Producer Interview: The Passion and Inspiration Behind Dogs of Service

Dogs of Service, our latest local documentary, follows the two-year service dog training process—from training as puppies, to living in prison, to traveling the world. Before you hear the stories of their handlers and the journeys these dogs take, learn more about where the documentary all began and the process behind telling this story from the program's producer and associate producer. Read the producers' interview or check them out on camera with the video below.

Dogs of Service premieres on air March 3, 2025 at 7 p.m. and will be available on our website and the PBS app for on-demand streaming.

Tiffany Clouse, associate producer: What intrigued me about this documentary and working on this documentary really can be summed up in one word: dogs. I'm a dog lover through and through. I always have been. I've always had dogs. My husband and I have three dogs of our own. My license plate says Dogs Rule. I have a pawprint tattoo on my arm.

So, initially that was really what drew me to it. But over the course of filming the documentary, it really became so much more than that.

Patrick Boberg, producer: 2021, I was out to lunch with my daughters, sitting outside of a restaurant, and some people sit down next to us that have a service dog with them.

And my older daughter at the time, I think was 4 or 5, and she got excited and I said, “Hey, hold on. This dog's working. It's wearing that vest; means we’ve got to leave it alone.” And the guy was extremely nice and just said, “That's exactly right. That's what we're supposed to tell people.”

And he says, this dog, and gives us the name. And then we're just casually talking over lunch and he's running me down on Puppy Jake, which the dog is from Puppy Jake Foundation. And how it lives with them for a few months, and then it goes to prison.

And I was blown away by the idea of this service dog going to prison for training. And from then he just told me the whole story of how they train dogs, the Puppy Jake Foundation. And I immediately in my brain said, this is a documentary. And I went back to work after lunch and told my supervisor, who's now the General Manager, Andrew, Andrew Batt, said, this is a documentary. He said, okay, in time, we'll do it. Here we are. And it's pretty much done.

Tiffany:I think that the understanding of the importance of service dogs has really come a long way, but there's still a lot of education that needs to be done on service dogs, especially things like public access and service dog etiquette and rights that are afforded to a service dogs and their person through the ADA and the PAWS Act. And I really hope that this documentary can become a tool to do just that, to educate people on the importance of service dogs and really how they change people's lives.

We heard countless stories of people who, because of their disability, whether that disability is visible or not, were unable to leave their homes, they were unable to go out and do something with their spouse or their partner. They were unable to attend their children's social or sports or school activities. And because of their service dog, they were able to become active participants in not only their lives but in their family's lives, and they were able to be in public places and crowds, attend a concert with their spouse, attend their child's basketball game or choir concert, whatever that may be.

Patrick: We really wanted to make sure that we weren't messing with the program that these dogs are going through. So we kind of changed our like modus operandi or how we go about things and went from our normal big Sony cameras down to handheld ones, and then even smaller ones that are smaller than your cell phone, so that we could follow these dogs without them caring about us. I mean, they register there's a human being there, but they don't think that person has a 50-pound giant camera or whatever that is. They're a dog. They don't know, but they just see us walking with this little mini camera.

There's so many times where I was walking with this little mobile camera, where I just stick it over my shoulder and turn it around. I can monitor at my phone or under, sling it and then, you know, see them walking, try and be at the dog's eye and the dog would not notice. And that feels like not only a win for us, but a secret win for the dogs in the program. Because if they, if they're not, if we're not impeding their process, that is great.

Tiffany: A veteran that we interviewed, his name is Matt, and he was telling us the story of when he was working with his service dog. He and his family were there with the dog and his son. I don't remember how old he was, maybe 5 or 6, pretty young. He looked at him and he said, “Dad, you're smiling and I've never seen you smile before.” And so what a fantastic moment for this father and son to have because of this service dog.

Oh it really struck me when we were filming this documentary, and this can really apply to anyone that has a service dog, whether it be for PTSD or anxiety or mobility or hearing loss, whatever it may be. But it really struck me with our veterans that these are people, men and women, who have gone out and fought for our freedoms. And because of that, they've actually lost some of their own. And their service dogs have allowed them to get back some of those freedoms.

