Nowhere do I see this problem more than with the almost constant daily barrage now of feelgood stories about dogs doing wonderful things for military people, both active duty and veterans, particularly those who are suffering with post-traumatic stress as their primary issue.  Problem is, when you look closer and you know what to look for, there’s a lotta bull in those stories.  Well-meaning bull, but bull nonetheless.

And it’s not simple true or false stuff you can just punch into Snopes and it’ll tell you which it is, either – there’s more to it than that and you’ve gotta learn what to look for.  That’s been my intent all along on this site – educate people and correct a lot of the misinformation that floats around.  I don’t care so much whether you agree with me (although that’d be great) or not – you make your own decisions – I just want you to be smart, know what to look for, and have the facts when you make them.

My constant dilemma is what do I just let go, what’s worth bringing up, and if I’m going to do that, how do I do it in an effective way that doesn’t just come across as one big continuous whine or “it’s all about me” arrogant.  Because of that, I’ve sat on most all of these stories, countless times where I’ve written something and then said, “Nah, why bother? People just wanna hear feelgood stuff. Leave it alone.”  Well, I’m at a point now where I don’t know if I can do that any longer, and I want to set the tone for that.

Some of that is due to the cumulative effect of all those stories on me over time, but mostly it’s because things are getting worse, with more and more people pushing the same shaky concepts day after day as if they were accepted fact and already working as advertised.  Or maybe they just don’t know any better.  My fear is the more that stuff sits out there unchallenged, the more it gets accepted, maybe even unconsciously, as “well, everybody knows THAT” fact (I already see that happening) with potentially disastrous results for both people and dogs.

Feeling good or wanting to do good are simply not enough.  We need to be absolutely sure that what we do is really helping and not actually making things worse and placing people or dogs at risk.

My plan is to start writing much shorter posts more often, stop sitting on stuff and just get it out there. The trick will be to not turn this into one big rant site (we have more than enough of those already) without going the other way and “chugging on over to namby-pamby land” like R. Lee Ermey says in that hilarious Geico commercial, either.

Guess I shouldn’t worry, though.  Never fails that every time I wrestle with something like this and then give in and say something, I’ll hear from at least one of my friends with a service dog who will tell me they’ve seen exactly the same thing and thank me for saying it.  That means the world to me – they live it 24/7/365,  I don’t, and they are ultimately why all of us involved in this world do what we do.

We’ll see how it goes.

If you’re not aware of the long history on this subject, see these previous posts, the first of which I wrote 15 months ago after I’d already held off writing it for over a year:

“Why The VA Has Provided No Money for Service Dogs – In Their Own Words”

“Finally, The Real Story About The VA And Service Dogs For Veterans”

You really need to read the whole short 17-page report (and closely to get the whole flavor because there are some key nuances in it), but here’s the highlights (or lowlights):

• VA only started assisting veterans with service dogs in 2008 – 6 years after it was authorized (my jaw STILL gets tight every time I think about this)

• Since FY 2009, VA only provided financial support for 8 – count ‘em, 8 – service dogs as opposed to 230 guide dogs during the same period

• “…knowledge and use of service dogs at VA medical centers was incomplete and inconsistent.”

• VA didn’t give sufficient guidance to medical center staff to ensure consistent decisions on requests for service dogs or make their staff fully aware of the benefits and the application process for them

• “…prior to 2008, VHA’s guidance to VA medical center personnel was to deny requests for service dog benefits. Since 2008, VHA’s guidance has been to use service dogs after considering other options.”

• VA says they haven’t seen a big demand for dogs, but the IG says “the number of veterans who obtained service dogs outside VHA demonstrates a demand exists that VHA needs to address.”

So what’s it all mean?

First, the report doesn’t come right out and say this, but it effectively confirms that there are a lotta people already in the VA system who should’ve been getting benefits paid for their routine service dog expenses and haven’t been. That’s why pretty much everybody in the VA system who has a service dog needs to reapply for that approval – I’ve already written about that here:

“Veterans With Service Dogs Are Now Eligible For VA Benefits, But May Need To Reapply”

Second, VA is on the hook to implement a new program (which includes dogs for those suffering from mental impairments) that was part of legislation passed last year and where VA will be paying for some dogs. The report said they are on track, but there are some important deadlines coming up in the next few weeks.

