Taking My Dog Sanctuary On Vacation

Running an animal sanctuary isn't just pack walks all the time. It really is a lot of chaos, but also a lot of structure. Everyone's always medicating the dogs, looking for supplies. It's a lot. So every now and then I like to take the dogs on a little vacation. So right now we are at our beach house, where I usually bring anywhere between 30 to sometimes 50 dogs, which is a very small amount compared to the 150-200 dogs we're around on a daily basis. And it's really just a beautiful time to be able to have some more interaction with the dogs. It also makes us miss the sanctuary. We always can't wait to go back. Hi, how are you? Let me give you a little bit of a tour of the dog's vacation home. Come on in. So it's a beautiful... Thank you, Matilda. Matilda is going to help me with today's tour. It's a beautiful, windy, rainy day on the Oregon coast. Let's start off in the living room. We often leave open a lot of the doors and the windows in the house for the beautiful ocean air, the ocean breeze to go through. So this is the most popular hangout spot for the dogs. They like to get real close to the fireplace. I usually have a movie going on in the background, and I sit up there in the kitchen overlooking and watching all of them. And they really end up destroying pretty much everything. Furniture never lasts very long. I always like to bring the originals, but we bring all our behavior dogs. Dogs that are more challenging for the staff. It's a lot less dogs for them to feed, for them to medicate, for them to care for. So this is the kitchen. Back in the day, my nickname was Chef Boyar Lee. I love cooking for Sarah. I love cooking treats for the dogs. So both my surprise and Sarah, we decided not to put gates in the kitchen because it's not a hundred dogs and just 30 or 40. It's nice to have the dogs next to me while I cook. And it almost makes me feel somewhat normal. Like I just have dogs and not hundreds. Like I get to do what I used to do when I only had six or seven dogs. This is one of the kenneling rooms. They stay open the entire time. Some of the dogs like to just go in there and rest. A lot of the dogs genuinely just like to be kenneled sometimes, but I leave the doors open and 100% of the dogs are kenneled for lunch. This is the feed room, the supplement room. You can see the dogs are already lining up. This is where we get all the food prepared. All the bowls go all the way around depending on how many dogs we have. Sometimes I'm putting bowls all over the place, but they all get their Asher House Wellness supplements every single day. At the sanctuary, the dog bowls are labeled on the bowl itself. But here, because we're not sure about which dogs are coming, we just have all the labels. And the reason why the labels are different colors is because certain dogs get a special diet. So we have everything ready for them so that they don't miss a beat as if they were at the sanctuary. Our dogs see the vet pretty much every month for check-ins and check-ups and stuff like that. We do blood work on all of our dogs every six months to see if we need to adjust their diet or anything like that. So we really stay on top of it no matter where we are. Just like at the sanctuary, there isn't an area of this house that, when I considered buying this, that didn't have the dogs into consideration. I guess I will say, not to go back on my words, but the gym, one could argue, is mine, which I'll show you in a second. But I don't work out with less than seven or ten dogs in the gym with me. Okay, so now we're walking into my dream gym. This is my favorite room in the house. The dogs always rush into the gym. They love working out with me because I give them these little trachea chews, and it's just a lot of fun. This is what Sarah is working on right now. She's a beautiful artist. So yeah, this is how these were created. I'm just kidding. They're all lining up now because they want to go into the gym with us and work out with us. I have a hard time saying no to them. Like, whatever it is that they want that will make them happy, I'm very much willing to sacrifice my happiness and my needs for them. I don't say that in a good way. It is important to hold on to some things for you and for your relationship. If you don't mind, real quick, now that we're already in here, I just don't want to leave it. I'm just going to clean up these pees. Quick promo, eh? You know what I'm saying? The dogs like to mark their territory a lot. It's usually always the males peeing. And this stuff is non-toxic, safe for birds, cats, dogs. I'm really not just selling it. Don't knock it until you try it. This is what the sanctuary uses. There's a lot of expensive sprays out there, and this is really, I believe, better than all of them and not as expensive. As soon as I walk out that door, all the dogs are going to run out. And the reason why is because usually when I go outside that door, I'm taking them to the beach. And that's their favorite thing to do. So they all try to be the first one out there because they