More than two years ago, Dr. James Gillet published a study contracted by Veterans Affairs that concluded, “It is evident given the extent of anecdotal evidence that [psychiatric service dogs] are effective in the management of PTSD.”
Despite his conclusion, the federal government is still not funding service dogs for veterans, saying more empirical evidence is required. They started a pilot project to study the effectiveness of psychological service dogs for veterans with PTSD and another project set to create national standards for service dogs.
It’s expected both projects will finish in spring of 2018, but In the meantime, veterans who want a dog have to find a way to come up with the money.
All that training doesn’t come cheap. Each dog costs around $3,500 to train, plus the yearly costs of vet bills, equipment and all the usual costs of owning a dog.
Many turn to their local legions. Back in June 2014 legions passed a resolution allowing local branches to use up to 25% of their Poppy Trust Accounts to help veterans get their PTSD service dogs.
That’s how Medric Cousineau met Thai, a golden lab and PTSD service dog from Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education Services, in Kansas.
“The first night we were together she woke me up from my night terrors,” he says, “it was amazing.”
After Medric found his life back on track, he started Paws Fur Thought, a Nova Scotian non-profit that helps pair veterans with PTSD with service dogs.
Ten of the thirty dogs in the pilot project were placed by his organization.
He says he’s not thrilled with the wait, but he understands.
“I would love if somehow they could magically speed this up, but they can’t,” says Cousineau. “It’s frustrating. It’s aggravating, but because we’ve already placed 60 dogs, I know what they’ll find… The fact that they’re doing the standards and pilot project concurrently to me shows they believe in this. If they wanted to drag their feet, they could have.”
Sometimes the issue isn’t just money. It’s time.
“It takes anywhere between 14 and 18 months minimum to train these dogs… All the qualified schools in Canada, together, might be able to produce 100 dogs in a good year… We’re talking about breeding dogs now so we can place dogs 2 and a half years from now. Spring of 2018 sounds ridiculous to the people who are waiting, but that’s the reality we’re dealing with,” says Cousineau.
As for Veterans affairs not funding the dogs included in the pilot project, “They had to start somewhere. It would have been easier if they stepped up and funded the dogs. I think they were worried about price inflation,” says Cousineau.
Paws Fur Thought was lucky – earlier this month a Florida-based non-profit called Wounded Warriors gave them $175,000, which will allow them to pair 40 veterans with service dogs over the next few years. This allowed them to fund all their dogs included in the veterans affairs pilot project.