Ingenious Program Uses Dogs to Help Veterans
I’d like to thank “d.d.”, of San Francisco, for sending in an excellent article from the SF Chronicle’s website.
The article touches on my all-time favorite subject: the physical and emotional health benefits that people derive from animals. Many of these benefits are well documented. People who have dogs benefit from increased exercise. Petting cats lowers blood pressure. Therapy dogs in children’s hospitals make patients want to get well. They also make the work environment more pleasant for nurses. Pets may be able to detect abnormal blood sugar levels in humans with diabetes. The list goes on and on.
Now we can add two new documented ways that animals help people. Dogs may help relieve the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans. They also serve as assistance animals for veterans who have gone through limb amputations.
Here is an excerpt from the article.
A couple of months ago, [Abelardo Rosas] barely spoke to anyone. He was sullen and surly and not responding to treatment at the PTSD clinic at the Veterans Affairs health center in Menlo Park.
Then he met Vegas, a sweet, good-natured golden retriever with a shiny coat and sad eyes.
Rosas had volunteered to participate in a pilot program – veterans at the clinic would train canines to become assistance dogs to aid disabled veterans, those who had lost limbs or are confined to wheelchairs.
The story proceeds to describe how the companionship of Vegas helped Rosas re-gain a sense of balance in life. He also helped the young veteran to feel relevant and helpful again.
[Rick Yount, director of the program] said handling and training dogs is valuable in the treatment of PTSD because the animals help the veterans connect with their emotions. The dogs counteract feelings of isolation. They have to take the dogs out into the community, he said, and other people inevitably want to pet the dogs and talk to the person handling them.
“The dog also reinforces the need to assist someone else,” he said. “This is important for a lot of veterans because most of them joined the military to help people.”
In my opinion it is an absolutely ingenious program. My hat goes off to everyone involved in it!
You have questions. 
excellent program idea
I think this is a fantastic idea! I’m currently working with my kitten and training him to be able to go into nursing home and hospital situations to provide a bit of companionship for the patients. I’m not a veteran or anything, but I did (and really, still do) suffer from severe social anxiety disorder..but when I’m out with Riley..everyone sees a cat on a leash and wants to play with him and all…
I would be interested to see if vets training cats would yield different results than when they train dogs…There are successful kitten “socialization” classes which help train the kittens for sit, stay, shake…that sort of thing. Nothing (in my book, anyway) is more comforting than a kitty falling asleep next to you purring. If only dogs could do that!
I agree with Christine. My human mom and I go visiting to places (I’m in training to be a therapy cat) and it’s wonderful the people who come up and are glad to pet me. I love making a difference in people’s lives.
[...] October this blog covered a program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder trained service dogs. The veterans [...]
I think this is wonderful. As someone myself who is a vet and I do suffer from PTSD from military service. I’m a firm believer in Pet Therapy. I don’t have as severe case as many who have recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan but what I experienced related to another conflict. I have a tendency to be on hyper alert mode and highly sensitive to excessive noise like fireworks, gunfire and loud car stereos. I’m the one who needs a sedative, not the dogs… It’s funny to say that but it’s not funny when I have those moments. Having dogs surrounding me gives me the strength to cope with it during the worst time of the year for me which is the 4th of July. People around here are fireworks crazy. I cannot leave my house. But I see those loving eyes and they snuggle next to me and the world is right again. I just hang out in the basement and noone sees me on that day.
But anything that helps our returning veterans, I’m all for it.
[...] October this blog covered a program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder trained service dogs. The veterans [...]
[...] October this blog covered a program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder trained service dogs. The veterans [...]
[...] October this blog covered a program in which veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder trained service dogs. The veterans [...]