Unleashed

On this episode of Unleashed, Cheryl Kaye meets Brian at the dog park and hears the heartwarming story of Forrest —Brian’s very first dog at age 43—adopted through Magic City Canine, a unique prison-based training program at the Everglades Correctional Institution. Brian shares what it’s really like to finally become a dog dad: the joy, the bonding, the routines, the unexpected responsibilities, and how Forrest has fit into family life with teenagers and a cat at home. Cheryl and Brian talk dog-park dynamics, training, hand signals, ball-thief behavior, leash manners, pool safety, and the surprising ways dogs change your social life and daily rhythm. Then, in a powerful addendum, Cheryl reveals that Forrest was returned—and delivers an emotional, eye-opening message about what “returning” a dog can do to their trust, confidence, and sense of home, reminding listeners that adopting a pet must be a forever commitment.

Listen to Episode #87 Now:

Transcript:

Hi everybody, Cheryl from Unleashed, and today I have a very special guest, Brian. There you go. And this is a very unique situation.

As you all know, I take Tilly to the dog park, and lo and behold, Brian shows up with his dog. When you see the picture of this dog, he is absolutely gorgeous. So Brian, give us a little background on you and how you ended up getting Forrest, and then we'll talk about what Forrest is like and what your life now as a dog owner is like.

Yes, I got Forrest, I randomly was looking online, you know, I just randomly wanted to adopt a dog or get a dog in my life, buy a dog, adopt a dog, and I wanted one for many, many years. I was a young kid, probably since I was like six or seven years old. And, you know, my parents say, hey, we're gonna get a dog, we're gonna get a dog one day.

We never did. Never ended up getting one. And how old are you now? Now, I'm 43.

So it's been many years. So finally, you know, I just got this urge, you know, about a few months ago. I was like, hey, I want a dog.

It's, you know, the days are, time is passing by quick. And I was like, I want a dog. So I looked online, I ran across the website for Magic City Canine.

That's in Miami. And they had a list of dogs that they trained. Magic City Canine is, I found out after the fact, you know, if I started talking to them for a bit, messaging back and forth that they are out of a prison, Everglades Correctional Institution.

That's in Southwest Miami, by the Miccosukee Casino area. And I went there and they said, hey, we have a dog here, good temperament, and they have a cat at home as well as the kids. So I was like, he's good with the small animals.

He'd be real good with kids. So they let me go by there at first, maybe beginning of September to take him home for a few hours. And I took him home the first time, everything went very well, played with him in the backyard, the house, brought him back.

Then they let me take him home one more time again to see, you know, if he was compatible. And same thing, he was very nice in the house, calm, good with the cat and the kids. So I decided to say, hey, yeah, definitely like to adopt him, you know, paid the fee.

And the second time, after the second time I took him back, there was probably like a good three to four week delay because he had to finish, I guess, a training program. Like I was telling you at the prison, they have prisoners who eventually be getting out one day so they can earn, you know, another skill in life when they get out training the dogs. And he graduated, I guess, his little course, picked him up from there.

I met his trainers and they showed me all the tricks that he knows, gave me a list of stuff about him, what he can do and what we need to work on. And then from there, you know, I took him home and I found out about the dog park because my neighbor directly across the street, he has three dogs and he goes to the dog park mainly at night. He'll be like six o'clock.

He told me about it, ended up going on the first day. And that was probably a little over a month ago. And ever since then, I've probably been going about what, four times a week.

When you first came, that's when I met you. Yes, correct. And boy, has he changed.

Oh yeah, yeah. Forrest, yes, definitely. He's become part of the pack, like you said, so.

He really is a really wonderful dog. Of course, he is a ball thief. Oh yeah, yeah.

When he's in a prison, maybe he was there for theft. We don't know. So, you know, from being an adult now and having a dog, you know, not a little kid, is it everything that you thought it would be? You know, it's more because I've had kids in life, you know, took care of them.

The babies are older now, 17 and 13, but not responsibility. It's still responsibility. It's like taking care of a kid.

It's definitely more than I thought because, you know, you get up, you got to feed him, take him out, clean up after him. He's good in the house. He doesn't really go to the bathroom in the house, but sometimes, you know, he will here and there, you know, got to clean up.

So yeah, but definitely, you know, the aspect of having a dog and being happy, bringing joy to your life. Oh yeah, it's definitely that and much more. I love having him there.

He's adapting to the house very well, you know. And he is really very well, you know, socialized. Oh yeah, probably because of dogs.

He was around in the prison. There's a good group of dogs there. So did they train them in the prison? Are they all being trained at the same time? Yeah, by different people.

Yeah, by different handlers, obviously, but they're all close to each other, cages, wherever their quarters are, like next to each other. So he was interacting with dogs this entire time. So that's probably why he's like he is, the way he is.

Yeah, because he is very sociable. I mean, we'll have mix-ups here and there over, you know, somebody wants somebody ball or this or that. But we're very lucky because our dog park, everybody gets along.

There's really, if you talk to some of the other people that they go to other parks, I just go to the one we go to. Once in a while, I'll try another one. And if there's an event somewhere, but really, I mean, it's so close to where we live.

I mean, why not? Sometimes I don't even get stopped at a light. It's one and a half miles. You know, I go with the two dogs, Molly and Tilly, and it's bedlam.

It's bedlam. You know, I have to have a buzzer or whatever. But on the way back, they're wiped out.

So no, it is a wonderful thing. And, you know, I was raised with dogs. And then, you know, as I got older, I did cats, you know, when you're single, I'm still single now.

But your lifestyle, it's so much easier with cats because you don't have to be home certain times, feed them, walk them. I mean, there's schedules involved with having a dog. But it was the best thing I ever did.

I mean, I have her three years. Yeah, three years. And I wouldn't change a thing.

We walk about anywhere from five to seven miles a day. She has her routine, and I have to keep up with it. But it's a good thing.

And, you know, you meet so many great people because. Yeah, of course. We're very lucky.

We have great people at our park. I mean, we're like one big family. Oh, yeah.

All walks of life. Definitely. Yeah.

Met a lot of nice people in the last month, month and a half or wherever he's been, for sure. So how is Forrest with the cat? Are they near each other or do they. Yeah, he goes, he actually approaches the cat and more than she does to him.

And he goes, how he is with the dogs at the park around the sniffer and get real happy. Does no aggression at all. But she kisses at him.

He's got backs away a little bit more. Yeah. Tries to sniffer.

You know how dogs greet each other. They sniff each other's rear end. You try to think that to her and.

They pee on each other's pee. Well, yeah. Oh, he peed in the house a couple of times in the same spot.

And but it's plant and the cat is always around there. So, yeah, you're right about that. But yeah, she's guys is her territory for a while.

She was there a lot longer than him. So that's why she gets a little upset. But he's very good with shows no aggression, like I said, interests that he'll go lay down and he can lay by here in the same vicinity and there's no aggression towards each other.

You walk her in your neighborhood and how does he respond when you walk him in the neighborhood? Because he walks very well. Yeah, he does. He we usually have the same route and he think he knows where he's going.

He'll go to the bathroom, love the same spots. He doesn't really pull the leash. I now I've noticed I have that ball, the squeezy one or a tennis ball, and he doesn't move or he stays in the same spots or try to bite the leash a little, still that puppy tendency.

I'll toss the ball and boom, he'll grab it and then he'll start walking again. So I distract him. Where did he come from? Do you know? Originally? Yeah, I have no idea.

They don't even know either. The Everglades Correctional Institution, they don't really know originally where he came from. He's rescued from somewhere.

So yeah, that I don't know. I don't know his history. You might be able to look into it.

You might be able to do a freedom of information because when I adopted Tilly from the shelter, they told me they found her on the road, on a neighborhood street. When I did the freedom of information, I found out that she was left in an outdoor cage with another dog. I got her in August.

So she went through 4th of July, all thunderstorms. And now I know why she goes after the hose because she wasn't abused, but she probably was neglected that they just told her off. That's why I was after the hose.

And of course, why she has to have everything that she wants and never gives it up is because she was fighting for whatever she got. So you might want to look into that because it would be interesting. Yeah, of course.

He really is very mellow. And as a puppy, being trained is a big difference. I got Tilly at 11 months.

I just thought it would be easier than having a puppy and it's not easy. Definitely not. I walk Tilly.

She goes her route and it is not to be changed, not to the left, not to the right, or she gives me the side eye. But of course, she picks up stuff as we go along, like coconuts, the outer shell of it. Sometimes she keeps it in her jaw and I find it in the morning.

She's a thief. And how does your wife feel about Forrest and the kids? Because they never had dogs either, right? Did your wife grow up with any pets? Cats. Just cats, I believe.

Not dogs. Yeah. A dog is a presence.

It's not like cats, they go and sleep somewhere. Dogs, they're there. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, definitely. For sure. Dogs are there.

You can tell a big difference between that cat and that dog, for sure. Way more loyal, for sure. Yeah, but with Forrest, size matters because what is he, 110 pounds? Yeah, around there in that neighborhood.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, you had to get a big dog, right? Of course. I couldn't picture myself walking around the street the way I am with a little tiny dog, a man.

I needed something that would fit me well. Doberman Rottweiler, like a German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois. Those are the three, but I always wanted a Doberman in life.

That's the ones I always wanted. I want a picture of him, but he's not like your regular Rottweiler. And we don't know if he's pure anyway, but they didn't do his tail.

They didn't mess with his ears. From different views, he could look like a retriever. Yeah.

Somebody thought in the neighborhood that he was a retriever recently. A week or two ago, I was walking and I saw him at night. It was a little darker.

I'm sorry about that brown skin color that all of them have. And sometimes, the other dog that's there, Collie, Linda, I don't know how to say her name. Their butts, they have a design on their butts with the brown.

Yeah, yeah. You did tell me that recently. I remember you telling me that, yeah.

And your kids love them? Oh, yeah. Yeah, my kids love them. I mean, my daughter's almost 18 soon.

My son's 13, so they're not like babies, but yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely do. He likes my son a lot.

Gets along with him very well. He's real excited when he sees him in the morning and gets to jump on him, kiss him. So he's pretty close with him.

Does anybody besides you walk him? No, just mainly me. My son here and there, but he moves the most with me. I could go, if somebody else would try to walk him.

My daughter's boyfriend has. He's good with dogs, but he'll still stop and look for me. He waits for me.

He'll stay until I come. So he's attached to me a lot. So he wants to be around me.

So it's very easy for me to walk him. Until you want to go on a vacation. Haha.

Not for sure. I'll get to that point one day. We could talk about it, but you might want to try some of these pet resorts.

I could give you a couple of names. They allow you an afternoon for free. Oh, really? Okay.

I need to check that out for sure. And you know, like four or five hours. Yeah.

It might be fun for him, something different just to see. They have overnights, but they'll let you come in during the day for free. And a couple of them, they have a pool.

It'd be curious to see what he would do with that. Oh yeah. We have a pool.

I do have a pool. I do have a pool as well. Does he go in your pool? He hasn't won it yet.

He's curious. He steps on the steps a little bit. The ball falls in.

The ball he plays with the backyard falls in. He looks at it and he tries to reach it. He's a little hesitant.

He tried to get in the jump and I think he did once, but I wasn't there. Then he actually got knocked in the pool once by another dog. They have to know how to get in so they know how to get out.

He got knocked in by accident one time by another dog. It was over, but he got out. How did he get out? The steps? Steps.

Yeah. He got the steps. That's what he has to learn because a lot of trainers, that's the first thing they teach a dog with a pool is how to get out.

Same thing with kids. Yeah. Yeah.

Of course. People say, oh, my kid swims. My little kid swims.

Well, you got to be able to swim from one end of the pool to the other. But what happens with kids is they get terrified and then they get tired. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Always know where the sides are. Let's take a break and we'll be right back with Brian.

Okay, everybody, we're back with Brian and this is his first dog. He's in his 40s and he finally has his first dog, which is, I think it's a wonderful thing. Too bad you can't take him to work with you.

That would be great if I was in the canine unit. Almost. One day, almost one.

Oh, maybe you could train him. Yeah, train him. Well, I have a friend from work.

They had a police woman at the park that used to bring her Dobie. Yeah, what are you telling me? Little area. And then the dog flunked out.

Ah, okay. Take the dog to run. And I always used to say to her, oh, bring her in with us.

No, can't do. But she did it for a couple of months and then the dog flunked out. Yeah, I got a friend from work who does rescues for Malinois and Shepherds and he does training to us.

I was thinking about bringing Forest to him as well. I know you told me about the other guy, Miguel. I wanted to see as well, this guy with the Malinois, see what kind of training he has.

Maybe get Forest trained somehow as well, a little bit more. Yeah. I mean, I think, quite frankly, we were talking today, I think Forest knows more than what you know he knows.

Yeah, me too. Definitely. Like hand signals.

I think they did because we watch him walk. He's got the focus on you. That's the most important that they, like I asked Molly and Tilly to check in every once in a while.

Yeah, I remember you told me the other day at the park, he came back to check on me. Like, oh, he's checking in with you. That's good.

I remember you told me that. Yeah, but they told you what they taught him, right? They did have hand signals for, yeah, they did. No, they had the hand signals as well.

They do for sure. They told me. Yeah.

And he still, I still came in to do it. He was very food motivated. They talk very food motivated with the treats and stuff and for the hand, how they trained him.

And, you know, he still does them, but I don't want him to get away from the, how do you call it, from like with the commands that he knows that he still has. Unless you want to use your fingers and you got the ball, believe it or not, it's like all of those dogs there, they're into the ball. If it's not theirs, they want somebody else's.

Oh, I was telling you about the commands. I have a list that I want to show you what they gave me of all the commands. You should know there's a whole bunch of them.

I'll bring it the next time I see you. This might, I hope, inspire other people when they go to look for a dog, that there are different avenues because a lot of people, when I, before I got Tilly, I went through a foster because we wanted to make sure that the dog I got, got along with other dogs and cats and they blew me off. And I mean, come on, how could you not want me to adopt your dog? I was devastated.

I had to go to a shelter. I never went to a shelter in my life. It was heartbreaking.

So if this could be an avenue for people to go and adopt, but you had to pay a fee, right? Absolutely. Yeah. A great thing for sure.

And I never knew much about dogs. I guess it was my first dog, adoption, the process and all that. I just looked online and went with my gut feeling and it felt right.

And I happened to just find them. I texted a, or not texted, but I was in contact with other agencies and I almost adopted a pit bull. She's aggressive, kept calling me, calling me, calling me to adopt a pit bull.

But I don't know, I saw the picture of Forrest and everything and they weren't as pushy. They're pushy on the pit bull for some reason, but they, Forrest, nah, they let me take them home twice. So it was pretty.

He's the perfect dog for you. He really is. And for our pack, he really is.

He's going to be a contender. He might end up being captain, captain of the team with every different personality because some of the other dogs, they're coming out of their shell. And then, you know, you could see, I mean, it's Tilly and Molly and Mocha, you know, they've always played together, but now we got Riley.

He's becoming very vocal. When he first came, he just walked with Bob. He didn't have anything to do with us.

Listen, it's the best way to start the day. I love going in the morning. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Gets my day going quick.

I love it. It's a wonderful thing. Oh yeah.

Love it. If there's anything else you want to tell our listeners. So it came out as Forrest, but I almost changed his name too, because the tag and his name tag said Damien, Damien.

Forrest goes, but he responds to that. Forrest is a perfect name for him. Yeah.

Yeah. Forrest is the perfect name for him. So you named him that or he had that name? Yeah.

It was a name. Yeah. Right when I first saw pictures and stuff of him and everything.

Yeah. He's already named Forrest. Other prisons do this as well? I assume they do.

I've heard of it, but I don't know exactly which ones, but yeah, they do though. They do. Where statewide, worldwide, there might be other states that, so to all our listeners, that's another avenue and they're already trained.

Yes. Yeah. That's a good thing.

They're already trained. So it helped a lot. Big difference.

Like an old dog. Yeah, exactly. With the other dogs that was in the- They're mainly, no, they're around the same age, a lot of them.

One-year-old. I saw some two, three-year-olds. There's one puppy in there.

I believe he was a Shepherd Malinois mixed. He was a small, he was small. He's a few months old.

They said he was right next to Forrest in his cage. They had the question originally, how Forrest would be around the cat. He's like, well, he hasn't been specifically around cats necessarily, but he's around the dog.

I think his name was Beagle was the dog's name. He was a Malinois Shepherd and- Those tough dogs. Yeah.

And they said he was very good around the small dog. So they assumed he'd be good with a cat. He's good around dogs, that's for sure.

Beagle was next door in that smaller dog section. He's very good with them too. So, yeah, he doesn't get aggressive.

You should bring them there because when it's too much mud, we go over there. At first they made a big stink, but- Yeah, we did the other day when I was there. Yeah, I remember we were throwing the ball over there when it went over the other side of the fence.

Our park is big. Well, I want to thank you for sharing your story. Oh yeah, anytime.

Anytime, for sure. Glad to share it. We'll have it back once we'll do an anniversary of what it's been like to pick up poop for over a year.

For sure, yes. Adding a little tidbit to the show that you just listened to, and that is to say that that gorgeous, wonderful forest was returned. And needless to say, I'm very disappointed.

We got no warning that he was going to be returned. And I just want to let people know what happens to an animal when they are returned. Normally it's three, three, and three.

