Michael B. Ritland born in Waterloo, Iowa is a former United States Navy SEAL, public speaker and dog trainer. He created the Warrior Dog Foundation, to provide care to dogs that have ended their service in battle front, and the Team Dog Online Training Community.
Ritland joined the US Navy in 1996. Ritland (BUD/S) at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and graduated from BUD/S class 215 in 1998. [1] Ritland served 12 years as a US Navy SEAL with SEAL Team THREE and saw action in Operation Iraqi Freedom and numerous special operations missions. A nearby marine mission in particular, had a detailed account of an explosive-detector dog alert to a grenade booby trap hidden in a doorway, saving the lives of the Marines assigned to the mission. Ritland then decided to work with similar dogs, and harness their abilities to defeat the tools of modern warfare. Due to that, Ritland became a Navy SEAL Multi-purpose canine trainer. [2]
After his service, Ritland served as the West Coast Navy SEAL Multi-purpose canine trainer. After his time on the west coast, he started Trikos International, which specializes in providing working K9s to celebrities, private individuals, and government agencies. [3] He has over 15 years experience in importing, breeding, raising, and training multiple breeds of working dogs.
Ritland also created the Warrior Dog Foundation, a non-profit special operations K9 retirement foundation, [4] dedicated to serving working military K9s, the special operations community, and their families.
He has been asked to work with various pet companies like Dogtra, [5] Oma's Pride Raw Dog Food, and TEFCO. [6]
He and his personal K9 collaborated in 2013 with Xbox to create Call of Duty: Ghosts , contributing to the creation of the character of the dog (Riley). [7]
In addition to its presence in social networks, Ritland provides online training to dog owners through the Team Dog Online Training Community.
He is credited in helping mainstream the "Epstein didn't kill himself" internet meme at the end of an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News. Ritland asked if he could give a "PSA". After being told that he could, he stated, "If you see the coverage [about combat dogs] and you decide I want one of these dogs, either buy a fully trained and finished dog from a professional or just don't get one at all. That, and Epstein didn't kill himself." [8] [9] Ritland later stated his purpose for suddenly mentioning the phrase was to keep the Jeffrey Epstein story alive. [10] [11] According to The Washington Post , the meme gained a large amount of attention in the immediate aftermath of this interview. [12] [13]
Mike Ritland is a New York Times Best Selling author: [14] [15]
He also has been featured in publications such as Town & Country, [20] Police K9 Magazine, [21] K9 Cop Magazine, [22] SOFREP, [23] The Washington Post, [24] the Huffington Post, [25] NYPOST, [26] Men's Journal, [27] Texas Monthly. [28]
He was keynote speaker for Purdue University's Discovery Lecture Series, for Bucknell University, [29] and for various schools for children across the United States.
He participated in conferences across the country, including Stansberry Conference Series, [30] ESA Security Conference, HITS Training Conference, [31] California Narcotic Canine Association, [32] and IaAWPd Iowa Association of Women Police.
He also has been interviewed by CBS Baltimore, [33] CBS' 60 Minutes , [34] CBS 60-Minutes Overtime, [35] C-SPAN, [16] Fox News, [36] [37] and Fox and Friends , [38] among others.
A police dog, also known as a K-9, is a dog that is trained to assist police and other law enforcement officers. Their duties may include searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing people, finding crime scene evidence, protecting officers and other people, and attacking suspects who flee from officers. The breeds most commonly used by law enforcement are the German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhound, Dutch Shepherd, and Labrador Retriever. In recent years, the Belgian Malinois has become the leading choice for police and military work due to their intense drive, focus, agility, and smaller size, though German Shepherds remain the breed most associated with law enforcement.
Musical canine freestyle, also known as musical freestyle, freestyle dance, and canine freestyle, is a modern dog sport that is a mixture of obedience training, tricks, and dance that allows for creative interaction between dogs and their owners. The sport has developed into competition forms in several countries around the world.
A search-and-rescue (SAR) dog is a dog trained to respond to crime scenes, accidents, missing persons events, as well as natural or man-made disasters. These dogs detect human scent, which is a distinct odor of skin flakes and water and oil secretions unique to each person and have been known to find people under water, snow, and collapsed buildings, as well as remains buried underground. SAR dogs are a non-invasive aid in the location of humans, alive or deceased.
