Page 1018 - Total War on PTSD

the sofa, if she’s cold she’ll pull a blanket down off the back of the sofa and cover herself with it. She has also pulled throw pillows down and used them for the same purpose. In addition to her regular Service Dog vest, she has a Boston Red Sox jersey that has Service Dog patches on it. She will wear that vest when we go to baseball games, and when we have an appointment with the Orthopedist, who is a fellow BoSox fan. Kodiak (as a German Shepherd) will have her stubborn moments when not working. One of her big things is when playing fetch. She has a habit of not wanting to release the ball. She will refuse to give the ball up at times, and I will count down from three — and she will release the ball on two. Observers of this interaction are generally quite amused by it. She also loves to howl when she hears a siren. A few weeks ago she surprised me when we were traveling and she saw an ambulance coming from the opposite direction with its lights on but no siren. She started howling — showing me that she has associated the siren sound from the responding emergency vehicles. Fortunately, when she is working, she has not howled to a siren – I always tell her not to and she complies.
Her training through Dog TAGS was very well organized. Dog TAGS has four levels of training. The trainers and staff of Dog Tags all volunteer their time, and the training (and equipment) is provided free of charge to the Veteran. The training is conducted for one hour every Friday, where the Veteran is trained to train their dog. The Veteran is expected to continue the training during the following week. There is also an option one hour of group therapy on Fridays, either before or after the training (depending on the level) that is led by a Social Worker that is volunteering their time. If the Veteran has difficulties with training, Dog TAGS also has trainers that come in on Tuesdays for remedial training. Since there are less teams on that day, there is more individualized training to get the team past any hurdle they are experiencing. Level one consists of basic commands and bonding. Level two works on passing the Canine Good
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