Show Notes
In this episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, we’re talking about the kind of love that pads down the hallway on four legs and leaves a paw-shaped crater when it’s gone. 🐾💓
You’ll meet Ryan Wilson, a former SAS soldier whose life was literally saved by a military dog named Fax during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, and whose heart was later held together by Kenny, the clumsy, grinning working dog who became his shadow for 15 years. Ryan shares the moment Fax sensed danger on the wind, found the hidden fighters waiting to kill them, and paid for that instinct with his life. He walks us through the ramp ceremony they gave Fax, just as they would any fallen soldier, and why he’s certain the death toll in Afghanistan would have been far higher without dogs like him.
Back home, Ryan turns that shock into devotion, retraining as a dog handler and being paired with Kenny, a Belgian Malinois who bolts the first time he’s let off lead and later becomes the unit favourite the dog who runs into trees, matches Ryan’s clumsiness, and still gives 110% every time he works. We follow Kenny into retirement on the couch and down to the beach, but also into the quiet, awful reality of a working dog’s body breaking down: spinal damage, failing back legs, and the moment Ryan has to admit the pain is too much.
If you’ve ever stayed up all night on the floor beside a pet, convincing yourself a tiny mouthful of food means they’re “doing better,” this conversation will feel uncomfortably close. Host Tiffany Dunk shares her own recent goodbye to her beloved cat, and together she and Ryan sit in that specific, complicated grief: wishing the animal would slip away in their sleep instead of forcing you to make the call, bargaining with the small wins, and then living with the decision long after the vet’s car has driven away. Ryan talks about how he got through the day he let Kenny go inviting 15 old comrades over to his house, telling stories, having a drink, and putting Kenny to sleep at home, surrounded by the people who knew what he’d done and who he’d been.
This episode also peels back the curtain on what a “life of service” really means for military dogs once the missions end. Ryan explains why these dogs so often retire with serious injuries, how common PTSD is in canine veterans, and why handlers are suddenly left to shoulder eye‑watering vet bills completely alone. Out of that injustice came Working Paws Australia, the charity Ryan co‑founded to pay for the surgeries, medications, and ongoing care retired working dogs need so handlers no longer have to choose between their mortgage and their best friend’s pain. We hear about the dogs they’ve already helped, the families who were on the brink of financial freefall, and why simply listing each dog’s tours of duty on the Working Paws website feels like its own kind of honour roll.
Through it all, this is a story about unconditional love in its purest, least performative form: the dog who greets you the same way whether you’re your best self or your worst, who jumps out of helicopters with you and sleeps at your child’s feet, who doesn’t ask for anything back. Ryan reflects on what dogs can teach us about love that humans often can’t manage loyalty without conditions, presence without judgment, and the quiet insistence that you are worth showing up for, every single day. And in the space Kenny has left, Ryan is pouring that love into his young daughter and into every retired working dog his charity can reach.
If you’re listening with a dog at your feet, or still reaching for a pet who isn’t there anymore, this episode is for you.
Moments You'll Hear: A war story where the hero has four legs, not a medal. The private, unvarnished reality of deciding it’s time to say goodbye to a pet you can’t imagine your life without. How it feels when your grief for “just a dog” or “just a cat” is so big you hide it from social media—and why it deserves to be taken seriously. The creation
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