What happens when a rescued dog becomes a veteran’s battle buddy?
In this powerful episode of The Founders Hour, Rosaria Cain sits down with Mik Milem of Soldier’s Best Friend, an Arizona nonprofit changing lives by pairing U.S. military veterans living with PTSD or traumatic brain injury with trained service dogs—many of them rescued from local shelters.
Mik shares how the program works, why the veteran-dog bond is so transformative, and what it takes for a dog to become a true service animal through months of structured training, public access testing, and deep partnership with its veteran handler. He also opens up about the nonprofit’s mission-driven growth, including expanded services in Tucson, Kingman, and beyond.
From helping veterans re-enter public life to giving shelter dogs a renewed purpose, this conversation is a moving look at healing, discipline, leadership, and the life-changing power of a loyal companion.
Listen now to hear how Soldier’s Best Friend is serving those who served—and helping both veterans and dogs find a new path forward.
Full Transcript
Rosaria Cain 00:00
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Mick, welcome and thank you for coming.
Mik Milem 00:04
Thank you for having me.
Rosaria Cain 00:05
And Soldier’s Best Friend. There’s a big story to tell today, because this helps so many people. Can you give us the elevator speech on Soldier’s Best Friend so everyone understands exactly what you do?
Mik Milem 00:16
Sure our mission is really simple. We help U.S. military veterans that are living with military related PTSD or traumatic brain injury by pairing them together with a dog, most of whom have been rescued from local shelters across the state of Arizona. They train together in our program for about six to nine months until that dog qualifies to be a service dog for the veteran.
Rosaria Cain 00:39
What do you look for in a dog, and what do you look for in a serviceman looking for a dog? That’s quite a combo.
Mik Milem 00:46
It is. And so let me talk about that service person first. So we’re looking for military veterans who have PTSD or traumatic brain injury, and so that has to be a confirmation of that diagnosis from a therapist. Usually it’s going to come from the VA or one of the Vet Centers. For the dogs, it’s always a little bit more challenging, but we’re looking for characteristics that is a confident, calm dog who’s ready to have a drive for work, and that’s really important. We’re looking for a dog that’s not reactive to other dogs, not reactive to children, and yet has a drive to want to work for you as well.
Rosaria Cain 01:26
Is that a big percentage of dogs in shelters, or is it hard to find?
Mik Milem 01:30
It’s hard to find, you know, people that surrender a dog in a shelter, or surrender a dog to a shelter, they’ve done so for a reason, most of the time, it’s behavioral and so to find a dog that you can work through whatever that behavior was that sent them to the shelter to know that they can be a good service dog can sometimes be really challenging.
Rosaria Cain 01:52
And how many of these veterans do you match up with with the puppies every year?
Mik Milem 01:57
So we average about 100 veterans per year coming into the program. Our goal here in 2026 is to have 120 veterans enter the program. In 2025, we had 101 veterans enter the program.
Rosaria Cain 02:10
Now this is a very structured program, correct?
Mik Milem 02:13
Oh, absolutely.
Rosaria Cain 02:14
Tell me about how that works, because the nine months is not really a cakewalk from what I understand,
Mik Milem 02:19
it is not a cake walk at all. In fact, it’s a really difficult program for the veterans, and we let them know that during the interview and during the orientation process that it is, it is a hard program. However, we also let them know that, to date, 491, veterans have graduated from the program, and so that means they can as well, if they put the work in, but it is challenging. They meet with a trainer, one of our professional dog trainers, twice a week. And I say professional dog trainers, the truth of the matter is, they’re really veteran trainers, because they’re training the veteran to handle the dog, but they meet with them twice a week, one hour each time, to learn how to train the dog, and then they have homework they have to do the other five days a week, and you know whether or not they’re doing the work at home or not when they meet with that trainer, the next time, the trainer will know whether or not they’re really putting the work in. We set goals for them with time frames so they’re given 10 weeks to complete the Canine Good Citizen test. After they’ve done that, they’ve got four weeks to do what we call our PAT one test, which is a public access test where they’re allowed to use a lot of treats, and it’s they’re allowed to give a lot of prompts to the dog, but we have four of those tests that they do throughout the program, each time, getting more difficult, until with the last public access test, they aren’t allowed to use any treats, not allowed to give any prompts to the dog, but the dog simply has to do all the tasks it’s trained to do, and do all of it with perfect obedience while they’re doing that, and to overcome all distractions that come their way, including children, another dog, food being dropped, and all of those sorts of things. So that service dogs that come out of our program we know are well behaved and well trained. So when they have that service dog vest on them with patch that says Soldier’s Best Friend, that means they are qualified to be a real service dog.
