In an office tucked into a residential part of Central Saanich, a small-but-mighty board of directors shepherds a business into the realm of charity.
VIK9 started as a dream for Tyson King – who found his new calling as a dog trainer after being medically released from the military.
The retired master seaman found himself, and consequently those around him, suffering the impacts of post-traumatic stress syndrome inflicted over two decades of service first as an army reservist, then in the navy.
King’s PTSD fully emerged in 2012 after almost 20 years from his United Nations Peace Keeping tour in the Former Yugoslavia, OP Harmony Rotation 2, specifically the Medak Pocket Operation in 1993.
Just when his symptoms were most severe, someone pointed King to Courageous Companions, a charity that provides service dogs to veterans and first responders. He was paired with Australian shepherd Cully.
His life changed, King saw a path to helping others in similar situations.
Cully was instrumental to King’s recovery from mental health Injuries alongside both the medically supervised medicinal support and professional mental health support.
King quickly realized the significant benefits of such highly trained dogs and became very aware of the immense need not just by veterans but much of society that is now better understanding the severity of the problem of mental health injuries.
“I’m living it. I’ve seen the benefits first hand,” King said.
He started VIK9 in 2016 to train service dogs to aid people with PTSD, seizures and other medical issues. Their areas include life-saving medical alert such as seizures, diabetes, allergen detection; medical response, mental health, physical assistance and hearing assistance. The key is the dog does its job first – and VIK9 trains in a priority order starting with highest risk-to-life.
“That is the most important thing about a service dog,” King said.
After years of “scraping up the dollars,” he’d like to be able to tap into funding not available for a business in a bid to support more people. The shift to a non-profit society opens those doors.
As a PTSD survivor who has benefited from the work of service dogs – starting with Cully who is fittingly the face of the first fundraising campaign as the newly formed non-profit VIK9 Assisted Human Services Society (VIK9 AHSS) takes over.
Previously, while covering the business bills he would squeeze in added bits where he could – covering the costs of talks or bits of training.
“As a company, I could never canvas or raise funds for people who need dogs,” said King, who serves as president, CEO and lead trainer.
The Cully Legacy Fund – the society’s first campaign – aims to support current and future local clients who are Canadian Armed Forces veterans in getting task-trained service dogs for a variety of needs.
Veterans Affairs Canada doesn’t currently support armed forces veterans with operational stress injuries or PTSD or other disabilities where a trained service dog could provide day-to-day support.
North Island–Powell River MP Rachel Blaney tabled a private member's bill Tuesday (Nov. 5) to ensure all veterans who need a service animal can get one. Veterans face many barriers to getting a service dog, including high costs and uncertainty regarding their training, Blaney said in a news release.
“After serving our country, many brave veterans come back with trauma, PTSD and physical disabilities. Service animals help our veterans heal and adapt to life post-service,” Blaney said.
Blaney’s bill would create a framework to enhance the provision of animal-assisted services to veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs and national standards to define what training veteran’s service animal has and to force the government to provide animal-assisted service to veterans.
Learn more about the society and ways to support it online at vik9.ca.
