Ptsd Service Dog

Rescued Pit Bulls Help Military Vets With PTSD

A small, start-up non-profit called, “ Pit Bulls 4 Patriots ,” based in Gulfport, is having a significant impact on the lives of discarded pit bull dogs and local veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ).

Focused on a mission of matching this particular breed of orphaned canines with military service members facing difficult challenges associated with their disorder, this program is proving to be a life-changing event that results in a loving home for the dogs, while helping vets overcome the psychological symptoms common with PTSD.

The organization currently gets plenty of homeless pit bulls from the Hillsborough County Department of Animal Services , where 70 percent of all the dogs sheltered there are pit bulls.

As noted by organization co-founder, Paul Manners , nearly 20 percent of military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from PTSD or major depression, many of whom never receive treatment. At present, Manners said all of the vets they are working with were referred to the organization by Bay Pines VA Hospital .

Common symptoms associated with this disorder include: anger and irritability, startled responses to sudden noises or movements, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, nightmares and sleep disturbance, social withdrawal and self-isolation, suicidal impulses and more.  

Where do the dogs come in? Pit Bulls 4 Patriots is one of many veteran support groups emerging around the country who have seen the potential healing power dogs can provide to people with psychiatric disorders developed through their military service. 

This surely seems to hold true for 65-year-old Gulfport resident and veteran Robert “Woody” Northington , who served during the Vietnam War, and has been trying to overcome his PTSD for decades. Woody is currently being “matched” with a female pit bull named “Lacey.

Man's Best Cure

Let me tell you a little about my dog Dixie.

Dixie is a German Shepard/Coon hound mix that we adopted from an animal shelter in 1998.  Dixie soon became a member of our family which included my husband (who suffers from PTSD) our other dog Simba a Chow-Chow/North Timberland wolf mix and of course myself.  Both Simba and Dixie received training from a military K-9 handler while we were living in Germany.  The wonderful part of this training was that we were able to implement the training in a variety of settings.  Because Germans allow dogs in restaurants, public transportation and most stores our dogs were by default receiving training to become service dogs.  Both Simba and Dixie took to their training very well, and we often joked that we’d love to make Simba a service dog.

Simba was (and I use the past tense because we recently had to put him to sleep) a very gregarious ball of fluff that loved people and especially loved working with people.  My goal before his health deteriorated was to train him specifically for nursing home visits and visits to hospital wards.  This goal was never realized and soon became a thought in the back of my mind as life in the military took us down a different path.  I had never once considered using Dixie for the task of therapy dog because her personality was much more reserved to the point she wouldn’t allow many people to even pet her.  With Simba’s passing in July of this year we were presented with two major issues.  Both of which would soon be solved with some training, some patience and a new way of looking at an old dog’s tricks.

The first issue was that Dixie having literally grown up with Simba as her constant companion began to grieve that loss intently.  She couldn’t be left alone at the house, she stopped eating and became more and more clingy than she had ever been before. The second issue was that for the first time my husband was beginning a very intense form of PTSD therapy that was causing him a lot of anxiety.  This caused even more stress on top of worrying how to train Dixie to tolerate being away from her pack.  I began to wish there was some way to have Dixie with us at all times and to help my husband’s PTSD.  While we faced the dilemma of losing one dog and worrying over the plight of our remaining dog my husband was introduced to the benefits of PTSD service dogs.  There are several organizations that train puppies to become PTSD service dogs.  We contemplated the idea of introducing a new dog into our pack as a way to help Dixie cope with losing Simba.  But we were not ready to replace Simba, it wasn’t until we researched the criteria more carefully that we soon realized that Dixie was qualified to work as a PTSD service dog.  With a little extra training she easily fit the mold of PTSD service dog.  The more we worked with her the more aptly she began to take to her new role.

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