Santa Rosa assistance dog trainers aim to put veterans at ease

Eight service dogs that trained eagerly Wednesday to perfect the art of a room search may never actually detect an intruder in real life.

But if their ability to sweep a room for strangers provides comfort to military veterans whose wartime experience left them anxious even about going into their own homes, the specialized skills being imparted to this particular cohort of Labrador retrievers may be worth it.

That’s the point of a study underway at Santa Rosa-based Canine Companions for Independence and two other agencies contracted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Researchers hope to measure the impact of assistance dogs armed with specific training on service members who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The first round of canine participants are learning to search for strangers, create buffers for their humans in crowded settings, enter a room ahead of a human and turn on the light and fulfill other commands that may help a traumatized veteran.

But in addition to the kind of “instrumental tasks” the dogs learn to perform, the expectation is they also will serve a critical role by relieving veterans of the perceived need to be constantly alert to their surroundings and prepared to react as would be necessary in a threatening environment, said Paul Mundell, national director of canine programs for CCI.

In the same way that those with hearing impairment, once they have a service dog, learn they no longer have to be tense and aware every second about what’s going on around them, “you’re transferring the vigilance required from the veterans, the soldiers, to the dog,” Mundell said. “This kind of constant vigilance, and the anxiety that both causes and gets exacerbated by it, is one of the hallmarks of PTSD.”

The goal of the congressionally mandated research is to determine to what degree highly skilled dogs help returned soldiers better deal with their symptoms, get out and interact more socially, and generally experience an improved quality of life relative to soldiers with more typical companion dogs.

Ideally, 220 eligible veterans will be matched with a dog and observed for 18 months, according to the trial description.

Half of the dogs will be service canines trained using a VA-supplied protocol developed with input from veterans who suffer from PTSD, Mundell said. In addition to CCI, the Armed Forces Foundation in Washington, and the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation in Alabama are providing training and dogs for the study.

The remaining dogs will be well-mannered pets that qualify as “emotional support dogs” under the federal Fair Housing Act, for which the owner has a letter from a mental health professional entitling him or her to housing accommodations where pets would not otherwise be permitted. These pets have no special training and aren’t permitted the same high level of public access to public places that certified service dogs are.

“This is a super-new area for us,” CCI program manager Lauren Lee said of the PTSD study. “I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what the study shows us.”

Founded in 1975, CCI graduated more than 250 human/?canine teams last year, using dogs selectively bred for confidence, intelligence and subjected to extensive training before those that qualify are paired with a human. CCI’s dogs are trained to help those with hearing impairment, physical, cognitive and developmental disabilities, as well as to provide socialization and comfort in various educational and healthcare settings.

The Dutton Avenue nonprofit started training the first eight dogs for the VA study in late July and will pair seven with veterans for a week or two of joint training in December or January, before releasing them to their human companions.

As any dog lover would guess, anecdotal evidence already suggests having a loyal pooch to love and be loved by is an asset to those who suffer from isolating depression, hyper-vigilance, nightmares, crowd avoidance and other ill-effects of living through the fear, violence and danger that accompanies war.

Veterans who have service dogs or therapy dogs because of physical or other disabilities - including 114 disabled veterans provided with CCI assistance dogs - report emotional improvement, as well, and a variety of nonprofit agencies help connect vets and dogs around the country.

Even the VA, faced with growing demand from veterans interested in exploring the use of service dogs, acknowledges the potential good having a pet dog can provide. But the agency says there is not enough clinical evidence to support recommendations for or further investment in service dogs for some of the hundreds of thousands of combat veterans with PTSD.

The three-year, $5 million study began this summer.

“It’s really important that these dogs are not seen as a fix,” Lee said.

“They are a therapy tool,” she said, but one trained to “watch your back” so a trip to the mall might feel within reach.

For those whose suffering often prevents them from leaving the house, the ability to relax enough to go out is profound, Mundell said.

“We’re talking about life-changing ease, of being able to relax in their lives,” he said. “I think in a world of people with PTSD, that’s the whole game, right there.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.