you know, Rambo or like a UFC fighter or, you know, that we're good
14:36
at absolutely everything or that, you know, our opinion that we know everything about everything.
14:40
And then I see guys on the news often, you know, being interviewed about certain things. I'm like,
14:45
why the [inaudible] is that guy on here? Like, you know, it's like, oh, he was a ranger, he was a seal,
14:50
or he was a delta guy or, you know, whatever. It's like, so I think the biggest misconception is
14:55
by default because of kind of the almost legendary of mythic proportion
15:01
reputations that special operations guys have because of pop culture and the news media and
15:08
movies and things like that is that people think that we're all these, you know,
15:12
Jedi warrior ninjas that, you know, possess, you know, every capability at the highest level.
15:17
And that's just not the case. I mean, I think the one common denominator is just, it's a common
15:23
man with an uncommon will to succeed or just flat out stubbornness. You know, as most guys are
15:29
just too proud and stubborn to [inaudible] quit. And, you know, and that's what gets most guys
15:35
through training. But another misconception that I do come across is that everybody kind of in
15:41
the same vein is that all of us are, you know, impeccable shots and snipers and freefall wizards
15:47
and dive experts. And, you know, and while yes, you know, there's a kind of a jack-of-all-trades
15:52
master of none or master of maybe one or two things, most people think that, you know, again,
15:57
it's like, oh, you're a seal, you're a sniper, you're a freefall of God, you're a, you know,
16:02
a boat specialist, you know, whatever. And like, well, yes, you know, enough to operate in all
16:07
of these capacities and you have to be competent in them. There's just not enough time in the day
16:12
to be, you know, masters of every single one of the aspects of the capabilities that special
16:18
operations guys bring to the table. The last thing that kind of comes to mind is that I think
16:23
a lot of times people think that we're crazy or that we, you know, love violence or that we signed
16:30
up because we, you know, the prospect of taking somebody's life is pleasurable or whatever. And
16:35
that's also far from the truth. I mean, yes, there are some guys, I think, that are maybe a
16:40
little more inclined or apt to be that way than others. But most guys, you know, it's kind of a
16:46
cliche or even cheesy overused adage. But I do think that it applies really to all the military,
16:53
but especially special operations is not that you hate what's in front of you. It's that you love
16:57
what's behind you. And I think most guys are just very passionate about being protectors and kind
17:02
of that cheap dog mentality and wanting to do things for the greater good of our society by and large.
17:09
Right. I'm glad you talked to a lot about, you know, even when you're talking about training,
17:12
because every time you talk to anybody, especially you, you're right up close during buds and selection
17:17
and those different things is those Adonis's, you know, the college water polo players and those,
17:22
those guys, whenever they're ringing the bell on the first day of hell week, or if they never
17:25
even got the hell week, you know, it's all the other guys that are just kind of the normal looking
17:29
guys, the normal athletes that are just like, Oh my gosh, Adonis just quit. But that's him. I'm
17:34
not going to be one of those people that quits. And so it's just a different mentality. It's not
17:38
necessarily about the body. And you know, it's about the engine inside, I guess is the best way
17:42
to look at it. But one thing that I found interesting about your story, Mike, and I got this from
17:45
your books and from talking to you a little bit is that pretty early on in your career as a seal,
17:49
you became interested in canine working dogs. Okay, but there's a very specific story,
17:54
it's a quick one, but it's a very specific story as to how you became interested. Would you mind
17:58
sharing that with us? Sure. So on a deployment to Iraq, we were up in the northern part,
18:04
Sidam's hometown of Tikrit. And we were there with with tens of thousands of Marines. And so
18:10
just at that time, you know, I had kind of looking back on growing up with dogs and, you know,
18:17
being involved in bird dogs and hog dogs and, you know, just being kind of a student of many
18:24
different breeds and different working capacities and taking it fairly serious. But I'd never gotten
18:29
into kind of the military working dog or police service dog. And so there was a group of Marines
18:36
in the area that we were in that had an explosive detection dog. And that was the kind of light
18:42
switch return point for me that really sparked my interest in these types of dogs is that, you know,
18:47
we had been in the same type of situation that these Marines have been in countless times and
18:54
never had a dog with us. You know, and so I did just kind of click that I was thinking, you know,
18:58
we've been in this position. They had this capability. We don't have it. Why the [inaudible] are we not using
19:02
dogs? You know, and from that point on, I just couldn't get enough of it. You know, and that was
19:07
that was really the key moment for me, where it just kind of all came together. And I was like,
19:13
that's what I want to do. And, you know, for me, it was, I would say very fortunate and I'm eternally
19:20
grateful for being able to even be in the position to kind of do both, you know, to have spent time
19:26
as an operator to get heavy into working dogs and to be able to to meld the two together,
19:31
you know, and be a trainer for, you know, a seal multipurpose canine unit. You know, it was just
19:38
kind of the pinnacle of everything that I loved. And like I said, just I felt very fortunate to
19:44
be able to put it all together. Struggling with weight loss? Prolon's five day fasting mimicking
19:48
diet is a clinically developed nutrition program designed to promote fat loss while protecting lean
19:53
body mass. Developed at USC's longevity Institute, it assists the body in entering a fasting like
19:58
state that helps reset metabolism and target visceral fat. In just five days, Prolon offers a
20:04
science backed approach to weight loss without extreme restriction or guesswork. Get 15% off
20:09
plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com/now.
20:13
When your book tried canine warriors, it was really surprising to me because it's one of those
20:18
things that you just, if you don't know, it's there, you would never even think to look, but there's
20:21
actually a very, very long history of military working dogs serving right along soldiers. And
20:26
this is, this goes back hundreds and thousands of years, people using these dogs. And you detail
20:31
that very, very well in that book. And I know we can't get into all the detail here, but can you
20:35
give us a little bit of an overview as to the history of canines being used for military purposes?