know that I bring them in groups. The dogs are very smart. They're used to the routine. They want to be the first group to go. I first bring the most challenging dogs to the beach to get them tired. Then I bring Matilda and the Littles. And then I bring the third group of challenges. It's a whole thing. So I'm going to walk out and you'll see they're going to come out there. But I'll take you outside. And look, Matilda's already the first one out the door. She loves the beach more than anyone. OK, so we got our looshes. We got our poop bags. We got our balls. I'm going to carry Matilda. Sometimes I let her walk down the stairs on her own. It's really good for her muscles and to help her build her cognitive function. I think a huge point of life that people don't talk about enough, we should be creating as many experiences for ourselves as often as we can. Good or bad, whatever experience is where we learn, where we grow. And it's the same for dogs. We could provide our animals with as many experiences as possible and learn from those experiences. That's a good day. So we really try to do that for our dogs. Find the dogs that need these outings, especially the ones that are available for adoption, so we can give them the most fulfilling life possible and learn as much about them as we can to help create a path for success for them. So this is a point of the walk down before I get to the beach that I stop to assess the beach. I make sure that the water isn't too close, the tide isn't too close. If it is, it could be very dangerous. They call them sneaker waves or sleeper waves, something like that. But the tide is pretty close, so maybe we'll keep it short. I also make sure there's no people or dogs right at the beach because as soon as I open the gate, all the dogs run down to the sand. It could be very scary for a dog or for someone to be surprised by that many dogs. So this is where I assess the situation before opening up the gates that take them down to the ocean. And I'm just going to leash up Rosa because if she sees something like a bird, she will run after it as long as it takes. So I keep her close until we get out, then I'll release her. One of the most beautiful things that I'm able to do for these dogs is it's their first time being able to experience the beach, the ocean, the sand, the freedom. Even in bad weather, it's important to be aware of your surroundings. I see somebody walking this way, so hopefully they turn around the other way, but we have to be cautious. Wow, this is next level. To see the way they are at the beach, I don't know what it is about the ocean. It has a magic to it that creates a whole new level of happiness. We out here, baby. We're not gonna take it. Everybody, we're not gonna take it. We're not gonna take it. Oh, big, big set of buses. Yeah! Come on, guys! Come on, Matilda! Let's go! Yeah! No guts, no glory, baby! No guts, no glory! Yeah! So we just got back from the beach. I am pretty exhausted. That was one of the most challenging beach trips to date. I'm so proud of Matilda. I think that she gets a 10 out of 10. It was so windy and the rain was like piercing our bodies, but the dogs had so much fun to see them running the way they were running and just enjoying every second of it made the whole thing totally worth it. So we're gonna wind down the rest of the night and just do what we are supposed to do here, which is just relax, be together, chill, and keep it a nice relaxing rest of the night. Whenever we come back, you could tell the dogs that are there are just so excited to see us and these dogs are happier. I can do some more training and give more individual attention to the dogs here. It's really just a nice getaway. I do want you to know this vacation home, this getaway place was completely purchased with my own money. This is totally separate from the non-profit, although it is especially for the dogs and I'm very proud of that. It's something that I personally wanted to buy for them and for a place for me and Sarah to be able to get away and that includes everything that's here. All of the dog food, all the dog beds, anything that is in this house and a part of this property is purchased with my own money. And I only say that I know a lot of you don't care either way, obviously it's for the dogs, but transparency is very important to me and I'm sure it's important to a lot of people watching this. And I think it's worth mentioning that whenever I go on social media, I see the most terrible rumors, just nonsense about me, and I'm really proud of the fact that as the founder of the Asher House, I don't even take a salary. I make no money from donations whatsoever. All of the money that I make is from social media. That is how I purchased this property and I'm really proud of it. Well, this is Drogo and Meaty. They are two of my favorite dogs. They're very new to the pack. They've only been in my life for about eight weeks now, but I can't believe that there was a time in my life that I didn't have these two dogs in it. They're so important to me. I really can't put into