Rosaria Cain 04:15
Wow. I mean, we talked about this earlier, service dogs have different definitions, or maybe a lack of definitive definitions. How does this program vary?
Mik Milem 04:28
Yeah, it varies for a couple of reasons. One, because we follow a strict standard that is provided by the Assistance Dogs International, which is an accrediting agency worldwide, the largest accrediting agency, in fact, worldwide for service dogs. So we follow their standards, and we are currently a member in in process, so our site visit will be next year, and to get our accreditation fully. Given to us.
Rosaria Cain 05:01
So do you have a high level of success, once they get through the program, are they matched forever? Or do you ever have challenges with that?
Mik Milem 05:12
After graduation? Usually not too many challenges after graduation. It does happen occasionally. We’ve had occasions, for instance, when a one of the dogs may be attacked by another dog at a park, and then that dog suddenly becomes reactive to other dogs, because it’s learned now this behavior of guarding itself. And so if we can’t work through that with the dog, we may have to surrender that dog as a or retire that dog as a service dog and give that veteran a second dog. But that is a very rare occasion, because most of the time, we follow up with our veterans all the time to make sure they’re still doing the work. They’re still making sure that their dog is working for them, and we try to see them on an annual basis to make sure that’s happening.
Rosaria Cain 05:59
That’s great. So walk me through what these what these classes are like, and and how this servicemen benefit from it as they go through the program, I imagine seeing some of what I’ve seen at the at the actual things that we do with like K9 Companion, they look really tight, like they are a unit. And I have heard from the veterans that when the dog has the vest on, they’re completely different.
Mik Milem 06:26
Absolutely. So the program works this way. So when they first start out, it’s all about learning basic obedience and, more importantly, bonding together as a veteran and a dog. So they do become a unified unit, does that dog realizes this is my battle buddy, and the veteran realizes this is my battle buddy, so that they’re one unit together, so that bond is really important. So we start out by having the veterans feed the dog by hand, by making sure that dog is by their side at all times, regardless if they’re watching TV, they’re taking a walk, they’re getting up to get a drink from you know, in the kitchen that they keep that dog with them all the time, so the dog realizes this is my person, and I’m to be with them. And then in the training itself, beginning, it’s all about basic obedience, your sit, your stay, your loose leash, walking, your ability to be separated from that veteran for a period of time, of minutes, without the dog going crazy or realizing I need to be with him or her. And so all those things are basic obedience, until they reach the Canine Good Citizen test and they can pass it. Once they’ve done that, we start public access work, which is really the most important work for the veteran, because most veterans with PTSD have become very recluse. They don’t want to go to the grocery store, they don’t want to go out in public very often. They don’t go to restaurants unless they can sit facing a door, because they don’t want their back to that door. They just they’re very recluse in their behavior, so we force them to go out in public with their dog. And while they’re doing that, we’re beginning the task work with the dog, for the dog to learn how to respond to the veteran, when the veterans having anxiety, or when the veteran has fear, that they learn to relate to that veteran and do a task that will help that mitigate that symptom, and mitigating that symptom means the veteran will focus on the dog, rather on whatever is going on around them. And it’s pretty phenomenal to watch that take place, that from the time of an interview, when a veteran is very anxious, very recluse and pretty well shut down to graduation, where they stand in front of a crowd of 100 150 people, and they tell their story of how the dog has changed their life, and they never would have spoken. They wouldn’t have been in a crowd that large, let alone spoke in front of them. And they do that at graduation. It’s it’s pretty phenomenal to see that process take place.
Rosaria Cain 09:02
And I imagine you see some changes in the in the dogs as well.
Mik Milem 09:06
Oh, for sure. So you you know, you get dogs from a rescue who aren’t sure what they’re supposed to be doing. Some of them have they’re scared. Some of them are really hyperactive. And you watch the change in the behavior of the dog as well, where suddenly that dog has one purpose in mind, and that is to focus on their veteran and make sure their veteran’s okay. And as you said a little while ago, especially when the vest is on, you take the vest off, the dog’s a dog, you put the vest on, the dog’s working.
Rosaria Cain 09:33
How do you train that?
