Denver Home Living Huettner Capital Summer 2017 | Page 28

PETS
AND
VETS GO
HAND IN
PAW
GIVING VETERANS LIVING
WITH PTSD PART OF
THEIR LIFE BACK, ONE
PUPPY AT A TIME.
«Griggs was determined to find a way to help fellow veterans recover from
the stress & isolation they faced when they returned home from combat.»
f you have the urge to chat with the owner when you see
a beautiful dog, you are not alone. That is the premise
behind the Veteran’s Puppy for Life Organization (VPFL),
which was founded by veteran Frank Griggs. A sufferer of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his service
in Vietnam, Griggs was determined to find a way to help
fellow veterans recover from the stress and isolation they
faced when they returned home from combat. The VPFL
program was designed to pair veterans like him with service
dogs that would help them manage their condition and
become less isolated in the process. By working with these
service dogs when they are puppies, the veterans would
form a tight bond with them that would act to open doors
with others and distract focus from their own problems. I Military Order of the Purple Heart, which he also heads as
commander. Now acting as a distinct organization, VPFL
operates solely through whatever donations Griggs manages
to hustle up. “We have eight veterans wanting puppies right
now, but I don’t have any puppies to give them,” he laments.
Griggs is CEO and chairman of VPFL, which was
originally founded in 2015 as part of Chapter 1041 of the The puppies’ training culminates with a public access test
in which the veteran and his puppy are both evaluated
Griggs’s original idea was to purchase fully trained service
dogs to pair with veterans, but that idea quickly fell by the
wayside once he priced this model at a steep $5,000–$35,000
per dog. Instead he developed his own approach, which
in retrospect turned out to be even better. Through his
program, puppies are matched with veterans shortly after
birth, and together, they would complete the American
Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Good Citizen certification as
well as task training specifically geared toward PTSD issues.
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