20:40
Yeah, I mean, to your point, you know, the one of the, and I bring this up at the beginning of
20:45
the book actually is that, you know, for all of the technology that our society possesses as it
20:52
relates to, I mean to everything, but specifically warfare, you know, we've got laser guided munitions
20:57
and really, really high level, you know, superb technology in terms of night vision and, you know,
21:04
forward looking infrared and thermal and, you know, some of the munitions and weapons systems
21:10
platforms that we have are hard to even wrap your mind around it as to how, you know, technologically
21:16
advanced they are when you contrast it to, you know, Roman Empire times of, you know, what we're
21:22
using versus what they were using. And if you look kind of chronologically at what, you know, our,
21:29
I'll say our race as human beings have used to augment themselves in combat. Dogs are the only
21:38
thing that have been used the entire time and are still used to this day. You know, there's nothing
21:44
else that, that that's the case as a, you know, a weapon system that really augments man, you know,
21:50
and so if you think about, you know, technology, you know, and going back to say, you know, guard
21:58
dogs, camp guard dogs and gladiator times, your messenger dogs or medical dogs where they would,
22:04
you know, move supplies and, or even communications, you know, and fast forward as to, you know,
22:10
what they were used for back then and what they're used for now. To me, it's just truly remarkable
22:16
to think that, you know, their, their capability in combat has, has remained over thousands of years
22:23
to be every bit as capable and asset driven as it was back 2000 years ago, you know, and that's
22:32
saying a lot given, you know, what, what we have at our fingertips and what's available to us
22:37
today and the fact that, you know, our, our nation's most elite special operation soldiers, you know,
22:44
the best of the best, the highest trained, best equipped, you know, have the most heavily selected
22:50
group of individuals that our US military has to offer still has a dog out in front of them,
22:57
you know, that the tip of the spear has a dog in front of, of where they're going to, to help
23:01
protect them, you know, and, and I can tell you from experience, you know, one of the nice things
23:06
about high level special operations soldiers is that they don't use a single [inaudible] thing
23:12
for the sake of using it. They use, they only use things that work. It's not like the rest of
23:17
our society that, you know, has smoke and mirrors and does [inaudible] because it checks a box or is,
23:22
is societally more acceptable than others or whatever. Like that ship doesn't exist in the
23:27
military at that level. In some parts it does now, unfortunately, and I think you're starting to see
23:32
even at our highest level ship, dumb ship like that bleed over into that, that's for another
23:38
discussion. But, but the fact is, is that when it comes to equipment, you know, they're not,
23:42
they're not using anything because they have this special deal with their buddy or, or whatever,
23:48
you know, they, they use what works and that's it and dogs work remarkably well. There was actually
23:53
a study at the height of the Iraq war when IEDs were the single biggest, you know, threat to,
24:00
to American soldiers and they in and of themselves as a tactic were responsible for more US deaths
24:07
than anything else and Department of Defense spent billions of dollars doing this very advanced
24:13
study on, on all things on, on how to defeat IEDs and, you know, they tested all different types of
24:19
equipment machines and, you know, different protocols to try to defeat them. And at the end of this,
24:26
you know, multi-billion dollar study, they came to conclusion that the dog, you know, explosive
24:32
detection dog of, of all the capabilities was the single best, just in terms of efficacy,
24:40
let alone, you know, the cheapest of all the options and its mobile and it provides a camaraderie
24:45
and a kind of a slice of home in terms of morale boost with the troops, as well as can also do
24:53
apprehension, you know, so a dog that's mobile that's cheaper, that keeps people in good,
24:58
good moods and also can go ahead and [inaudible] people up and bite them. You know, the dog bank for your
25:04
buck is, is impossible to be, you know, so they're just truly, truly remarkable animals and that's
25:09
why I am continuing to be very passionate about them and remain in this industry because I just
25:16
really love it. Well, that's the thing that I find is, is very important to run into guys like
25:21
you because I remember whenever I heard the news reports about the outback daddy, you know, how he
25:25
was chasing how they took him out. Well, the thing that people were forgetting about that story was
25:30
that it was the dogs that went off after him through the tunnel or whatever and then he goes to the
25:33
end of the tunnel blows himself up because he didn't want to get tore up by a dog and it's just like,
25:37
you know, we talk about the seals and we talk about Trump and we talk about all those different
25:41
things. And then you forget about one of the main living tools that was there and it was one of
25:45
those animals. And there's so many stories like that, but there was one story in particular from
25:49
that book again, tried in canine warriors that I thought was, was incredible. And it's obviously
25:54
had a huge impact on you. So you talk about a particular dog named Marino and there was a
25:59
particular set of circumstances in one night, I believe it was where that canine, that working
26:04
dog saved you and your buddy's lives on multiple occasions. And so I know there's a lot of details
26:09
to get into. So you feel free to give us as much details you want. But would you mind telling us
26:12
that story as well? Yeah, so the, you know, you had to forgive me on the names in every instance
26:19
in that book, all of the names of the dogs with the exception of one dog named Cairo. It's not the
26:24
infamous Cairo, a different one that was his actual name. But in every other case, the dogs names
26:31
have been changed and being the fact that it's about eight years ago now that the book came out.
26:36
I honestly, I don't remember which story you're talking about. I do want to clarify one thing
26:43
as it relates to my work overseas and with dogs in particular is that that didn't take place.
26:51
So in every case, every story that's in that book is either a dog that in most cases, it's a dog
26:56
that I worked with as a trainer and then the dog went overseas with their hamper. Or there's a
27:03
compilation of a few stories just from the special operations community to kind of highlight some
27:09
of the things that these dogs do. So I don't know if you remember the details of Reno, but
27:13
or the Reno story. But, you know, again, with with so many different stories in there,
27:20
I think the names if if I could remember what what the real dog's name was, it would pop up for
27:25
sure. But so maybe I can I can look at that and talk about it next time. But no, I appreciate
27:30
the clarification. So let's go just a different different way then. So give us any story that you
27:34
know of from either your personal experience or the experience in the teams of a dog and kind of
27:39
what they were able to do to protect life. Because earlier you talk about how, you know, the Marines
27:43
had that dog and how, you know, there was kind of a booby trap door that definitely saved a couple
27:48
of lives and saved some other guys from getting maimed. But what are some other stories any that
27:52
become to mind that are prominent for you? But there's two in particular that I would like to
27:56
share. And the reason why they kind of strike a chord with me more than the rest is that these
28:02
were the first two dogs that that we got in for the Warrior Dog Foundation because they were there
28:08
at the end of their service. And we're going to be euthanized if somebody didn't take them.
28:11
You know, and so that that's when I stepped in and took them. And in both cases, these dogs were
28:17
with, you know, a high-level tier one anti-terrorism unit. And in both cases, they were wounded and
28:26
continued to do their job. The first one in the book, the dog's name is Arco.
28:30
And Arco was a very special dog in terms of his temperament. Now, Arco, again, it's not his real
28:41
name. But even when I had him at, you know, at 11, 12, 13 years old, because we had him for several
28:48
years, you know, the day that he died, actually, he tried to bite me in the face. You know, because
28:54
I was just trying to cover him up with a warm towel because he was shivering really bad and
29:00
had lost a bunch of weight and was dehydrated and was just, you know, at that stage in his life where
29:04
he couldn't keep food or water down. And so that's when it was time. But even right up until the end,
29:09
you know, he was just an ornery [inaudible] inventor fulfilled, you know, kind of a [inaudible] of a
29:15
dog. But when he was on a deployment to Afghanistan, I won't get too specific into the tactics in
29:23
terms of how exactly. But the gist of it is, is that a unit is going through a target. And
29:30
the dog is ahead of them. And in this case, not in every case, but in this case, he's being sent
29:37
into rooms ahead of the guys. And so in this particular case, he goes into a room and there was a
29:43
sand bagged machine gun nest in the corner with a Russian PKM, which is the kind of their version of
29:49
our M six, you know, seven six, two by 51. In this case, it's a seven six, two by 54. So there's
29:57
even more asked to it. It's just a nasty machine gun. At any rate, you know, so one of their tactics
30:05
at that time was to was to sandbag in and have, you know, a position where they're basically protected,
30:10
knowing that our guys are going to come in. And if, you know, if they're largely protected by a
30:16
sandbag area and just have a small machine gun port that they're just saw on dudes, you know,
30:21
left and right to come in, that's a hard, hard target to deal with. And that tactic,
30:26
in most cases, is going to result in, you know, probably a few of our guys getting shot
30:32
and most likely killed with those rounds. So, excuse me, the, so in this case, you know,
30:40
this dog Arco will call him goes in and manages to get into that corner and get the guy in the arm
30:48
before he has a chance to fire any rounds, one of the capabilities of them that it's
30:54
exceptionally remarkable, in my opinion, is just how fast and quiet they are. They're
30:59
super efficient. You know, they're so much faster and quieter than we are that they can
31:03
take a lot of guys, catch them off guard and take them by storm and do things like that.
