OUR WORK PTSD DOGS: TASKS PTSD DOGS: BENEFITS SEIZURES BLINDNESS DEAFNESS FIRST RESPONDERS

Tasks for PTSD Service Dogs

At Pawsitivity, we focus on veterans facing the most challenging circumstances, including those with PTSD and those with multiple disabilities such as epilepsy, deafness, or blindness. Whether navigating life changes like divorce, going to school, or adapting to group home living, our service dogs are trained to provide the vital support veterans need to thrive.

Meeting the Unique Needs of Veterans

Our mission is simple yet profound: saving the lives of veterans through empowerment. We are committed to making this a reality by pairing veterans with service dogs that empower them to overcome obstacles and regain independence.

If you are a US military veteran who is interested in getting a service dog from Pawsitivity, you can apply here. We will review your application and contact you if you are a good fit for our program.

Why Focus on PTSD?

We will work with any disability, but the most common ones are PTSD, often comorbid with TBI.

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars often face PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)[1]. While improved torso protection has increased survival rates, many veterans live with head injuries and PTSD as a result of blasts.

PTSD intensifies the effects of other disabilities and creates strong reactions to specific triggers, such as loud noises, crowds, or certain sounds. Service dogs provide alert to rising emotions, and can also comfort, protection, and support, helping veterans manage symptoms and achieve a better quality of life.

Tasks of PTSD Service Dogs

Service dogs perform specific tasks designed to mitigate PTSD symptoms and provide emotional stability:

Emotional Regulation: Service dogs help with insight by alerting the veteran to emotional escalation. The veteran can then calm themselves with the dog during the moments of stress.
Reclusiveness: The dog accompanies veterans outside in challenging environments such as crowds or hospitals, encouraging social interaction and reducing isolation.
Startle Reaction: Dogs create a personal space perimeter to reduce hypervigilance.
Flashbacks: Tactile stimulation helps veterans feel grounded in the present.
Medication reminder: Help the veteran stay on their medication and avoid the negative effects of not taking it.
Hyper-vigilance: Dogs assist veterans in assessing their surroundings, providing reassurance and reducing sensory overload.

How Service Dogs Address PTSD Triggers

Environmental Triggers:
Service dogs act as buffers in crowded spaces, helping veterans feel safe by creating physical distance. This reduces arousal levels, enabling veterans to navigate public areas with confidence.
Trauma-Specific Triggers:
While service dogs cannot prevent triggers like helicopter sounds, they can comfort veterans during these episodes. A service dog provides a calming presence, helping veterans regain control. Even more importantly, the dog can alert the veteran to rising emotions so that ultimately, the veteran gains insight into how their emotions rise and empowers them to do something about it before the emotions go out of control.
Secondary Interventions:
Even after a trigger occurs, service dogs can reduce its effects by grounding veterans. For example, the dog may place itself between the veteran and the source of discomfort, creating a protective barrier.

Breaking the Cycle of Isolation

Veterans with PTSD often isolate themselves due to anxiety and fear. Service dogs transform this experience, providing companionship and enabling veterans to comfortably go out in public. Whether shopping or attending events, the dog's presence fosters confidence and freedom.

Leveraging the Unique Abilities of Service Dogs

Smell Sensitivity: Dogs can detect subtle scent changes that occur before seizures or anxiety spikes, offering early alerts[2].
Hearing Acuity: Dogs can hear sounds far beyond human capability, providing assurance that the environment is safe[3].
Emotional Stability: A constant companion, the dog reduces loneliness, fosters routines, and acts as an anchor during challenging moments.

Training and Partnership: Setting Veterans Up for Success

Service dogs are matched with veterans based on their specific needs, ensuring a perfect partnership. Training includes:

Recognizing early signs of stress: Dogs are taught to alert veterans to anxiety symptoms.
Public readiness: Dogs practice navigating public spaces, creating safe zones, and interacting appropriately.
Daily support tasks: Veterans are trained to use their dog as a grounding tool during panic attacks or flashbacks.

In Summary: How Service Dogs Help Veterans with PTSD

Alert the veteran to rising emotions to help prevent panic attacks.
Offer grounding support during rising emotions, flashbacks, or panic attacks.
Remind veterans to take medication and follow routines.
Provide a sense of safety in public spaces by creating physical barriers.
Improve overall mental health, reducing suicidal thoughts and fostering independence.

Real Stories of Impact

“My service dog has helped me a lot in the middle of my panic attacks...I’ll start petting her and focusing all of my energy on her rather than directing it at myself, which makes feeling anxiety attacks a lot easier. They don’t last quite as long. She’s really helping.” – Pawsitivity Testimonial

Join Us in Saving Veterans' Lives

Each service dog costs $25,000 to train, but the impact on a veteran’s life is immeasurable. Your support ensures these life-saving companions are available at no cost to the veterans who need them most.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PTSD PROGRAMS

DONATE TODAY TO SUPPORT VETERANS WITH PTSD

Sources

[1] Case Reports, Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 2010 Feb;48(2):22-8. doi: 10.3928/02793695-20100107-01.

