Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Last March, Fort Stewart, an Army installation located in South Georgia, launched the first ever service dog initiative for the Warrior Transition Unit. The program utilizes the therapeutic benefits of service dogs by placing wounded or psychologically affected veterans with a highly trained dog.

The program was founded with the help of a Virginia based rescue organization, Paws4people. The dogs are not only able to help with simple household tasks, such as opening cabinets or fetching the newspaper, they also create protection barriers around vets who have extreme anxiety and generally know over hundred different verbal commands.

"PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] dogs are a hot commodity these days," said Terry Henry, executive director for Paws4people. "We could train 1,000 dogs and still not meet the demands."

Paws4people hopes that this pilot program with Fort Stewart will result with other Army Warrior Transition Units across the country adopting similar initiatives.

Soldiers in the program have described an increase in happiness and activity in addition to less symptoms of PTSD. Soldiers are required to regularly exercise the dogs and continue training.

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