31:08
But so he comes in and grabs the guy right in the pocket, the left bicep. And so this guy now
31:15
can't get to his big belt fed machine gun, but he's got an AK slung as a secondary. And so he
31:22
grabs his AK and pulls it out. And while the dog is biting and puts it right up to his chest,
31:28
point blank and fires around off, he shoots him right on the chest, goes out through the back of
31:32
his shoulder, missed his heart. Thank God. But the dog didn't let go of it. He continued to bite
31:39
him and took him down and neutralized him further, you know, to where he couldn't continue to shoot.
31:45
That gave the rest of the team. They come in, they hear the struggle and then what have you,
31:50
they hear a gunshot, they come in, they neutralize the target. They get, they get our code, often stabilized
31:57
and metavac him out and basically treated him just like a human being that was wounded. And you
32:02
know, I mean, he undoubtedly saved, you know, several guys that day. And so that's one story,
32:09
another story. This is one from a good friend of mine named Benny, who I had on my podcast.
32:17
I'll tell you the name of his dog because he's, he's publicly announced that the dog's real name
32:21
is Digo in the book I call him Carlos. But in this case, they were getting ready to go into a,
32:28
into a house target. And as they were going in, it was filled with explosives and, and it was
32:36
remote detonated, you know, from a ways away. And so as they're starting to go into this building,
32:42
the entire thing just explodes. It was a kind of a concrete foyer that, that collapsed on him and
32:50
broke the dogs, broke the handler and the dog several bones. And the dog's case, it broke his
32:55
pelvis, collapsed his lungs, collapsed his sinus, sinus cavities, just, you know, really, really,
33:02
I think it ruptured a spleen and maybe one other internal organ, just completely [inaudible] him up.
33:07
As well as the handler, the handler had broken pelvis, broken legs, you know, broke a bunch of
33:12
things and was knocked unconscious and then what have you. And so as the team is coming up to try
33:18
to get them out of there, the dog comes to, and is basically protecting his unconscious handler
33:24
from everybody else trying to help them out at first. And luckily they, you know, they all know
33:28
the dog well enough and then, you know, got him under control without getting injured and whatever.
33:32
But it just really speaks to the, speaks volumes to the level of loyalty and dedication that those
33:38
dogs have to their handler, to their training. You know, and just what's mostly remarkable about
33:46
that to me is that that dog, you know, made a full recovery from that, but both of them actually
33:52
and then ended up deploying again, you know, going back overseas and continuing to do the work.
33:57
And so, you know, in both instances, just a real testament to just how remarkable of an animal that
34:05
these dogs really are and what they bring to the table is really impossible to kind of really
34:13
encapsulate how big of an impact they make. When you need to build up your team to handle the
34:19
growing chaos at work, use indeed sponsor jobs. It gives your job posts the boost it needs to be
34:25
seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching
34:30
and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show
34:35
will get a $75 sponsor job credit and indeed.com/podcast. That's indeed.com/podcast terms
34:41
and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for indeed sponsor jobs.
34:46
Yeah, those are great stories. And I feel like there's a quote towards the end of that book that
34:49
I feel like encapsulates really your feelings towards what they've done here. So I'll read
34:53
the quote here. I've always admired how little dogs ask in return for all they do for us.
34:58
In that way, they are very much like the servicemen and women in all branches of our military.
35:02
These dogs are not only our best friends. They embody the best about us, the courage,
35:07
loyalty, and heart of true warriors. And so I feel like that sentiment kind of led you directly.
35:13
I don't really know the origin story to the Warrior Dog Foundation, which you mentioned
35:17
briefly earlier. So can you give us a little bit of an idea as to kind of what the Warrior Dog
35:21
Foundation is and kind of what was the inspiration behind setting up something like that?
35:26
Sure. So the inspiration very simply was out of necessity is that the unit that
35:32
sent the first two dogs and most of the units subsequently are really in a position that's
35:39
a tough spot to be in and that budgets are not just overflowing with resources the way that
35:46
they were kind of the height of that, the Iraq war. And so you've got
35:52
tough decisions to make. And this is police departments. It's customs, border patrol,
35:57
it's military, you name it, is that there's a lot of things that these units need.
36:02
The body armor vehicles, new weapons systems, night vision, other platform resources, etc.
36:10
And dogs are a line item of equipment when it comes to budgeting. You know, even though
36:15
they're animals and then living, breathing creatures, they still, you know, they are a line item that
36:21
is a resource that takes a lot of money to maintain. And so when these units get in a position where
36:27
they've got a dog that needs to be retired, can't continue to work, you know, but is a lot of dog
36:34
still and a handful and tough to deal with, then they're faced with that decision of, you know,
36:40
do we take away, you know, and I would say in law enforcement, it's even more common, but you
36:46
know, so a police department may be faced with a decision of, well, we can spend money to take
36:50
care of this dog, you know, that can't do anything for us anymore in terms of work, or we can get
36:56
body armor for our guys. You know, it's like, well, [inaudible], that's an impossible decision to make,
37:00
you know, but they, but they have to do it. And that's, and [inaudible], that's life, right?
37:03
You know, do you pay your power or power bill or your water bill, you know, or your mortgage,
37:08
you know, I mean, like people are in those situations sometimes and departments and
37:13
operational units within Department of Defense, you know, find themselves in that position
37:18
frequently. And so they have to make these tough decisions. So I don't fault them for saying,
37:22
hey, body armor is more important than taking care of these dogs. It sucks. You know, it shouldn't
37:27
be that way. And if we have money to spend on social programs that I think are pretty laughable
37:33
at best in terms of their, their efficacy and them being warranted, which again, that's a whole
37:39
other podcast. I'm sure we'll cover in the next one, but it shouldn't be that way. But the reality
37:44
is, is that it is. And so that's where we were born out of is that, you know, I didn't think
37:51
that it was okay for these dogs to be euthanized after everything that they had done for us
37:57
collectively as a nation. And I was willing to just say, you know what, I'll, I'll [inaudible] take them.
