In the 2010s, Lucky Dog host Brandon McMillan established a ranch near Los Angeles to rehabilitate shelter dogs judged “unadoptable”; his TV format placed 22 dogs in homes in 22 weeks

Brandon McMillan, host of the CBS series Lucky Dog, built his television career on one idea: shelter dogs labelled unadoptable can often be trained and matched with the right family. In 2010, he opened a boarding and training facility near Los Angeles that became known as the Lucky Dog Ranch. In 2013, he took the idea to American television. A format was built around training rescue dogs that shelters had given up on and matching each dog to an appropriate family.That’s where dog trainer Brandon McMillan established his reputation. In 2010, he created a boarding and training facility near Los Angeles that became known as the Lucky Dog Ranch. Its current website, Canine Minded, still peddles the idea of a boutique dog retreat where animals of any breed and temperament receive adequate training. A couple of years after the ranch opened, McMillan brought the same concept to American television. The principle could be summed up in one phrase. Train rescue dogs that shelters had given up on, and match each dog to an appropriate family.From film sets to refugeMcMillan didn’t come to shelter rescue from the usual direction. He grew up in the animal entertainment industry, and before working with dogs he trained wild animals for film and television, including lions and tigers. When his show premiered in autumn 2013, the Associated Press reported that he had trained as many as 10,000 dogs for television, films, commercials, videos and private owners. The CBS station in San Francisco described his methodology as a hybrid system that takes what he learned from wild animal training and applies it to ordinary home dogs.22 dogs in 22 weeks challengeThe series was created by Litton Entertainment, which wanted a trainer able to rescue 22 dogs, train them and place them in homes within 22 weeks, a production goal for a single season. That works out to nearly a dog a week for the whole first season. Reports at the time, including coverage in The Christian Science Monitor, said McMillan would tour animal shelters around the country, choose untrained or unadoptable dogs and bring them back to the Lucky Dog Ranch in Southern California.Training was a fixed menu. The seven commands the dogs were to learn were sit, stay, down, come, off, heel and no. McMillan would get emails from families looking for a dog, inspect the house and yard where the animal would live, and spend a couple of hours training the family before placing the dog. That step reflects an understanding that even a perfectly trained dog can fail if the home is unsuitable.One editorial decision sticks out. McMillan told the Associated Press that he could typically tell within seconds whether a dog had been abused. Those dogs are a passion for him away from the cameras, he said, but they would not appear on the show, which was aimed at viewers between 13 and 16 years old, because he felt that audience would not want to see a dog that had been in a fight. So the dogs on screen were hard cases, but some of the hardest were left to the work he did away from the cameras.Awards and the larger lessonAccording to Paramount’s press site, the series won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Series in 2016. McMillan won his second Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Host in 2018. Lucky Dog ran for more than a decade, with McMillan hosting its first seven seasons before returning for the reunion-themed eleventh season in 2023, a long run for a show built around training rescue dogs.The 22-dog number says nothing about how many dogs are sitting in shelters around the country, and television naturally shows the success stories. What the show captures is a lesson some adopters can apply: a dog that has never been taught the basics is often labelled unadoptable, and training plus a well-chosen family can sometimes close that gap. McMillan’s answer, presented one dog at a time on screen, was that quite a few shelter dogs had simply not been taught yet. The story of Lucky Dog Ranch leaves shelters with a question worth asking. How many of their toughest situations are dogs that just haven't been taught yet? And McMillan’s answer, presented one lucky dog at a time on screen, was that quite a few of them are.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.