A Most Intriguing Man's Mind

When Jay and I were gone on our trip to Grand Rapids this weekend, we met a most amazing person.

No.

He wasn't some famous celebrity.

In fact, he wasn't well-known at all.

But over the last month or two of knowing him, we have come to admire his incredible generosity and vision.

This man would seem to be just another night stock worker at Amazon, but underlying the hard physical labor he does for the world's largest distribution center is a humble guy with big ideas.

Over the past few months, this person has revealed just how thought-provoking and vast his mind operates.

The level at which his mind delves into advancing the Dire Wolf Project's training branch, called Dire Wolf Guardians, is simply awe-inspiring.

I will be forever grateful for this man's kindness in putting countless hours of his focus on our project and how to improve the lives of our families and their wonderful companion dogs.

You may remember me speaking about him from a previous email.

His name is Woody, and last year he trained one of our dogs in a board and train for a week.

During that brief time, he realized there was something different about the dogs from the Dire Wolf Project. Something special. And in his own words, something that surpassed the German Shepherd Dogs he’d worked with for years.

A year passed and he never forgot the dog that challenged him and changed his understanding of how dogs should be trained.

Because of Woody’s special interest in our dogs and the Dire Wolf Project, I have had the privilege of many daily text messages. In them, he freely shares his ideas about how the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training program can be expanded to include fully-trained companion dogs.  

And…

They are very well thought out.

He just sits on his break at Amazon and thinks of how to help us.

What an amazing thing.

So…

Jay and I decided we MUST meet him in person on our trip.

Woody was thrilled we would be willing to meet up with him on our way through Chicago.

After working a full night-shift at Amazon, he drove to the airport and shared a very early morning chat.

He met us with a welcome sign! What a thoughtful gesture… and while he was dog tired from working all night, too.

He rode the train with us to the car rental facility.

We chatted like old friends the entire way.

It was such a pleasure to meet him in person.

I wish I could say that he could drop everything there and come work for us, but it isn’t the right time.

But…

The ideas flow from this guy like water from an artesian well.

Jay and I are kicking around a bunch of them, especially hiring a dog-training intern willing to learn our companion dog ways.

We have to work out the details, of course, but with fully-trained dogs sold at the right price, we would be able to afford a respectable salary for said intern… thereby giving them a chance to learn a new lifelong skill… possibly turning someone’s lifelong dream into a reality.

Plus, the dogs would have the chance to gain the knowledge they need to transition perfectly into a new family… cutting down the time needed to integrate themselves fully into their new life.

We see only good things coming from such a path.

In addition to all of that, we would have someone on site who could carry a camera, filming a bunch of training techniques for all of you.

The additional training footage would only help you continue to learn the special companion dog training required for our amazing new type of dog.

Anyway, I hope you have been regularly perusing the Dire Wolf Project website. There are many new pages going up.

For example, did you know that a new dire wolf fossil has been identified in Canada?

YEP!

Dire wolves have now been proven to have lived in Canada during the Ice Age.

Amazing!

Here’s the link:

https://direwolfproject.com/dire-wolf/canadas-first-dire-wolf/  

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.