38:02
So I didn't have the foundation. It wasn't something that I thought up of, hey, here's an
38:07
need. I have this resource. Let me put these pieces together. It was born out of necessity. It was,
38:12
if nobody takes these dogs, we're going to put them down. I was like, [inaudible] that, I'll take them.
38:17
And I'll figure it out. You know, and so that opened the floodgates. And then all of a sudden,
38:21
you know, all these different units and departments, you know, here were the mouth. It's a pretty
38:26
small industry that we took these dogs. And then so, you know, now we've taken over 250 dogs in the
38:32
last 11 years. And our main kind of mission statement is the first and foremost act as an
38:40
indefinite sanctuary for these dogs. You know, at a minimum, you know, I want to keep them from
38:45
being euthanized and give them somewhere to live out the rest of their lives and as much dignity
38:51
and grace and the ability to be a dog as we can provide for them. Now, secondarily, in that situation,
38:59
if we can provide a rehab environment with which, you know, kind of hinges on their ability to
39:08
progress to a point where they can either be rehomed to a civilian family and then just kind of live
39:14
like a modified house dog, or in some cases, if the dog is young enough, we're still has kind of
39:20
enough operational shelf life that we kind of get their mind right and rehab into a point where we
39:26
can then repurpose them to another departmental unit, which we've done with a number of dogs as
39:31
well. So it's kind of a three-pronged approach. You know, step one is keep them from being euthanized
39:38
to is rehab them and hopefully rehome them or get them to repurpose them to a different unit or
39:45
at a bare minimum as you just give them, you know, a place to be for the rest of their life and not
39:51
have to be euthanized for a lack of resources. So I'm a little disappointed still in our government
39:59
in terms of a lack of federal funding for programs such as ours. There are, you know, a few other
40:06
nonprofits that work similarly. We're all a little different, but we all work kind of synergistically
40:12
together and our ultimate goal is essentially the same. And none of us run off of federal funding
40:19
or grants or anything like that, you know, everything. This is, while it's disappointing in the US
40:24
government side, it's not a shocker. What's very endearing and just very, you know, positive and
40:33
motivating in terms of how it reflects on our society is that our ability to operate and take
40:39
care of the 30-plus dogs that we take care of now and have for years now hinges on, you know, the
40:45
public's overwhelming generosity and support to help us accomplish our mission. And they do that
40:51
year after year after year. I mean, every [inaudible] dime that is generated to take care of these
40:58
dogs is generated from the public. And I can't thank, you know, all of the people who donate
41:05
enough for giving us the ability to do that.
41:09
Well, Mike, you know, our federal dollars need to go to important things like making sure the
41:13
soldiers can get sex changes and making sure that we can get pregnant pilots, the appropriate
41:18
suits and things like that. So I wish you'd stop being so big at it. Okay, we got plenty of time
41:22
for your bigotry later. Okay. But one thing that I really like getting into, and guys, we'll have
41:26
links to the Warrior Dog Foundation and everything like that. So if that sounds like something that
41:29
you want to give your daughter your dollars to support, you can absolutely do that. So we'll make
41:33
sure that that's in the show notes. But after you did decide to leave the Navy, you started your own
41:38
company and you basically started several companies, but you started Tricos International. You started
41:43
a dog training company. You have a dog food and dog tree company and that type of thing. So I guess
41:49
I'm always interested in entrepreneurs and kind of why they went into business for themselves,
41:53
because you could have just went the corporate route. You could have went back to school and got
41:56
a masters and tried to do the whole banking thing or the whole this thing or that thing. You could
42:00
have ran for office. You could have done a lot of different things, but you decide to go into
42:03
business for yourself. But why specifically go into business but then stay in the canine side of
42:08
things. So the first question, why be an entrepreneur and why start your own business as opposed to all
42:16
of the other options? For me, it comes down to one very simple thing is that I don't like being
42:22
[inaudible] told to do anything by anybody. I hate it. And so for me, I got more than my fair share of
42:32
what I wanted to deal with as it relates to that in the military of being told what to wear and
42:39
how to wear it, when to wear it, where to be, when to be. That [inaudible] gets old. And so I did
42:45
springboard out into corporate America for a few months. As I was getting the dog company set up,
42:53
I never had the intention of staying. But it provided inability to separate from the military
43:00
and have enough revenue to live off of until I could get the side hustle into the main hustle,
43:07
if you will. And that was more than enough. I knew that I didn't want to do that. That just
43:14
continued to reinforce it. But for me, whether you want to call it selfish, whether you want to
43:22
call it driven, whether you want to call it, I know very specifically and I'm very particular
43:28
about how I want things or whatever label or coined phrase you want to attach to that mentality
43:35
that I have. And I think most entrepreneurs have is that it's very similar. I can walk into a
43:41
subway and I can't help but think that person shouldn't be here. That system is [inaudible] up.
43:48
They don't know what they're doing. This should be better. Why is this happening? I can't go into
43:52
any [inaudible] store or business or even somebody's house without being a judgmental prick about
43:58
stuff like that. And I'm just hardwired that way. And so the prospect of working for somebody else
44:05
is impossible. There's no way I could work for somebody else at this point. It just wouldn't work.
44:12
And so for me, that's a lot of that. It's just my personality is that I want to be
44:19
the person in charge of what I'm doing. I don't think that's too much to ask. I don't think
44:24
it's abnormal either. I think most people just aren't willing to do what it takes to be in that
44:29
position. I think most people want that or they say they want that until it comes time to kind
44:35
of pay the man and live that way. And it takes a while. Some people, yes, are lucky. They start
44:41
out as an entrepreneur and within a year or two, they're in the black and doing well and whatever,
44:46
but those are exceptions. Most of us, myself, absolutely included and with me, probably even
44:52
longer than most, it was years and years of struggling, frankly. Whether it's a pride issue,
45:00
an ego problem or just the way that I'm hardwired is that I just wasn't going to give up. My mentality
45:08
that helped get me into the SEAL teams and be successful for over a decade in them
45:13
is absolutely something that I transferred over and it's just always been part of who I am.
45:22
And not letting myself give in or quit or give up. And it's a very, very key contrast with that.
45:30
And so the why I do it is just, again, you can call me a selfish [inaudible] or whatever. It's just,
45:37
I know what I want. I know how I want to live. I know how I want things to be. And the only way
45:43
to make that happen is to do it yourself and to be an entrepreneur and run your own businesses.
45:47
So that's the why. Now, in terms of why I've stayed in the canine industry is because I love it.
45:54
Now, I will say, here's where lessons learned as a business individual
45:58
have greatly influenced a lot of the decisions I've made and kind of the angles that I've taken,
46:05
the pivots that I've partaken in within the canine industry. When I first started out,
46:11
it was all government, military, police, all the sexy working dog stuff.
46:16
Because that's what I liked doing. And I did that for a number of years
46:20
and then started to kind of meddle in more of the civilian sector.
46:24
The biggest reason why I started doing that was just in the requests of doing book signings
46:32
or speaking events or fundraisers or whatever, is that I would interact with people and they
46:38
would say, "Hey, I've got this dog. Have you thought about writing a book?" Just the books,
46:44
getting into the civilian sector, whether it's protection dogs, whether it's products,
46:48
online training, you name it, even the podcast, have all been born out of people.
46:53
Just enough people have asked, "Hey, have you thought about doing this?" Or would you consider
46:58
doing that for me to say, "Okay, well, [inaudible], if there's that many people asking me,
47:02
if I would do this, there's obviously some demand there, so I'm going to give a shot."
47:07
And some of the things have worked and some of them haven't, just like with anything.
47:13
Business is a lot like baseball in a lot of ways, in that you go up to bat and sometimes
47:20
you file out, sometimes you strike out, sometimes you get a base hit, sometimes you knock it out
47:25
of the [inaudible] park. The key is that you just keep going to bat, you keep practicing, you keep trying.
47:31
Don't always swing for the fence either because you're probably going to strike out more often
47:37
and not. Don't be afraid of just getting good base hits here and there. That's something that I've
47:43
kind of learned and in that is where that kind of transition into the more product-based business,
47:51
more so than the service-based business has just been a lesson learned in paying attention
47:56
to what brings money in versus what doesn't. And the reality of it is, as much as I love
48:01
working dogs and training in that area, it's a tough part of the business to be in to make any
48:08
kind of decent living. And I have no doubt critics that would say, "Well, so it's just about the
48:15
money then." And to me, no, it's not. But I also, as I get older, my physical ability to train
48:23
at that level, just like we were talking about before we got on Jiu Jitsu, is that the way I train
48:28
now, whether it's working out in Jiu Jitsu, working dogs, whatever, is noticeably different than it
48:33
was when I was 30. And out of necessity, it's that way. And it's only going to get more and more
48:38
that way. I don't want to wake up at 60 years old and be scrubbing dog [inaudible] off of kennel walls and
48:44
driving 17 hours through the night to go do a seminar with the police department. It just,
48:51
that stuff is fun and I love doing it. But I can't and don't want to do that my entire life.
48:59
You know, and the reality of it is that the working dog industry is a microcosm
49:04
of the canine world. When you compare it to civilian dogs, pet dogs, etc. You know,
49:09
there's tens of thousands of working dogs in the country. There's 90 million pet dogs.
49:14
You know, so just as I get more and more kind of fine tuned as a businessman, I realize, okay,
49:23
you know, here's the, here's the, the pot of different things that I'm interested in and that I want to
49:28
do. Okay, now within that pot, let's prioritize which one of them from a, a cost benefit analysis
49:34
standpoint is going to give me the most bang for my buck. Like still like doing these things,
49:38
you know, is teaching a lab or doodle not to jump up on grandma as that is sexy as, you know,
49:44
a bike work scenario in a, you know, warehouse at two in the morning and [inaudible] downtown Detroit.
49:49
No, it's not. But it's still working with dogs, which I love. Training is training. You know,
49:56
getting from A to B is largely the same process, irrespective of what the discipline within the canine
50:01
industry is, you know, and it's, and it's always fascinating. And there's absolutely something to be
50:07
said for, you know, getting messages or, or calls or emails about, you know, helping people with,
50:14
with you and their pet dogs is that, you know, that's not any less important, you know, for,
50:19
for somebody who's struggling with their dog, where they're, they're considering euthanizing
50:24
their dog because it's, you know, they're having issues with their kids with them or the neighbor's
50:27
dog or, or have you, and being able to help people through that and getting, you know, kind of these
50:33
affirmation messages of people who are very thankful for, for helping them save their dog or keep from
50:40
having to give it away or, or, you know, putting their kids in a dangerous spot or whatever. To me,
50:45
that's very [inaudible] rewarding. You know, it's not any less rewarding, you know, than helping
50:50
police canines, you know, fix certain issues, you know, doing seminars and stuff like that. And I
50:56
still do some of that stuff. That's just not my primary gig anymore because, you know, again,
51:01
bang for your buck and juice being worth a squeeze as budgets, especially now with police
51:07
departments and military, you know, they're not getting any bigger budget-wise, you know,
51:12
it's the transverse when people are trying to defund them and whatever else. And so, you know,
51:16
I help as best I can and I still, you know, have my foot in some of those disciplines, but that's
51:22
not my primary gig because, you know, from a business standpoint, there's just things that are a little
51:28
easier to manage. Well, I appreciate that sentiment because there's a lot of people that, you know,
51:34
from an entrepreneurship standpoint, they'll ask you your advice and they're shocked when you don't
51:38
give them. Here's the five steps to success. And it's a direct line. And it's like, you know,
51:42
I had this guy reach out and he was like, Hey, I've been doing this podcast for a year. And it's
51:45
just not really getting off the ground. And I was like, Whoa, a whole year, huh? You've been
51:49
working at this a whole year and it's not wildly successful. You don't have 100 million downloads
51:53
per episode. And so for a lot of people, they just need that message of stick toitiveness that
51:57
you're going to get punched in the face. You just need to be able to continue moving forward. But
52:01
one thing you mentioned, Mike, as you mentioned, being able to help people that are just everyday
52:04
dog owners. So like, I'm an everyday dog owner, you have working dogs and everyday dogs. And you
52:08
actually wrote a book in 2015 called team dog, how to train your dog, the Navy, see away. And we can't
52:14
get into all the specifics because we don't really have enough time. But the one thing I am curious
52:17
about is because you have all this time and experience training the super specialized dogs
52:23
that are particular breeds, you know, the Malinois or shepherds or something like that. And then
52:27
you've got the Labradoodles and the giant Schnauzers and the Maltese's and the different things like
52:31
that. The question I guess I have for you is for a normal everyday dog owning civilian,
52:35
what are the most common mistakes that people make when they're training their dog to do
52:41
anything, P outside or not jump up on grandma? Yeah. So there's two, two main components. Number
52:47
one is that they don't view the world the way that their dog views the world. They're thinking of
52:53
training from a human standpoint, right? And one of the most stark contrasts and key concepts that
53:03
you have to realize to implement into your training and always keep in mind as you're even interacting
53:12
with your dog on the day to day is that they don't think in a language, right? And I want
53:20
anybody, listen, I want you to really think about that for a second is that you dream in a language,
53:24
you know, you think in a language, as I ask you that question, you have an internal monologue
53:29
that you're trying to rationalize what that's like in your head, right? You think to yourself,
53:34
you know, what am I going to eat today? Or if I'm working out this, like, now think about going
53:40
through life where you don't have that capability, right, where you don't have an internal monologue
53:46
via voice that rationalizes all the different stimuli that you come in contact with. Instead,
53:54
you have basically a mental calculator, you have a plus b equals c for [inaudible] everything,
53:59
right? So everything to a dog is a simple association. That's it, right? And so it highlights
54:08
why it is so important to view the world that way because the second point is,
54:15
is that you have to put yourself in their shoes. Part of it is the mental thing we just talked
54:20
about. The second part is body language. If you're at a target parking lot, right, and you're sitting
54:27
in your car, somebody's walking by, you've never met them, you can't hear them if they are talking,
54:34
you have no idea what their day is like, or where they're from, or, you know, any of that stuff,
54:40
but you can make some assumptions based on how they're carrying themselves. If that person is
54:45
having the worst day of their life, you can tell, right? That person, you know, is super, super happy.
