It is animal radio celebrating the connection with our bats. Our bats. Today we're doing that. We have Batman's sidekick Robin Burt Ward is joining us right now. Hi, how are you doing, Bert? Hello, citizen. It is great to hear from you. I understand that you are now involved with saving animals and dogs in particular and giant dogs. Well, actually, for the last 25 years, my wife and I have operated gentle giants rescue and adoptions the world's largest giant free dog rescue. And in the last 25 years, we've rescued more than 15,500 dogs. Everyone which would have been put to sleep if we hadn't been there to take it out of a shelter or to take it over from an owner that had to give it up. In the course of doing that, we have discovered some fantastic things. We have dogs now living, and I'm sure since you get there, she would be very happy to hear. We have dogs living up to 27 years healthy and active including giant breeds. I thought giant breeds generally don't live a very long life. They live shorter lives now. They don't. I'll give you some actual numbers. Irish wolfhounds and masks 5 to 7 years, great game 7 to 9 years. Russian wolfhound 7 to 9 years and other breeds, they can live a little longer. But in fact, the average dog in America I understand actually only lives about 9 or ten years on average. What made you decide to bring in big breeds? Because when we moved here from Los Angeles, we're about an hour east of Los Angeles halfway between LA and Palm Springs. My wife and I, 25 years ago, move with our young daughter and we decided to get her a dog. I mean, my whole life, I've had dogs, and I've trained dogs. In fact, I handle dogs, including military and police dogs and stuff. I mean, my wife and our expert handlers. But we wanted to get a dog for our daughter. And we wanted to get a great game. We found it was very hard to find them because there weren't any. And we did some more research and found out that the rescue that had been there before for great games, the lady had actually died. And people that were giving up their great Danes, if they couldn't find a home, they go to a shelter. And in animal shelters, dogs are barking in cages all day long. And who's going to take out a big gray game that's barking in a cage. So they were all being put to death. And with my wife and I were so upset because great gains are very gentle dogs. They call them gentle giants. Hence our name. And so I said to my wife, the first week in August of 1994, I said Tracy, we can't let these dogs die. How about just for a couple of weeks? Just so we find somebody else to take this over to the rescue the great. Well, by the end of August, we had more than a hundred years. And it's been 20 5 years. I'm a patient guy, but nobody has come to take this over. That's okay. I think you're doing it the right way anyway. Anyway, what happened was and how we got these dogs to live so much longer and I'm sure your vest is going to be very interesting because I'm going to be saying things she or she might not be aware of. But we couldn't stand it when we would lose one of our dogs. And in the beginning, the Danes living 7 to 9 years, when we would lose one, my wife and I would absolutely sob. I mean, it just affects us so much. We couldn't stand it. So we vowed that if we could find a way to help them live longer, we would. Initially, we developed a feeding and care program. We feed and care for dogs differently than other people do. And we have a whole time in the last 25 years, more than 50 in our House. At all times. 24/7, more than 50, all different sizes mainly the giant breeds. Everybody gets along harmoniously. In fact, if you listen, you don't hear anything because all of our dogs are trained not to bark, unless they sense danger because barking is the beginning of aggressive behavior. Anyway, what happened was we first developed the student care program and we got to a point where we were really excited. We had our dogs on average living about three years longer. So our great gains instead of only living 7 to 9 years were actually ten to 12 years, okay? And at that point, we said, is there anything else we could do? So because we had the money to do it, we decided to make our own food. And our expectations were very small. We thought, hey, what if we make the finest food in the world maybe we could pull out another year? You know what I mean? Maybe a year and a half to each dog's life. And so one thing and another, we've got right now 30 of our 50 dogs that have already lived more than twice their normal lifespan. That's very, very impressive. Now, are any of these your personal dogs? Well, everyone is rescued. So until they get a home, we call them our personal dog. So do they sleep in bed with you, I guess, is the question. I have it all times. You have to minimum. I would say of 25 of the 50 in bed with us. Many more. You go to our website. There's a video right at the top of the website, a wonderful video. It's in slow motion because there's so many dogs. And with us in bed with many of the 50, okay? And these are giant dogs. We have dogs that weigh up to 300 pounds. We have great gains that stand on their hind legs, 7 foot 5. While Bert, we got to take a quick break. We are with Burt Ward, the original Robin from Batman, and we'll be right back, stick around. Admit it. You love your dog, and he is part of the family. So when choosing your next vacation, don't forget fido, with just a little planning the entire family can enjoy a road trip. To find the best vacation spot, four spot, subscribe to fido friendly. The travel and lifestyle magazine for you and your dog, where each issue includes hotel and destination reviews where both you and fido are welcome. Go online to phyto friendly dot com. And find out what all the barking is about. Live at the red barn studios, you're listening to animal radio. Here's how and Judy. We are with Burt Ward, Batman's original Robin, and Burt loves himself some great Danes and big dogs, gentle giants as he calls them. Did you have any pets as a kid? Did you have any animals? Oh, yes. My whole life and on Batman because of security issues. I had two dobermans. Oh, really? Oh yeah, I had to. I had security issues. So I learned how to handle protection dogs. And the thing that I was going to say is that what we're doing is our charity. My wife and I take no money from our rescue. We don't take a dime. You know, the biggest thing I have to say is 50 dogs and big dogs that you have to have a lot of scooping going on there to take the full time job. Do you have a back home? Well, we feed 600 pounds a day of general giants that 16 of our 33 pounds a day that's a 112 bags a week. It is too much for us to lift and carry. So we have people that help. But you might find it interesting that my wife, who I like her name is Tracy, I like to describe Bruce the Mother Teresa of dogs. She personally handles all 50 of those dogs by her. Wow. Wow, yeah,