Health Canada funds training program for service dogs for veterans with PTSD

By: The Canadian Press Posted: Last Modified:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

OTTAWA - Health Canada is funding special schooling for service-dog trainers to teach the animals to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2021 (1775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Health Canada is funding special schooling for service-dog trainers to teach the animals to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The online training course, funded by the department’s Substance Use and Addictions Program, is designed to help trainers prepare service dogs for veterans, including those recovering from substance abuse.

Colleen Dell, an expert in animal-assisted interventions at the University of Saskatchewan, headed the team that designed the toolkit and her research has found that service dogs can significantly help veterans with PTSD.

Blackie, a five-year-old police service dog, gets cuddles at the RCMP Police Dog Services training centre in Innisfail, Alta., Wednesday, July 15, 2015.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Blackie, a five-year-old police service dog, gets cuddles at the RCMP Police Dog Services training centre in Innisfail, Alta., Wednesday, July 15, 2015.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

She says there are over 500 service dogs currently used by veterans in Canada, with more in training.

The dogs are trained to comfort veterans, provide company and support, and wake them up from nightmares.

The online course will be made available to around 40 service-dog training organizations that also train dogs to assist people who are blind, deaf and have other disabilities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2021.

Related Articles

Man’s best friend a lifesaver for veterans with PTSD, depression, anxiety
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Veterans and their dogs at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS FILES United Way Winnipeg president and CEO Matthew Cutler says the charity’s donor base has shrunk significantly over several decades.

United Way, other charities fight for dollars as donor base shrinks

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Preview

United Way, other charities fight for dollars as donor base shrinks

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Winnipeg’s charitable sector is being squeezed from both sides: demand for help is growing while the pool of donors to meet that need is shrinking.

The imbalance is increasingly being carried by a relatively small group of deep-pocketed donors. Last year, 600 people — about three per cent of United Way Winnipeg’s individual donors — accounted for roughly $8 million, or 55 per cent of individual donations.

The fundraising pitch isn’t getting any easier.

Homelessness and public drug use have become increasingly visible, household budgets remain strained and the problems charities are trying to address can seem so entrenched that donors may reasonably wonder what difference another contribution can make.

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT
Steven Ackerman / MGM+ / Sony Pictures Television Jon Hamm plays Indianapolis journalist Fred Heckman in American Hostage, which is adapted from a podcast.

American Hostage stars recall warmth of Winnipeggers during brutal winter

Randall King 7 minute read Preview

American Hostage stars recall warmth of Winnipeggers during brutal winter

Randall King 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:13 PM CDT

TORONTO — When you stream the eight-part series American Hostage, a sense of familiarity may strike.

That’s because the show was shot in Winnipeg — especially in the Exchange District — from November of last year to the beginning of February, with Winnipeg portraying Indianapolis circa 1977.

The whole world seemed to be watching that midwest American city that year as a hostage crisis unfolded involving one Tony Kiritsis, an angry man who goes ballistic when a mortgage brokerage was poised to foreclose on property he had dreamed of developing into a shopping centre.

Kiritsis kidnapped his mortgage broker, Richard Hall, wiring a shotgun to the back of his head, and demanded a public airing of his grievances, with the reluctant help of popular radio broadcaster Fred Heckman.

Read
Yesterday at 6:13 PM CDT
GABRIELLE PICHE / FREE PRESS Chris Sweryda officially launched his campaign for the Elmwood-East Kildonan seat Saturday.

Elmwood–East Kildonan candidate promises to tackle ‘inefficiency’ in government

Gabrielle Piché 3 minute read Preview

Elmwood–East Kildonan candidate promises to tackle ‘inefficiency’ in government

Gabrielle Piché 3 minute read 6:17 PM CDT

The former assistant of late Elmwood–East Kildonan councillor Jason Schreyer is again running for the seat.

Chris Sweryda officially launched his campaign Saturday. He did so with the backdrop of a grocery program he runs, where food is sold near-cost out of St. Gerard School’s gym.

Rows of cereal, pasta sauce and chips filled tables ahead of the program’s afternoon opening. Sweryda created the pop-up with Schreyer months ahead of the former councillor’s April 2025 death.

The program sees roughly 500 people each day it’s open (which is every other week on Saturday), Sweryda said.

Read
6:17 PM CDT
GABRIELLE PICHE / FREE PRESS Edward Matwawana, executive director of the Michaëlle Jean Foundation, collaborated on the fifth National Black Canadians Summit with Angela Cassie, the summit’s chair.

National Black Canadians Summit celebrates culture, combats racism

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Preview

National Black Canadians Summit celebrates culture, combats racism

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read 6:06 PM CDT

Despite the event’s name — the National Black Canadians Summit — Bruce Miller felt he should attend.

He booked a ticket. And so, this weekend, the Indigenous Manitoban joined roughly 1,500 people flocking to the RBC Convention Centre.

It’s a full schedule — addresses from a former Canadian governor general, sessions on Black mental health and anti-Black racism.

The annual event draws politicians, artists and other professionals from across the country.

Read
6:06 PM CDT
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Premier Wab Kinew: “We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba.”

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Preview

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT

Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour in November. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday.

Most of the 72,000 votes submitted in an online EngageMB survey — 92 per cent — said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time. More than half of survey participants (58 per cent) indicated a preference to stay on permanent daylight time; 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS The Steinbach Credit Union on McGillivray Blvd.

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT

A Winnipeg single mother whose bank account was drained of nearly $10,000 says Steinbach Credit Union needs to warn its members about what she believes is a broader security problem.

The woman, who is not being named to protect her identity, said a scammer gained access to her account earlier this week after calling SCU’s contact centre, claiming to be her and successfully completing the credit union’s authentication process.

She said she knows of at least six others who have experienced similar incidents in which callers impersonate SCU account holders and pass the authentication checks.

The woman discovered something was wrong when her minor son asked why money had been transferred out of an account they jointly hold.

Read
Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT