(upbeat music) I know you're watching One-on-One.

This is my colleague Mary Gamba on our sister program, "Lessons in Leadership."

Mary, Cara Achterberg, who wrote the book, "One Hundred Dogs and Counting," one woman, 10,000 miles on a journey into the heart of shelters and rescues.

Animals in focus on "One-on-One."

- Welcome to "Lessons in Leadership."

Steve Adubato with my colleague Mary Gamba.

Mary, you get particularly excited.

- I do.

- I mean, you're always up for every "Lessons in Leadership" show, but when we're talking to a leader in the field of animals and related fields, you get particularly excited.

Why is that?

- I do get particularly excited.

So, for anybody that has followed "Lessons in Leadership" for the past, gosh, Steve, five years plus, everyone knows I am passionate not only about animal rescue, but one day I hope to either open my own rescue or lead some sort of a foster organization.

I just find that being an advocate for those, in this case, four-legged those, who can't advocate for themselves is just so important, so.

- On that note, introduce our very special guest with a very special book.

- Happy to do so.

Oh yes, definitely.

Today we have Cara Achterberg, President and Co-founder Who Will Let the Dogs Out.

And this is part of our special series Animals in Focus.

We'll be sharing this with our sister series One-On-One as well, just to get the word out again about the importance of animal rescue.

Cara, thank you so much for joining us today.

- Thanks for having me.

I'm glad to be here.

- Cara, the main message in this book is 100 dogs and counting, one woman, 10,000 miles and a journey into the heart of shelters and rescues.

Please, main message.

- Main message is that the problem that is primarily in the South of dogs suffering and dying in our shelters is a solvable one.

And I believe it starts with awareness, that more people need to know what's happening down there and how they can help.

- Yeah, definitely.

And Cara, I had actually mentioned to you right before we got on the air, I had listened to the audio book and just hearing you talk about the stories, what more can, obviously, we are a leadership show.

We are a communication show.

And in order to advocate for others, you need to be a great leader, a great communicator.

What more can and should our leaders be doing now that you've gone down, you've seen these shelters, you've seen some of them are doing a fantastic job, other ones really are trying, but they just don't have the right tools.

What more can and should our leaders be doing to advocate more for dogs, both in New Jersey and across the country?

- It starts with good dog laws.

That's one really important piece.

It shows that we value their lives.

New Jersey does have some pretty good dog laws and so you're ahead of the game there.

In much of the South there is not that.

We need to have animal sheltering as kind of a, I believe it's something that we all should have as taxpayers.

We should be paying for this.

It's a service that we all should have available to us and shelters should be a resource for people.

And in much of the South, there just aren't shelters and it's not part of the game.

In Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, they still have dog pounds.

They don't have shelters.

And some counties, they don't have anything.

And so it starts with just believing that this is a right.

I wanna say that this is something, a service that we need to provide our citizens.

They should all have the access to a shelter, to that resource.

- Yeah, and obviously, you started with one dog.

You fostered one dog.

Where did your passion come from to take that risk to have hundreds over, and let's clarify for anybody watching.

You didn't have 100 at once, obviously.

It's not like you had 100 dogs in your house at one time.

Can you just talk?

I have two questions and I always hate doing two questions.

Where does your passion come from?

And just tell us about one of the dogs that really just inspired you the most.

- By the way, that was my question about your passion.

Mary took.

- Well, and that's the other thing.

Cara, one thing I do need to share, Steve, and I have worked together now for 23 years, so we often share a brain.

So I'm excited that I finally get to ask the question that people wanna hear before Steve gets to ask the question, so.

- Please, Cara.

- That passion comes from meeting these dogs.

Like I was not a crazy dog person.

When I brought in that first foster dog, it was kind of selfish.

The reason I did it was our family was looking for a dog and I couldn't decide on any of the ones we met.

So I said, well, let's foster and we'll just try these dogs out, sort of audition them and pick one.

But then once I learned what was happening and how many dogs we couldn't save, I couldn't keep one.

I just kept doing it.

And the more I learned, the more passionate I got.

As everybody always says, they don't have a voice.

Someone's gotta be their voice.

And lots of people are working for this cause trying to rescue dogs.

And I'm trying to add to that.

I mean, my passion is just that I wanna save another one and I want it to change.

I believe it can change.

I've seen places where, even in the poorest parts of this country, they're saving every dog.

And I believe it can happen.

And so, I guess my passion comes from, I see this as a fixable problem and we should fix it.

Like, it just shouldn't be going on.

These animals should not be suffering.

And so, that's kind of what drives me 'cause I believe with all my heart that we can fix this and that it's not acceptable and so much can be done.

It's not even that complicated.

So, what was the second question?

- Oh, I just wondered, I think there was, I'll let Steve talk, though.

We can go back to the other question.

- Well, thank you for letting me talk, Mary.

I appreciate that.

But Cara, since we're taping this for "Lessons in Leadership," and we will show it, I believe, on "One-on-One" as well.

Here's what I'm curious about.

I've always said that to be a great leader, I've always believed that you have to have tremendous passion for something, someone, to some cause, whatever it is.

Have you always seen yourself as a leader, or did that come from you finding out the degree of passion and commitment you had to rescuing these dogs?

- I think I've always been a leader 'cause I get really 150% into things.

When I believe in something, when I think that I can make a difference, then I'm fired up to get other people on board.

And I just, if you get 100% behind something and you share that enthusiasm, it's contagious.

It's really contagious.

