Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Selah Marting. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Selah, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents have impacted my career path in multiple beneficial ways. Firstly, just having the support to not go to a traditional university and go to a dog training school instead, changed everything. I always knew I wanted to work with animals and my parents never tried to push me towards a more “acceptable” career. My mom passed on her love of animals and overall caring and kind personality.
My dad taught me how important working hard and doing a quality job is.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a Program Instructor at Paws for Purple Hearts in San Diego where I train Service Dogs for Veterans. After going to Bergin University I had the opportunity to help start the San Diego branch of PPH in 2016. I’ve been a part of our growing team ever since. My favorite part of the job is what we call Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy. In these groups we teach Veterans about what it takes to train Service Dogs, then they take part in hands on practice. It’s very satisfying being able to tell the Veterans that the dog they’ve worked with for the past number of months or years is now going to impact additional Veteran(s) as a working dog. Our participants can take pride in the fact that they were a part of that journey.
Even the dogs that don’t end up being placed, have worked with and taught hundreds of Veterans about dog behavior, training, and the benefits of canine love.
Specifically, in those groups, the most memorable moments are when closed off participants who are not sold on our positive reinforcement training methods begin to see the results. The accomplishment they feel working through a challenge, such as teaching a dog how to turn on a light switch, then succeeding, is unmatched.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When starting the San Diego branch in 2016, it was just two dogs in training, my coworker, and myself in a small apartment. We didn’t get a facility until two years later, so all the training and office work took place in our home. We learned how to manage the Service Dogs in Training alongside our personal dogs, as well as maintaining all our other job requirements. Once we were able to move into a building in 2018, we had to/got to start from scratch – setting up the ideal dog training facility. We continue to adjust and improve our facility as we learn better ways to work with and train our dogs.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’ve always worked with a small team at our site (five people or less) and being able to stay in close communication and assist each other where needed is key. It is not “every man for himself”, but a team effort to make everything run smoothly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pawsforpurplehearts.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjwoqGnBhAcEiwAwK-OkaQvl9tvgjS1_AKniqdIcJOz3-__sRFiLD97eyKXXXXO7GmOhMPnDBoCbbEQAvD_BwE
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawsforpurplehearts.ca/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PawsForPurpleHeartsSanDiego/

Image Credits
Greg DeSantis