Dogs of Distinction:Organization Pairs Dogs with Veterans In Need

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Gary Vikery and Boss have been together since March 2015. “He got me out of the house,” Vickery said. “I was in a tight spiral down, and I remember being so happy to get a dog and what the promises I was thinking in my mind would be. It was everything and more. I’m taking less medication now for my depression, it’s wonderful.”

Gary Vickery patted his big black Labrador, Boss, on his belly and rubbed him back and forth, methodically and gently. Boss is an old dog, showing signs of old age in his tufts of white around his whiskers. He sits stoically at his master’s ankle, leaning into him. A few other couples with dogs sat nearby inside St. Paul Episcopal Church in downtown Fayetteville.

Vickery is a veteran who has dealt with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder since returning to civilian life. For a time, his anxiety and depression led him to a crippling downward spiral. His anxiety attacks made it impossible to handle leaving the house.

This was until he was paired with Boss, through Service Dogs of Distinction, a local non-profit that started last year that pairs shelter dogs with veterans and trains them to be full service. Boss had spent a couple years in animal shelters, which can lead to anxiety problems in dogs, before being paired with Vickery. Through the program, the two were trained together how to work together as a team to deal with and communicate Vickery’s needs.

After a year of training, Boss now helps Vickery with stabilizing his equilibrium and vertigo, helping him get back up if he’s fallen, creating space for him in crowded areas, deter emotional swings and if an anxiety attack or night terror happens, Boss swings his head into him to distract and help him get out of it.

“He got me out of the house,” Vickery said. “I was in a tight spiral down, and I remember being so happy to get a dog and what the promises I was thinking in my mind would be. It was everything and more. I’m taking less medication now for my depression, it’s wonderful.”

As many as 20 veterans a day commit suicide, according to a study by the Department of Veteran Affairs. In 2014, the latest year available, more than 7,400 veterans took their own lives, accounting for 18 percent of all suicides in America. Veterans make up less than 9 percent of the U.S. population.

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Co-founders Don Gardner (left) and Marsha Wyatt (right), both longtime animal handlers and dog trainers started the Service Dogs of Distinction organization a year ago to better serve veterans who weren’t getting the aid they needed from Veteran Affairs.

Many veterans who deal with PTSD or traumatic brain injury who apply for service dogs speak of feeling hopeless and if a service dog is not a possibility or won’t work for them, they are out of options, said Marsha Wyatt, co-founder of Service Dogs of Distinction.

Service Dogs of Distinction has worked with 10 veterans so far and have trained as many as 15 dogs. The organization trains prospect dogs from local shelters as much as possible and works with each veteran for months until the right dog is found and evaluated for service training. Training can take up to a full year or longer, and continues after graduation from the program. Both the dog and the training is given for free to the veteran.

“We look for dogs that have a great interest in being helpful and tuned in to an individual,” Wyatt said. “That’s why we don’t care what the outside of the dog looks like.”

Wyatt founded the organization with Don Gardner, who has had a life career out of training dogs for arms and explosives, searches for NASA, Marine One, US Secret Service and the FBI. Creating the Service Dogs of Distinction organization has been a lifelong dream for Don, who’s spent 30 years professionally training dogs.

“When a veteran can go back out to the games with their kids, a wife gets their husband back or a husband gets their wife back all because of the dog, that’s the rewarding part of it,” Gardner said. “That’s the main goal, to help fix what’s been broken over the years. The government’s not going to do anything for these veterans except load them up on medication, and that’s only once they admit they’re broken.”

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Sherry Nodine and Bailey have been a pair for 3 years. “I can go out now in public,” Nodine said. “Even though my anxiety is there, I just remind myself by touching her, here I am. I’m not where the trauma was, I’m here. She’s here, she wasn’t there. All these different textures ground me and keep me present.”

Many veterans who have benefited thus far from the program have reported finding purpose from looking after the dog and feeling grounded by their presence.

Sherry Nodine suffers from PTSD of a nervous breakdown she once had. While her miniature poodle, Bailey, may be the smallest dog in the program, she’s the appropriate size for Nodine and her needs and was able to be trained into the program.

“I’ve been able to do things without anxiety that I haven’t been able to do before,” Nodine said. “Bailey helps with what I call my train getting all revved up. I have a number of different behaviors, I sometimes shake my legs, beat on my chest or change my breathing and she’ll jump on me. If that doesn’t get my attention, she’ll bark or lick until I recognize it. She helps deescalate things.”

Many of the veterans refer to their service dogs as “battle buddies,” which hearken to the battle buddies that each soldier in the military are assigned. Battle buddies are expected to look out for one another both in and out of combat.

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Brad Drain and Scooter have been paired. “He helps me a lot with my depression and anxiety,” Drain said. “Just having a battle buddy does a world of good, just having someone with you you know.”

Brad Drain started the Service Dogs of Distinction program around the same time Vickery did. His dog, Scooter, was at the same shelter as Boss. Before getting matched with Drain, Scooter was a few weeks away from being euthanized.

“He’s been able to join us on family trips. We would leave and go to Florida for a week or two at at time and he would stay home because he couldn’t do it,” said Hillary Drain, Brad’s wife. “Now he’s been able to do it since he’s got Scooter. The dog saved him, and he saved the dog.”

Dog training and counseling is provided around the clock over the phone by Wyatt and Gardner, and every Friday the group meets at St. Paul’s Episcopal church for training tips and discussion as well as visiting and catching up — the group has become close knit in the process.

For more information about the training program and the Service Dogs of Distinction organization or how to apply for a service dog, visit www.servicedogsofdistinction.org or contact info@servicedogsofdistinciton.org.

“The word needs to get out to the vet,” Vickery said. “Don and Marsha recognize some of the things we’re going through and move our training through that sort of direction. I wish every vet, whether it was World War II, Vietnam, the Korean War, Persian Gulf or whatever, if they would come out and watch us or read about us, they need to know this is there for them. It would help them so much.”