This Veterans’ Day is a good time to post a reminder that many veterans come home with things like PTSD, and they can benefit with access to a trained PTSD Service Dog. These dogs are trained to perform a task to assist in various ways like bringing medication, or walking into rooms in front of vets to “clear” the area, or to guide the vet to an exit if an anxiety attack occurs — there are many ways that dogs can be trained to enrich the life of veterans. Dogs can be taught to lay on the owner if needed to apply pressure and help make the veteran feel secure. They can go get help if needed, or pick up things that have been dropped. The dogs are often trained in multiple tasks, as needed by the recipient.

These dogs are not emotional support dogs, they are fully trained Service Dogs that are more than just a companion. They usually begin their journey by being born in a litter of pups with a Service Dog background, from proven helper dogs. They are placed in training programs that winnow out the many that aren’t reliable or dependable or are just not able to perform the necessary tasks. The resulting crop of pups/young adults are then matched to a qualified and screened veteran. Together, they take a few weeks to a month to learn to work together as a team. The process of raising dogs from proven parents and placing washout pups in pet homes while training the remainder costs a lot of money, and the VA does not help pay for these necessary “equipment” dogs. But most vets can’t afford the approx. $25,000 cost it takes to create a reliable PTSD Service Dog.

Fortunately, there are some charity groups out there that raise money to match a trained dog with a veteran free of cost. They screen the applicants to make sure they can care for the dog’s needs as well as have plans for it if they no longer can provide a good home in the future. I found one at https://www.vetdogs.org/ that gave a good overview about how these programs work. They all usually rely on donations, so this Veterans’ Day please consider checking some of these PTSD dog procurement places out and consider making a donation. Be sure to check their status at https://www.charitynavigator.org/ to make sure they are donating a high amount of the donations to their cause. For the record, vetdogs.org scores a 4 out of 4 so help a vet get a dog this year, and thank you!

Happy Dogging!