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Speaker 1: Now if you want to get in contact with me today,

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Speaker 1: I love to hear from you. Eight nine four one

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Speaker 1: one four nine Now today is actually National Military Working

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Speaker 1: Dog Day, which recognizes the efforts of service dogs in

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Speaker 1: the Air Force and the Army. And working dogs are

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Speaker 1: located on most of the country's Air Force bases as

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Speaker 1: part of combat support groups assisting with security, emergency response,

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Speaker 1: and the protection of aircraft and personnel. Now joining us

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Speaker 1: in the studio to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the wonderful work that they do. Well, I am

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Speaker 1: joined by let me just make sure I've got your

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Speaker 1: titles here correct. We have got Dog Operations Sell thirteen

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Speaker 1: Squadron Sergeant Natasha Falconer, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: To you, Monnie. How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm very good, thank you. And we've also got

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Speaker 1: one or First Military Police Brittalion, First Brigade, Army Lance

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Speaker 1: Corporal Jared Willis, good morning to.

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Speaker 3: You, Good morning, thanks having me.

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Speaker 1: Now, wonderful to have you both in the studios of Natasha,

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about the work that you

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Speaker 1: do as a lead dog handler and of course kennel manager.

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Speaker 2: So I'm responsible for all the military working dogs at RAFE,

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Speaker 2: STARED and the security forces, and I essentially manage the

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Speaker 2: fleet that we have a system with all of their training,

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Speaker 2: cover off on their assessments, and help them just with

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Speaker 2: their day to day duties as needed.

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Speaker 1: How did you wind up in this work? Like? Do

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Speaker 1: you love getting to you know, to manage all of

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Speaker 1: the animals.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's something different. I always want to work with animals.

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Speaker 2: So when I met my now husband who was already serving,

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Speaker 2: he sucked me into it. So I blame him for this,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, no, it's awesome getting to work with dogs.

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Speaker 2: There's always something different every day. It's never the same

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Speaker 2: thing outside. Yep, Yeah, it's awesome.

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Speaker 1: And Jared, you're with the army. What's the day in

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Speaker 1: the job like for you?

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Speaker 3: So we start off at around seven o'clock and we

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Speaker 3: come in and do their kennels first of all, so

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Speaker 3: we get nice and clean, sparkling clean, and then we

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Speaker 3: move on to physical training with the dogs that will

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Speaker 3: take them for a run, exercise them, all that sort

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Speaker 3: of thing. And then we move on to more specific

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Speaker 3: training so that might be apprehension, that might be detection

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Speaker 3: and deterrence sort of work.

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Speaker 1: Lots of different stuff that the animals obviously need to do, Like,

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Speaker 1: how much do you have to run all of themal

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Speaker 1: how many dogs are you running?

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Speaker 3: We've got six at the moment, but yeah, we all

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Speaker 3: are pad we've got handles as well, so we're all

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Speaker 3: paired to a pacific dog. And yeah, absolutely we run

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Speaker 3: with them, but if there's a handle out or something,

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Speaker 3: we'll run with them as well. So what are running

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Speaker 3: going on?

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Speaker 1: Tell us a bit about what the dogs are like

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Speaker 1: that that you both work wis who wants to go

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Speaker 1: for Statasha?

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Speaker 2: So we both or both Army and Air Force predominantly

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Speaker 2: use Belgium allenoise. So very energetic, very confident, very outgoing,

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Speaker 2: we'll call it dogs. Yeah, they've got plenty of drive

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Speaker 2: and enthusiasm and they give one hundred and percent to

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Speaker 2: everything they do, so it's never a dull moment. They

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Speaker 2: are professionals at I guess throwing in little random things

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Speaker 2: you've never seen before at the worst times, all the

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Speaker 2: best times, and hey, you look at it. But I

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Speaker 2: know they're awesome that they do the job from birth

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Speaker 2: and they just come out like kicking basically.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Like the working dogs are absolutely incredible. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty well documented on the show that I just

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Speaker 1: think that though, that the dogs are so amazing. We've

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Speaker 1: spoken on numerous occasions to the handlers and had the

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Speaker 1: police dogs in here as well, and the work that

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Speaker 1: you guys do with the dogs is just unbelievable. I mean,

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Speaker 1: Jared tell us a little bit, I suppose about the

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Speaker 1: difference that you would see when it comes to the

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Speaker 1: Air Force and the Army dog roles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, we do very similar things, but we'll sort

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Speaker 3: of attached to a combat sort of team and then

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Speaker 3: work with them a bit more closely, so we will

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Speaker 3: do that apprehension sort of stuff, the detection as well,

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Speaker 3: and the terms is a big piece for us as well.

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Speaker 1: Like how vital are military working dogs?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, they're vital to us. We need them and obviously

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Speaker 3: we can't speak holly enough. Yeah, really have big fit

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Speaker 3: of my boy. Here's a gorgeous thirty eight kilo beautiful

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Speaker 3: black coat on him. Yet he's a really really a

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Speaker 3: good part of my life as well.

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Speaker 1: Personally, become like your best mate.

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Speaker 3: We're with them all day, so absolutely do become closest mates,

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Speaker 3: to be honest.

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Speaker 1: And Natasha, what about few managing like a few of them?

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Speaker 1: Do you have favorites?

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Speaker 3: Ah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've still got my old bots actually, so a

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Speaker 2: little bit biased, but Reaper is definitely my favorite. He's

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Speaker 2: very much ready for retirement, so spends probably too much

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Speaker 2: time on the couch in my condition, he's a bit spoiled.

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Speaker 2: But I do have a couple of favors. I was

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Speaker 2: lucky enough to breed almost the whole fleet that I

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Speaker 2: manage up here when I was in the breeding self

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Speaker 2: for Air Force, so I'm quite connected to most of

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Speaker 2: your fleet, to be honest.

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Speaker 1: And I understand you've also got a working dog, Jackie.

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Speaker 1: Is that correct? That's retiring.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Jackie is one of the military reorcondocks.

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Speaker 1: I've got my sectioned.

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Speaker 2: She has just finalized her last retirement assessment, so we're

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Speaker 2: about to put all that together and get it sent

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Speaker 2: off for final authorizations. So she will go home with

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Speaker 2: her hand like lacew Jesse Johnson and probably take over

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Speaker 2: her couch.

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Speaker 1: How Like, how long a period of time do the

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Speaker 1: working dogs usually sort of work for? What's the working

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Speaker 1: life span before they get to retire depends? Obviously, if

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Speaker 1: they get an injury on an illness at spens them,

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Speaker 1: we'll retire them at that point, but we aim for

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Speaker 1: them retiring around the age of eight, and because the

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Speaker 1: mally's mature quite quickly, they'll sort of become operational around

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Speaker 1: that eighteen month old mark. So we get quite quite

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Speaker 1: a lengthy service life out of them, providing they don't

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Speaker 1: get sickle injured and Jared like for you, have you

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Speaker 1: have you had a few working dogs that you've managed

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Speaker 1: over the years.

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Speaker 3: First dogs, Hack he actually had before me, so I'm

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Speaker 3: not his first handler, but.

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Speaker 1: I so, how long have you two been together? Yeah, honestly,

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Speaker 1: I think the work. Like I said before, I think

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Speaker 1: working dogs are so incredible. And what I'm really fascinated by,

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Speaker 1: even when I catch up with the police is the

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Speaker 1: way in which I suppose over the years some of

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Speaker 1: that training has changed to some degree. I'm assuming we're

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Speaker 1: in years gone by. You know, twenty years ago, some

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Speaker 1: of those working dogs may not have like they may

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Speaker 1: have been a little more aggressive or behaviorally slightly different,

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Speaker 1: whereas there is so much there seems to be so

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Speaker 1: much training with them these days. And I know it's

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Speaker 1: potentially a bit different for you guys in the military,

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Speaker 1: the air force, but you know, they're a lot more

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Speaker 1: adaptable to very differing situations. These days, it seems.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: They obviously, like anything, it evolves and changes constantly, and

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Speaker 2: you're going to try and keep up with all the

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Speaker 2: new techniques and stuff that you're coming out around the world.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, we've focused very heavily now on the dogs

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Speaker 2: being far more social, and our training techniques obviously haven't

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Speaker 2: come a long way, and that's assisted in that process

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Speaker 2: as well. It's a lot different, like you said, the

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Speaker 2: way that we do things now, which also makes them

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Speaker 2: naturally a more social dog. Don't get me wrong, we

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Speaker 2: still get them like people. They will have their own

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Speaker 2: personalities and some are still the anti social little creature,

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Speaker 2: but they are. They're very few and far between now

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Speaker 2: a lot of them are big cuddle like lovers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Or how wonderful will today is of course National

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Speaker 1: Military Working Dog Day. How are you going to be? Like?

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Speaker 1: How are the puppies celebrating? You get that getting an

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Speaker 1: extra trade?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we will definitely look after for sure. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think Reitha is a favorite of macas Sundays.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 1: Oh so good to have you both in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning, and

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Speaker 1: thanks for telling us more about the incredible work that

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Speaker 1: they do. Thanks, Thanks so much,