We had the opportunity to interview BlueSea Care friend Steve Welch, CEO and founder of veteran-owned and operated Steve Welch Canine Rehabilitation. With over 40 years of animal training experience, Steve has perfected the most effective methods that really work. He and his staff train service dogs, guard dogs, family protection dogs, search and rescue dogs, therapy dogs, emotional support dogs and everything in between.
BlueSea Care
Welcome, Steve! So what inspired you to become an animal trainer?
Steve Welch
Well, my father was a trainer and my great grandfather was a trainer. And I took this up because I had the same love for animals they did. I just expanded on it a little more than they did. But I started out training horses and dogs with my family. I had a brother who raised miniature poodles, another brother who raised follies, my mother who raised dachshunds, and I raised German shepherds, and they didn’t know what they were doing. So I had to show them.
BlueSea Care
Wow. So you were just a natural at it.
Steve Welch
Well, yes. And I’ve learned from a lot of trainers because I would apprentice with them, and then I’d watch what they do, and I’d improve on it.
BlueSea Care
Great! I understand that you are a veteran and your employees are all veterans too. Can you share a little bit about that?
Steve Welch
Yes, I’m a Vietnam veteran and I’ve been through eight cancers over 16 years. I don’t really have employees; they’re all volunteers. And they sometimes volunteer as an entire family. Sometimes it’s just one of them. But they’ve been learning about training from me for years.
BlueSea Care
Now you’ve got different programs, and one of them is called, Trained to Obey. Can you talk a little bit about the Trained to Obey program?
Steve Welch
The Trained to Obey program involves just basic obedience for dogs so they stay in their home forever. A lot of people surrender their dogs because of a lack of training and problem solving. We do a lot of problem solving, including housebreaking, which is usually a big issue. Barking is a big issue as well as jumping or biting. And these are all things that are natural for a dog. And if you know how to fix them, it’s pretty quick. So the Trained to Obey program is basically doing the heel, sit, stay, down, come and proper manners.
BlueSea Care
That just reminds me of yesterday when I was on a walk. There was a beautiful dog. The owner said, “Oh, he’s friendly.” So I went up and tried to pet him and, within a few seconds, he started barking at me. And I thought, “Oh my gosh, is it my hat?” So I took off my hat and he barked even more, and he wanted to jump over the fence. The owner told her dog, “You lost your opportunity.”
Steve Welch
Well, you know, the problem is most people think of training last, if at all. They don’t understand that it’s not always the dog that needs the training. Most times it’s the human. If humans understood what their dog was doing wrong, like, were you petting this dog through a fence?
BlueSea Care
It was over the fence because he was hanging over the top of the fence. He was a friendly looking type of lab dog.
Steve Welch
Right. So that’s because you’re petting him over his fence. You’ve got to think like the dog thinks. That’s his territory. You tried to pet him. He became defensive.
That’s what you call territorial defensive behavior. If he had been outside of the fence, everything would have probably been fine.
BlueSea Care
You talked about Trained to Obey so now what about Trained to Protect? I know that’s for police dogs, firehouse dogs, maybe. Can you explain about Trained to Protect?
Steve Welch
Trained to Protect includes a lot of different types of dogs because we train a lot of police dogs. We do a lot of search and rescue dogs, a lot of FEMA dogs, and Trained to Protect just means that you have a dog that is like a light switch. So you have to, of course, get the obedience down on an operation. You also have to teach this dog to follow verbal commands and physical actions like if you’re under attack, the dog should protect you automatically and not bite the wrong person.
In police work, they teach the dogs nowadays to bite whoever’s on the bottom. If that happens to be the officer, he’s the one who gets bit. So our training is a little different because we have the dog bite the suspect, not the handler, no matter who’s on the bottom. We have dogs we use for guard work. We have dogs to help prevent businesses from being robbed. We have dogs for in-home invasion. We have dogs to protect people from stalkers. They go with them to work; these stalkers are everywhere. And when you have one, you don’t know when you’re safe. So, we do that kind of work. We do a lot of military sniper dogs, explosives dogs. It’s a lot of dogs that search drugs, termites, and bed bugs. They all fall under the service dog category.
