I said I was gonna stay positive and show you examples of how things should be rather than ones where I know they are not, and this story is a great start.

When you see someone talking about service dogs for veterans, I want the image of this team to immediately pop into your head, because this is the model, on both ends of the leash.  Beyond just being a great story on its face, as you read it, compare what you see here – and, just as importantly, don’t see – with some of the other very visible “service dogs for veterans” stories of late.

Andrew Pike is a young Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran from Idaho who was paralyzed below the waist by a sniper in Palaji, Iraq on March 26, 2007.  He graduated with Service Dog Yazmin from Team Training at the Canine Companions for Independence Northwest Regional Center in Santa Rosa, CA on November 21st.

You can read all about them here:

“A wounded vet and black lab become partners”

Please watch the following two videos which will tell you even more. (Guess it’s not my day for embedding videos since I couldn’t get either one to do it, which is very odd.)  First one was taken during Team Training; second one was filmed after they returned home to Idaho.

“Iraq War Vet gets service dog from CCI”

“Andrew Pike: New life after the war“

You can make your own list, of course, but here’s just a few things I’m hoping you noted and will file away for comparison:

  • Very calm dog under all circumstances – no evidence of stress, such as panting or pawing at her human partner.
  • Dog under control by the human at all times, and that means a leash – shoot, Andrew even held onto the leash when Yazmin was at home – now THAT’s control.
  • Dog actually performing physical tasks for the veteran, e.g., opening doors.
  • Calm, stable, grounded veteran discussing his future in very positive terms.

I know there are more, but you get the idea.

Not really much I can add other than to say Andrew is a wonderful example to me of someone being positive under far tougher circumstances than I hope I ever have to deal with, and a great reminder of why those of us involved with CCI do what we do.

You can read lots more below: