Denver Home Living Huettner Capital Summer 2017 | Page 29

VPFL has settled on the English Golden Retriever as its breed of choice because it has a strong drive to please its owner, is a quick learner, is extremely gentle, and has an innate ability to “read” its master. The dog actually walks a delicate line: on the one hand, it is trained to obey, but on the other, it is trained to “act out” by barking to alert the veteran to a potentially dangerous situation where he may become hyperstimulated. “The dog will be psychologically torn between the master saying ‘lay down,’ for example, and his knowledge that there is a dangerous situation brewing,” notes Griggs. These service dogs also assist many veterans with night terrors, often by laying their entire body on the veteran’s chest, providing deep pressure therapy, or by directly licking the veteran’s face. Unlike other service dog organizations, VPFL takes a novel tactic in allowing strangers to interact with the service dogs. Not only are people allowed to touch the service dog, but they are actually encouraged to do so. “Everyone loves a puppy,” says Griggs, and veterans are encouraged to break down their communication barriers and answer questions about their dog. “When people approach them in a non-threatening way,” he says, “it’s the perfect way to combat many veterans’ sense of isolation and loneliness.” BO & GRIGGS for their behavior and command responses. The total costs to complete the two-year training program, along with veterinary and other basic expenses, is only about $3,500—a far cry from the original estimate for a fully trained service dog. All of the costs are fully covered by VPFL on the veteran’s behalf. Griggs explains the many other benefits his approach offers: “Even if we had the budget to afford a fully trained dog, there is a one-to-three year waiting list to adopt. Our veterans are struggling and cannot wait that long.” As a PTSD sufferer himself, Griggs can describe in vivid detail the isolation and fear these veterans face, particularly in social or crowded situations. “The dog gives them the ability to start moving out of that hypervigilant state that is so limiting,” he says. “When they get a puppy at eight weeks, they have to focus on the puppy rather than focus on themselves. They really form a strong bond with the puppy at that young age.” Although the first couple of weeks can be difficult, Griggs is there at every step to help the process stay on track. Griggs funded the adoption, training, and health needs of the program’s first dog himself. This dog eventually became his own service dog, Bo, who remains by his side pretty much 24/7. Bo—or Maximus Amicus Bodidlius to cite his full AKC-registered name—was specially trained to help Griggs handle extreme feelings of anger resulting from his wartime experiences. Thanks in part to Bo, he doesn’t suffer those feelings of anger too often anymore. Griggs is pretty frugal when it comes to his agency’s budget, viewing himself as a careful steward of people’s donations. He doesn’t draw a salary despite spending about sixty-to-eighty hours per week on the job, but he loves what he does. Always trying to increase the number of trained service dogs he has available to match with the high demand, Griggs said his goal is to find volunteers who will foster adult English Golden Retrievers for breeding purposes. To help reach that goal, he welcomes donations of any size at www.vetpuppyforlife.org. Griggs recently worked intensively with one veteran and his dog to be able to complete a shopping trip at Walmart. Just recently, the vet told Griggs he had made it through the store without incident. “The veterans are trained to handle the dog and carriage in a certain protective mode while moving through the store,” he says. But to make that trip on a crowded Sunday morning? Says Griggs, “I was flabbergasted.” www.vetpuppyforlife.org [email protected] Griggs calls the difference between pre- and post-puppy “night and day” for many veterans. “We saw one of our puppies graduate today and the veteran who came in to take his test is a different guy from the one who came in at the beginning,” he says. “The difference is unbelievable.” 303-946-3321 29