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VETERANS
Using Watchdogs Against PTSD 
September 08, 2010 Falling asleep in the commons room at Brook Army Medical Center was all the evidence Jim Stanek needed that he should get a dog. Stanek, a three-tour Iraq veteran whose wounds include traumatic brain injury, was on a multitude of antidepressants and tranquilizers, couldn't sleep without meds, and was feeling "like a zombie," he recalled. But as he sat watching TV early last summer with a yellow Labrador "therapy dog" named Chelsea, he finally relaxed. "She would lay right there with me and I would be able to get about four hours of sleep three times a week," Stanek said. Today, Stanek has his own dog, Sarge, and he credits her with helping him reclaim his life. "I am completely off all of my medications," said the former Soldier who served with the 82nd Airborne, the 51st Long Range Surveillance Company, and the 1st Infantry Division. "I made the decision prior to actually having Sarge around that I wanted to get off the medications, but once I had Sarge, it got easier. I can sleep at night. She sleeps right beside my bed." Geneticist Joan Esnayra said people "have been using dogs since forever for emotional health," though the idea of the mentally ill having a dog trained to meet their needs the way the blind have seeing eye dogs is relatively new. Esnayra began developing the concept to train dogs to help the mentally ill in 1997, and she coined the now widely accepted term "psychiatric service dog." Esnayra, who in July took part in a roundtable discussion on post-traumatic stress disorder and TBI treatments organized by Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., estimates that there are about 175 veterans in the country now using psychiatric service dogs. There are an estimated 10,000 such dogs in the U.S. Historically, service dogs are trained to perform tasks such as helping the blind to cross a street or getting things for a wheelchair-bound owner. While the psychiatric service dog may be trained to do some of these types of tasks, the dog's real "work" comes in responding to symptoms associated with the handler's mental health problems. The dogs are trained to cue to changes in a handler's physiology -- something that advocates for the dogs say requires dog and owner to train together from the start. It's the only way that the dog will learn a handler's "baseline physiology," which allows the animal to recognize when there's a problem, said Esnayra. If the handler is starting to feel emotionally overwhelmed, the dog will react by getting the handler's attention, thereby "interrupting" the dissociative spell. In some ways, a dog is better suited than a person to warn a vet if he or she experiencing a PTSD or TBI-related symptom, according to Esnayra. "A spouse might say, 'Gee, honey, you seem pretty depressed these days or … your PTSD seems to be acting up these days,' " Esnayra said. "But when family members do that, sometimes there are hidden agendas, there are trust issues. You don't get that when you interact with a dog. So when a dog gives physiologic feedback, people tend to believe it. You don't tend to ask 'what's my dog's ulterior motive.' " Stanek is not only a believer in psychiatric service dogs, he is now a provider. He and his wife, Lindsey, founded "Paws and Stripes" -- a nonprofit organization that raises money to provide the dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI. The New Mexico-based program requires handler and dog to work together for at least six months. Traditional service dogs are trained for up to a year and cost upward of $10,000, according to Stanek. But Stanek said his organization is able to provide a dog for $1,800. And usually that is paid by donations, so most vets in need don't pay a thing. "Right now, we are at 10 veterans in the program," he said. "I have about 40 at the starting gate waiting for funding."
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