John Garcia of National Georgraphic's 'Dogtown'

John Garcia of the National Geographic Channel's "Dogtown" was online Thursday, Oct. 9 at 11 a.m. ET to take your questions about the show and his experiences working at a sanctuary for troubled dogs.

A transcript follows.

Garcia is the assistant dog care manager at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, a 33,000 acre shelter in southern Utah, where he worked to rehabilitate 22 dogs rescued from Michael Vick's dog-fighting operation.

A new episode of DogTown airs Friday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel.

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washingtonpost.com: Hi John, thanks for joining us today. We'll give priority to questions from readers, so send in any questions or comments for John now.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you a few things. For starters, why do you think it was so widely reported that the Michael Vick dogs were couldn't be rehabilitated and had to be destroyed, and how did DogTown get involved in the rehab process?

John Garcia: I think it's kind of a stereotype surrounding fighting dogs. People think they're vicious animals and they have no shot at being normal dogs. It's a breed that was bred to be good with people, and it's used against them by people to make them fight to the death.

We wanted to save not just those 22 dogs, but thousands of dogs in the future by developing new techniques and showing that these dogs do deserve a 2nd chance and that there's no such thing as bad dogs, only irresponsible owners.

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Rockville, Md.: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. It is absolutely wonderful that you and your team stepped in to save these dogs. I'm very happy that these dogs will learn that humans can be wonderful and loving to them.

From what I have seen, it seems like the dogs didn't take long to turn their behavior around from Vick's treatment. That they didn't seem hostile towards each other. How heavily did you work with them, time wise? Do you see any 'problem behaviors' resurface at times? What is the average stay at your facility?

Thank you again for your time and love given to these dogs.

John Garcia: Time-wise, we worked with them quite extensively on a daily basis. We have a great ration of staff-to-dog in this area.

Every dog is a personality, and I think one thing the show does well is show each dog with a different training protocol. We look at each dog as an individual, and it takes some time to consider the dogs personality, history, temperament -- there's trial and error. When we build confidence, we can instill bad behavior by default, by teaching the dog to jump on you as it comes out of it's shell, for example.

These are dogs -- they're not just pit bulls or fighting pit bulls. Those are labels. In reality, they're canines, and we can approach it the same way we would any dog with issues. For the most part, we treat them like we would any other dog.

Behavior isn't really a disease -- there's no pill or magic wand to correct it. We're trying to build a foundation for the dog, and to pass that along to the new owners. And we're still going forward with the work on a daily basis. It's amazing how far this breed has come, and it's a testament to how resilliant the breed is and how much they want to please people. They were put in situations where they had to fight, or were to forcibly bred, and they're still loyal to us.

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washingtonpost.com: Can you quickly explain, for users who might be looking for a shelter for a dog, how it is that dogs end up at Best Friends? And what impact has the TV show had on the day-to-day operations of the sanctuary?

John Garcia: Dogs arrive to Best Friends from various different backgrounds -- anything from a court case, like the Vick dogs, to someone who can just no longer care for their dog and has exhausted every other option.

We already received 2,000 requests for animals a month, and we have a department that screens those requests. The best thing the show has done for us is to capture what we do on a daily basis. So we're not changing anything about what we do. Which is spreading education, and education is key to saving animals lives.

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Charleston, S.C.: Keep up the good work! I admire you tremendously. I got both my dogs from rescue organizations and they are just the best dogs. If I ever win the lottery, I will share my winnings with every major rescue in the country -- especially Best Friends.

One of my dogs lost her previous home in Katrina. What if anything has changed regarding allowing pets in emergency shelters for humans? I know that I would never leave my pets alone in harm's way.

John Garcia: I don't know the exact laws now, but I do know there was some form of law saying people have to evacuate with animals, but I can't elaborate.

Katrina was a huge learning curve for us though. We did a lot of rescue and learned a lot about rapid response.

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washingtonpost.com: How did you get involved in dog rescue?

John Garcia: I'm from a very small town, locally, next to best friends. I've always worked with dogs and loved dogs. I graduated early from HS, and I knew that's what I always wanted to do. I couldn't imagine living anywhere or working anywhere, personally.

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washingtonpost.com: Was it the Vick case that brought NG's attention to Dog Town? And did they have any concern about the outcomes for the dogs?

John Garcia: NG was involved with us since last year. We've done 13 episodes total, and they have been following us with just our day-to-day activities.

The Vick case came up in '07, and when we got involved it had such a powerful story to it. We're able to do our job the same way we normally would, because the NatGeo crews are so good.

There's always the possibility of a negative outcome, but we're just trying to give every dog a 2nd chance, and we're always optimistic about the results.

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Courthouse: Hi John-- Thanks so much for doing this chat.

I am interested in the genesis of this organization and your own background. How does one become educated in dog training--and certainly enough to work in such a demanding organization?

It seems that there's a real demand for something like this. What are the challenges of such organizations?

Thanks!

John Garcia: We experience a lot of challenges on a daily basis. Properly trained staff is essential, as safety is our No. 1 priority. When we deal with difficult dogs, we have to look at the traits of the dog, and the strengths of the trainer.

Some of the best information about dog training is available online, and there are several conferences that take place around the U.S. Our practices are 100-percent positive reinforcement, and everything we do is solely based around the relationship we have with the dogs.

There's two-realms of training -- one about the dog pleasing you and trying to do what you ask, and another to avoid punishment. We prefer to use the first philosophy because that's what works for us. We really want to create dogs that think for themselves and can function properly in society. But it's definitely a divisive topic.

My experience is just to learn as much as possible about dog training and to find out what techniques work the best for me.

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washingtonpost.com: How hard is it to give up a dog that you've worked so much with to rehab?

John Garcia: Oh man. It's always bittersweet. No matter what, you have an investment in the dog emotionally, so it is difficult. The doges I get attached to though, I know when they go into homes, those are homes for life. And I'm happy to know they'll live happily ever after. But I will say that whoever adopts Georgia is going to have housegests.

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washingtonpost.com: What do you have to say to people who say that dog-fighting is no worse than hunting or other activities that kill animals?

John Garcia: Well, this is essentially a blood sport, and there are so many negative aspect that hurt our society as a whole. I don't see a lot of hunters or farmers participating in gang or drug activity, which is very prevalent in the dog fighting world.

And it's also so culturally driven that a lot of the youth in the country get desensitized to physical violence. And lets not forget the true victims of this, which are the dogs. These are animals which are just trying to please us, and those good intentions are being used against them.

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washingtonpost.com: Besides dog fighting dogs, what other kinds of especially challenging cases do you take on?

John Garcia: Oh boy -- everything from medical to behavioral. We're very fortunate in the resources and staff that we have. We take on dogs from backgrounds such as puppy mills, dog-fighting cases, rescues from natural disasters, to the average dog that someone has exhausted all other resources to try and place. As you'll see tomorrow night at 10, that's essentially what we do from dogs from all different backgrounds.

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John Garcia: I want to say thanks thanks to the Washington Post for turning positive media to the dogs -- that's 1/2 the battle, getting information about the dogs out there. And thanks to the National Geograpic channel for all they've done in that regard as well.

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