Mik Milem 09:35
It just happens naturally. By the mere fact that when the vest is on, the dog is working. And when they get home, they take it off, and the veteran lets the dog play,
Rosaria Cain 09:44
So the dogs are trained that way.
Mik Milem 09:47
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 09:47
As well.
Mik Milem 09:48
Yeah, absolutely.
Rosaria Cain 09:48
Through, like, all the different lessons and things like that, they’ve got the vest on.
Mik Milem 09:52
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 09:52
Okay.
Mik Milem 09:53
They know.
Rosaria Cain 09:54
They know. Oh, that’s amazing. Have you always been in the nonprofit world, or and in the in the dog assistance world, or is this somewhat different for you?
Mik Milem 10:08
Well, the dog assistance world is somewhat different for me. I’ve been in nonprofit almost my entire adult life. So I was in school administration and private schools, and then I’ve been in nonprofit work as well with other organizations. I came to Soldier’s Best Friend four years ago now for two reasons, one, because I knew the power that a dog could have at assisting people with disabilities, and secondly, because of my love for veterans. I’m not a veteran myself, but the great connection and love that I have for veterans because of relationships I’ve had with many of them, made me really want to serve them in some way. When I was the dean of students at Grand Canyon University, I started the veteran student group there, and I really began to see firsthand how difficult it was for many veterans to go back to civilian life out of military, that transition was rough for them. They didn’t know what to do with this new role that they had. And I saw that and witnessed that firsthand, and was able to support many of those young men and women as they were students at Grand Canyon through that just just through relationship. So when I had the opportunity to come to an organization that was providing service dogs to veterans with PTSD, I knew that it was going to have a tremendous impact on those veterans lives, and I knew I wanted to be part of that mission.
Rosaria Cain 11:40
Now this is a one of a kind, correct? Soldier’s Best Friend is very unique. There’s not one in every city or every state. It doesn’t have chapters
Mik Milem 11:49
Correct.
Rosaria Cain 11:50
Where this come from?
Speaker 1 11:52
So it came from our founder, Dr. John Burnham. He was a veterinarian, and his practice here in Phoenix, he had what specifically happened for him. He had a veteran who was being deployed who had a very sick dog, and the veteran said to him, I need you to keep this dog alive until I’m back again. He says, Do not let this dog die. And he was able to do that, and he saw the bond between that dog and that veteran, and he began to do research about how can a dog really help a veteran who’s who’s struggling with some mental health issues? And this was back in, you know, 2009 2010 when he was first had the idea in which PTSD really wasn’t even fully recognized yet by the VA. And there were not programs across the nation where people were providing service dogs for veterans with PTSD. And in fact, you know, people weren’t even sure PTSD was a real thing yet, so he found it in 2011 one of the earliest in the nation, to be founded to help provide service dogs for veterans with PTSD and TBIs.
Rosaria Cain 12:55
What are the challenges in running a nonprofit?
Speaker 2 12:57
Well, there’s, you know, challenge. One is, there’s always funding that you have to do because it, you know, nobody’s paying for the service, so it’s completely free for our veterans. So there’s a challenge in raising funds. But I got to tell you, Rosaria, that challenge for me is I don’t see it as a challenge, because here’s I get the opportunity to tell people the story. I get to tell people what it is we do, and when I am able to share that story, people willingly want to give to that I mean, who doesn’t want to help a veteran and who doesn’t love dogs?
Rosaria Cain 13:30
I don’t know.
Mik Milem 13:32
If they don’t. I don’t know maybe,
Rosaria Cain 13:33
Who wants to know them if they don’t.
Mik Milem 13:35
Yeah, I don’t know that. Yeah, exactly
Rosaria Cain 13:37
I agree with you. Are there some misconceptions running a nonprofit,
Mik Milem 13:42
Oh, for sure, there is.
Rosaria Cain 13:43
How many people are in your organization.
Mik Milem 13:45
So we have 28 employees right now and in fact, I’m going to be hiring three more for the Tucson facility, but we have 28 employees for us right now. Nine of those are full time, and the rest are all part time, either as dog trainers or our custodians part time, and our bookkeepers part time as well. So misconceptions about running a nonprofit is that, well, people think that you work for free, which we don’t. We are paid, and they also think that they also people begin to wonder, like, how do you get your funding? Like, how in the world can you do what you do? And it’s really because of the generosity of people, individual donors, corporations, but it’s, it’s mostly the generosity of individuals.
Rosaria Cain 14:36
Does the current client make it more difficult to raise money, or does it make it easier to raise money, or does it even impact it at all?
Mik Milem 14:46
I don’t know that really impacts it. And I think I’ve been a nonprofit world by my almost adult life, and I will say that for this organization, the current climate doesn’t make a difference. I have seen other organizations where either the economic climate or the political climate can make a difference in raising money. We have not seen, despite the fact that the economy is, you know, hurting, people are hurting financially right now, we have not seen it impact us. And I think it really comes down to because people love our veterans as they should,
Rosaria Cain 15:25
And your dogs
Mik Milem 15:26
And their dogs.
Rosaria Cain 15:27
I mean, it’s a hard, hard thing to separate those two.
Mik Milem 15:30
For sure.
Rosaria Cain 15:31
What do you see looking at the at the future now, talk about Tucson. You’re you’re expanding your footprint.
Mik Milem 15:36
Yeah,
Rosaria Cain 15:37
And going into the southern part of Arizona. What do you see coming up?
Mik Milem 15:43
Yeah, so, I mean, there’s a couple of things coming up in the future. First and foremost, and really exciting is, we’re opening up our first satellite facility down in Tucson. We’ve been training down there since 2014 but our trainers just find places to train. By the end of May we well, we’ve leased our own facility. It’ll have its grand opening sometime in May, and we will have a place for veterans to gather, a place for our trainers to train our veterans, and an office there for people to work out of to do outreach in the Tucson area. So that’s really exciting. We also just hired a trainer in Kingman, Arizona, and so we are now able to provide our services for all the veterans living in Mojave County. And so that’s really important, and for us as well. And then onward down in the future, we do see opening up our own facility in the east valley. We have our facility in Peoria, and we do rent a place in Mesa, where we do training out of but we’d like to have our own location with our name on it in the east valley as well.
Rosaria Cain 16:55
That sounds like a big item.
Mik Milem 16:56
Yeah, it is so. But you know, got to dream big and make it happen, right?
Rosaria Cain 17:00
Well, do you have a lot of support from other veterans organizations?
Mik Milem 17:04
Yeah, well, we collaborate well with the veteran organizations across across the valley. So for sure, we make sure that we are always connecting ourselves with all the other veteran service organizations.
Rosaria Cain 17:17
How can people support this program?
Mik Milem 17:19
Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, let veterans know about Soldier’s Best Friend and that there is an organization out there that has a tool for their PTSD, or a traumatic brain injury that can help them in mitigating some of their symptoms, and that service dog is a tool. It’s one of the tools. It’s not the only answer. That’s first and foremost. Secondly, people can always help us out financially. You know, soldiersbestfriend.org there’s a Donate button. We are a qualified charitable organization for the state of Arizona. So you can use us with your Arizona state taxes for that dollar to dollar tax credit as well.
Rosaria Cain 17:58
And you have some ambassadors that go out in the community too.
Mik Milem 18:01
Oh, we do, yeah. So we definitely have volunteers. So if you’d like to become somebody, would you know, help us out with our tabling events, help us out at our fundraising events. We’d be more than happy to have volunteers or fosters, because when the dogs come from the shelter, we try to put them with a foster for four to six weeks so that dog can settle into a home before they go to the veteran.
Rosaria Cain 18:20
Oh, that sounds great. How do you get the word out on this? Or does it spread so fast because the mission is so pure?
Mik Milem 18:27
I wish that was the case, but we do. Social media is our huge platform for us, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all those. So social media is a big platform for us. And then things like this and the news wanting to do, you know, pieces for us on veterans who have been successful through our program, all of those media pieces help with us.
Rosaria Cain 18:51
What do you see makes a good leader, particularly in a nonprofits little different than a business?
Mik Milem 18:58
Yeah. So you know, a good a good leader, a good CEO of a corporation or a business, has to have a really good business sense and financial management sense about them. It’s really important, and that is important for a nonprofit as well. However more important is the leader of a nonprofit has to have, has to be mission driven, has to understand that whatever that nonprofit’s mission is has to be first and foremost. So I tell my staff well every week at staff meeting and all the time in between, keep your focus on the veteran. Our mission is to help veterans and to help dogs. Keep your focus on that. Distractions happen all the time. There’s always going to be challenges, there’s always going to be struggles, but keep the focus on the mission, because when you’re focused on the mission, then all the other things can fall into place, and you learn how to put them in perspective.
Rosaria Cain 20:01
What challenges do you see coming up in the next year? I know you’ve just put together new goals, kind of expanded your mission.