54:52
You can also tell, you know, if they're neutral, not really giving a [inaudible], you can tell. By not
54:57
hearing them, smelling them, talking to them, knowing them, having any idea who they are or where they're
55:01
from, you can get a really good idea of what kind of day they're having just by how they're carrying
55:06
themselves. Now, if you think about all of the information that you and I have transferred back
55:11
and forth in the last better part of an hour, it's substantial. How big of a role has body language
55:18
played in what you and I have been talking about? None. I mean, I talk like nine-year-old Italian
55:22
grandmother, but it has done almost nothing in terms of me communicating. And for those of you
55:33
listening on audio, obviously, it's done zero, right? So where I'm tying this all together is that if
55:40
you and I are that verbal in how we communicate, but it's still that easy, even though we're that
55:46
verbal in how we communicate, it's still that easy to tell when somebody's having the [inaudible] day
55:50
of their life. Now imagine a dog who doesn't think in a language and doesn't communicate in a language
55:56
just how [inaudible] important body language is. It is everything. And I don't mean it's most of
56:00
everything. I mean, it is [inaudible] everything for a dog. How you interact with them is everything
56:05
with it. So where people screw up is they don't take that and the fact that the dog thinks in a
56:12
A plus B equals C mentality. If you just train knowing that those two concepts are benchmark
56:19
principles and how you need to interact with and train your dog, you're already a thousand steps
56:24
ahead of everybody else. Now, once you understand that, now it's just being consistent and that's
56:30
no different than anything else in life, whether it's Jiu Jitsu business, shooting, whatever,
56:33
is that you've got to put the time in and be consistent. It's especially so with a dog when
56:40
those two principles are what they are is that now, like, I can't explain to the dog, here's my
56:46
expectation of you. You know, you can say, Hey, here's my expectation of this interview. This is
56:50
what I want to do is what I want to talk about. Okay, now I know what you expected me. It's easy
56:54
for me to meet that expectation. Okay, you can tell a dog, Hey, I need you to sit. I need you to
56:59
not bark at that person. When I tell you to get in the car, I need you to do it. When I open the
57:03
door, I need you to stay without me saying anything. You can say that to a dog. He's going to tell you
57:07
to [inaudible] off by not doing any of those things. You know, and so how do you get them to do that? Well,
57:12
you keep those two benchmark principles in mind. And then you train keeping that in mind is that
57:17
if everything is a simple association and words don't really mean [inaudible], I'm not going to say
57:23
anything and I'm going to shape behavior with the things that I know that he wants. So instead of
57:27
filling up a bowl of food and setting it down and you get this free meal for doing nothing,
57:32
is that now I've got this bowl of food in a pouch on my hip and I've got a clicker,
57:36
which is a bridge between what you're doing and the food. And so now when he looks at me,
57:40
click and I feed him. I don't say [inaudible]. You know, he looks at his dog bed. I click and I feed him.
57:46
He comes over towards me. I click and I feed him. And so very quickly, like in two, three sessions,
57:53
you can get a dog to go away from what you have, which is what he wants. And he'll learn and
57:59
understands the very important concept for them to know is that I have to go away from what I want
58:03
to get it. And so, you know, teaching him to go on to a dog bed without, again, without saying
58:08
anything is just shaping that behavior with food very quickly. You know, within a matter of
58:13
generally a few weeks, you can take a dog that doesn't know anything about anything. And just
58:18
through shaping their behavior through positive reinforcement, teach them all different types of
58:23
things. And once they learn how to learn that way, it just becomes faster and faster. And you can
58:29
teach them more and quicker. And it's almost seems like magic, but it's not again. It's just
58:36
keeping those two basic principles in mind and then being consistent with using those two or
58:42
advantage in your training sessions. And you know, my book team dog kind of encapsulates all of that.
58:49
And then the online training is basically, which is the team dog pet video subscription.
58:55
That is basically video representations of all of these concepts that I talk about in the book
59:01
and what I just talked about. It's me showing how I do that via video, you know, for the online
59:07
training. But that's kind of a long tail on that kite. But, you know, one of the problems, I think,
59:12
too, back to your initial question is, is most people think that it's just this quick, oh,
59:17
just do this and that'll happen. Like, hey, my dog, you know, jumps up on people. How do I
59:21
fix that? It's like, I start talking about all this other stuff and they get their typical,
59:26
you know, right now mentality of, you know, instant gratification. I don't give a [inaudible] about any
59:32
of that stuff, the food and whatever. I just just just show me how to keep them from jumping up.
59:36
And you know, and it's kind of like you play the guitar. No, no, but I know like as I do, yeah.
59:41
Yeah. So, but it's kind of like you saying, hey, I want to learn Eddie Van Halen's eruption solo.
59:47
Okay, well, I've got to teach it. No, I want to know the scales and all the other [inaudible].
59:51
Just teach me the solo. It's like, you can't learn the solo until you get this other stuff.
59:56
You got to lay the foundation first. You know, and so most people just assume that it's like,
1:00:00
oh, let me buy this dog training book. And they think that team dog is going to be this
1:00:03
step by step manual. And it really isn't. I mean, there's some of that in there,
1:00:08
but it's principles because, you know, all dogs are different. All people are different. The
1:00:12
dynamic of whatever situation you are in is different. But the principles are all the
1:00:17
exact same. You know, Jiu Jitsu and shooting are very similar that way. You know, body styles are
1:00:22
different. You know, flexibility levels are different strength capabilities are different.
1:00:26
You know, age and virility is different. You know, and so these specific techniques to counter this
1:00:32
may work better for this person than that person. But there are principles, you know,
1:00:37
in terms of defense and escape and control and position, you know, that are constant,
1:00:42
irrespective of what any of those factors are. And so dog training is very similar that way.
1:00:47
You know, the key is, is those two principles be consistent and find out what motivates the dog
1:00:52
so that you can use that to your advantage to shape all of these behaviors. But, you know,
1:00:56
if you're looking for just a quick, a quick fix, it's no different than like, hey, I can't shoot
1:01:01
versus worth of [inaudible]. But I want you to just teach me this type of thing real quick. And,
1:01:05
you know, it just doesn't work that way.
