Page 926 - Total War on PTSD

I don't think it is helping. Most of all, it was a very tough road to actually get the treatment from the government.
At one of my Veteran Peer Counseling sessions at the Indianapolis, Indiana VA in 2010, a fellow Veteran was talking about an organization that assisted OIF/OEF Veterans diagnosed with PTSD by awarding them a Service Dog. I thought that might help me as well. So, I applied.
Puppies Behind Bars is a nonprofit organization that takes puppies at eight weeks old and assigns them to vetted and approved inmates at prisons located in New York and Colorado (https://puppiesbehindbars.com). They are then trained day and night by these handlers. For the next 20 to 28 months, they are trained before they are assigned to a Veteran (https://puppiesbehindbars.com/our-video). During this 15-day program, the first couple of days, they rotate five dogs among four Veterans. The purpose of this is so the organization can observe how the canine and Veteran interact with each other. After about the fifth day, the four Veterans are assigned a canine to be a forever team. The next 10 or so days are to bond the canine with the Veteran and to teach the Veteran what the canine already knows. We are taught how to interact with our Service Dog appropriately.
In 2011, I was given Henry. Oh, the sun has finally started to shine. My first night with Henry, I was having a nightmare. Usually, I would wake up in a sweat not knowing where I was and ready to fight. This time, I was greeted with a licking to my hand and a snap back to reality. I am home. I am in my bed. I am safe. Henry provides me with a grounding that cannot, in my opinion, be given in any other way. The purpose of this is a minor interruption that has to be dealt with. Meaning, hey something is licking me what is this? Hey, you’re not supposed to be here. Hey, wait, I’m home. This interaction allows me to ease back to reality. I trust him whole-heartedly. I feed him, nurture him and play with him. And, in return, he gives me hope.
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