LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
Since 2011, This Able Veteran has been serving veterans who suffer from PTSD as a result of their time in the service. The 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, based in Carbondale, Ill., provides trauma resilience training to United States veterans and matches them with service dogs specializing in anxiety alerts and nightmare interruption. The service dogs are trained for 12 to 18 months by their special trainers.
Rebecca Renshaw, executive director of This Able Veteran, highlighted the program’s benefits and how the dogs affect veterans’ daily lives.
“We have been able to serve over 80 veterans (since 2011) and provide them with service dogs that are specifically trained to intercept PTSD symptoms,” she said. “It’s very, very effective, and we have had veterans say that it has changed their life completely and always for the better.”
American Labrador Retrievers are the organization’s top choice of dog breed as a trained companion.
“We have found that those are the best breed to train. When the veteran goes to sleep, the dog goes to work, and the dog watches the veteran through the night. If he sees any kind of nightmare happening, he will wake the veteran up. If he sees any kind of triggers during the day, he stops the veteran,” Renshaw said.
Once the dogs graduate from the training program (typically one graduation per calendar year), the organization starts sorting through veterans’ applications to determine the best fit for each dog. Following that decision, the veterans and their new companions meet for the first time and undergo more training to prepare them for a life of service.
“If they (veteran) are selected to come to Carbondale, Ill., we fly them from their homes to Carbondale and then we put them up in a hotel for three weeks. They go through a trauma resilience program and that is where they learn how to mitigate their PTSD and also how to handle a service dog,” Renshaw said. “At the end of that time, there is a pairing ceremony where our service dog trainers walk across the stage and hand the leash of the service dog to the veteran, and then the veteran returns home.”
Veterans and their new companions aren’t left to fend for themselves afterward either. This Able Veteran provides six-month pre and post-sessions with each veteran to ensure the success of the pairing and to be readily available for any questions or concerns the veteran may have.
“We also have refresher training courses where we bring back all of the graduates for three to four-day refresher training,” Renshaw said.
Training, veterinarian bills, lodging, flights and everything else involved in their process is not cheap. Thankfully, a plethora of donors contribute to This Able Veteran and their cause.
The VFW Auxiliary 3601 in Paris sent their own contribution to the organization following a chicken noodle dinner fundraiser they held in September.
“I can tell you that each dog to fully train them, including the veterinarian fees, the food, the purchase of the puppies, flying the veterans in, putting them up in a hotel for three weeks and feeding them cost us about $33,000 for each dog. And yeah, and it’s at absolutely no cost to the veteran,” Renshaw said.