BlueSea Care
Wow! That’s interesting. Now, speaking of service, you have a Trained to Service program that prepares dogs to assist people like seniors and other people with disabilities and medical conditions. Plus, you have a program for veterans with PTSD. Can you explain about all this?
Steve Welch
We adopt a lot of dogs and rescue a lot of dogs. Many are owner surrenders. One of my clients is licensed in Chicago every year to recertify his dog. He has PTSD to an extreme, where he would get violent. So we had to teach his dog to alert him by getting up against his leg and touching his leg with his foot. And that dog was a rescue dog. We found him running loose in Santiago Canyon with another dog. The other dog did not have a service dog personality. So we trained it as a pet. And it’s now in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. And this other dog is in Chicago. Her name is Bean. She opens and closes doors. She’s the color of coffee beans. She plays soccer. She does tricks, but she also protects him when he’s under threat because he’s on the road in a big truck all the time. So he has all these different oversized loads. So that dog goes from state-to-state with him because, in his situation, he’s improved with the dog alerting, he changed his life. But the on the road thing is dangerous. Because people who drive those big trucks carry a lot of cash normally, and get robbed a lot. So we do a lot with truck drivers, nurses, because nurses have a lot of assaults. So we can work with a lot of different issues.
BlueSea Care
That’s amazing! I understand that you worked with Rabih at BlueSea to create the EASY program. E: Elder, A: Assistance, S: Service dog, and Y: for You, which helps seniors avoid surrendering their pets to shelters when they’re forced to downsize and move to facilities that do not accept pets. Can you share about this?
Steve Welch
A lot of people don’t train their dogs so when they have to downsize, or they have to move to a new environment, the dogs not used to that. So what we do is we go in, you know, like if a dog moves from the country, country dogs are totally different than city dogs. And when a city dog moves to the country, it’s totally different. So the example there is we have to retrain the dog because usually when you move to the country, you get a bunch of animals. And they’re not used to that. And when they move to the city, they just have a lot of territory and ground to cover. So they escape. They’re not used to being in small, confined areas, like yards and stuff like that. So the retraining gets the dog ready. So if even if the senior can’t physically let the dog out and stuff, we build potty boxes, we teach the dog how to use a doggie door. We teach it how to come, sit, and stay. It makes it easier for the person with a disability.
BlueSea Care
Then maybe they could have somebody come and walk the dog so that the dog has his own break once in a while, if they’re especially confined to a small apartment or something like that.
Steve Welch
Everybody says walk a dog to make it tired. Give the dog a 10-minute walk but after you’re back it’s going to have just as much energy. So, what really keeps dogs calm is training them. They love to be trained. And not only does it give them a physical stress, it gives them a mental stress. And the way you see this in a dog is they yawn. When they’re under psychological stress, they yawn. That’s when you know you’re being effective because now you’re taxing their brain to improve it. And I think it’s a big fallacy that people think you have to walk a dog. You walk a dog because it’s pleasurable. You know, you want a dog to listen to you when you’re out in public, go potty when you tell him, eat when you tell him, drink when you tell him. It just makes life so much easier, and it makes the pet a better part of the family.
BlueSea Care
So now with COVID, here’s a COVID-related question. With so many people going back to work, will pets start to experience separation anxiety? They’ve been living 24-seven with their owners, and now they’ll have to relearn how to manage this kind of disruption. Is separation anxiety real among animals too? And if so, how should people approach it?
Steve Welch
Well, separation anxiety is real. We have a lot of clients right now who have dogs that they’ve rescued, so a lot of the rescue shelters are empty. Because during COVID, everybody’s been getting dogs like the neighbors all around me that never had dogs and now they have them. And what’s going on is when they spend 24/7 with the dog, they’re not training it. This sounds crazy, but dogs like to nest. So we use a shipping crate to let them nest and get their rest. And so they can be separated from the owner.
When you hang around the dog 24/7 and then you go back to work, that separation anxiety is very severe. They end up being destructive, loud, break plate glass windows, tear up the carpet, and chew through doors and walls. Because of the separation anxiety, I have customers who even get tickets for noise abatement. So the best thing they can do right now before they go to work, is to start putting the dog outside a little bit, start putting the dog in a crate a little bit, getting him used to being away from you. Let him have his downtime. Most dogs sleep 14 to 16 hours a day. So most of the destruction is done in the first 25 minutes after the person leaves. And most of the barking goes on all day long. And we’re seeing a quite a bit of that right now.
