Nov 25, 2009

Fighting Hard To Stay Positive

Al , , Service Dogs

I hafta tell you I’m really having a hard time staying positive lately, to the point of sometimes thinking about bagging my whole involvement with service dogs, especially getting them to veterans.

Almost every day I see questionable things from supposedly responsible organizations and people in the service dog world, particularly where veterans are involved. Like the veteran working his dog with no leash I just saw in a slick fundraising video from a service dog place that focuses solely on veterans (watched it four or five times and I still couldn’t believe it).

Or the veteran in a news story a month or so ago about how he and his dog are being discriminated against by a bus line who shows off a worthless registration card from one of those flaky places that sell ‘em and says something about how he even has documentation for his dog (probably just didn’t know better, but he – and the reporter – should).

Or a recent news video where a veteran with serious post-traumatic stress issues intentionally places both himself and the dog who’s supposed to help him with those issues into a stressful situation, the irony of which wasn’t lost on me (and, yeah, sure, you can take the dog pretty much anywhere, but should you?).  And so on…

What makes it even worse is not only do most people not pick up on this stuff, they usually actually think it’s great and get behind it!  Between the news media, people with thousands of Facebook friends or Twitter followers,  continuous mindless retweeting, etc., I start feeling like one little ol’ guy nobody’s paying attention to who’s constantly swimming upstream against a strong current.

I’m torn – I’m really very tempted to start calling people out on this stuff, but I also don’t wanna “go negative” and end up spending my life arguing with people – there’s no future in that.  So, for now, I’m just gonna continue to try to show you the way things are supposed to be, hope you pick up on that, and that you notice when things aren’t. That could change at any time, but I’ll try.

It all comes down to something one of my fellow Group Sergeant Majors taught me when we were on the Air Force Academy staff many years ago and that’s stuck with me. We were talking about some incident out in ‘”the real Air Force” where some sleazoid messed up bigtime, and I half-jokingly said, “You know, instead of handpicking only the best people for the staff, maybe we oughtta start bringing in some slugs so cadets can see what they’re like, too.” My compatriot said, “Nah, Al, trust me – they’ll see ‘em soon enough. We just need to keep setting the standard and example so cadets know how things are supposed to be and count on them to get it.”

Hey, I understand – the vast majority of people see a veteran, a dog, put the two together, and automatically say, “Wow, that must be a great thing.”, even though it may very well not be.  It’s not so much that I wanna give people the answers – I just want ‘em to start asking the questions.

Ah, I’m not really planning on going anywhere. There’s too many good things going on, like the two fantastic service dog placements with seriously wounded OIF veterans that Canine Companions for Independence just made in the last couple weeks.  More about those later.

Nov 20, 2009

“I Coulda Had A V8″ – Don’t Let That Happen To You With Service Dogs

Al , Service Dogs

One of the biggest reasons I harp so hard on getting the best service dog you possibly can and point out things/places that aren’t so great is that I don’t ever want you to be this guy:

smack-forehead


Where you get a dog that turns out to be a great companion but a not-so-great service dog, you see one later that really IS that great, and you realize, “Man, if I’d have only applied to a better organization, paid more attention, and done some more research, I could’ve had one of those.”

Or you support an organization or individual you later find out really isn’t up to the standard, or is training and placing dogs into situations you’re not comfortable with now that you know better (e.g., the dog is being asked to do things that may very well be beyond the capabilities of the dog – or any dog).

Look, there’s a ton of fun, laughs, and wonderful things that happen in the service dog world, no question.  Make no mistake, though – once you get past all the “feelgood” stuff (like most of what you read online or see on the news now), it’s serious business, and you have to look beyond the surface stuff and pay close attention.

Don’t let it happen to you – I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t.

Nov 19, 2009

Every Veteran With A Disability Doesn’t Need A Service Dog, And This Is A Great Alternative

Al , , , , , Service Dogs

Just read about this great program for veterans recovering at Walter Reed that teaches them to train dogs at the Washington Humane Society. I’ve heard of other programs like this before, but not this specific one, and I think they’re tremendous.  Note particularly what the people involved say about the program:

Army Capt. Lawrence Minnis sits with his two adopted pit bulls at the Washington Humane Society’s Behavior and Learning Center, Nov. 12, 2009.Army Capt. Lawrence Minnis sits with his two adopted pit bulls at the Washington Humane Society’s Behavior and Learning Center.

“Homeless Dogs Help Healing Troops”

The reality is a service dog isn’t necessary or appropriate for every wounded veteran (or anyone with a disability, for that matter) – not the popular thing to say, but the truth. So much of the popular public opinion I see now comes off as “Hey, let’s just give every wounded veteran a service dog and that’ll fix things”, especially when we’re talking about mental health issues like post-traumatic stress as opposed to physical injuries.  Well-intentioned, no doubt, but misguided, nonetheless – it’s just not that simple nor necessarily the way to go.