Patrick: We could have easily just followed Puppy Jake, but I wanted other places to provide scale. So about two thirds of the way through the process, I reached out to Canine Companions, which is this dog right here, and the trainer as well. And they're their national organization. So they've placed over 8,000 dogs in their 50-year time span, which is incredible.

But when I went out there, we're filming, we're getting some really fun shots with the dogs and their training process and interviewing families that have been impacted. But there's a certain point when I was interviewing a person from Puppy Jake about the change in the American Disabilities Act, and it just clicked in my head, oh, we have the documentary. We have everything we need. You know, we have the facts. We have the heart.

We have the dogs doing all types of incredible things. We have them traveling to Chicago in New York, and we've gone to Kansas City to interview a different type of service dog. And when that happens in a documentary, I just get super excited that like, this is going to edit itself.

Tiffany: Three specific good boys from the Puppy Jake Foundation, Hal, Hyde and Checkers, and they were in the beginning of their service dog training, and when we started filming and we went to Chicago on a training trip with three trainers and three dogs, and those were the three dogs. And we witnessed them not only from their journey when they started to grow into a service dog, but just over the three days that we followed them around Chicago, we saw them grow and become comfortable with things that they weren't necessarily comfortable with - escalators, revolving doors, everything you encounter in a big city. And our last shoot for the documentary was actually their graduation, and they graduated from the program as full fledged service dogs, and they went home with their veterans.

Patrick: It's really fun to meet people who live for what they do, not as a job, but as a volunteer or the thing that they do outside of their 9 to 5. The volunteers for Puppy Jake, they're dedicated in a way that I wish I was dedicated to something outside of my job, outside of my family. It's like they live for these puppies and for the people that they are going to to help. And they make lifelong bonds, not only with a dog, which may not be around for more than 12 years, but with these veterans and with their family members and I feel like driving home from any of these shoots, I just kind of found myself with like a sense of awe that there's this dedication out there from these people that they're not receiving anything other than the the feeling of they're doing good out there in the world.

Transcript

Tiffany Clouse:What intrigued me about this documentary

and working on this documentary really can be summed up

in one word dogs.

I'm a dog lover through and through.

I always have been.

I've always had dogs.

My husband and I have three dogs of our own.

My license plate says Dogs Rule.

I have a pawprint tattoo on my arm. So,

initially that was really what drew me to it.

But over the course of filming the documentary,

it really became so much more than that.

Patrick Boberg: 2021, I was out to lunch

with my daughters, sitting outside of a restaurant,

and some people sit down next to us that have,

a service dog with them.

And my older daughter at the time, I think was 4 or 5,

and she got excited and I said, hey, hold on.

This dog's working. It's wearing that vest means we got to leave it alone.

And the guy was extremely nice and just said, so.

That's exactly right. That's what we're supposed to tell people.

And he says, this dog and give us the name.

And then we're just

casually talking over lunch and he's running me down on

Puppy Jake, which the dog is from Puppy Jake Foundation.

And how it lives with them for a few months,

and then it goes to prison.

And I was blown away by the idea

of this service dog going to prison for training.

And from then he just told me the whole story

of how they train dogs, the Puppy Jake Foundation.

And I immediately in my brain said, this is a documentary.

And I went back to work after lunch and told my

supervisor, who's now the General Manager,

Andrew, Andrew Batt, said, this is a documentary.

He said, okay, in time, we'll do it.

Here we are. And it's pretty much done.

Tiffany:I think that the understanding of the importance of service

dogs has really come a long way,

but there's still a lot of education

that needs to be done on service dogs,

especially things like public access and, service dog

etiquette and rights that are afforded to a service dog

and their person through the ADA and the Paws act.

And I really hope that this documentary

can become a tool to do just that,

to educate people on the importance of service

dogs and really how they change people's lives.

We heard countless stories of people who,

because of their disability, whether that disability

is visible or not, were unable to leave their homes,

they were unable to go out and do something

with their spouse or their partner.

