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.
Through 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."
Visit bcandalbertaguidedogs.com for more information.