words how much I love them. They were confiscated from a horrible situation. I really can't wrap my head around how anyone could ever do that to an animal. Animal Control posted a video on it. The Sheriff's Department also posted a video on it. And they were living in these tiny crates covered in feces. They were in there for 24 hours a day. They barely had any food or water. They were so malnourished and they were just used for breeding. They were taken out to be bred and then put right back into the kennel. For them to be this amazing and this trusting and this affectionate after everything they've been through, it just really shows us how resilient these animals are and how beautiful their souls are. They are everything that we should be. They teach us about forgiveness, unconditional love, and acceptance. And it's just the most beautiful thing in the world. But you take a dog like Drogo here, who a lot of people are afraid of him. And he's so strong. He's 135, 140 pounds. A dog, after everything he's been through, you could understand why he would be mean to people, or afraid of people, or not trust people. But instead, he's just the sweetest boy. And yeah, he is very protective. I've seen a lot of sides of Drogo. But it all comes from love and loyalty. And Meaty is just, gosh, I'm gonna get emotional. But Lily, my heart dog, Lily. One thing that I didn't realize, that I think I took for granted while she was still with us, was I relied on her to make me feel better. I relied on her for happiness. It doesn't matter how hard my day was, whenever I would see Lily's face, I felt better, felt like everything was gonna be okay. And when she passed away, I didn't have that anchor anymore. I didn't have that dog that looked into my eyes the way that she did. But she would look into my eyes and it would make me laugh. Like there was just something that was so funny about her presence. But what's so beautiful is now, two years later, Meaty is that dog for me. Meaty makes me laugh no matter how stressed I am, no matter what I'm doing, no matter how hectic my life is. Meaty is that anchor of happiness and comic relief. Tommy is my first English Bulldog. Still my only English Bulldog. English Bulldog, to me, really just the most stubborn and the funniest, most interesting breed. But they are so possessive. Tommy doesn't like sharing. He's definitely not a pack dog. If I got another Tommy tomorrow, I would most likely be adopting that dog out. He came with a lot of medical issues. He was what they call a medical case. He's on all the allergy supplements and hip and joint shoes and CBD. He needs it all and it really helps him. He wasn't an easy one and it's the challenging ones that make it so special and so worth it. Makes you so grateful that you don't give up on them because that's all they're used to, people giving up on them and dropping them off at the shelter. Because of Tommy, he's inspired so many people to rescue an English Bulldog. To rescue. That is the most impact, being able to inspire change. Getting someone to do something differently, not out of convenience, but out of knowing that it's morally the right thing to do. And rescuing is the right thing to do. If you don't want to rescue your next dog, if you don't want to adopt one, find a rescue that you trust and believe in or a shelter or anybody that you think you can support, donate to or anything like that, because it's really a dilemma. The shelters are really full. Rescue is really challenging. There's so many things that are hard about animal rescue. So when I save dogs, that's the reward. I really think they're what I and the pack needed. I think when Lily left us, we were really missing something. It left a hole in my heart. It left a hole in the pack. And I really think that they helped fill in that hole. After a long day of taking care of the dogs and running through the beach, it's time to relax, hang out and watch some shows. I don't get to do this unless I'm here at the beach house. We don't get to sit on the couch and watch movies and watch TV. And I gotta say, out of going to the beach, ocean and the forest, this is my favorite because I get to do it the least where I can just sit on the couch, watch videos, hang out with the dog. What I like to do is I like to watch old videos and compare how the dogs are then to now. So it's almost like an athlete who watches tape. I watch the dogs to get to know them better, get to understand them better, help me realize some of the areas that they grew, some areas that I still need to work on. Some of the dogs have been in the pack anywhere from six months to 10, 12 years. So I really like to look at older videos. It helps me understand them a lot better. I also get to see how young I used to look. Two years ago, I was a baby. We can't rest forever. Vacation is almost over. Now it's time to get ready to head back to the sanctuary tomorrow. All right, guys. Thank you for spending it with us. I think it's time to call it a night. I love you all so much. Thank you. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe.