Some years before all of this, my wife and I started raising guide dogs for the blind in 2002. Over the following decade we really started to enjoy it and couldn’t believe how fulfilling it was to help other people. “Could we make a web series about this guide dog stuff?” We became good friends with the visually impaired partner who received our first guide pup Macklin. Her genuine appreciation and ability to raise her level of productivity in life was so apparent that it just smacked me in the face. “This is a whole new narrative world I have hardly seen in tv or movies” I thought. After a few days of talking about it, my wife Amie and I decided to give it a shot and make a web series. At least we figured we would try putting out a video once a week for a little while.
Growing Up Guide Pup was to be the name of the series. We really didn’t have much of a plan as we decided to experiment and remove conventional production bureaucracy so we could move quickly. We had a new puppy arriving shortly. Two days after the idea, I already had camcorder in hand and was filming cause a puppy had become available. That first episode we decided to design a format that even the visually impaired could enjoy through colorful description. At first we focused on story, not production value. We filmed with a cell phone for the first time so we could get footage in the grocery store without a hassle. We focused on spontaneity and decided to keep the amount of oversight and cost to a minimum. My in kind equipment from my video business would be fine to make the series, and my prior online distribution experience with ChappyShowcase made me comfortable enough to move forward with a once a week video release approach. We released a video every week as our new puppy Ricki matured. Episode after episode we couldn’t believe how fun the process was for us. We also got more feedback and appreciation than we had anticipated. We started hearing from people who lived in other parts of the US, and even other countries. The service dog school we were working with at the time caught wind of what we were doing and starting promoting our videos and writing blogs so get more PR for themselves. The next thing we knew, our series was not an experiment anymore. it seemed to be working as a moving story piece and the puppy appeal was undeniable.
Our series was accepted in the New Media Film Festival in 2010 while we were still filming the first season about Ricki. This was about 8 months after we had started. It was amazing how fast things work with the internet. Before we knew it, we had made a relationship with Nylabone dog toys and did our first contest giveaway. After a year, we had several thousand loyal fans as we continued to make the series and grow our core followers of dog lovers, puppy raisers, service dog people, and the visually impaired. Eventually this landed us an invitation to screen our series at the first and still largest web series festival in the world. Its called the LAWebFest and was founded by Michael Ajakwe Jr. It rendered awards for many things, but most importantly “Outstanding Non-Fiction Series” two years in a row in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, we also received an award at CreaTV Awards in Silicon Valley for “Outstanding CreaTiVe Award Feature Winner”. After we finished our 2nd season with our dog Pilaf, we decided to stop for awhile and focus on our eldest states dog. Our career changed guide dog pup named Eli had cancer and we wanted to focus on his last months. He recently passed just shy of his 10th birthday, which was tough, but gave us a lot of time to reflect. We had for the first time experienced the entire life-cycle. One of our guide dog puppies had been with us from the beginning all the way to the end. This was the last part needed to give us complete perspective.
It is 2014, and we are now ready to get serious with Growing Up Guide Pup once again. Older, wiser, more experienced, and full of a renewed passion for storytelling my wife and I are excited about the endless opportunities Growing Up Guide Pup presents. In 2013 we spent six moths and hired consultation to build a business plan for Growing Up Guide Pup which would allow us to create a sustainable brand. We also have done a lot of research about non-profit formation as well as making it a opportunity for investors. Both are possibilites and we will rule nothing out as neither has taken hold. We are now prepared after years of homework and study to implement a tv show addition to our already established web series program and move both forward together. Growing Up Guide Pup is ready to go from web series to beyond!
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