[2] Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Braun, C., Stangler, T., Narveson, J., & Pettingell, S. (2009). 15(2), 105-109. Also, Journal of Holistic Nursing: Official Journal of the American Holistic Nurses' Association Sobo, E. J., Eng, B., & Kassity-Krich, N. (2006). 24(1), 51-57.

[3] "How Dogs Think," Stanley Coren, Simon and Schuster, 2004.

Pawsitivity works with veterans who are most in need: those in complicated circumstances and those who have multiple disabilities, which typically include PTSD.

Pawsitivity understands that veterans who are in complicated circumstances, such as living and traveling in multiple states, going through a divorce, going to school, or living in a group home, may have a harder time getting the support they need. Pawsitivity is committed to providing these veterans with the resources and support they need to succeed.

Pawsitivity also understands that veterans who have multiple disabilities, such as epilepsy, deafness, or blindness, may have a harder time living independently. Pawsitivity is committed to providing these veterans with the service dogs they need to live more independent and fulfilling lives.

Pawsitivity is dedicated to helping veterans live happy and fulfilling lives. We believe that every veteran deserves the chance to succeed, and we are committed to helping them achieve that goal.

Even though we work with veterans who have multiple disabilities, why do we place so much focus on PTSD?

Many veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) [1]. These injuries happen for many reasons, including the fact that because military personnel often survive blast injuries due to better torso protection, they are then living with the head injuries that come with the blast (and the resulting PTSD).
We focus on PTSD not only because it is a serious condition, but also because it makes other disabilities that veterans may have even worse.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) causes veterans to have strong reactions to things that remind them of a traumatic event. This can include being overly sensitive to loud noises, crowds, or specific sounds like helicopters. A service dog can help veterans with PTSD by providing comfort, support, and protection. Service dogs can also help veterans to manage their symptoms and live more independent lives.

Transforming PTSD Symptoms into Opportunities for Growth

Improve quality of life.
Reduce limitations on daily activities.
Improve PTSD symptoms.
Use less medication.
Experience less depression.
Improve sleep quality.
Reduce suicide ideation.
Increase hours volunteering or working.
Decrease need for healthcare.

Essential Tasks Our Service Dogs Perform for Veterans

Note: This list is from a study on PTSD service dogs. Please also see our page on how service dogs help with PTSD.

Reclusiveness: The dog goes with the veteran outside the house.
Startle Reaction: The dog creates a personal space perimeter.
Neurochemical Imbalance: The team goes for walks to stimulate endorphin production.
Dissociative Flashback: Tactile stimulation helps the handler to feel grounded and in the present.
Startle Response: The dog alerts the veteran to the presence of others.
Emotional Regulation: The dog can be used as a distraction.
Sensory Overload: The dog can be used as a focus.
Social Withdrawal: The dog helps the veteran to interact with others.
Lack of Insight: The dog alerts the veteran to emotional escalation.
Hyper-vigilance: The dog helps the veteran to assess their surroundings.
Hallucinations: The dog helps the veteran to test reality.

Other tasks:

The service dog can be trained to remind the veteran to take their medication. This can help the veteran to stay on their medication and avoid the negative effects of not taking it.
If the veteran is stressed, the dog can show signs of stress, like panting, licking, or looking away. Sometimes these signs of stress can be converted into positive actions that alert the veteran. Either by looking for signs of stress or by training "alert" as a task, the service dog can help the veteran to know that they need to take a break.

A service dog can be very helpful when used with cognitive-behavioral therapy from a therapist or psychologist. This is a kind of therapy that has been shown to be very effective. Using cognitive-behavioral skills in interactions with a service dog can have powerful results.

OVERCOMING PTSD TRIGGERS WITH SERVICE DOG SUPPORT

There are two kinds of PTSD triggers: trauma-specific and environmental.

A service dog does not prevent trauma-specific triggers.

An example would be a veteran who is triggered by the sound of helicopters (the dog would not prevent helicopters from coming around).

What a service dog can prevent many general environmental triggers.

An example is a service dog that helps prevent people and things from upsetting the veteran e.g. the service dog can help the veteran get more personal space in public. The dog can be used as a buffer to keep other people from getting too close. This additional personal space lowers the veteran's level of arousal and can make it easier for the veteran to go out in public.

SECONDARY INTERVENTIONS

A service dog can help even after a symptom occurs. If the veteran starts to react to a trauma-specific trigger (like the sound of a helicopter) or an environmental trigger (like people getting too close), the dog can be a calming presence. This can help to reduce the effect of the trigger.

The veteran can be trained to focus on the dog during these attacks. This can help the veteran to get out of their head and into the moment. The dog can help the veteran to focus on something else besides the trigger.

Even when people do crowd the veteran, the veteran can react by cueing the service dog to place themselves directly between the veteran and the triggering event. This can help to create a buffer between the veteran and the trigger. In this way, the dog provides a sense of safety and security for the veteran.

In general, the service dog can also be used as a source of emotional stability and comfort. The dog can provide love and support to the veteran, which can also help to reduce the veteran's anxiety and stress.

