Ret. Cst. Michele Peters' dog goes with her everywhere. The chihuahua-cross named Nova sports an orange working-dog vest, letting people know she's a little different.
While it may not be obvious at first glance, Peters suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Nova helps her cope. Peters worked as a general duty police officer with the RCMP in Manitoba for 15 years before the symptoms developed.
"I just dealt with it. And the years of dealing with it slowly took its toll on me," she says.
Peters is among 15 RCMP officers and one Ontario Provincial Police officer to receive a trained PTSD service dog from Courageous Companions. Four years ago, the Manitoba-based service dog providers expanded their client base to include not only military members, but also police and first responders. And lately, the highest demand for the dogs has been from the RCMP.
"As a first responder and police officer, you see so much violence and death," says George Leonard, founder of Courageous Companions and First Nations band constable in Manitoba. "People don't realize how the accumulation of small traumatic incidents adds up."
Since its inception in 2005, Courageous Companions has donated 147 dogs to veterans and first responders across the country. And Leonard has another 75 to 100 dogs in training.
Grooming a service dog
Cpl. Chris Lohnes has been a dog handler with the RCMP for 18 years, serving in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and now in Innisfail, Alta., at the Police Dog Training Centre.
He volunteers what little spare time he has going to local shelters in his hometown of Yorkton, Sask., to find dogs for Courageous Companions. Two years ago, he started a pilot project involving the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, local high school students and a few veterinarians to help source dogs for the organization.
"I do a lot of the initial work, finding and pre-training dogs before they enter the formal training program with Leonard," says Lohnes.
He goes to local shelters and selects dogs that he thinks may be a good fit for the program — those with temperate personalities and social behaviour. From there, he recruits high school students to take the dogs out and see how they react in public settings. Those that pass the test get checked out by local vets and then shipped out to Leonard for official training.
Lohnes puts a total of 30 to 50 hours into each dog before starting formal service dog training.
Dog handling is a passion for Lohnes, especially when he is able to help out.
"I would do anything to find a dog for someone," he says. "It can make such a huge difference. It can be a lifesaver for certain people."
A helping paw
But not all of the trained dogs come from local shelters. Sometimes, officers come to Leonard with their own dogs, looking to have them trained for PTSD service.
This was the route that Peters took. She adopted Nova following a breakdown in 2002. After being diagnosed with PTSD, Peters fell into a downward spiral, avoiding people and confining herself to her home.
"When I came to realize that these four walls were going to be my life if I didn't do something about it, I reached out to Courageous Companions," says Peters.
After Nova passed the initial tests, she was enrolled into formal training to help Peters cope with her PTSD. Nova is on track to graduate from her training next year.
"Now I can go out and do things like groceries. I went from being a semi-recluse to going out almost every day," says Peters.
Like Peters, RCMP Cst. Annabelle Dionne went through a similar process with her dog Oreo. Following the murder of a colleague, she adopted Oreo from a local shelter to help her cope. Once she heard about Courageous Companions, Dionne enrolled her American Eskimo-cross into the training program.
Since then, Oreo has become a certified service dog for Dionne, helping her deal with the effects of PTSD at home, in public and at work. She is the first RCMP member at national headquarters in Ottawa to bring her service dog to work.
Dionne admits that PTSD is still a taboo subject among many police organizations, but she believes that as more people share their stories, the stigma will diminish.
"It puts a face on an invisible injury because people can't see depression, anxiety or PTSD," says Dionne. "People come to me and share their own journey and issues — it opens up the discussion so others don't feel so alone."
Dionne says she thinks it's especially important for organizations such as Courageous Companions to open up services to police and first responders, rather than focusing solely on veterans.
But she also says it's up to officers themselves to seek the service.
"We have a responsibility and accountability as police officers to get help when we need it," says Dionne.
Raising a national standard
In Canada, Courageous Companions is leading the way for service dog organizations.
"We made the PTSD program, we developed it, we advocated it," says Leonard, who has been lobbying the government to set up a national standard for training service dogs. He maintains a standard is necessary to ensure quality control of service dogs.
According to Lohnes, there's a lack of credible organizations giving service dogs with legitimate certifications.
"Having dogs without proper training, it's night and day," says Lohnes. "Courageous Companions sets a hard standard, but it has to be hard. Obedience training and service dog training are very different."
A properly trained service dog can cost upwards of $10,000. That includes the cost of veterinary bills, a kennel, an official dog vest and 10 months of training. Courageous Companions absorbs all of these costs, supplying dogs to veterans and first responders for free. The organization is supported by a number of sources, including private donors, veterans' clubs, the Royal Canadian Legion and Wounded Warriors Canada, a non-profit organization that helps injured Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and their families.
Leonard says he believes programs like his will be endorsed by the military and RCMP one day.
Pairing partners
Even though he doesn't suffer from PTSD himself, Lohnes says he has witnessed how debilitating the disorder can be.
"When someone stops functioning and you watch that, and then you see them transform after they get a dog — their quality of life goes way up," he says.
Since the effects of PTSD vary from person to person, dogs are trained with their new owners to make sure they are compatible. Pairing people personalities with similar dog personalities is crucial, say Lohnes and Leonard.
"The thing with PTSD is every case is not the same. Everyone's a little different. Your Afghanistan veteran is different from your Bosnian veteran. Your policeman is different than your fireman. Your female is different from your male," says Leonard. "We train a lot of one-of-a-kind dogs."
Dogs can be trained to carry out three or four tasks to offset and mitigate a person's disability. Depending on what a person needs, dogs can be taught to interrupt, distract and calm their owners during periods of anxiety, tension or heightened awareness. They are also able to wake them out of nightmares, among other symptom-specific responses.
"We know some people that have been on 30 to 33 meds that are down to two or three," says Leonard. "We know some people never left their house for six months, and they're now volunteering,"
Peters' dog Nova is trained to help her cope with anxiety and depression. Oftentimes, the dog senses a shift in her mood before she even knows what's going on.
"She wraps herself between my legs, she tries to gain my attention, and I get mad at her but then realize, 'oh, you're just doing your job'," she says.
Peters retired after serving 28 years with the RCMP. And she says Nova continues to have an impact.
"The change she's had in my life, I don't have words to describe it. It's nothing short of a miracle. I am on the road to recovery and I can credit that to my dog," says Peters. "Everyone that deals with traumatic events — military, police, paramedics, firefighters — should have the opportunity to have this service."