Episode 179: ⁣ Buy Once, Cry Once with Modern Icon

⁣Your Working Dog Radio hosts, Eric @vanessk9 & Ted @ted_summers, sit down with⁣ Modern Icon Founder, Lee Vartanian.

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This episode is from our HITS K9 conference series. Speaking of HITS, they will be returning to Arizona next year, August 15-18, in Scottsdale at the Westin Kierland Resort. Get your tickets to this conference early!⁣ (Speaking of tickets, did you know Eric has an e-collar course?)⁣

Vartanian has almost three decades’ worth of experience as a professional climber, doing DoD contracts with Tier 1 units around Bragg, and using the PACE method. This provided Vartanian with an intimate knowledge of quality materials, which helped him modify his own gear. After his time in the US Marine Corps, Vartanian became a police officer in South Carolina. As a police officer, Vartanian also modified some of his gear, including the infamous rifle sling. This piece of equipment picked up popularity among the instructors, the other officers, the folks at the range, etc. After noticing the equipment a K9 handler was using, Vartanian thought he could “hear the stitching coming out” and didn’t want the patrol dog that he works with to bite him, so Vartanian asked the handler if he could make a better leash, would he use it? And Modern Icon was born. (Also, Vartanian gave a shout out to Modern Icon’s “frenemy”, Ray Allen, for whom there is a mutual respect for each other!)