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Artmy sergeant Brian Jergens, injured in Afghanistan in 2011, works with his service dog River. (Photo credit: Janet Wenholz)

Paws with a Purpose

By Leah Barkoukis

For veterans with PTSD and depression, returning home can be the start of a whole new battle. Mary Cortanis organization is there to helpwith assistance from mans best friend.
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TOWNHALL April 2013

For the nearly 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that a Rand Corporation study says are diagnosed with PostTraumatic Stress Disorder or major depression, returning home can mean the start of a whole new battle. Thanks to Operation Freedom Paws, however, veterans are regaining their sense of worth and purpose in society and learning to navigate life again. Harnessing the therapeutic power of the canine-human relationship, the organization teaches veterans and others with

Operation Freedom Paws harnesses the therapeutic power of the caninehuman relationship to help veterans heal after returning home from war.
(Photo credit: Janet Wenholz)

disabilities to train their own service dogs, thereby helping heal the invisible wounds of war. Although the veteran and canine go through extensive training before becoming a certied service dog team, the process of transformation begins immediately. When founder Mary Cortani, a former handler and master canine instructor in the Army, rst meets the veterans, she says theres often a lack of eye contact and other physical indications theyre trying to draw into a shell to protect themselves. But after beginning to work with their new four-legged friend, the pride, square shoulders and eye contact come backwhat Cortani refers to as the soldier strut. Its an amazing transformation, and from there it just continues to build. It doesnt mean they wont stumble and take a couple of steps back, but you continue to see that forward process, she tells Townhall. When you have an 8-year-old daughter come running up and throwing their arms around you and saying, Thank you for giving me my daddy back or my mommy back, you know theres no doubt that youre on the right track. Cortanis savvy approach to training service dog teams quickly made Operation Freedom Paws a success. Many programs that pre-train service dogs for veterans exist, but the waiting list is often several years long and each dog can come with a hefty price tag, costing anything from $10,000 to $70,000, she explains. After being approached by a Marine facing these hurdles, Cortani, who at the time was running her own dog training

business, combined her experiences and research to piece together a solution. Shelters and rescue groups have tons of dogs, she gured. And theres no reason any breed couldnt been consideredall she had to do was evaluate their temperament, personality, drive and willingness to learn, a skill she acquired while procuring dogs in the military. But how does she pair the perfect team? I have a friend who says its alchemy, Cortani says laughing, although she explains the process has to do in part with matching the energy levels of the veteran and dog. By having the team train together, the veteran gets the benets right off the bat. The one thing you lose, whether its because you choose to get out of the military or youre out because of an injury, is you lose your purpose and your mission, and now youve got a new one because youve got to train this dog and youre doing it as a team, she says. Training for each team is custom tailored depending on the psychological, physical, neurological or mobility needs of the veteran. For example, dogs can be trained to turn on the light switch for veterans who have nightmares, block to create space between a veteran and an individual, open doors and a perform a host of other tasks, which says nothing of the emotional support and unconditional love the canines offer. Dogs are amazing. They truly do live in the moment and the old adage about how you cant teach an old dog new tricks is not true, Cortani says. The benets for the canines are just as bountiful, though. Because Operation Freedom Paws rescues dogs, they [the veteran and dog] wind up healing each other, Cortani says. Since Operation Freedom Paws founding in 2010, Cortani, who was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes in 2012, has paired 101 teams and the number is quickly growingfaster than the organization can keep up. While the numbers are indicative enough, the testimonials prove Operation Freedom Paws is immeasurably impacting veterans lives. Mary Cortani and Operation Freedom Paws have given me my life back, Army veteran Jennifer wrote on the organizations website. Without Shadow, I would still be hiding in my house, hoping the rest of the world would just go away. And last Saturday, I watched my niece dance a solo of Swan Lake. This wouldnt have been possible without the program, the veteran explains. Cortani hopes to receive enough funding to get a permanent facility that would allow the organization to have more dogs available, rather than looking for a dog when the requests come in. To expand in the meantime, however, shes identied veterans who have gone through the program that have the skills and the desire to become peer-to-peer trainers. [Veterans] have a hard enough battle ghting for their benets, Cortani says. We want to do what we can do to make their lives better because whether we want to accept it or not, they made our lives better. Its not about the war. Its about the honor and the integrity that these men and women put forth.

Leah Barkoukis is web editor at Townhall.com.

April 2013 TOWNHALL

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