Third, the report mentioned the increased outreach by VA but said it hadn’t been effective. Interesting that the IG didn’t make a recommendation about increasing or improving that outreach, particularly given that the VA is currently actively working on a program to do just that, but has still not yet completed it.

Fourth, and the biggest one to watch, the draft regulation outlining VA’s service dog policy is in their “normal  2-year  review  process” and is supposed to be final in July 2011.  (2 years is “normal”?? I knew there was a review process, but I had no idea – no wonder we have problems.  That means if you start working on something right now, by default you are already automatically two years behind – unbelievable.)  In addition, and this is key:

“A directive to define policy for the issuance of service dogs to eligible veterans with mobility or hearing impairments; outline the benefits covered by VHA related to obtaining  and  funding  training,  veterinary care, and hardware; and set specific criteria to exercise this authority is also being prepared. This directive will match the regulations and will be issued immediately after the regulations are published.

In the interim, by October 2010 VHA will develop guidance on clinical criteria to determine whether a veteran will benefit from a service dog trained for the aid of the hearing impaired or trained for the aid of persons with spinal cord injury or dysfunction or other chronic impairment that substantially limits mobility to veterans with such injury, dysfunction, or impairment.”

Now, with all that said and for all my moaning about this subject, I’ll still go back to what I’ve said all along.  I don’t think the government is the solution to this problem, and this situation is the perfect example of why, for what should be very obvious reasons. It’s gonna take education (“If You Want More Service Dogs for Veterans, First You Have to Get More Veterans Who Want Service Dogs”) and private effort and money to get it done.

Even with the new legislation this will still be true.  While authorizing an additional 200 dogs and paying $10K towards the cost of each one is nice, first, properly training an additional 200 dogs is a major effort you don’t just snap your fingers and make happen and, second, $10K doesn’t come anywhere near what it costs to properly train each dog and support its placement, a lifelong commitment.

That doesn’t mean I’m not happy to see VA finally get pressed to do what they should’ve been doing all along, though – I am.  Or that the VA shouldn’t step up and fulfill its responsibilities.  But the question, as always with me, is: will this mean that more veterans get more of the best service dogs? (The key word being “best’ – we have plenty of half…”way” “service dogs” already).  The jury’s still out on that one.

Lemme also say something else I’ve said before. I know there are many people working at VA, including some that I know personally, who I have no doubt are “good guys” and are trying to help.  I know it’s gotta be tough to be working at the VA these days, and I wanna thank you for sticking it out and trying to make things better under those conditions.

Let’s hope we’re done with this kinda stuff and can move forward in a lot more positive way from now on.

This short news video from KXAS in Dallas yesterday pretty much speaks for itself and really captures them very well.

“Local Veteran’s Life Changed By A Dog”

My friend Christina Roof at AMVETS just posted a reminder about this a few days ago, which reminded ME that I shoulda put this up when it first happened in April, and didn’t (no good reason).

Veterans with service dogs are now eligible for the same VA benefits that veterans with guide dogs have been receiving for years.

Details here:  “VA Clarifies Veterans’ Assistance Dog Policies, Offering Benefits For New and Previously-Denied Claims”

This is an absolute must-read for anyone with an interest in service dogs for veterans (i.e., EVERYBODY). It explains the VA policy on service dogs, the process to have one approved, and how to apply for the  benefits VA provides for care of the dog. (BTW, the link in that article to the VA site is wrong – this is the correct one: http://www.prosthetics.va.gov/ServiceDogFAQ.asp )

I talked about this issue back in September of last year (“Finally, The Real Story About The Department Of Veterans Affairs And Service Dogs For Veterans”). As I said at the time, it seemed like, after 7 years of saying they weren’t gonna do it, the service dog change just ’showed up’ on the VA website one day without any announcement.  Plus it also appeared that veterans were still getting differing answers about that change depending on what office they talked to.

This clarification addresses those issues. And, as the AMVETS release says, you need to reapply for this benefit even if – in fact, ESPECIALLY if – you were turned down before.

The big issue here, and my concern all along, has been that there could’ve been many veterans who might’ve applied for a service dog, but haven’t because they’ve been concerned about handling the routine expenses, and they just didn’t want to say that.

We’re never gonna know how many we missed in the 7 years it took to make this change, but at least that’s not something we should have to worry about any more.

Assuming, of course, the process works as advertised. I’m VERY interested to see people’s experiences with it -  please let me know what they are, good or bad.

ble for the same VA monthly stipend for expenses that veterans with guide dogs have been receiving for years.

As Matt explains in the video, he’s a wounded warrior who was paralyzed with the exception of his left arm by a sniper’s bullet near Ramadi, Iraq on February 24, 2007.  You can read more details about that in a number of places, including here: “After Surviving Sniper’s Bullet, Soldier Looks to Future”

Matt and Tracy have been super representatives for wounded warriors and their families in general and a number of organizations as well, including CCI, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Homes For Our Troops – pretty much anything they are involved with.

This is another placement that I’d describe exactly the same way I did Andrew Pike’s (Andrew and Matt are good friends, BTW) back  late last year:

“Every Service Dog Placement With A Veteran Should Be As Great As This One”

I went looking a couple days ago for a detailed description of the most well-promoted ’service dogs for veterans’ organization’s training program – couldn’t find it, which really surprised me.

Funny thing is, I was actually trying to give them a break, not pick on them. I felt like I might’ve been too tough on their program lately and wanted to find something good that’d change my mind and give me more confidence in them.

I finally gave up after 15 or 20 minutes of hard looking on their website. Only thing I could find were some vague references about training dogs to meet every individual’s requirements and training them anywhere, and I had to look hard to find those.

Now, if this was some home-grown, DIY, rinky-dink website for a small organization, it still wouldn’t be OK, but I could maybe understand it a little. But it’s not – this is a very, very slick professionally done site from a very well funded organization who definitely knows how to promote itself and does so at every opportunity, which makes the omission even more glaring.

What I expected to see (and what you need to expect from any service dog organization as well) is something EXACTLY like this: Canine Companions for Independence’s Training And Placement page. Most importantly, because of the program content – it’s the gold standard against which you should compare all assistance dog organizations’ programs – but also because it’s a well-laid-out, detailed, one-page, start-to-finish description of the two-year process AND it’s pretty easy to find – just go to cci.org -> Programs  -> Training And Placement.

Make no mistake – training and placement are the core of any assistance dog program, and if you’re interested in a service dog for yourself, a family member, a friend, or someone you are professionally advising, that’s one of the very first, if not THE first, things you need to evaluate.

It’s like I told so many people at the Warrior Games a coupla weeks ago who got to see CCI grad Jason Morgan and his wonderful service dog Napal and were so impressed by them: that kind of match and a dog that great doesn’t happen by accident – it’s a two-year process and only about a third of the dogs make it all the way through.  And in spite of all that swell and wonderful feelgood stuff they might’ve heard about “the dog picking the human” (like in one well-publicized recent TV special), there’s a whole lotta focused and very specific effort involved to make a lifelong assistance dog team partnership like Jason and Napal’s.

Pretty much without fail, that explanation got the classic big eyed, raised eyebrow expression of surprise from everyone I told, which confirms for me what I already knew – most people have no idea what it takes to really do it right. Which is perfectly understandable, but which also makes it all the more critical for organizations to clearly and honestly explain their training program in detail and put that explanation where you can easily find it.

They owe you that.

For me personally, there have been so many overlapping and intersecting worlds – friends on the Air Force team who were competing, Air Force Academy coaches along with training and events at USAFA, a Canine Companions for Independence graduate on the AF team – it’s just been overwhelming. I’ve met a lotta ‘old’ friends – people who I’ve been talking to for years in some cases but had never met in person – and made a ton of new ones as well.

It’s really been the center of the wounded warrior universe here for the last week or so, and we reached critical mass with all of the elements that have never before been assembled in one place at the same time.

First, you had the inspirational competitors – 200 wounded warriors from all the services setting an example for all of us that has just left me in awe. In fact, “awesome” is a word that used to be reserved for events like this before it became just another meaningless overused trite expression.

This paragraph from the American Legion blog Thursday is the best description I’ve seen of what’s gone on here – I was there Wed afternoon, and it happened just this way:

My “I wish I brought a hankie” moment came in the Mens 50m freestyle. The heats were divided into 3 categories, Lower Body Injuries, Upper Body Injuries, and TBI/PTSD athletes. In the LBI heat there were 6 competitors, the first 5 of which finished the heat bunched up closely at around 45 seconds. But the 6th competitor trailed by a lot. In fact, he was only about 15 meters in to his swim. It was a young Marine….a young marine with no legs. He could have stopped, he could have turned around, since he was about 1/3 done. But that isn’t what Marines do. The entire crowd was on it’s feet. I even saw a guy in a wheelchair painfully push himself to a standing position to cheer. The other athletes in the heat didn’t exit the pool, they turned around, and treaded water while yelling, clapping and cheering on this survivor, this athlete who was going to finish no matter what. It was incredibly loud in there, and behind me a marine mom was crying as she cheered. She wasn’t alone, a good 50% of the crowd was either crying, and a good 49% of the remainder was blinking as rapidly as they could. I would have been in the first category, but somehow held it together. There are events you witness in your life that awe and inspire you, this was one of them. When that Marine finished the 50m, the crowd was ballistic. Athletes, coaches, fans, media, military and even the folks running the event all screaming and clapping. Perhaps one of the most moving things I ever witnessed.

http://burnpit.legion.org/2010/05/warrior-games-day-3/

The guy that was written about is Chuck Sketch, who I later had the  great privilege of meeting, and who was chosen by the winning Marine team to accept the Chairman’s Cup at the closing ceremonies:

On top of that very emotional environment, you had a collection of the real “movers and shakers” from different organizations in the wounded warrior world coming together in an unprecedented way. Based on my experience, I have a feeling we will see some great things coming from all the conversations that I know went on here.

For me, it was an opportunity to talk service dogs for veterans with many varied groups – veterans thinking about getting dogs, nonprofits and government agencies looking at helping veterans get dogs, people interested in puppy raising, and so on.  In case it’s not already obvious, there is a tremendous interest in service dogs in this world, but the reality is also that most people aren’t aware what’s available, and, even if they are, don’t know where to go, what to look for, and who the best organizations are.

And, trust me, all service dogs and organizations are by no means equal – might look that way (and some organizations may even intentionally try to make it look that way), but they are not.

The best way I know to get that point across is for people to see what a real service dog team looks like and then let them make their own judgments and comparisons, and having Jason Morgan with his CCI Service Dog Napal here was absolutely invaluable in doing that.  Here’s a nice picture from my friend Agnieszka Obstoj taken right after Army Chief of Staff Gen Casey presented the AF team with bronze medals for wheelchair basketball – Jason, Napal, and Rich Pollock:

This is exactly what a service dog should look like in public a lot of the time – lotsa hoopla, excitement, and noise, but the dog is lying down relaxed, leash firmly in the hand of the human. Look around and notice how many times that’s not what you see, and you’ll have even more appreciation for CCI dogs like Napal.

Jason and Napal very definitely provided the example, and when I explained to those who saw them – and there were many – that it takes two years of very serious and focused effort to produce a dog like Napal and a match like those two have, and only about a third of the dogs make it all the way through, without fail, their eyebrows went up and their eyes got real big.

There’s lots more I could say – I’m not really speechless, but there are just so many thoughts and emotions still buzzing through my head a day after the events ended I can’t get them all out.  So I’ll just leave it here for now.

So, I’ll just give you a coupla neat things to look at which, given my military background, not surprisingly have a definite Air Force bent.

First, a great picture that was taken of the Air Force team with Gen Gene Renuart, NORTHCOM / NORAD commander and ranking officer in Colorado Springs.  Even better because Canine Companions for Independence graduate Jason Morgan and his service dog Napal are in the front row at the right:

Second, something funny – Gen Renuart’s comments about the ‘interservice rivalry’ – I think he pretty much nailed it here:

Jason and Napal visiting with Lt Ryan McGuire at the Air Force Academy track.

Last night my wife Joann and I spent several very enjoyable hours at dinner with Jason and Napal. Not only is Jason a really nice guy and Napal the classic CCI service dog, Jason’s story of how he came to be injured and his recovery is truly incredible.

It’s not something he’s talked about a lot for a number of good reasons, so most people – including those associated with CCI – don’t know it. I did find one place where Jason’s written about it, though, and if you wanna read an amazing story, just go to this link:

http://www.clinesrunningcorner.com/archives_09/formerspecialforcesmemberadjusts_09.pdf

Rumor has it we’ll be seeing them on the cover of Airman Magazine in the near future. I know I’ll definitely be watching and rooting for them in competition this week.

They can be seen zipping around the track at the one minute point of this Today Show video:

And also about 30 seconds into this local news story from KOAA Channels 5 and 30:

As a retired Air Force Chief, I can’t tell you how proud I am of all these wounded warriors representing the AF, and with my deep involvement with CCI, particularly the veterans initiative, having Jason and Napal here is just the proverbial icing on the cake.