1:01:07
Well, I think the big key from what you said is consistency, because I remember whenever I was
1:01:11
teaching my giant Schnauzer because or not, yeah, we had this dog that we knew was going to become
1:01:16
a big dog at some point. We didn't want a big dog that was going to be unruly and unable to be
1:01:20
controlled. And so we did these these classes. And I was astonished that people would pay money
1:01:24
for these classes to come every week for six weeks and not do any training with the dog the
1:01:28
other six days of the week. And they would show up the dogs doing the same things wrong that it
1:01:32
did last week. And it's just like, just be consistent. Like that's one of the easiest things to do in
1:01:37
terms of a plus b equals c because it's like, that's your straight line. If you do this every day,
1:01:42
the dog will improve, you will improve. And so the consensus is very, very key there. Now here's my
1:01:47
last question that I didn't want to get into before we get into the last segment because I know we're
1:01:49
running short on time. And this is kind of giving short shrift to something. But obviously, a lot of
1:01:53
people know you because of the mic drop because of the mic drop podcast. And you talked a little
1:01:57
bit earlier about kind of, you know, the reason why you got the podcast is because people basically
1:02:00
were asking for it. But my question for you is because a lot of people listen to this show that
1:02:05
also listen to your show. So they're familiar with it. What is kind of the long term goal for you
1:02:10
with your podcast? I know we're giving short shrift to it. I know a lot of guys are fans of it. But
1:02:14
what is the long term goal there? Because it's not the only thing that you do. It's kind of an
1:02:18
ancillary thing that you do that kind of feeds the other stuff that you do. But what do you want
1:02:21
to do with that long term? So overwhelmingly, the primary principal goal with with mic drop is
1:02:27
actually very simple and frankly, very singular. And that is is to provide a platform for
1:02:36
patriots in this country. And and patriot doesn't mean particularly or specifically military
1:02:42
service. You know, there's a lot of different ways to be to be a patriot. But people who if I think
1:02:48
about from a 30,000 foot view of what our society ingests, as it relates to role models, as it
1:02:56
relates to historical accounts of our nation's history, is that I want to provide an outlet for
1:03:05
people whose story is worthwhile, deserves being told, and frankly needs to be heard by our subsequent
1:03:14
generations. And that's really it. It is that I want to provide a contrast to all of the garbage
1:03:22
and [inaudible], you know, whether it's reality TV or just the news media, you know, regurgitating a
1:03:29
bunch of crap that isn't even relevant. You know, and that's really the gist of it is that,
1:03:35
you know, to me, there are too many amazing people out there that never get to tell their
1:03:40
stories and never get to influence and impact the the follow on generations that we have in a good
1:03:47
way to to maintain a sense of what our country is and should and hopefully continues to still be
1:03:55
about. And that's it. You know, I just want to be able to give those people a voice, you know,
1:04:02
and share share their stories with as many people as possible. Absolutely. We'll make sure you guys
1:04:07
have a link to that as well. But we have one last section here. If you've got a little bit more time
1:04:11
at the end of our episodes, we do something called what would you say to someone that said.
1:04:15
So this is lightning round. Okay, so I'm going to say what would you say to someone that said and
1:04:18
then I'm going to fill in the blank. And it could be about a little topic. It could be about something
1:04:22
about you specifically. But you got 30 seconds maximum to give us your answer. Okay. So there
1:04:27
that you can't blow VA, you can't talk about a lot of different things. It's just meat and potato.
1:04:30
So you up for it? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay, we'll see how you do. First one here. What would you
1:04:35
say to someone that said, I want to serve my country. I want to become a Navy SEAL.
1:04:39
I would say, you know, before you decide to do that, think about what what is going to have the
1:04:47
biggest impact. You know, ask yourself why now if all of the the answers lead to you, yeah,
1:04:53
that makes sense. And by all means do it. If it leads to you'd be better off as a civil engineer
1:04:58
because of where your talents are, then better off to do that. I think everybody, but you know,
1:05:04
after high school and be there between college or after college before they enter the real world
1:05:10
should serve some higher purpose than themselves. Boys and girls club, you know, peace corps,
1:05:15
military [inaudible] whatever. All right, sounds good. Next one here. What would you say to someone that
1:05:19
said, I regret never serving in the US military? I would say don't don't have regrets. You know,
1:05:26
you're at where you're at because of the choices that you made and they're not wrong.
1:05:29
You know, shy of say, Ed Bundy, or, you know, some serial killer, you know, to me, like
1:05:38
one of the unique and amazing things about life is that is that we're all different and we all
1:05:44
serve different purposes. You know, and that purpose isn't of any higher value than being a
1:05:50
pastor or a community leader or, you know, a mentor for young poor kids or, I mean,
1:05:55
[inaudible] whatever it is, is that, you know, just don't have regrets and moving forward.
1:06:01
If there's things that you want to do, go [inaudible] do it. All right. Next lightning around question
1:06:05
here. What would you say to someone that said there are some dogs that are just too dangerous
1:06:09
or aggressive and cannot be helped? I would say I absolutely [inaudible] agree with you.
1:06:15
I would also say in that the percentage of dogs that actually fit that category versus the ones
1:06:21
who are labeled as that is a huge disparity. And that's where I think people get kind of the
1:06:26
misnomer is that every dog is sayable. It's very much like people, right? Is it most people are
1:06:31
sayable and it's just you got to put the time in and invest into them and they have to do the
1:06:35
work also. But there are some people that are just plumb [inaudible] crazy. And with dogs,
1:06:40
it's that way too. There's just not very many of them. You know, most that are labeled as crazy
1:06:44
and dangerous and unrehabitable. That's not the case. It's just not being able to communicate with
1:06:49
them properly. All right. What would you say to someone that said, I don't have time to train my
1:06:54
malinois or shepherd properly. I just want a cool looking dog. Yeah. Well, I would say two things.
1:07:00
One is that you have as much time as everybody else to do whatever it is that you want. If you're
1:07:06
not choosing to carve out the time to train your dog, that's your fault. And with that, if you're
1:07:12
not choosing to take the time to train that dog or frankly, any dog you're respective of breed,
1:07:17
then you just frankly should not have one. All right. What would you say to someone that said,
1:07:21
you can hate your country and still be a patriot? I would say that I would love further explanation
1:07:29
as to how the [inaudible] that works because I disagree. I don't know how that's possible. Well, we are
1:07:34
certainly going to get more into that in the next episode. I'm just teeing you up, baby. Don't
1:07:37
you worry about all right. Next one here. What would you say to someone that said,
1:07:41
retired Navy SEALs need to stop writing so many books? I would say whoever that person is is
1:07:47
entitled to your opinion, you know, but so am I, you know, so you get to have that opinion.
1:07:52
And anybody who wants to write a book, including former US Navy SEALs, is entitled to their opinion.
1:07:58
You're entitled to buy it or to not buy it. You know, and that's that should be one of the
1:08:02
nice things about this country. You get to have your opinion. I get to have mine.
1:08:06
That's right. It should be that way. All right. Just a few more left. What would you say to someone
1:08:09
that said, why does Mike Ritalin swear so much? You know, I'd say it's none of your [inaudible] business.
1:08:15
That's just how I talk. I mean, there's times where I swear more than others or more conscious
1:08:22
of it or whatever. What I will say to the critics, and most people aren't going to take it this way,
1:08:27
but take it as a compliment that if I feel comfortable enough around you to be myself,
1:08:31
then I'm swearing. So if you don't hear me swear at all, that means that I'm not comfortable enough
1:08:36
around you to be myself. So, you know, take it how you want. Well, you definitely trust me.