BlueSea Care
Yeah, we’ve got one down the street who barks all day when the owner leaves. And I think it’s a large puppy. So it’s just barking and crying all day.
Steve Welch
And that’s what puppies do. If you’re a baby and you are left, you cry. Everybody is always on their dog, petting them, holding them, laying with them, having them in bed with them. When you first get a dog, that’s pretty much the wrong thing to do. The first thing you want to do is establish a bond that makes the dog comfortable. That makes the dog feel like part of the family, then you don’t have to deal with the issues. But everybody gets in right away and they start hugging and cuddling. I tell people I know not to adopt a dog on a weekend. Adopt a puppy during the week when you have to go to work. That way, you establish a routine. And then when you do get the weekend off and want to sleep in, you can because the puppy is not going to be bothering you. So it’s a routine. We call it baby steps.
BlueSea Care
Definitely it’s pretty tricky. Believe me, I’ve got cats, but I’ve tried a dog before. I told the adoption agency I was gone eight to 10 hours a day, so I was not sure about a dog. They said it should be no problem and to just give him a little bone with some peanut butter when you leave and he’ll be fine. Well, my neighbors complained and said he was crying the entire day and that he sounded like someone was beating the poor thing. So that didn’t last very long. I gave him back after a few days. Back then, I just didn’t have the time to go through whatever training needed to be done, especially because he was an older dog. So what would you have done?
Steve Welch
Did he already have separation anxiety?
BlueSea Care
Yes, I believe he did. He must have been with an elderly couple who were there for him all the time. So the minute I left, he could not handle being alone.
Steve Welch
There are techniques to get rid of all those behaviors. But it’s being dedicated and we’re training you as much as we’re training the animal. And it’s teaching you how to rethink. Most people treat their dogs like humans, and that’s what causes a separation anxiety. You know, 30-40 years ago, you didn’t see very much separation anxiety, because people treated their dogs like dogs. Now they treat them like human babies.
BlueSea Care
That’s true. That’s a good point. Now, I also want to talk to you about the wonders of pet therapy, because I’ve seen it and you’ve seen it. I’ve worked at hospitals where they provide pet therapy dogs that come in and visit with the patients who cry with so much joy. And in pediatric units, they get the pets coming in, and it just kind of changes their entire outlook. So could you share a little bit about that in your experience over the years?
Steve Welch
We take our dogs to hospitals too. When our dogs go through training, that’s one of the courses we put them through, because you have to learn to be around sick people and elderly and some dogs panic when they area around somebody sick because they can smell illness. You know, it’s like a cancer dog. My own dog told me I had cancer 16 years ago. But he was trained. And he was trained for cancer. So we’d walk down the hallways in the VA. If a patient had cancer, the dog would sit and play and touch. If you didn’t have cancer, he’d pass you by.
I actually called my doctor one day and said, “Hey, you know, my dog?” He said, “Yes, everybody loves your dog!” I said, “Well, Dr. Jenkins, you know, here’s the fact of the matter, my dog told me I have cancer.” He said, “Well, Steve, we just tested you 10 days ago. But come in tomorrow morning. We’ll run the test again.” It turns out I had a very aggressive prostate cancer. Then leukemia was one of the next cancers that my dog alerted me about. I trust my dogs way more than I trust the machines, the x-rays and MRIs because dogs don’t lie. That’s one thing dogs don’t do, they don’t lie. And they kind of tell on the owner, you know, the minute I see a dog, I can tell you exactly what’s going on in the home, just by the dog’s personality, because I’ve done this for over 50 years. So when I see an animal’s behavior, I know whether it’s human caused, or if it’s a breeding problem.
