Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And today my guest is Bart Sherwood. Bart is the founder and program director of the Train a Dog, Save a Warrior organization. And their primary mission is to provide for the training of medical alert service dogs through their participant trained service dog program to restore and approve Improve the participants quality of life, uh, with a canine battle buddy and it’s all at no charge to them.

So, um, going to get into [00:01:00] this, uh, topic a little bit more where Bart and I were talking just before, uh, we started recording here about, uh, the service dog program and kind of some of the complexities and some of the things that go into it. Uh, and we’ll get into that, I’m sure a little bit more in, into this episode.

Uh, but Bart. Before we do that, uh, really glad to have you here. I wanted to welcome you to the show.

Bart Sherwood: Well, Scott, thank you for inviting me. I look forward to the, you know, the podcast and how we can go ahead and, you know, spread the knowledge of the program of service dogs, period, to, uh, all the veterans or the family members or any individuals, uh, if a dog’s going to be able to save somebody and improve somebody’s quality of life, that’s really what it’s all about.

You know, uh,

we do it

the old fashioned way, hands on.

Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely.

And, and we were talking, uh, before we started recording and I, you know, one of the things that, uh, I think you and I have in common here is that, um, [00:02:00] you know, my show, the show that we’re on right now, uh, I. Have this basically to help stop, uh, the, the, the veteran suicide, um, get that number down as close to zero as we possibly can.

And, um, you know, until that, that number is zero, I’m not going anywhere like that. That’s kind of how I feel about this show and, and kind of the effort that’s, that’s going into it, um, is because it’s that important. It needs, it needs to be around and, um, you know, The, the people need to get the support and, and same thing with the work that you do, um, cause it’s, it is helping people.

It’s helping, helping those, those veterans who are in need, uh, with whatever their, their situation is. Um, you know, if there’s a situation where a service dog can help them, um, then. then your program is, is set up to help those people, um, get what they need. Um, but we were talking [00:03:00] before about how, um, your program, um, might be a little bit different from some other programs, uh, in, in terms of how the dogs get trained.

Can you talk a little bit about that and, and what. The participant involvement is.

Bart Sherwood: The participant involvement is the same as when you were in basic training and you went to the firing range with your M 16 or whatever, and you gave it to your drill sergeant and said, here, drill sergeant, I’m done and you go clean it. And he looked at you like, I don’t think so boy...