Dogs of war get PTSD as often as humans

Here's an article I found on Ohmydog.com that I found interesting and useful.  It would stand to reason that these dogs would show some traumatic effect of being in a war zone and being surrounded by war activities.
I don't understand why we insist that animals are so terribly different from humans.  They are not.  We all come from the same biological tree.  Life is life.  Please read this article and let me know what you think.
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Just like their human counterparts, dogs in the military can suffer the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder — and they’re doing so at a rate nearly as high as humans.

By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD, according to a report in yesterday’s New York Times:

“ … (T)he concept of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, and still being debated. But it has gained vogue among military veterinarians, who have been seeing patterns of troubling behavior among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Of the dogs who show symptoms, about half are likely to be prematurely retired from service, said Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base.

The Times article, accompanied by the beautiful photograph above, reported that dogs show the symptoms in different ways, much like humans with the  disorder. They may become hyper-vigilant, undergo temperament changes, turn aggressive with their handlers, or start becoming timid and clingy, avoiding areas that they had once been comfortable in.

Most crucial of all — at least as the military sees it — they can also stop doing the tasks they’re being relied on to perform.

“If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it’s working, but isn’t, it’s not just the dog that’s at risk,” Dr. Burghardt said. “This is a human health issue as well.”

The number of  dogs on active duty has risen from 1,800 in 2001 to about 2,700. The training school headquartered at Lackland prepares about 500 dogs a year for deployment.

Combining all branches of the armed services, more than 50 military dogs have been killed since 2005, the article reported.

Dr. Burghardt uses videos to train veterinarians to spot canine PTSD, such as this one of a dog that, while he has no problem inspecting a car, refused to go inside a bus or a building.

Treatment of dogs suspected of having the disorder can range from taking them off patrol and allowing them to just be dogs for a few days to ”desensitization counterconditioning,” which involves exposing a dog, in increments, to sights or sounds he’s reacting nervously to and rewarding him when he doesn’t react.

Dogs that do not recover quickly are returned to their home bases, and those that continue to show symptoms after three months are usually retired or transferred to different duties, Dr. Burghardt said.
(Photo: Bryce Harper for the New York Times)

Pit bull puppy saves Air Force veteran from committing suicide

The benefit of having a pet is terribly underrated in our society.  Pets are helpers, companions, family, and even life-lines at times.  Pets keep us grounded in the "here and now" because that is where they live.  Pets can teach responsibility, unconditional love, and how to have fun.  Pets enrich our lives simply by being there.

Here is an article I found in the NY Daily News that reinforces my view on pets.  I hope you read this and take the message to heart.  Get a pet if you don't have one, if you do, go love on your pet and thank God daily that you are allowed to share the life of these wonderful souls.



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BY Gabriela Resto-Montero
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, July 27th 2011, 4:00 AM

CBS News

Air Force veteran David Sharpe credits his pit bull, Cheyenne, with saving his life when he was on the brink of suicide.
 

Air Force veteran Dave Sharpe survived two near-death experiences serving in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - but it was his six-month-old pit bull puppy that saved his life.

His dog, Cheyenne, licked his ear and brought a suicidal Sharpe back from the brink when he had put his service pistol in his mouth, CBS reported.

"She came up behind me and she licked my ear," Sharpe told the network of the low point he hit after returning. "And she gave me this look of, 'What are you doing man, who's going to let me sleep in your bed? Listen, if you take care of me, I'll take care of you'," Sharpe said.

Cheyenne's divine intervention inspired Sharpe to reach out to other veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through the P2V (Pets to Vets) organization.

The non-profit matches vets with shelter dogs and cats in an effort to provide companionship.

Sharpe's turnaround serves as the group's prime example of the power of man's best friend.

"Before I met her, I was a wreck," he said of Cheyenne. "I was out of control, I would start fights for no reason."

Related articles

• War veterans find peace of mind with pets (cbsnews.com)
• Why dogs heal PTSD (psychologytoday.com)
• Veteran Prescribes Pets To Cure Combat Stress, Gus The English Bulldog Takes Pool In The House Because It Is Too Hot! (annem040359.wordpress.com)

Service dogs graduate from prison

Here's a really nice article about how dogs are helping with our prison population.  It seems that even when the humans think they are doing the work, the dogs are really the ones that give assistance to the humans.

I found this on the Killeen Daily Herald, out of Killeen, TX.  I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did.

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By Colleen Flaherty
Killeen Daily Herald

                                                                        

GATESVILLE — Rhonda Lee spent seven years in the Crain Unit women's correctional facility for a drug-related offense. Her additional two-year parole ended Tuesday.

She celebrated her "freedom day" by returning to the Gatesville correctional complex in a much different role from that in which she'd arrived.

Lee is now employed full-time by the nonprofit, Rockwall-based organization Patriot Paws. She visited the maximum-security Lane Murray Unit to hand over Rockxi, the spunky black Lab service dog she's been training, to her new owner during a canine graduation ceremony.

"It gave me a chance to give back," Lee said following the celebration, which included a trick demonstration by current trainee dogs and their incarcerated trainers. "It gave me the confidence that I can do anything."

Lee began training service canines during her own incarceration. Patriot Paws dogs live 24 hours every day for a year or more with their trainers in their cells, with the exception of regular outings to avoid institutionalization. Once the dogs are assessed as ready for service, they are paired with a disabled veteran.

The dogs make the matches, Patriot Paws owner and chief executive Lori Stevens said.

"One of the keys is that we let the dogs pick the veterans," she said, "two to three days after meeting with them. We watch."

