How a Rescue Dog Saved Rocky Kanaka’s Life

Before Rocky Kanaka was the Rocky Kanaka—the Emmy-nominated host of the Netflix series “Save Our Shelter” and the face of the YouTube series “Sitting with Dogs” (with over 5.6 million subscribers)—he was a Hawaii-born, Midwest-raised, pet-loving “conflicted entrepreneur” who liked baking for dogs.

“It’s very similar to baking for people,” he says. “The only difference is you have a lot more leeway. If you burn a peanut butter cookie for a dog, they are much more forgiving.” That passion led him to launch The Dog Bakery at the original Los Angeles Farmers Market (which grew into three additional locations). He’d host adoption days and connect rescue dogs with homes, which ultimately introduced him to his “soul dog.”

Flip, a triple espresso in the form of a boxer, went everywhere with Kanaka—visiting shelters across the country and rescuing abandoned and mistreated dogs. Throughout the rehabilitation process, Flip was a mentor, teaching dogs how to dog. And Kanaka captured it all on video. His posts have purpose: A 2025 study out of Animals says sharing a shelter’s social media posts increases the chance that animals get adopted.

There’s that cliché about rescue dogs: “Who saved whom?” In Kanaka’s case, Flip literally saved his life when he alerted him to an incoming stroke by frantically jamming his nose to his knee—a behavior he’d never done before—allowing Kanaka enough time to notice abnormal symptoms and ask his wife, Kelly, to call 911. Flip had no formal training as a service dog, yet he knew to act.

Following Flip’s passing, Kanaka and his family (dogs included) relocated to Oceanside to embark on an ambitious new project. Created in honor of his late best friend, Flip Farms is a 50-acre coffee farm and rehabilitation center imagined as a “dog-rescue village.” Inside: tiny homes for foster dogs, a boutique hotel, a rooftop garden, and a farm-to-table restaurant. “The whole point of the farm is rehabilitating rescue dogs,” Kanaka says. “At any given time, we’ll have rescue dogs going through a [physical or mental] rehabilitation journey. When people purchase a coffee, it’s to help those efforts.”

The goal is to open the farm to the public by the end of the year. “One person can definitely make a difference, but there’s power in numbers,” says Kanaka. “It’s going to be a really exciting experience, and we can’t wait to welcome the community.”

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