I got my life back.' Veterans with PTSD making progress thanks to service dog program
'I got my life back'
After working at a crowded and dangerous internment camp in Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O'Brien brought home with her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
A bouncy labradoodle and a Kansas City-area program helped her get back on her feet.
Dogs 4 Valor, operated through the Olathe, Kansas-based organization called The Battle Within, helps retired veterans and first responders work with their service dogs to help manage depression, anxiety and other challenges.
“A lot of times the veteran with severe PTSD is homebound,” said Sandra Sindeldecker, program manager for Dogs 4 Valor. “They’re isolated. They’re very nervous. They won’t make eye contact. Some won’t leave the house at all.”
The program involves both group and one-on-one training. The goal is to get the veteran and the dog comfortable with each other and understanding each other. The group takes outings to help the veterans regain their footing in public places like airports. Program leaders also provide mental health therapy at no cost.
The veterans and dogs graduate in six to nine months, but group gatherings continue.
There is growing evidence of the value of service dogs for veterans with PTSD. A small study published in JAMA Network Open in June looked at a program operated by K9s For Warriors. Service dogs in the program are taught to pick up a veteran’s physical signs of distress and can interrupt panic attacks and nightmares with a loving nudge.
Researchers compared 81 veterans who received service dogs with 75 veterans on the waiting list for a trained dog. After three months, PTSD symptoms improved in both groups, but the veterans with dogs saw a bigger improvement on average.
O'Brien, 40, recalled that the camp where she worked in Iraq sometimes had over 20,000 detainees. Violence and rioting were common and it left her with severe anxiety.
“When I got out of the military, I just assumed that you’re supposed to be on edge all the time as a veteran,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien’s mother spotted the frisky lab-poodle mix on Facebook and convinced her daughter to adopt the dog she named Albus. Months later, O'Brien learned about Dogs 4 Valor, and the pair joined the program in October 2023.
O’Brien says she can now go out in public again — she even went on vacation to Branson, Missouri, “things that I never would have thought I would do really, probably ever again.”
Mark Atkinson, 38, served in Afghanistan as a corporal in the Marine Corps. He returned home with PTSD and major depressive disorder, causing sleeplessness and anxiety. He adopted Lexi, now 5, in 2020.
Lexi, a muscular cane corso breed, needed Atkinson as much as he needed her. Her previous owner had kept Lexi in chains before surrendering her. Since joining Dogs 4 Valor, the two can get out together and enjoy life.
“I don’t really like leaving the house because I’m safe there, you know?" Atkinson said. “And having Lexi has just made me get out to be more social.”
Having a group of fellow veterans facing the same challenges has also helped, Atkinson said.
“We come from the same backgrounds, different branches,” Atkinson said. “Same issues. You know, PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. And they’re all very welcoming, as well. There’s no judgment.”
O’Brien compared living with Albus to a relationship with a sometimes pushy best friend who often wants to go out.
“The best friend constantly wants to make you do things that make you nervous,” O’Brien laughed, acknowledging that it is ultimately up to her.
“I have to decide to walk out and just deal with life," O'Brien said. "And so that has been hard. And it still is hard from time to time, but it’s it’s getting manageable.”
Some veterans said their family relationships have improved since they started the program.
“I’m able to talk, not fly off the handle and just get along with people and not be as stressed, not have as much anxiety,” Atkinson said. “Or even if I do, she (Lexi) is right there with me.”
Timothy Siebenmorgen, 61, said his relationships also are better with help from his 1-year-old American bulldog, Rosie, and Dogs 4 Valor, which he joined in July. He served in both the Marines and the Army, deploying 18 times.
“You’re in the military, kind of taught not to show weakness," Siebenmorgen said. "So you figure you can tackle everything yourself and you honestly believe that. And then you realize you can’t do it on your own.”
'The only reason I'm alive': BC Guide Dogs offer loving therapy to VI veterans
Saanich resident Stephane Marcotte speaks to how his relationship with his dogs saved his life
Sam Duerksen
a day ago
BC & Alberta Guide Dogs is helping veterans one dog at a time, and they need ongoing support to continue the "life-changing" mission.
To date, they've placed 147 PTSD service dogs with veterans and first responders – that's about 24 a year – but demand is much, much higher. Hundreds of veterans alone come to the organization each year, said director of service dogs Mike Annan.
"We'll never keep up," he said.
Saanich's Stephane Marcotte, 56, is one of the veterans who has been lucky to get a dog through the program and he spoke to how it's changed his life. Marcotte spent 28 years in the military, mostly as a marine engineer, which included 18 years on a submarine and a ship in the Persian Gulf. While he did not want to go into the 1995 events behind his PTSD, he said he struggled for almost 20 years before being officially diagnosed.
"When I got out [of the military] in 2014, I was in my basement for the whole year," he said. "I was just watching TV and good thing I was not drinking because I probably would.
"I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even go get milk."
He compares that life to the one he has now, thanks to 10 years with service dogs – first a now-retired Lab named Sarge, and Bunker, his current dog. Now Marcotte goes grocery shopping, to events and parties, and even volunteers with Wounded Warrior Canada. "[The dogs are] the only reason why I'm alive today," he said.
Veteran Stephane Marcotte said his service dogs, Sarge (left, retired) and Bunker, saved his life. Samantha Duerksen/Black Press MediaThrough BC Guide Dogs, veterans with debilitating PTSD are given the already-trained service animals and then go through a program to learn skills such as their public access rights and how to adapt the skills that the dog is taught to mitigate their own PTSD. Because everyone's is a little different, Annan said.
"The dogs adapt very, very intimately to their sympathetic nervous system through the training course," Annan said. That means learning to be hyper-sensitive to smell (which can indicate things like blood sugar) and looking for signs of dissociative states, agitation and anxiety.
Marcotte provided several examples of how the dogs have helped him through hurdles he faces with PTSD. Sarge, for instance, would wake him up during nightmares. He will also alert Marcotte if his blood sugar is too low. "He's actually saved me from not waking up again," he said. "Sometimes I don't realize that something happened to me, and they do before I do."
And if Marcotte doesn't respond when stressed, Bunker will put his nose in his lap. Bunker also watches out for him in public in case he goes into a dissociative state.
"He's always attentive," Marcotte said.
"For the OSI PTSD program, we specifically select dogs that we find are adaptive and sensitive to somebody's emotional state or sympathetic nervous system, but they can do it without stress. So it doesn't stress them out, but they do notice," Annan said.
He described the bond between man and dog through the program as a "life-changing relationship."
Marcotte recalls how effective being around dogs was from the first time he visited a BC Guide Dogs booth at a Wounded Warriors Canada retreat.
"One dog was there, and when I laid down, the dog just licked my face. For me, that was kind of three years of therapy in that one moment; I felt so good."
Unfortunately, demand is always high and service dogs are not covered for veterans through government programs. In order to keep the dogs at no cost to the veterans, BC & Alberta Guide Dogs relies on donations from the public and their two main donors the Royal Legion Command and Wounded Warriors Canada.
They also are always looking for more volunteers, including puppy raisers, puppy trainers, and boarders.
"You know, I don't think that any school in the world will ever keep up with the need. The need for service dogs is definitely great and growing each year," Annan said. "But we work very hard at trying to keep up with demand."
Veterans said the dogs, and the program, have given them new hope and a renewed ability to move forward.
“I got my life back,” O’Brien said.
Visit bcandalbertaguidedogs.com for more information/ DONATE
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