There are a myriad of factors involved in providing someone with a no-joke, for-real, fully functioning service dog, and, done right, it’s a time-consuming, extremely thorough, and usually expensive process that requires a lifetime commitment from everyone involved. Programs like this one are great because they provide troops who don’t have a more serious need with so much of what they do need, cost very little, if anything, and all of the factors specifically associated with a service dog are taken away.  They also have the potential to not divert a lot of funding and effort away from areas where, in my view, they are better expended, e.g., the training of full-up service dogs for those people who have physical injuries as their primary issue.

No question whatsoever that there are still many veterans who really need and would benefit from a service dog, and I remain convinced that we still aren’t reaching those with severe physical disabilities, particularly the relatively younger group of OEF/OIF veterans. But I’m also convinced there are a whole lotta people that don’t need that level of support, and we need to be talking about these kind of programs first before making the big jump to right away talking about service dogs for everybody.

Nov 18, 2009

Young Kyle Orent Raises $125,000+ For Canine Companions for Independence

Al Service Dogs

Just a quick and easy but great story for you today in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere.

Kyle Orent is an 11-year-old young man in New York who has raised over $125,000 for Canine Companions for Independence. You read that right – $125,000.  (I was gonna link to the nice Newsday story about Kyle, but they have now changed it to subscription-only access -  not a good move and won’t fly these days, but that’s another discussion. )

Kyle appeared on My Fox NY yesterday with Debbie Dougherty, CCI Northeast Region Executive Director, Lisa Moran, CCI Instructor, and Jillian, a CCI dog currently in professional training at the NER Center on Long Island.  Here’s the video:

In its own way – and I mean no disrespect – this strikes me as just as big as Dean Koontz donating millions. In fact, from what I’ve heard about Dean Koontz from those who know him, he’d likely say the same thing – hope somebody’s working on getting those two together at some point.

Fantastic job, Kyle! You can see more at his website:

http://www.kyleslemonade.org

Nov 10, 2009

Why Haven’t We Heard More About This Well-Known Veteran’s Service Dog Discrimination Case?

Al , , , , , Service Dogs

Haven’t had a lot to say lately, largely because I haven’t seen a lotta good things to write about, or even bad things that have enough substance to make them worth commenting on.

There is one story, though, that, while not a good one, definitely got my attention and I wanna talk about because no one else seems to be. It’s been 11 days since I first saw it on October 30th, and there’s still no reaction on major news services, Twitter, or blogs, which, given that I routinely see all three erupt over much, much less serious service dog incidents than this one, really strikes me as odd.

Here’s the story, buried in the Courthouse News Service – read it for yourself:

“Iraq Vet Says McDonald’s Workers Beat Him“

Luis Montalvan, Sen Al Franken, and dog Tuesday.

Luis Montalvan, Sen Al Franken, and Tuesday.

So let’s review:

  • Highly visible OEF/OIF wounded warrior – ‘poster guy’ for Puppies Behind Bars, been to the inauguration, Sen Franken says this is the guy who inspired him to write his recently passed service dog legislation, been featured on many news stories, including this one in the Wall Street Journal in July that got loads of attention: “‘Sit! Stay! Snuggle!’: An Iraq Vet Finds His Dog Tuesday”
  • Biggest fast food chain on the planet, McDonald’s.
  • Happened right in New York City (Brooklyn).
  • Physical attack with garbage can lids that resulted in a significant injury.

Add all that up, and it’s clearly a huge story. And that’s true whether it turns out to be accurate or not, which is the point I want to make here.

Obviously, it’s a major story if it’s true, and, if so, my gut reaction is somebody needs to get hammered, bigtime. My standard ‘I’m not an attorney’ disclaimer applies, but those are some very serious accusations, and I don’t think you have to be a lawyer to see a big bucks civil action settlement, a lotta bad press for McDonald’s, and maybe additional criminal charges coming.

What’s not so obvious is that it’s still a huge story even if things didn’t happen this way – the story doesn’t just go away. There are a lotta serious questions that would need to be answered including, depending on the circumstances, ones about this particular dog placement, the screening and training process associated with that placement, and the overall concept in general of placements specifically for those with post-traumatic stress as their primary issue.

Let me be very clear – as a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant who has nothing but the utmost respect for all these young servicemembers today who have to deal with lots more stuff than I ever did, I’m the last guy in the world to say anything disrespectful about them, and I am not doing that here. That does not, however, remove the need to ask some hard questions and be extremely careful, particularly where we are placing assistance dogs into the mix.

Let me also be very clear that I’m not saying that things didn’t happen exactly the way Luis Montalvan says they happened. I wasn’t there and have no inside information or any other reason to believe they didn’t.

What I AM saying is, either way, this story deserves a lot more of all of our attention than it’s getting and cannot be ignored the way it seems to be getting ignored. If it’s true, I expect some serious action to be taken, and if it isn’t, I also expect some serious action – it doesn’t just vanish in one of those Emily Litella “never mind” moments I’ve written about.

Please keep your eye on this one – I know I will be.