Three days after coming from wherever you get the dog from to decompress and not be in a cage and just relax. After those three days, it's three weeks till they learn your routine. And after those three weeks, it's three months till they believe and feel they have found or forever home.

Forest didn't get that. I think Forest was only with this gentleman for two months. But what it does to a dog is, you know, they are living, breathing, sociable animals like ourselves.

Number one, they start to lose trust. Besides the sadness. And I'm not saying that he went back to a bad situation.

I'm sure going back to the trainer, he's going to be loved. I'm sure there's other dogs there that might have been his pals. But when he was hanging with us, this dog had it made.

He had a lot of friends. He chased balls. He was, he could have been the captain of the team.

He was a really, really loved member of our dog park. And what happens is, you know, they lose their confidence and they become a little timid. Or maybe he'll, he'll create a persona that he won't be so easygoing.

And I have to say, this dog was trained very well. Better than the owner that had him knowing what this dog knew. Because there were definitely hand signals that even I would do with him that I could see.

He was, for 18 months, he was trained well and he lived well. And then he comes out and he has a and people that he thought loved him. He came to the park with other people who grew to love him and he had dogs that really liked him and wanted to play with him.

And then one day he's put into the car and he's driven back and put back into a cage. I'm sure that there is some socialization maybe with the other dogs there. But this is what happens to the dogs when people, even people that go to a shelter.

They get a dog, you know, they give it a couple of days or a couple of weeks or even a couple of months and then they decide, eh, too much work. I don't know if the dog is for me. You know what? If you don't commit, don't get a dog.

If you can't be somebody who will commit come hell or high water, no matter what happens, when you walk out with that dog, you have to keep that dog until the day you have to put him down or her down. Sorry, there's no excuses for this. I think it's just lazy and it's selfish.

If you didn't want the dog and you weren't going to commit, then don't get it. It's not like buying a pocketbook or a boat or a car. I'm very, very disappointed, as is everybody else at the park, because nobody was even alerted.

Maybe there was somebody at the park that might have wanted the dog. I heard through the grapevine that somebody did want the dog, but because there was a contract, they had to bring the dog back, which, listen, these people are in jail. How are they going to know? But meanwhile, there's a dog now back on the gravel, back behind bars.

I'm sure he's getting love and a lot of fun things, but in his mind is the memory of where he was before, because this dog still was only 18 months, so the dog definitely was a puppy. I just think it's cruel, because I think that the confidence and the trust is going to shift, and maybe the dog will develop certain other habits, because he didn't know what he did. I don't think he was brought back for anything he did.

I think he was brought back for what the owner couldn't provide, which was commitment. I just think that when you get a dog, a cat, when you make that commitment, listen, my Tilly is, she is not perfect. She is a hoodlum.

I wouldn't trade her for all the tea in China. We adapt. I still love her.

You know, I work around it. She's not perfect, and she was found outside in a cage, so a lot of her stuff is for what she went through, because when I adopted her, I was told they found her on the streets. That wasn't so.

She was in an outside cage, and I got her in August, which means she went through 4th of July, which is a horrible time for her, any kind of fireworks, and down here in Florida, when they do fireworks for one day, it lasts a week, so you just have to, you know, if you're not going to make the commitment, nobody's going to fault you. Don't get an animal, or maybe you'd be better at fostering if you think that it's an animal that might be adopted fairly soon, or maybe, you know, you could take a dog for a weekend, you know, a Fido weekend, but if you're not going to commit forever, please don't get a dog, because what happens is all of the pain and the suffering and the sadness could pile up, because, you know, a lot of these dogs in shelters, how many times have they been returned, or what are they doing in a shelter to begin with? I mean, the most loving animals who would do anything for you, would wag their tail when you come in the house, to treat them that way is just unforgivable. So I just wanted to let you know, I decided to post the show anyway, because it was delightful while it lasted, and this is really a teaching moment that we don't really know what Forrest is going through, but since we at our age have had pets, and probably shelter animals, and met dogs that have certain issues, anxiety, we can well imagine that I'm sure he's not happy.

He had a loving home, or so he thought, but I just wanted to enlighten you, and maybe if somebody's listening there, and they're thinking of getting an animal to adopt, please only adopt if you're going to make the commitment forever, because really these are living, breathing, wonderful animals, and when you have them, and it takes time for them to adjust, and that's all I want to say, and I'm breathing regularly now, because I've been quite upset. I want to thank Mark, I want to thank Tilly for making me a dog mom, and remember to live life unleashed. Bye everybody, see you next time.