We\u2019ve all had that one dog who showed up in our lives and changed everything. For Andrew \u201cRoo\u201d Yori, that dog was Wallace. While the Minnesota native had plenty of experience as a shelter volunteer and dog trainer, Wallace was his first Pit Bull<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWallace was a handful \u2014 he was a lot of dog,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cNot that all of them [Pit Bulls] are, but he was, and it just took a lot of focus to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew discovered that Wallace loved playing Frisbee, so they focused his energy into becoming a National Champion, winning over plenty of hearts in the meantime. \u201cI\u2019d go to competitions and people that were scared of Pit Bulls would actually come up and want to meet him,\u201d Andrew says.<\/p>\n Wallace lives on<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Wallace passed away in 2013, but his memory lives on with the Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation<\/a> and the self-named book by Jim Gorant, who also wrote Lost Dogs<\/em> about the Michael Vick dogfighting case.<\/p>\n After Wallace was gone, Andrew wasn\u2019t sure how to continue his work. He asked himself: \u201cWallace had a huge social media following and tons of fans, but when he\u2019s not around, how do I continue to reach people?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer came in 2016 when Andrew was chosen to compete on the obstacle course TV show American Ninja Warrior. \u201cI\u2019ve been an athlete my whole life, so I thought it looked amazingly fun and I wanted to give it a shot,\u201d he says. \u201cI put in my application and was fortunate enough to get called.<\/p>\n I did really well my first season and ever since then, it filled that void and has given me a platform to continue to advocate for these dogs in a completely unique and different way that I wasn\u2019t really expecting, but I think is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Now known as the \u201cK9 Ninja,\u201d Andrew has competed in four seasons of American Ninja Warrior<\/em><\/a>. Each year, he takes pledges for completing obstacles and then uses that money to sponsor adoptions and support spay\/ neuter clinics. Being on a popular TV show has also given Andrew the platform to speak at schools and events around the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main thing is just to have people think about shelter and rescue animals the next time they are thinking about adding one to their family,\u201d he says simply. \u201cThese dogs aren\u2019t broken, they\u2019re not damaged. There are a lot of good dogs sitting in there that need a chance and, unfortunately, don\u2019t make it out all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Top photograph: Joshua Grenell<\/em><\/p>\n Read Next: <\/strong>You Need to Watch\u2004A&E\u2019s America\u2019s Top Dog<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The post How This American Ninja Warrior Competitor is Saving Dogs<\/a> by Abbie Mood, Dip. CBST<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n The post How This American Ninja Warrior Competitor is Saving Dogs<\/a> by Abbie Mood, Dip. CBST<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all had that one dog who showed up in our lives and changed everything. For Andrew \u201cRoo\u201d Yori, that dog was Wallace. While the Minnesota native had plenty of experience as a shelter volunteer and dog trainer, Wallace was his first Pit Bull<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWallace was a handful \u2014 he was a lot of dog,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cNot that all of them [Pit Bulls] are, but he was, and it just took a lot of focus to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew discovered that Wallace loved playing Frisbee, so they focused his energy into becoming a National Champion, winning over plenty of hearts in the meantime. \u201cI\u2019d go to competitions and people that were scared of Pit Bulls would actually come up and want to meet him,\u201d Andrew says.<\/p>\n Wallace lives on<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Wallace passed away in 2013, but his memory lives on with the Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation<\/a> and the self-named book by Jim Gorant, who also wrote Lost Dogs<\/em> about the Michael Vick dogfighting case.<\/p>\n After Wallace was gone, Andrew wasn\u2019t sure how to continue his work. He asked himself: \u201cWallace had a huge social media following and tons of fans, but when he\u2019s not around, how do I continue to reach people?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer came in 2016 when Andrew was chosen to compete on the obstacle course TV show American Ninja Warrior. \u201cI\u2019ve been an athlete my whole life, so I thought it looked amazingly fun and I wanted to give it a shot,\u201d he says. \u201cI put in my application and was fortunate enough to get called.<\/p>\n I did really well my first season and ever since then, it filled that void and has given me a platform to continue to advocate for these dogs in a completely unique and different way that I wasn\u2019t really expecting, but I think is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Now known as the \u201cK9 Ninja,\u201d Andrew has competed in four seasons of American Ninja Warrior<\/em><\/a>. Each year, he takes pledges for completing obstacles and then uses that money to sponsor adoptions and support spay\/ neuter clinics. Being on a popular TV show has also given Andrew the platform to speak at schools and events around the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main thing is just to have people think about shelter and rescue animals the next time they are thinking about adding one to their family,\u201d he says simply. \u201cThese dogs aren\u2019t broken, they\u2019re not damaged. There are a lot of good dogs sitting in there that need a chance and, unfortunately, don\u2019t make it out all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Top photograph: Joshua Grenell<\/em><\/p>\n Read Next: <\/strong>You Need to Watch\u2004A&E\u2019s America\u2019s Top Dog<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The post How This American Ninja Warrior Competitor is Saving Dogs<\/a> by Abbie Mood, Dip. CBST<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dogster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2006_Wags_wallacebook.png\")
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