The dogs of war

Derrick Zimmerman returned from serving overseas with the Canadian Forces in the early '90s to find his life was a waking nightmare.

"I was living in a world that can only be likened to a hell on earth," said the veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and UN missions in 1992 and 1993.

Zimmerman was buckling under the weight of post-traumatic stress disorder. He suffered flashbacks, hypervigilance and nightmares that made it impossible to function in society. He felt suicidal.

His constant state of mental distress killed his marriage. His wife asked him to leave the home he had shared with her and their three children and he moved into an apartment on his own. He was unable to continue working and is now retired and on disability. Several stints in psychiatric clinics and dozens of daily mind-numbing pills later, Zimmerman was still unable to cope.

He thought, "There's got to be a better way than throwing all these meds down my throat."

So he started researching. He read online about psychiatric service dogs in the United States, helping people with a variety of mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder and PTSD. The dogs help patients cope with daily life, similar to the way seeing-eye dogs help blind people lead independent lives.

But he found few organizations able to provide properly trained dogs in Canada.

So Zimmerman, who lives in Kingston, Ont., started Veteran Canine Connection, a charity that will raise money to train psychiatric service dogs for veterans with PTSD. It is a monumental task as training a dog can cost between $8,000 and $45,000, depending on the needs of the patient. Training costs add up quickly: It can sometimes take years to prepare a service dog for work and that training often consists of 24-hour trainer supervision.

Enter Winnipegger Lori Blande, who is working to get the charity, established in February 2010, up and running on the Prairies.

Blande had seen patients in hospitals and nursing homes respond well to her therapy dog when she took her to visit, something she had done for years. Mix in her military background -- she was a self-described military brat -- and she was an obvious fit for Veteran Canine Connection.

"I've had animals all my life. I know what animals can do for people," she said. "I saw the changes in people who didn't speak or people who weren't aware of their surroundings until the dog came in."

She said soldiers who are deployed overseas in the service of their country should be given everything that can help them when they return.

"We didn't send them away broken. But some of them are coming back broken and this is one way of helping them," she said.

Zimmerman agrees.

"People put yellow ribbons up and fly banners and all this. It's awful nice to support them when they're overseas. But what happens when they come home?"

Walter Gretzky and Sen. Joseph Day recently became patrons of Veteran Canine Connection. And Blande is working hard, networking with local groups to garner support. But the charity-in-the-making has its share of challenges. Organizers are still awaiting a charitable number, for one thing.

Further complications stem from the patchwork of regulations, which change from province to province and country to country, governing psychiatric service dogs. This leaves room for abuse, which Zimmerman understands as his service dog was ill-suited and poorly trained.

"It was supposed to come to me a trained service dog," he said of the animal he paid $6,000 for, who cannot function as a service dog and has now become more of a pet.

Terrance Green, an Ottawa lawyer who is blind, is working to set international standards through his group ASIST/Assister (Animal Services & Integrated Support Teams), which trains service animals to work with people with mental and physical disabilities.

Green said after years of public education, the mainstream accepts that service animals for the blind and deaf are necessary. But there are still miles to go in cases where people suffer from less-understood disabilities but would benefit from service animals.

"There are no standards, there is no certification and there's no one out there that people can go to and say, 'Can you help me? I need a service animal,' " Green said.

ASIST/Assister is developing criteria based on work done in the United States.

"We have been asking to clarify the standards and make usable standards that could be internationally accepted. They're just starting to be recognized. The value of animals... (that's) just starting to be understood."

Zimmerman's goal is to have Veteran Canine Connection work with ASIST/Assister and similar groups, funding training dogs to the standards they've set.

The soldier is disappointed Veterans Affairs Canada, which provides guide dogs to blind veterans, is not as supportive as he'd like.

A Veterans Affairs spokeswoman said they are keeping tabs on new therapies for PTSD but are not providing service dogs for PTSD patients at this time.

"VAC continues to monitor the research on effective treatment programs for PTSD, including the use of service animals," media relations adviser Flora Fahr said in an email.

Zimmerman chalks it up to a lack of understanding of PTSD.

"When I came home, I discovered something was wrong with me, but nobody in the military would acknowledge that," he said.

"The stigma is huge. The army considers you weak if you go to them for help."

For more information about the Veteran Canine Connection, visit veterancanineconnection.com

To donate to the cause, send cheque or money order to

Veteran Canine Connection Inc,

523 Portsmouth Avenue Suite 1004

Kingston, Ont., K7M 7H6

sandy.klowak@freepress.mb.ca

What is PTSD?

Called shell shock in the First World War, war neurosis in the Second, combat stress reaction in the Vietnam War and now post-traumatic stress disorder, this psychological response to extreme traumatic events has been around for ages. Classified as an anxiety disorder, it can affect people of all demographics who have lived through trauma, especially when it's life-threatening. For many, symptoms recede with time, but others struggle with PTSD for much of their lives as it reappears in a cyclical pattern. Symptoms can include nightmares and flashbacks to the event, feelings of emotional numbing and extreme guilt, among others.

What can dogs do for people?

Just as seeing-eye dogs help the blind find their way around, psychiatric service dogs can do the same for those struggling with mental disabilities that impair their ability to function, said Joan Esnayra of the U.S.-based Psychiatric Service Dog Society. Dogs, naturally very observant, are able to notice when their handler is on the verge of an episode and reflect that information back to them, providing the person awareness of their mental state so they can make adjustments.

Through dogs, "information is given to you in a way that's non-threatening and that you can trust," said Esnayra, who has bipolar disorder and has been working in the psychiatric service dog industry for 13 years.

It's not all about the canines

Service dogs are pretty commonplace these days, but what about service ferrets or service monkeys? Dogs make up roughly 85 per cent of service animals, but many other creatures can provide services to the disabled, said Terrance Green of ASIST/Assister. Ferrets have worked wonders with autistic children, he said, and monkeys are helpful for people with mobility issues. Monkeys take about seven years to train, Green said, but it's well worth it as their working life can be up to 35 years. Other surprising service animals include potbelly pigs and cats.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 24, 2010 A6