SHELTER DOGS HELP VETERANS

Soldiers Team Up With Shelter Dogs

in Operation Heroes & Hounds
by Stephanie Feldstein

Tamar Geller is a celebrity canine life coach with a client list that includes Oprah
Winfrey, Natalie Portman, Ellen DeGeneres, Owen Wilson, and Jon Stewart. But long
before she had this star-studded client list, Geller was an Intelligence Officer with the
elite Israeli Army Special Forces.

She became interested in dogs during her service, particularly the bond between dogs and
their trainers, the way they communicated and anticipated commands. When she finished
her service, Geller developed "The Loved Dog" method of training, which uses positive,
stress-free, game-based behavior training, and she opened Southern California's first
cage-free doggie daycare and boarding facility. But she never forgot her roots, and now
she's developed a program where soldiers and shelter dogs help each other out.

Operation Heroes & Hounds gives injured members of the U.S. armed forces the chance
to work with shelter dogs. The program participants include both those with physical
injuries and the "walking wounded" — those soldiers suffering from non-visible ailments
such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Using the positive,
playful approach of The Loved Dog method to make a difference in the lives of homeless
animals, these soldiers get a chance to rebuild their self esteem, sense of purpose, and
lives as civilians.

The healing power of dogs is not a new concept. Prison dogs (and other animals)
programs have been successful for years in helping rehabilitate inmates and give shelter
dogs a better chance at adoption. Having animals around is also known to reduce stress,

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lower blood pressure, relieve loneliness, and ease depression. And now they're doing
their part to help the men and women who have served our country transition back into
society.

Like any good trainer (or canine coach), Geller doesn't shy away from a challenge. The
program isn't just to give soldiers all the benefits of working with dogs — it's equally
beneficial to the dogs. Operation Heroes & Hounds takes in dogs from shelters who are
"in need of behavior modification." In other words, you're not likely to find the mellow,
elderly beagle mix or the easily adopted, love-everybody puppy in the program. This is
an opportunity for dogs who need a second chance to get it. The more training that your
average young, rambunctious shelter dog has, the more likely he is to get adopted.

After the eight week program, the dogs are available for adoption. Sometimes, Operation
Heroes & Hounds is a successful matchmaker with their human-canine teams, and the
soldiers fall in love with their new companions and decide to adopt the dogs themselves.
Either way, the program is win-win for the emotional health and futures of both the
heroes and the hounds.

Operation Heroes & Hounds is currently located at Camp Pendleton in California, but
Geller hopes to expand it to other bases, and animal shelters, across the country. If you'd
like to help, you can make a donation to the program in honor or memory of pets or
military personnel.

Dogs get nod in study to help vets with post traumatic stress
disorder …

The following story was kindly reprinted from the Sept. 4 edition of USA
Today, via their website Paw Prints Post. The story illustrates what a powerful
team people and pets make in our society.

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A new study is hoping man’s best friend can help veterans struggling with
post traumatic stress disorder.

The U.S. Department of Defense is starting a 12-month study to find out

exactly how the dogs help by comparing soldiers with PTSD who have dogs
with a similar group of soldiers without a dog. Researchers will measure
changes in symptoms and medication use.

These psychiatric service dogs have been assisting people with a variety of
mental illnesses since the late 1990s. About 10,000 such dogs are now in
use.

Joan Esnayra, president and founder of the Psychiatric Service Dog Society,
has a message on their website for veterans: They have a “soulmate in their
dog who is ever loyal and compassionate” and a community that understands
them.

And that has the military interested, according to a Kansas City Star story.

“It’s a powerful intervention. We expect a very large effect,” research

psychologist Craig Love told the Star.

Love will be conducting the study at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center
with Esnayra.

The two researchers presented their work Thursday during a military health
research conference held this week in Kansas City. Love and Esnayra
surveyed 39 people with PTSD who were teamed with psychiatric service
dogs.

Eighty-two percent have reported fewer PTSD symptoms since they have had
the dogs, and 40% said they were using fewer medications.

Sergeant Mike Calaway and Sergeant Jack Curtis Green get to know their
new 2 year old black labrador team mates, (left to right) Boe and Budge in
this 2007 file photo. They were heading off for a 15 month deployment in the
Middle East as part of a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA)
team that is comprised of nurses, therapists, medics and now dogs.

These are the first therapy dogs to help military people in Iraq suffering from
combat stress and they have been trained by America’s VetDogs, a
subsidiary of Guide Dog Foundation of America.

Source: Animal411

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 Former Addicts Train Shelter Dogs to
Serve Veterans

Over the years, Terry Sandhoff has taught dogs how to assist people with disabilities,
everything from helping someone carry their bags to finding lost personal belongings and
preventing a person from falling. Beginning this month, Sandhoff tackles a new
opportunity for her service dogs: teaching former drug addicts and homeless people to
train them for war veterans.

"Today represents a lifelong dream that has become a reality for me," Sandhoff told The
Sacramento Bee at the launch of the Four Paws for Vets program at Mather Community
Campus, a transitional facility for homeless adults and families in Sacramento.

Four Paws for Vets, under the supervision of the non-profit St. Francis Pet Education and
Training Center in Fair Oaks, Calif., takes shelter dogs and matches them with Mather
caretakers, who will later turn them over to war veterans. The dogs themselves were
recruited from the Sacramento city animal shelter.

Similar programs exist in other states, such as Paws4vets program, which trains dogs for
war veterans based on the east coast. That program uses prison inmates to help with the
training process and eventually transfer the dog to the assigned owner.

Four Paws for Vets utilizes the Mather residents, most of whom have battled drug
addictions or homelessness. "I liked her the first time I saw her," Rachelle Ferro, 39, a
former drug addict who lives on the campus, told The Sacramento Bee when she first laid
eyes on Raina, an energetic fox terrier pup she is training.

Sandhoff’s plan is to use the dogs to protect the veterans, many of whom suffer from

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post-traumatic stress disorder, from detrimental situations by training the dogs to “block”
people from getting too close to their masters and warning them if someone gets too
close. They can also be trained to turn on lights in dark rooms before veterans arrive and
signal veterans when they began engaging in repetitive behaviors, like toe tapping, a
precursor to an emotional outbreak.

The new trainers will spend the next eight months training and living with the dogs, using
positive reinforcement techniques to keep them on task. "She is my responsibility," said
Ferro of Raina. "I need that. Maybe she can help me change my life and help others."