They were unable to attend their children's social or sports or school activities.

And because of their service dog,

they were able to become active participants

in not only their lives but in their family's lives,

and they were able to be in public places and crowds,

attend a concert with their spouse,

attend their child's basketball game

or choir concert, whatever that may be.

Patrick: We really wanted to make sure that we weren't,

messing with the program that these dogs are going through.

So we kind of changed our

like modus operandi or how we go about things

and went from our normal

big Sony cameras down to handheld ones,

and then even smaller ones

that are smaller than your cell phone,

so that we could follow these dogs without them

caring about us.

I mean, they register there's a human being there,

but they don't think that person has a 50 pound giant camera

or whatever that is. They're a dog.

They don't know, but they

they just see us walking with this little mini camera.

There's so many times where I was walking with this little mobile camera,

where I just stick it over my shoulder and turn it around.

I can monitor at my phone or under, sling it and then,

you know, see them walking, try and be at the dog's eye and the dog would not notice.

And that feels like not only a win for us,

but a secret win for the for the dogs in the program.

Because if they if they're not,

if we're not impeding their process, that is great.

Tiffany: A veteran that we interviewed,

his name is Matt,

and he was telling us the story of when he was working

with his service dog. He and his family were there with the dog and his son.

I don't remember how old he was, maybe 5 or 6, pretty young.

He looked at him and he said, dad, you're smiling

and I've never seen you smile before.

And so what a fantastic moment for this

father and son to have because of this service dog.

Oh it really struck me

when we were filming this documentary,

and this can really apply to anyone that has a service dog,

whether it be for PTSD or anxiety

or mobility or hearing loss, whatever it may be.

But it really struck me with our veterans

that these are people, men and women,

who have gone out and fought for our freedoms.

And because of that, they've actually lost some of their own.

And their service dogs

have allowed them to get back some of those freedoms.

Patrick: We could have easily just followed Puppy Jake,

but I wanted other places to provide scale.

So about two thirds of the way through the process,

I reached out to Canine Companions, which is this dog right here,

and the trainer as well.

And they're their national organization.

So they've placed over 8000 dogs in their 50-year time span,

which is incredible.

But when I went out there, we're filming,

we're getting some really fun shots with the dogs and their training process and

interviewing families that have been impacted.

But there's a certain point when I was interviewing a person

from Puppy Jake about the change in the American Disabilities Act,

and I just clicked in my head, oh, we have the documentary.

We have everything we need.

You know, we have the facts. We have the heart.

We have the dogs doing all types of incredible things.

We have them traveling to Chicago in New York,

and we've gone to Kansas City to interview

a different type of, service dog.

And it when that happens in a documentary, I just get

super excited that like, this is going to edit itself.

Tiffany: Three specific good boys from the Puppy Jake Foundation,

Hal Hyde and Checkers,

and they were in the beginning of their service dog training,

and when we started filming

and we went to, Chicago on a training trip with

three trainers and three dogs, and those were the three dogs.

And we witnessed them not only from their journey

when they started to grow into a service dog,

but just over the three days

that we followed them around Chicago, we saw them grow

and become comfortable with things

that they weren't necessarily comfortable with,

escalate is revolving doors.

Everything you encounter in a big city and,

our last shoot for

the documentary was actually their graduation,

and they graduated from the program as full fledged

service dogs, and they went home with their veterans.

Patrick: It's really fun to meet people who live for what they do,

not as a job, but as a volunteer or the thing that they do

outside of their 9 to 5.

The volunteers for Puppy Jake,

they're dedicated in a way that I wish I was

dedicated to something outside of my job, outside of my family.

It's like they live for these puppies

and for the people that they are going to to help.

And they make lifelong bonds, not only with a dog,

which may not be around for more than 12 years,

but with these veterans and with their family members

and I feel like driving home from any of these shoots,

I just kind of found myself with like a sense of awe that

there's this dedication out there to from these people

that they're not receiving anything other than the

the feeling of they're doing good out there in the world.