Mik Milem 20:13
Yes, I think probably the biggest challenge is being able to sustain the growth, to make sure that the quality of the program doesn’t go down because of the number of veterans we get into the program, and that we have consistency with all of our trainers doing it what we’re called the Soldier’s Best Friend way, right? I mean, there’s a lot of ways to train a service dog, but Soldier’s Best Friend has a way that we do it, because it’s successful and it does what we know it works for veterans with PTSD and TBIs.
Rosaria Cain 20:51
That sounds great.
Mik Milem 20:52
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 20:52
How are you looking at the future right now?
Mik Milem 20:56
Yeah, a lot of people should say it should look for the future for my retirement, but I don’t, because how do I look at the future? I I look at Soldier’s Best Friend being able to really reach every single veteran in the state of Arizona who is struggling with living with PTSD or traumatic brain injury. That’s what I see as the future, that we become a tool that can really help each and every veteran, and that means establishing, you know, satellite facilities across the state, so that we can be successful in reaching those veterans. And as long as we haven’t reached them all, I don’t see a reason to stop moving.
Rosaria Cain 21:43
Do you ever think about going outside Arizona? Doesn’t this work everywhere?
Mik Milem 21:47
It works everywhere. And there’s, there’s other organizations across the nation that do what we do in various and assorted different models and so, but you know what? There’s a half million veterans in living in Arizona, 13th largest state in the nation for veterans. 20% of those, we’re told, have PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. So there is plenty of veterans in Arizona for us to continue to serve without having to leave the state.
Rosaria Cain 22:17
Oh, that’s great. Well, what do you do when you’re not working?
Mik Milem 22:22
Me. Well, I’m working out, or I’m hiking, or I’m traveling with my wife.
Rosaria Cain 22:29
And what keeps you the most grounded?
Mik Milem 22:33
What keeps me grounded? There’s two things. One, my wife. Been married for 43 years, and that keeps me grounded, yes, but also, you know what, my dog Moody? So my dog Moody is a service dog dropout. She had the attention span of a gnat so she couldn’t make it in the program, but she does everything that my wife and I need her to do for us, and especially as she’s aged and has become calmer. She is the perfect dog for us and keeps us grounded.
Rosaria Cain 23:06
Do you ever want more dogs?
Mik Milem 23:08
No.
Rosaria Cain 23:08
As you see them all.
Mik Milem 23:09
No.
Rosaria Cain 23:10
All the time.
Mik Milem 23:10
My one Moody is enough.
Rosaria Cain 23:15
What do you want to be known for? Not that you’re planning on leaving anytime soon?
Mik Milem 23:20
Yeah, but you know what I want my legacy to be, that I left Soldier’s Best Friend, strong and vital, with absolutely a very, very smooth transition from me to whoever takes over the leadership after me. I don’t want it to be the mix shell. I don’t want my absence for people to say, “Well, I knew, Mik, but I don’t know you. So I don’t know if I should still support Soldier’s Best Friend.” I don’t want it to be about me at all. I want to leave a legacy that says Soldier’s Best Friend is strong across the state of Arizona, and that people are supporting the mission and not the person.
Rosaria Cain 23:59
Because you will step down at some point.
Mik Milem 24:01
I will.
Rosaria Cain 24:01
And somebody will have to take your place.
Mik Milem 24:03
Yeah, they will.
Rosaria Cain 24:05
Name one thing that would surprise people about you.
Mik Milem 24:14
Well, maybe, I guess I’ll say I went to the Olympic trials, or I made the Olympic trial cutoffs in 1976.
Rosaria Cain 24:24
That’s amazing.
Mik Milem 24:25
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 24:25
In what sport?
Mik Milem 24:26
In swimming. I was a competitive swimmer, and so I was made the cut offs and for the Olympic trials in 1976 obviously I didn’t make the Olympic team, but there you go. People may not know that about me.
Rosaria Cain 24:40
That’s really interesting. Do you take that competition into your nonprofit?
Mik Milem 24:44
I do. I’m a pretty driven competitive person.
Rosaria Cain 24:48
I bet that never goes away.
Mik Milem 24:49
So, I never want to lose.
Rosaria Cain 24:51
If you were going to write a book, what would you call it?
Mik Milem 24:59
Hmm. Mission First.
Rosaria Cain 25:01
I like that. Okay, well, that suits you perfectly, and thank you for spending time with us
Mik Milem 25:07
Absolutely. Thank you so much.