Thorin the dog and his handler Ali Harper have been busy taking calls from the hospital, the jail and emergency medical services for critical stress debriefs and supporting staff.
The three-and-a-half-year-old black lab is the only peer support dog officially trained to work with first responders across the Yukon for their mental health.
Thorin is looking for a furry friend in the field to split the load.
“It's one against the population of our first responders,” Harper said.
“Being able to share the workload with another handler and another dog would be fantastic.”
Thorin has some special skills and training. He goes for proactive visits with emergency workers such as paramedics, police, firefighters and hospital staff at stations and halls where he gets used to the different environments and builds relationships. He also takes reactive calls after challenging situations.
“He's an excellent resource for our first responders,” Harper said.
“He can only work so much. He's like a human, and so I've only got so much capacity, and he's only got so much capacity.”
Harper is the wellness program commander in Yukon government emergency medical services. She said mental health remains at the forefront of being able to support first responders.
According to Harper, that need has also been identified by other organizations in the territory.
Getting a second dog and handler to work and train together in the territory would help give Thorin and Harper a bit of a break.
“Thorin definitely gives me cues when he has had a big, heavy day,” Harper said.
“Either we go for a really long walk after and we call it his shake off run or he will go home and he just relaxes and chills like what a human being would be. He's kind of got what his, I guess, coping techniques would be like a human.”
Thorin is supported by the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS).
PADS breeds, raises and trains fully certified assistance dogs that assist people with disabilities and community care providers, according to Meredith Areskoug, who works in communications for PADS. She noted the organization is based in southern British Columbia, with a satellite office in Calgary and a puppy raising program.
Areskoug said PADS has more than 190 dogs in training and 160 placed as working dogs from B.C. to Saskatchewan, as well as a few dogs on the East Coast and Thorin representing the North.
Training and placing a fully trained service dog costs around $30,000, Areskoug said by email to the News. During the interview, she added that every dog and their potential handlers go through an intensive intake process and probationary period to ensure they remain a strong match.
A golf tournament held over the Discovery Day long weekend is intended to raise the full amount of money to support another peer support dog within the Yukon and more to help PADS do its work.
PADS volunteer and donor George Prevost joined Areskoug on a trip to Whitehorse along with the dogs they work with: Blair, a two-year-and-four-month old labrador retriever who supports someone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Piper the Fourth, who is training to work with someone with PTSD.
The three handlers and their dogs met the News for an interview outside Lumel Studios and Gather Cafe and Taphouse in Whitehorse ahead of a PADS event on Aug. 15.
“These dogs change lives most often in ways that you don't even realize,” Areskoug said. She has raised puppies and worked on staff for PADS over the past 13 years.
“I've had my life changed. I know George has had his life changed. Ali's had her life changed. And you talk to anyone that's ever been loved by one of our PADS dogs to know that they are in a better place because of those dogs.”
The PADS team strongly believes the peer support dogs are having positive mental health impacts on their staff, volunteers and clients.
“It's working because of the stories that our clients share with us,” Areskoug said.
“Every single time, something strikes me, and recently, it was one where a PTSD client told me for the first time in 25 years, he walked on a grassy field because he was not afraid of the land mines.”
That’s just one of hundreds of stories Areskoug has heard. She hears about students looking forward to going to class “instead of dreading it” due to PADS dogs in schools.
“They work their magic. Dog hair is magic,” she said.
Prevost recalled a time when a family doing a police interview involving a child who had been abused benefited from having a support dog in the room.
“They said that it turned what was going to be the worst day of their lives into something that was okay because the dog was there,” Prevost said.
Prevost will be matching up to $30,000 for the PADS fundraising campaign that’s underway.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