There’s a little story about Rabih at BlueSea. He brought me a lab, and I told him the dog came from a backyard breeder and was way too independent to even be a pet. And so Rabih tried for six months to train the dog with no luck. And Rabih finally came to me about his son who has autism. And I said, “Rabih, I’ve got the perfect dog. As soon as you walk through that door, after this first lesson, that dog will know exactly what’s going on with your son in a matter of minutes. He’s been scent trained. He knows how to respond.” Rabih went from my facility to his home and about 20 minutes after he was there, he gave me a call. And he said, “I can’t believe this.” Having a properly trained dog is an asset and really does make life easier, especially for single moms because the dog becomes a babysitter and protector for the whole family. So it really does change your life. Whether the child is at the high end of the autism spectrum or whether he’s at the very friendly end of the spectrum like Rabih’s son who is very friendly. So we had to train the dog, not to let him walk away with strangers. So there was training after the dog went into the home. But all that pre-training gets the dog ready for the owner. So we customize each dog to each home and each operation, and to the family because they have to learn as much as the dog knows.
BlueSea Care
Wow, that’s amazing. Since we work with seniors, do you have any senior success stories?
Steve Welch
Yeah, I have a bunch of veterans. They are physically disabled and seniors. I worked with a woman with a Doberman that she had bought and it was a big, beautiful dog that had no training and was very independent. So she brings her to me and I start training with her. Now, the dog is used for total mobility support and assists her in and out of chairs to her walker. The dog goes to the VA with her. He goes with her just like when my dog goes with me to the VA. If I show up without a dog, all my doctors yell at me. They’ll say, “Why didn’t you bring your dog?” My dog hits the entry pads and opens the doors. And when I’m walking down the hallway, there’ll be a bunch of seniors sitting in a waiting area and I’ll pretend to shoot my dog and will say “bang” and she’ll do a dramatic fall. And then she’ll just lay there until I say, “Break!” Then I tell her to give me a hug and she gives me a hug. Then I tell her to wave at everybody, so she waves at everybody and I’ll tell her to “Take a bow now, we’re going to go on,” and she’ll bow. If somebody wants to see her, I take her service vest off before I let anybody else pet her and she’s really good with everyone. Everybody just adores my dogs.
BlueSea Care
What kind of dog is she?
Steve Welch
I have three Chesapeake Bay retriever males that are trained and are going to be up for adoption. And I have a female for me. Her name is Jazz. I picked up 16 of them from a breeder in North San Diego County. He’s really a good breeder. And every one of those dogs is in service training. I’m working with children and adults. Some of the retrievers are trained for night terrors, some for Autism, PTSD, dementia, Alzheimer’s, peanut allergies, and other food allergies. So, like I said, we do the foundational training, and then we can direct the dog the way we want.
BlueSea Care
That is amazing. Well, you’ve talked about a lot of things that I really didn’t know about. It’s just a mystery to me about how you train a dog to do so many things, but they are smart. And like you say, they are willing and ready for training. Do you have any final words of inspiration that you would like to share about someone who’s considering a pet or for pet therapy?
Steve Welch
Well, my advice, if you’re going to buy a dog, always do a lot of research. And do a lot of background checking because usually, dogs are about the same size, weight and looks as their parents. But you want to check for physical problems. All of our dogs go through a very detailed genetic, physical and x-ray physical before we put a lot of time and money into them, and they don’t come home and go straight into your arms. They come home and we start foundational training which is going to change your whole life with the pet. Then the pet can go with you everywhere. So, you know, my advice to people is training first, spoil later. And I do spoil my dogs pretty bad. But they listen, no matter what situation I’m in. So, with a therapy dog, it’ll change your life. It really will change people’s lives and I get to see it every day.
BlueSea Care
That’s wonderful. So train first, spoil later. That’s really good.
Steve Welch
You know, a lot of times when you see a pet, and you look at the parents and the family, the dog is pretty much what the kid children are like. If the dogs out of control, the kids are out of control. This is why they need foundational training.
BlueSea Care
So maybe if they don’t know what to do, they should just call you. Right?
Steve Welch
Yep. And I’ve got a number. It is 800-400-OBEY.
BlueSea Care
Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you are very busy. And I’m so glad that we got to speak with you.
Steve Welch
Thank you for inviting me. It helps to educate the public.
BlueSea Care
Yes, it certainly does. Well, thank you and have a great afternoon. Take care.
Steve Welch
Good bye…
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