Three dogs graduated from Patriot Paws training during Tuesday's ceremony. Two disabled veterans and one disabled civilian with a chronic illness, an exception to the program's policy, traveled to Gatesville one week prior to meet and begin training with the dogs they'll take home today.

Over the course of that week, for example, Stevens said, a yellow Labrador retriever named Maverick "had the patience and curiosity to work with Juan."

Staff Sgt. Juan Amaris, currently assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, lost both of his hands and suffered severe burns during a truck explosion in Iraq in 2006.

Amaris, 29, applied for a dog a little more than a year ago and hopes that Maverick will help him regain some of his independence.

"If I drop something, I'm not going to have to rely on someone to pick it up," he said, adding that his prosthetics aren't particularly agile.

Patriot Paws dogs are trained to get help during emergencies; recognize and avert symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; pick up and retrieve items; open and close doors; pull wheelchairs; help with chores, such as laundry; and take off shoes and shocks.

Maverick comes with one additional benefit, Amaris said. His kids, ages 6 and 11, can't wait for a dog.

LaQuita Davis, 27, can relate, she said. She's been incarcerated at Lane Murray since she was 16 for conspiracy to commit capital murder and passed a rigid application and interview process to become a trainer just six months ago.

Being with the dogs gives her something to focus on, she said, and she's planning to work as a trainer upon her eventual parole.

"This is something I want to do."

About 20 inmates are currently training puppies and dogs in Gatesville.

The women involved in the program have been successful due to hard work, Lane Murray head warden Melodye Nelson said.

Eleven women have been paroled since Patriot Paws began in 2006. Ten are working in dog-related fields, and the recidivism rate is zero, according to information from the organization.

The program is 100 percent publicly funded and looking for donations and volunteers, Stevens said.

"Freedom's not free," she said, "and we have to have people who do what they do."

For more information on Patriot Paws, go to www.patriotpaws.org or call (972) 772-3282.

Contact Colleen Flaherty at colleenf@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7559. Follow her on Twitter at KDHfeatures.

Thursday's issues -- service dog training

Dogs Help Wounded Soldiers Heal

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left many of our soldiers with wounds, both visible and invisible.  But now, service dogs are working to help our men and women in uniform overcome their injuries.  And, in turn, wounded soldiers are training the dogs for future service people returning from battle.  Trained dogs are able to aid the injured in numerous ways.

"They can open refrigerator doors, pick up fallen items unreachable by wheelchair-bound humans and even create hedges of protection around handlers who struggle with anxiety in public places or are easily startled because of symptoms associated with post- traumatic stress disorder.

Some dogs can even read.

And by age 2, they have mastered between 90 and 130 different verbal commands."

The pilot program at Fort Stewart in Georgia is producing "phenomenal" results, according to participants, helping amputees, those afflicted with PTSD, and other disorders.

This article is from Dog News Daily.   This is a great site to find articles about dogs in the news and to research ongoing issues for dogs around the world.  Join them when you are there, won't you?

Good Dog, Smart Dog

 After reading this article, I have a new found appreciation for my little man.  I have always known that he was special, but I really never thought he could be as special as the dog in the article.  However, it seems I have very low expectations of my little man.

I only included an excerpt from this article.  There is more than what I have below.  Please go to the original site to read it in full.  Then, won't you come back and tell me if you agree or disagree with the article?
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By SARAH KERSHAW

Published: October 31, 2009

Life as a Labradoodle may sound free and easy, but if you’re Jet, who lives in New Jersey, there is a lot of work to be done.

Ross Macdonald

He is both a seizure alert dog and a psychiatric service dog whose owner has epilepsy, severe anxiety, depression, various phobias and hypoglycemia. Jet has been trained to anticipate seizures, panic attacks and plunging blood sugar and will alert his owner to these things by staring intently at her until she does something about the problem. He will drop a toy in her lap to snap her out of a dissociative state. If she has a seizure, he will position himself so that his body is under her head to cushion a fall.
Jet seems like a genius, but is he really so smart? In fact, is any of it in his brain, or is it mostly in his sniff?
The matter of what exactly goes on in the mind of a dog is a tricky one, and until recently much of the research on canine intelligence has been met with large doses of skepticism. But over the last several years a growing body of evidence, culled from small scientific studies of dogs’ abilities to do things like detect cancer or seizures, solve complex problems (complex for a dog, anyway), and learn language suggests that they may know more than we thought they did.
Their apparent ability to tune in to the needs of psychiatric patients, turning on lights for trauma victims afraid of the dark, reminding their owners to take medication and interrupting behaviors like suicide attempts and self-mutilation, for example, has lately attracted the attention of researchers.
In September, the Army announced that it would spend $300,000 to study the impact of pairing psychiatric service dogs like Jet with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Both the House and Senate have recently passed bills that would finance the training and placement of these dogs with veterans.
Hungarian researchers reported in a study last year that a guide dog for a blind and epileptic person became anxious before its master suffered a seizure and was taught to bark and lick the owner’s face and upper arm when it detected an onset, three to five minutes before the seizure. It is still somewhat mysterious how exactly dogs detect seizures, whether it’s by picking up on behavioral changes or smelling something awry, but several small studies have shown that a powerful sense of smell can detect lung and other types of cancer, as the dogs sniff out odors emitted by the disease.
Beyond these perceptual abilities, in which trainers can use the dogs’ natural instincts, some research has examined dogs’ actual cognitive ability, and found not just good doggie, but smart doggie.
“I believe that so much research has come out lately suggesting that we may have underestimated certain aspects of the mental ability of dogs that even the most hardened cynic has to think twice before rejecting the possibilities,” said Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and an author of several books on dogs.

Read the rest of this article here>>

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