As the old saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But as one organization has shown over the course of five decades, a dog can become a veteran’s new best friend.
This past Fourth of July the national nonprofit Canine Companions celebrated 50 years of providing expertly trained service dogs to veterans, free of charge. The organization has placed more than 8,300 service dogs since its inception in 1975, improving the lives of children, adults, and veterans with disabilities and to provide specialized support to professionals working in healthcare, education and criminal justice.
Since Canine Companions’ first service dog, Abdul, was trained in Santa Rosa, Calif. in 1975, the nonprofit has linked canines to countless humans for positive results.
It’s been a wide-ranging effort consisting of more than 34,000 volunteers who have raised service dog puppies; the graduation of 7,100 service dog and handler teams; 1,150 facility dogs joining owners at veterans’ places of work; and matching 600 veterans with canines to minimize the effects of conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while uplifting them with regained hope and independence.
‘You Think It’s Normal’
One of those hundreds of veterans who has received a canine companion is Daryl Sager, a former U.S. Marine Corps machine gunner once deployed on 24-hour notice to protect American embassies in Kosovo and Macedonia. He served from 1996-2000.
He later joined the United States Air Force to develop safer methods for rescuing combat medics, ultimately spending a dozen years in the service. During a stint in the Air National Guard, he simultaneously worked as a Santa Rosa (Calif.) firefighter aiding not just with Northern California’s most devastating wildfires but also conducting vehicle extrications and tending to casualties.
Due to his various experiences in military and post-military life, Sager developed PTSD.
“As you finally slow down, you start to realize your sense of normal changes and you have this dark sense of humor,” Sager told Military.com. “[Military members’] sense of humor is different, and then they only surround themselves with military guys really primarily to hang out with.
“You don’t realize that some of the guys you hang out with are just as screwed up as you are, and you think it’s normal. And you finally have an incident that brings you to the point where you have to ask for some help or get told to get help. You realize, ‘Oh, all these things I was doing that I thought was normal are really terrible maladaptive coping strategies.’”
He said that once those emotional doors begin to open, they’re difficult to shut.
But it wasn’t him but his wife who brought the issues to the forefront once she noticed Sager’s behavior in front of fellow veterans and first responders, and then his behavior in front of everyone else.
“I realized that I showed a lot of those signs and symptoms,” said Sager, who lives in Woodland, Calif. “Long story short, 2017-ish is when I started having a lot of problems. And then it kind of just all fell apart. 2018 is when I retired from the fire department and hung it all up.”
Sager’s wife is now a licensed mental health clinician and works for a different nonprofit where she volunteers time conducting day-long retreats for firefighters, police officers, military and their families.
Relieving Anxiety
Sager applied for his service dog in 2019 after being introduced to the Canine Companions program through another veteran who had a service dog and was benefited by group therapy.
“Like, I could see it, as he grew in his therapy with that dog,” Sager said. And I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna get me one of these dogs.’ And so that’s what I did.”
His feelings and depression, akin to living in an emotional desert, subsided a lot when he was matched with his service dog, Adria. The Labrador cross golden retriever helps in situations like night terrors he has by nudging him or tugging his blankets off to remind him that he’s not alone.
They’ve now been together about five years. Adria like other canines are purpose bred as the primary service dogs of Canine Companions, combining intelligence and temperament.
“She does a lot of anxiety interruption, like you start feeling these somatic symptoms when they start getting worked up,” he said. “A lot of times I don’t recognize those because it just happened so often, like a sweating, anxious feeling.
“And a lot of times she’ll kind of sit against me, like lean against me to let me know, ‘Hey, you need to check in with yourself before you get too worked up’ or because then I get just totally task saturated and just trying to function. … And just like the anxious tics, I can just sit and it sounds stupid—I just pet the dog. But for some reason, it’s like pure magic.”
Traversing The Post-Military ‘Gauntlet’
Sager’s positive experience with Adria convinced him to volunteer at Canine Companions, where he now served as veteran program manager to help match canines with other veterans who could get the same satisfaction he did.
“I got my dog, it helped me,” he said. “I gained control of my symptoms and I was like, ‘This is really good.’ And I started volunteering because idle hands, [it] keeps myself busy, volunteering with the organization.”
His experience with Canine Companions actually started years earlier. Sager recalled how during a brownout, the nonprofit let firefighters including him occupy their building. He had no idea they offered dogs for veterans suffering PTSD.
Sager ultimately learned that the organization has linked veterans with PTSD and canines for many years, even instituting a PTSD-related program in 2007 to help military members coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq.
He called it “probably the coolest job I’ve ever had.”
“I get to help vets out, right? Like, it fills my cup, helping people,” Sager added. “I’m pretty much a catch-all. I assist them with advocacy, working with our partners. We have some lobbyists on staff and we try to lobby. The VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] offers a veterinary health benefit for service dogs.
“So, helping guys get through that process is—it’s like a gauntlet, applying through the VA and having all the stuff that the VA requires to get that program going. If guys are having trouble with their service connected disability paperwork, I’ll help them out or finding a DD214 [discharge petition] or pretty much anything.”
A Consistent Need
The need has grown exponentially in recent years, a lot of that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated mental health struggles by veterans and others alike. Puppy handlers are also wanted, and they’re actually able to hand the dogs over to veterans during graduation ceremonies.
Sager said the mission doesn’t end when a veteran receives a match. It’s actually the beginning.
“I call all our clients; I’ve got a rotation list,” he said. “I go down to contact those guys just to check in.
“It’s not like, ‘Here’s your dog and have a nice go with it.’ We actually check in and we take care of them.”
Those seeking a companion canine or who want to volunteer can visit the nonprofit’s website or call 1-866-224-3647.
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