Heidi Huebner

Joining me on the Born To Talk Radio Show Podcast on Monday, August 22nd from 1-2 PT is Heidi Huebner.

Let’s Meet Heidi.

Heidi grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. She holds a BA in Communications from Chapman University. Heidi has been involved with many organizations helping animals and educating the public for the last 30-plus years. These include the Director of Volunteer Programs for Los Angeles Animal Services, Founder and Executive Director of KidsnPets, and the Director of Pals2Pets. Her passion for raising awareness through education and public speaking continues to reach out nationwide. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Pet Care Foundation. Heidi is excited to share that through their grooming program and shelter adoption events they have helped place over 20,000 dogs and cats into new loving homes.

Currently, Heidi is the Public Information Director for the Volunteer Programs including, VIP’s Volunteer Information Professionals and the world-famous PUP Program at Los Angeles World Airports ( LAX). She developed and created the Pets Unstressing Passengers Program in 2012 and launched it in 2013. The purpose of the PUPs is to alleviate stress and anxieties at airports. The program allows an opportunity to provide an overall enhanced customer experience by providing stress relief and comfort to passengers through interaction with pets. She has assisted 90 airports nationwide and internationally to start similar programs and the number of requests continues to come in via calls and emails. Her dream is for all airports to have a therapy dog program.

PUP Program.

Traveling can create stress and anxieties at airports, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUP) program is an opportunity to provide an overall enhanced customer experience, providing stress relief and comfort to passengers through interaction with pets. The PUPs are the volunteers along with their own dogs. They both donate their time to LAX. They are registered with Therapy Dogs Inc.

The PUPS in the program are a variety of breeds, sizes, and ages. Dogs are dressed in red “Pet Me” vets with the PUP logo on them so they can easily be identified as the LAX’s PUPs. All dogs in the program must be at least 2 years old. The PUP handlers have a least one year of experience working with a recognized dog therapy organization.

The dogs and their owners roam each terminal’s Departure Level gate areas to greet passengers awaiting flights. They provide comfort as well as airport information.