And I guess that's kind of where I go with lots of different causes.

But the dogs have sort of consumed me because I've been able to see it happen.

I've been able to see lives changed.

I've been able to see dogs saved and because of that it just drives me to do it more and more.

- Mary, the other part about Cara that you've been pushing and rightfully so, is the motivational inspirational leader part of it.

Please, Mary - Definitely.

And Cara, your other book, and that's what's so amazing.

And Cara, I know you also have these books, but you're also a novelist, as well.

But one book in particular, "Live Intentionally, "65 Challenges for a Healthier, Happier Life."

I, for one, follow you on social media.

I love your daily affirmations.

I sent one to Steve this morning as a matter of fact, and said, let's just make this a great day.

- What is the affirmation?

Go ahead, Mary.

- Well, I'd have to go to my phone for today's affirmation, but I do have one example in here, which literally is "Today is a great to be flexible."

And every day Cara shares another today is a great day to be alive, today is a great day to be grateful.

So we talk a lot about leadership, wellbeing and that connection between wellness.

How important is it to really set an intention for the day?

- I believe that 100%.

I think you should have an intention every day.

I think living intentionally makes life so much more real and you can have a bigger impact on everyone around you and you can definitely be happier and healthier, but you've gotta be intentional.

You can't just float through your day, not paying attention to the little stuff and the people around you and not listening.

If you set an intention every day, kind of focus on that, breaks it down a little bit.

So every morning when I walk or run, I think about like today, what do I want my attention to be today?

And then I work towards doing that all day long.

- Real quick follow up on that.

We talk about that a lot.

Attitude is everything.

We talk about so many people who've overcome so many challenges.

And I always think of our good friend, Eric LeGrand, and you should look at "Lessons in Leadership" past episodes.

Eric LeGrand, a great entrepreneur, a former athlete, a football player at Rutgers University, injured in a 2010 game against Army, paralyzed and has been in a wheelchair ever since, but his attitude is extraordinary.

He is always positive, he's always upbeat and it doesn't mean he doesn't have down days and down times, but he makes a difference every day.

And he's very intentional.

And along those lines, Cara, here's my question.

How do you deal with your down?

You don't have to be Eric LeGrand to experience adversity and it's hard to even relate to how positive he is, given what he's faced.

But my question to you is how do you stay positive when you're not feeling positive?

I'm being dead serious about that, because I struggle with that on my end.

- You know, I was just thinking about this, so it's interesting that you would ask.

Stuff happens every day and definitely when you're working with animals, stuff happens every day that maybe you didn't want to have happen and hard things.

And I think if you can just say, okay, so that happened, that was a fact.

I don't have to let that dictate my emotions for the day.

I can just accept it and that's what it is and not get into the drama of, oh, this is awful and I'm sad, or I'm mad, or I'm, if I can just observe it and be like, okay, so that happened and that dog did whatever it did.

And like of late, I've got puppies here.

Okay, so that room is an absolute disaster zone and it's gonna take me 20 minutes to clean that mess up, but that doesn't mean I have to be in a bad mood for the day.

It's just a fact, just part of the day.

So that's how I.

Life's too short.

I don't wanna spend it being upset and getting dramatic in my emotions about things that aren't that important.

- Mary's loving what you're saying right now.

- Oh, I could sit here.

(everyone laughing) - Why is that, Mary?

- Oh, I just, well, I'm so inspired and Cara, you are the exact reason why I am so inspired every day.

I just recently I had shared with Cara, I have an animal, a dog, Harley, we'll put her photo up as well, and we'll put up a photo of your dogs, too, Steve, But literally having that rescue dog has gotten me to just open up my eyes about, I swear they know, I swear she looks at my eyes and she's like, thank you, thank you for rescuing me.

She came from South Carolina from a high kill shelter.

I was fortunate enough, I actually found a news story that featured her on "Carolina Today."

Nobody wanted this dog.

And I feel so blessed to have had her.

So I'm just smiling ear to ear.

So I'm just really excited.

And I just have one final question for you, Cara.

We often ask who really taught you the most?

Like, who made you the leader that you are today?

But I wanna twist it a little bit.

What has been the greatest leadership lesson that the dogs, whether it's your own or others, what leadership lesson have dogs taught you?

- Wow.

Dogs teach me so much about resilience.

And they take, I meet dogs when I'm on a shelter tour and I've been now to over 100 shelters and I meet so many dogs that have just had it all just so badly and yet they still, they lick your hand.

They come right back.

The resilience is just, it's outstanding.

And if you can't be resilient, then you're not gonna make it in this world.

So, I would say that that's a really important piece.

You can be tired and you can be aggravated and you can be all so many things, but at the end of the day, you gotta keep moving forward and leave that stuff behind.

So I think dogs are an incredible lesson in resilience and forgiveness and continuing forward with that positive attitude.

- Cara, thank you, and not just for joining us, but to see Mary as passionate and enthusiastic as she is right now doing this, it reminds me that this is why we're partners because we have different interests and she brings on different people.

And I'm glad she found you and brought you on.

Thank you, Cara.

- Thank you.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

Wells Fargo.

New Jersey's Clean Energy program.

Johnson & Johnson.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

The Fidelco Group.

Kean University.

The North Ward Center.

And by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

At the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, we are working now more than ever to fill the emptiness caused by hunger.

We are the state's largest anti-hunger organization.

And together with our 800 plus community partners, we are committed to delivering food, help, and hope, to our hundreds and thousands of neighbors in need.