Dogs have a very long history in warfare, starting in ancient times. From being trained in combat, to their use as the scouts, sentries, messengers, mercy dogs, and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military usage.
Canine Companions for Independence is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that trains and provides assistance dogs. As of 2018, it has placed over 6,000 assistance dogs with recipients at no charge.
Endal was a male Labrador Retriever in Britain whose abilities as a service dog and as an ambassador for service dog charitable work received worldwide news media coverage.
Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, ethologist, and dog trainer. He received his veterinary degree and a Special Honours degree in Physiology & Biochemistry from the Royal Veterinary College, and a doctorate in ethology from the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley, where he researched the development of social hierarchies and aggression in domestic dogs.
The human–canine bond is rooted in the domestication of the dog, which began occurring through their long-term association with hunter-gatherers more than 30,000–40,000 years ago. The earliest known relationship between dogs and humans is attested by the 1914 discovery of the Bonn–Oberkassel dog, who was buried alongside two humans in modern-day Oberkassel, Germany, approximately 15,000 years ago. For centuries, the phrase "man's best friend" has commonly been used to refer to dogs, as they were the first species and the only large carnivore to have been domesticated. This companionship is most evident in Western countries, such as the United States, where 44% of households were found to be keeping at least one dog as a pet.
A flirt pole, also called a "flirt stick", is a piece of exercise equipment for dogs that entices a dog to chase a fast moving lure. This equipment is often used to physically condition a dog and improve the dog's skills for better performance in certain competitions such as lure-coursing or Schutzhund. It is often used simply to get a dog to exert a lot of energy in a small space.
In June 2010, K9s4COPs was founded by Kristi Schiller of Houston, Texas, to raise charitable funds to donate K9s to law enforcement agencies and school districts across the nation.
Donald W. Shipley is a retired United States Navy SEAL, who has gained recognition for his activism investigating and publicizing individuals who have made false claims of military service.
The U.S. Military Working Dog Teams National Monument is a monument to military working dogs located at Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA)-Lackland in San Antonio, Texas. The monument represents handlers, dogs, and veterinary support, from all military service branches that have made up the Military Working Dog program since World War II. The monument grounds include a 3,000 square feet granite plaza, granite pedestals, granite history wall, granite benches and water fountain. The granite pedestals have large bronze statues of dogs and handlers. The monument was dedicated on October 28, 2013.
Ricochet was a female Golden Retriever dog from San Diego. She was one of the original surfing dogs that started the whole dog surfing circuit. She entered her first surf dog competition when she was 15 months old. She was a competitive surfing dog for several years and typically placed in one of the top three spots of competitions.
Warrior Dog Foundation is a non-profit organization located in the Cooper, Texas, United States that provides care and comfort to dogs that have ended their service supporting American troops. Its main goal is to give the dogs a place to live out their golden years having fun on a ranch with dignity and respect.
K9s For Warriors is an American charity and veterans service organization that provides service dogs to veterans. The organization trains rescue dogs to help veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, post-9/11 issues and other psychological challenges associated with military service.
A New Leash on Life: The K9s for Warriors Story is a 2018 documentary film written and directed by Nick Nanton.
"Epstein didn't kill himself" is a meme referring to multiple conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Jeffrey Epstein that dispute the official ruling of suicide by hanging. Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier and convicted sex offender with connections to powerful and wealthy people, and his reported suicide led to numerous hypotheses about the nature and cause of his death. The phrase became a colloquialism as well as an internet meme, gaining traction in November 2019 as more of the circumstances around his death became public. The most common theory asserts that the true cause of his death was homicide, via strangulation, arranged by one or more co-conspirators to prevent him from revealing any compromising information.
Canine Intervention (Canine Academy) is an American Netflix original TV show/reality show of 6 episodes of about 35 minutes each. Originally a web-series, the premiere on Netflix occurred on February 24, 2021. The show takes place in Oakland, California. It deals with dog training, through the main protagonist, Jasalah Leverette and his dog training facility, Cali K9 in San Jose. Each episode displays Leverette coping with specific cases. The show is directed by Elise Duran and produced by the A.Smith & co-Productions company.
Mardi Paws is a Mardi Gras procession in Covington, Louisiana dedicated to animal welfare.
In law enforcement work, police dogs are used worldwide for a variety of purposes that include apprehension, detection, and search and rescue.