1:08:41
I can say that. All right. What would you say to someone that said, I like cats?
1:08:45
I would say I like cats too. I don't like them as much as dogs, but I don't have any. And I
1:08:52
probably wouldn't other than a good Mauser out of the Kennel facility that keeps the riffraff down.
1:08:58
But, you know, I truly do love all animals. Some I prefer more than others, but I love all of them,
1:09:05
you know, and advocate, you know, for the fair and equitable treatment of all of them.
1:09:11
I really do. You know, I think one of the, I think it was Gandhi that said, you know,
1:09:16
you can tell a lot by their, by a nation, by how it treats its animals, something to that effect.
1:09:20
And I think there's a lot of truth in that. I think you can tell a lot about a person
1:09:24
by how they treat animals in general. And anybody's like, Oh, I love dogs, but [inaudible] cats.
1:09:28
You know, to me, that's just a weird imbalance, you know, in terms of your,
1:09:33
your empathy towards other living creatures. But all right. Last one here. What would you say
1:09:37
to someone that said Epstein didn't kill himself? I'd say I think you're on to something for anyone
1:09:44
that doesn't understand what just happened. The reason why you say Epstein didn't kill himself,
1:09:48
and I'm talking to the people listening or watching this right now is because Mike Ritalin
1:09:52
busted that out on Fox News on water's world. So give us a little bit behind that, because I'll
1:09:56
put the link in the show notes so people can see what you did. But that's kind of what
1:10:00
shot this thing to superstar them as a mean, you know, I mean, sort of, I will, I would say that,
1:10:05
I mean, I had seen memes about it prior to saying that. And I remember, I think it was Joe Rogan
1:10:11
talked about, talked about it to some extent and had posted a few things.
1:10:17
And so that, you know, I don't take credit or think that I started it, I think quite the contrary.
1:10:23
I mean, it was a collective thing, but it was actually after the bag daddy raid, you know, I'd
1:10:30
done a bunch of national level interviews, you know, to talk about dogs and how they're used and
1:10:36
kind of what that whole story was because it was relevant at the time. And when I was on water's
1:10:41
world on Fox News, it was a prerecorded thing. That's the thing where I think a lot of people
1:10:45
don't, don't realize that, you know, that that wasn't a live segment. And I was, it was aired,
1:10:51
you know, two days prior. And, and they aired it anyway, which I was very surprised. But I just,
1:10:56
I felt like, like the interview was, was kind of a joke. Like he was asking just kind of dumb questions
1:11:02
about, about dogs and trying to be funny about it. To me, it was like, Hey, this is what I do
1:11:08
for a living. B, it's a pretty serious [inaudible] subject when you're talking about, you know, our
1:11:13
nation's, you know, finest [inaudible] warriors and their canine counterparts, you know, going halfway
1:11:18
across the world and putting their lives on a line in very austere environments. And you're just
1:11:24
kind of taking it lightly and scoffing at it. So it just kind of [inaudible] me off. And so the PSA
1:11:30
that I did at the end was, was authentic in that, you know, because of that raid, I'd gotten a lot
1:11:36
of questions about, you know, puppies and buying dogs. Now all of a sudden everybody wants, you know,
1:11:40
the same breed of dog that helped take down the Isis kingpin or whatever. And so I was just trying
1:11:45
to say, Hey, given this platform or mouthpiece, I want to, you know, kind of highlight the fact
1:11:51
that if you're going to get one of these dogs, you got to know what you're doing. And or, you know,
1:11:55
if you want one and you don't know what you're doing, just buy up a finished fully trained one
1:11:59
from a professional one and don't buy a puppy and then what have you just kind of a cautionary tale.
1:12:04
But then at the end of it, it was legitimately completely off the cuff. It's not something that
1:12:10
I thought about doing ahead of time. It was just, he had kind of [inaudible] me off during the interview
1:12:15
a little bit. And so I was really just kind of messing with him. You know, and so I threw that
1:12:20
in there at the end of it just as a joke, also assuming that they're probably not going to air
1:12:25
it anyway. And he did or they did, you know, so a couple nights later on Saturday night, I mean,
1:12:32
I think we taped it on a Thursday or Friday and then a few days later Saturday night aired and
1:12:38
I'm not kidding. I mean, within eight seconds of that being on my phone just was blowing up.
1:12:44
And for like the next, I'd say better part of the month, it was just it was incessant. I mean,
1:12:50
people I hadn't heard from in 20 years were like, dude, I just saw you on TikTok on, you know,
1:12:55
it was all over like Twitter and TikTok and all that crap. You know, so it was just it was a weird,
1:13:02
it was a weird 15 minutes of fame for sure. But, you know, that's life, I guess.
1:13:07
But, well, thank you for keeping that going. I'm so glad that we know the source of all this at
1:13:12
this point. But hey, that is more time than you bargained for. But that is all for me. Is there
1:13:15
anything else you want to get off your chest before we let you go? No, I think I'm all set.
1:13:20
I appreciate the offer though. All right, Mike Ritalin. Thank you for coming back
1:13:23
on Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast. Absolutely looking forward to the next one.
1:13:26
There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed part one of my time with Mike Ritalin. I just got to tell
1:13:31
you the second one is going to blow your mind. It's going to be a lot of fun. This one was fun.
1:13:36
We did all the stuff that we needed to do. He's a very interesting guy. He's a lot got a lot
1:13:39
of great stories. But, guys, you're not going to want to miss part two. But before we let you go,
1:13:43
we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Add on Daunted Life. Our mission is equipping
1:13:47
men to push back darkness specifically by providing content like this podcast that helps you forge
1:13:51
spiritual mental and physical resilience. So here are the links I've got for you today.
1:13:55
I've got a link to Mike's website. I've also got a link to Mike's Amazon page so you can go
1:13:58
check out all his books and then also Mike's YouTube channel. And then I've got that clip
1:14:02
of him saying that Epstein didn't kill himself on air with Fox News. All right, guys, thanks so
1:14:06
much for listening to this podcast. We do appreciate it. Wherever you're listening to this, please
1:14:09
subscribe, rate and review. If you want to come speak live at your event or on your podcast,
1:14:14
just shoot me an email to info at undaunted.life. That's i-n-f-o at undaunted.life. You can follow us
1:14:20
on Instagram and TikTok and like us on Facebook. You can also check out our website for everything
1:14:23
else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming. Just go to www. undaunted.life.
1:14:29
And we also want to thank the band, August Burns Red, for allowing us to use their music for our
1:14:32
content. D&terrautto track on this podcast is their song, Cutting the Ties, which is off their
1:14:36
10th anniversary re-recording of their album, Leveler. The links are in the description.
1:14:40
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness,
1:14:45
keep forging spiritual mental and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:14:59
You want it to be a great day and a great day. You will be revived.