“Amazing dog services Salt Lake paraplegic”

Beyond the obvious emotional story, the video does a great job showing many of the skills of a properly trained service dog, in particular pulling someone in a manual wheelchair, an often misunderstood but very important function for some.

I am well aware that many are not comfortable with dogs pulling someone in a chair. Although, to my surprise, I just noticed the other day that probably the most promoted veterans-only service dog organization specifically says right at the top of their application in italicized print “It is (our) policy that our dogs do not pull a manual wheelchair.” Something to very definitely consider if you’re a veteran in a manual chair with a specific need for your dog to pull you, because that organization just ruled itself out for you.

I’ve always chalked people’s dislike of this task up to misconception, but having just seen an apparently older Lab of unknown origin last week at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Denver straining to pull a large man in a chair, I now have a better appreciation for why some are concerned.  When trained properly, with the proper weight restrictions and health examinations, as CCI does, it can be a very safe and essential task for some.

I personally know a number of CCI graduates who make use of this function daily, and at some point I plan to write something about just why it’s so useful for them – a longer discussion for another time.

For now, though, I think seeing Tadaki and Kelly rolling through that mall says a ton all by itself.

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”

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”

Turns out that, contrary to everything we’ve been hearing for some time about how spinal cord injuries are way down in Iraq, those injuries are actually way UP in Afghanistan.

And that plays directly with future placements of service dogs with OEF veterans. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that with the recent increased troop levels, the reality is we’re likely going to see a concurrent increase in SCI for some time.

Which means we need to be taking a real hard look at things like the types and quality of service dogs we’re training and especially where government funding is going to be allocated for those dogs.

The overwhelming emphasis in the press, Congress, and even the Army in recent months has been placing dogs where post-traumatic stress or other mental health issues are the primary concern.  While that’s certainly understandable during a time when the Army has just announced a record suicide level and everyone’s grasping for solutions, we can’t afford to lose sight of the more traditional need for those with severe physical injuries, particularly SCI.  In some cases – like legislation that arbitrarily says 50% of the veterans who receive dogs must suffer from primarily mental health issues – I think we already have.

Given the length of time it takes to adequately train effective service dogs (not to mention moving things through government bureaucracies), NOW is the time to reassess and readjust as necessary, not several years down the road when it’s too late.

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.

• Veteran who’s very active in nonpartisan positively focused wounded veterans organizations like Paralyzed Veterans of America and US Paralympics.

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.

Well, without going into more detail, I will tell you that those talks have been going on for several years now, things have really fallen apart, and from all appearances they are going nowhere on the VA end.  That’s why I was so glad to see this story all over the place this weekend, even with the misleading headline (BTW, the story doesn’t say this, but Taylor is a Canine Companions for Independence service dog – he and Bill Callahan graduated from the Southwest Regional Center in Oceanside, CA in February 2009.):

“After 8-year delay, VA program hopes to help vets”

I’m so used to misleading headlines by now – especially from the AP, where the vast majority of stories originate – that I just expect it, but I’m also really tired of them, too. (At least they got the Department of Veterans Affairs part right – it’s not the “Veterans Administration” and hasn’t been for years. I’m immediately suspicious of any story that starts out that way and you should be, too – it gives you a good idea right off just how thorough the person who wrote it is and how accurate the article may be as well.)

Just like this story – the real headline should be:

“Paraplegic Veteran Gets Service Dog With No Help From The VA”

Because that’s the key point here, and the dead honest truth. With all the hype of late, particularly all the buzz about “post traumatic stress” dogs (which I think is now helping to obscure the service dog need for veterans with severe physical disabilities like spinal cord injuries who, ironically, will almost certainly have post traumatic stress issues as well – but that’s a subject for another post), the reality is the VA has had over seven years to work this one and has really done zip.

I hear now that the VA says they have something in the works, but, honestly, we’ve all heard that one before, and that’s pretty much the same line in that article.  Did you see any details?  Nope. Could just be that with the two pending pieces of legislation (“Wounded Warrior K-9 Corps Act Introduced in Congress Yesterday”, “Service Dogs For Veterans Act Passes The Senate, But What Does That Mean?”) they are a little nervous and feel the need to look like they are doing something.  Both of those bills definitely need work, but, hey, if they get the VA’s attention, that’s a good thing all by itself.

Nonetheless, I’ll say again what I’ve said before – I don’t think the government or the VA is the solution to this problem. But if providing some money gets top-notch service dogs in the hands of more veterans with disabilities who need them, then I’m all for it.

One thing that should have been done LONG ago is allowing veterans with service dogs to receive the same  payments for expenses that veterans with guide dogs have been receiving for years.  That I know of, the VA has not even agreed to do that, although if you look at their official web page for guide and service dogs, it appears that they now have – this is indicative of the serious confusion that’s all around this subject:

http://www1.va.gov/health/ServiceandGuideDogs.asp

Lemme leave you with a coupla things you can do here.  One, you can certainly contact your elected officials to voice your opinion, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you hear about an effort to amend or combine those two pieces of legislation in the near future.  By far the biggest thing you can do, though, is to educate any veteran you know who could be a potential candidate for a service dog (especially those with serious physical disabilities like SCI), or anyone who may know a veteran who might be a potential candidate for a service dog – in other words, everybody.

Please contact me if I can help with that at all.