Allison interviews Ryan Tussing, Creator and Co-founder of Rescue Retriever, about their device that helps firefighters save dogs and cats when they are trapped in a burning building. It is a paw-shaped pet smoke detector designed to direct first responders to the location of your pet in a smoke-filled room.
When smoke is detected, Rescue Retriever activates a powerful, silent, high-intensity strobe designed to cut through low-visibility conditions. The flashing LED helps draw attention to key areas inside the home. Firefighters are trained to search for and quickly identify approach flashing strobes since they themselves wear them for rescue purposes. Rescue Retriever is placed at a location in the home where your pet would typically go to during stressful situations, such as on a crate or near a bed.
Ryan also shows their latest device, the Fire Tag, which attaches to the pet’s collar. It works with the Rescue Retriever smoke detector to help locate your pet in the event it is not located near the smoke detector device. For locating the pet outside the home, the Fire Tag also has an interior cavity large enough to hold an Air Tag or similar device.
Finally, Rusty Tussing, Director of Operations and Co-founder, shows Rescue Retriever’s line of premium dog walkwear called the Clickette. This magnetic quick-lock system is designed to make locking the dog leash to the dog’s harness quick, easy, and secure.
Learn more at https://www.rescueretriever.com/
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Transcript of Interview
Allison: Our good friend and firefighter, Bodie Grimm, told us that we had to come talk to the folks here at Rescue Retriever. And I’m here with Ryan Tussing, who’s going to talk about what happens to dogs in fires, right?
Ryan: Yeah, that’s right. I’m a 21-year captain on the fire department. Three things I ask people is how do firefighters know you have a pet, how many you have, and where to find them in the house when you ever have a fire, right? We don’t know. We have to get lucky. You could be in the front yard of your house and say, “My dog’s in there.” We say, “Where?” In the back bedroom.
Allison: Wish you the best of luck.
Ryan: Yeah. So we have to search. So I’m the co-founder with my twin brother in the venture of Rescue Retriever. It’s a paw-shaped smoke detector, and you mount it where you know your pet hides. And if you don’t know where they hide, guess what they’re scared of. They’re scared of the smoke detectors when those go off. So it hurts their ears, like a tornado siren.
Allison: So doesn’t this hurt their ears, and then they’re going to run away from their hidey-hole?
Ryan: That’s how I developed with my brother. I said, “Make it silent, so all it does is strobe.” The strobe light, it gets mounted low. This is for true fires to direct firefighters, neighbors, anybody to the room you know that pet’s going to be in. Get us to the room that your pet’s going to be in for faster rescue. Because as of right now, 40,000 pets die every year in house fires.
Allison: Yikes. Yikes.
Ryan: Yeah.
Allison: So you clip this on, say on their crate, for example, but you do it down low because there’s less smoke, I’m guessing.
Ryan: Yeah, down low because that’s where we can see. All the smoke, the high heat smoke will stay up in the air. And we’re low when we come in because it’s cooler for one. And two, that’s where pets and children are. We teach children, “Get low, stay low.” That’s where the survivable air is.
So that’s where Rescue Retriever goes. And we’ll be able to see it when we come through that front door. So if you have a long hallway, say you have four bedrooms, we have to go door to door to door to door to search and rescue. It’s our first tactical objective. Now with Rescue Retriever, that gets us to the door you need us at because you know where your pet hides. We don’t.
Allison: Right, right. So does Rescue Retriever work off the sound of the other smoke detectors? Is it relaying a signal or is it on its own? How’s it work?
Ryan: It’s on its own. I don’t want any nuisance alarms. That’s one thing in the fire department people don’t know. We run fire alarm indications all the time. People burning food on the stove, they’re home.
Allison: Yeah, we hate it too.
Ryan: Yeah. Chirping smoke detectors. I made Rescue Retriever specifically to go off on a true working fire. One that you cannot put out. One that we’re coming. And one where search and rescue is necessary.
Allison: Very good. Is this product on the market yet?
Ryan: It is on the market. RescueRetriever.com. We’re also on Amazon. But I also have to educate the public because they’re not aware of the fact that so many pets are dying. And it’s not because we’re bad firefighters. It’s because we don’t find them fast enough because we don’t know you have them or where they’re at. And this is the answer. Give residents the power to tell us where to go in the house.
Allison: Fighting chance at least. Yeah, I’m not sure I know where my dog would hide. Probably back in his crate is what I would guess, but I don’t know that for sure.
Ryan: It does have a crate attachment right on the back. Standard crate goes right on it because guess what? Pets in crates should definitely be rescued. That’s why I made it like that. If they can’t get out, yeah.
Allison: So how much does this cost?
Ryan: It retails for $39.99, so $40. It’s got a five-year lifespan. Five years of insurance.
Because if you’re here, you’re away from home, people think they can gather up their pets. It doesn’t happen. I’ve carried out far too many animals because we just couldn’t find them fast enough.
Allison: And even if the fire department doesn’t know about it, they’re going to go to that strobing light, right? It’s like, “What the heck is that? That’s got to be something.”
Ryan: Yeah. We get questions all the time even from firefighters. You know, “I’ll never see that in black smoke.” But one thing that Rescue Retriever does do, it takes heat. So it does heat up on our thermal imager.
Allison: Oh, good point.
Ryan: So you can see a white glowing paw.
Allison: And this doesn’t melt?
Ryan: It will melt. But the key to firefighting is to get a rescue before it’s 500° on the floor.
Allison: If it’s 500, we’re done.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah. The house is probably burning down by the time it’s 500° to the floor. But it’s a three-layered safety system. So you put decals on the front door because we mask up at the front door.
Allison: Oh.
Ryan: I made it reflective so it bounces off our code three lights. You put your pet total right here. This also tells us you have a Rescue Retriever in the house. So we know you have this. So we’re going to be looking for it.
Allison: Very good. Now you’ve also, I see a collar with a gizmo on it. What is that?
Ryan: That is why we’re here. This is going to be our new launch coming soon. We have Rescue Retriever and its best friend Fire Tag. Now people always say, “What if it doesn’t go to that room?” Now we made it a collar attachment just in case it’s not in the room that you want us at where your Rescue Retriever is.
Allison: Okay, so that tag just stays on their collar all the time and then if anything ever happens…
Ryan: Yeah. It communicates directly with Rescue Retriever. That way when that goes off, that goes off. In case it’s under a bed, it’s somewhere in there so we can isolate the dog. Because sometimes these especially small dogs, they go under beds. We can’t get them with all our gear on.
Allison: Right.
Ryan: So that’d be an even better thing. And they’re scared of us.
Allison: Right. So this is a fairly large block. It’s maybe an inch on a side and a half an inch thick.
Ryan: Yeah, we made it a little thicker because we want to give residents the option if you have an AirTag system or anything like that, guess what?
Allison: Oh, you can add an AirTag inside.
Ryan: You can add an AirTag inside. Now you have your own GPS for your pet outside of the home.
Allison: Oh, very good. Very good.
Ryan: We want to focus on the inside of the home for rescue, search and rescue of the pet because that’s what kills the animals. But now the resident has an option with all these other products.
Allison: Okay. Now a lot of people probably put AirTags on their dogs and then but now you got both in one.
Ryan: My fiance puts it in my luggage. We put one in our kids’ shoes.
Allison: Oh, we got them everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People use it for whatever they want. Now they can use it for their dog’s Fire Tag.
Ryan: So people use it for whatever they want. Now they can use it for their dog’s Fire Tag.
Allison: Now does the, I see you’ve got some harnesses here. Do the harnesses have anything to do with Rescue Retriever?
Ryan: The harnesses are a brand new technology that we’re launching coming out this next January. It’s new technology, magnet technology for ease of use and for safety reasons. It’s 360 swivel.
Allison: Okay, hang on. So we’re looking at a harness and I see something coming over that pops onto the harness, but I don’t… This is a magnet. What does it do?
Ryan: All it does is connect just like that. So when you’re walking your dog, ease of use, goes right on for safety reasons.
Allison: Oh, that’s the leash?
Ryan: Yeah.
Allison: But if you can pull it…
Ryan: You can’t pull it off.
Allison: Oh, you have to squeeze it.
Ryan: Yeah, you have to squeeze it. Squeeze it to pull it off and then magnetic attach.
Allison: Oh, that is nice.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s a secure mechanism and it’s got a 360 swivel, right? So when you’re walking your dog or in the car. That’s where I’ve got our harness for mine.
Allison: Oh, he’s demonstrating there. Oh, you’ve got them on the collars, this same swivel design.
Ryan: Yeah, so depending on how much your dog weighs, we have different sizes and it holds up to 200, 400, 800 pounds.
Allison: That is one thing it needs, torque. Our eye candy here, who’s been demonstrating, your twin brother Rusty.
Rusty: Yes, so I have lovely hands, you know. But I have a lovely face like my brother. But yeah, this is our new feature. Actually this is called ClickIt. Rescue Retriever in itself, we value safety. So every product we put up with the Rescue Retriever brand, we value safety. So this is a one-handed feature. So it’s one hand, boom, just like that. 900 pounds. You’re not going to pull that off. It comes right off just like that.
Allison: That’s slick. I don’t have as much trouble with the collar, but man, with the harness, getting him into the dog, in and in the whatever. He’s too close, he’s too far, whatever he’s doing. He’s making sure I can’t get that collar thing on.
Ryan: Just like a fire.
Allison: Yeah.
Ryan: It’s identical to it, but we have all our gear on and gloves so we can ring them up fast. But we just need to get there to them faster.
Allison: Very good. So if people want to find Rescue Retriever, what’s your website?
Ryan: RescueRetriever.com. And I do videos all the time on TikTok and Instagram to make you aware how to use it, where to mount it, if firefighters know about it. And you’re right, you said something. Any anomaly in a fire could be a little kid with a flashlight. That’s what this is. It’s your dog with the flashlight saying, “Come rescue me. I’m over here.”
Allison: Very good. Very good. Well, thank you very much both of you. This was really interesting. We’ll definitely check it out.
Ryan: Yeah, for sure. Thank you. Appreciate it.