LEVERAGING THE UNIQUE ABILITIES OF SERVICE DOGS TO SUPPORT VETERANS

A veteran with PTSD experiences fear and alertness even when there is no danger. Dr. Kelly Skelton, a psychiatrist who oversees a Veteran's Affairs service dog study at Atlanta VA, says that service dogs can help veterans with PTSD get past their initial fear and get out more. This can help them engage in therapy so they can eventually overcome their excessive fear response.

Breaking the Cycle of Isolation with Service Dogs

Veterans with anxiety and fear often isolate themselves. Many of the symptoms of PTSD make it hard to go outside and leave the house because of the possibility of triggers. Veterans with PTSD might only feel comfortable going places or running errands with a spouse or close friend. This is one of the main ways that service dogs improve the quality of life for veterans with PTSD and their loved ones. A service dog can fulfill the same role as a close friend or family member, and the dog can be taken with them 24/7. This can lead to feelings of freedom and increase the veteran's comfort and confidence when going to the mall, grocery shopping, or anywhere else.

Specialized Attributes That Can Be Leveraged to Enhance Veteran Well-Being

Service dogs can be trained to perform tasks that help the veteran interpret the world around them. Veterans with PTSD sometimes can't trust their own senses. But service dogs have incredible hearing, smell, and other senses. This can help the veteran feel safe and reassured that the environment they are in is not dangerous.

Leveraging Smell

A dog's sense of smell is amazing. So strong, that they can track people's scent trails for miles. In fact, a dog named Buttercup tracked down James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., seven miles away from the maximum-security Missouri State Penitentiary where he had escaped!
Dogs are also used to find leaks in pipelines. In the first time they were used for this purpose, a gas company asked trainer Glen Johnson to inspect the first 20 miles of a natural gas pipeline in Ontario, Quebec. The dog found leaks 40 feet underground, which were later confirmed by the gas company.[11]

Leveraging Hearing

If you listen closely to an old-fashioned TV, you can hear a high-pitched whine that is at the very top of the human hearing range, which is about 16,000 Hz. Dogs can hear up to 50,000 Hz. We would have to add extra notes on the high end of a piano to hear that high. This amazing hearing ability helps explain why some dogs hate vacuum cleaners and power tools. These types of equipment may have rapidly rotating shafts that can produce intensely loud shrieks, but the noise is so high that we can't even hear it.
Dogs can also hear much quieter noises than humans. The quietest noise that humans can hear is 0 decibels, but dogs can hear down to -10 decibels. That means that dogs can hear sounds that are many times quieter than the quietest sound that humans can hear.[3]

Because dogs can hear and smell better than humans, they can be a great source of information about potential dangers in the environment. For example, if a veteran suddenly feels fear because of a loud noise or a dark room, they can check in with their service dog. If the dog is not aroused, then the veteran can relax and know that there is no danger.

Also, as mentioned before, veterans with PTSD often feel alone because of the trauma they have experienced. But with a service dog, the veteran is not alone. They can go out in public with their dog. Having a constant companion can provide positive feedback in situations that might otherwise be stressful for veterans with PTSD. These dogs also help reduce the stigma of PTSD by providing veterans with an opportunity to interact with the public in a positive and supportive way.

In summary, a PTSD service dog from Pawsitivity can help:

Remind the veteran to take daily medication.
Remind the veteran to perform their daily routines.
Wake the veteran to prevent them from sleeping too much.
Assist the veteran in creating a safe personal space in public, serving as a physical buffer to calm the handler and reduce feelings of emotional distress in crowded places.
Reorient and "ground" the veteran to the current place and time when struggling with PTSD episodes.
During a panic attack, a psychiatric service dog can help the veteran by giving them something to touch and feel, which can provide comfort.

In addition to aiding with clinical symptoms, these service dogs can help with more general symptoms. The dogs can:

Help the veteran relax and calm down when they are feeling anxious or stressed.
Go with the veteran to stores and other places to reduce their stress and make it easier for them to do daily activities.
Alert the veteran when they are starting to feel anxious or stressed, or so that the veteran can take medication that immediately helps with their symptoms.
Remind the veteran to take walks, which helps them get exercise and be more social. This also helps the veteran keep a regular schedule and gives them a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

How do service dogs help veterans with PTSD?

1. Animal Assisted Therapy (“Alert”): How Service Dogs Reduce Anxiety

Short explanation:

The veteran starts feeling anxious. (Generally the veteran with PTSD doesn’t notice early feelings of anxiety before it spirals into a panic attack.)
Dog alerts the veteran by pawing at them. (The dog lives in the here and now, and they notice the veteran’s behavior as it is happening.)
Having been alerted, the veteran notices how they are feeling. (“Yes, indeed, that awful feeling of anxiety was starting.”)
Veteran pets the dog (and rewards them!).
The veteran should then take the time to notice how they feel now that they are petting the dog.
The veteran should then compare:
- The rewarding feeling of petting the dog (new result)
- How this new feeling feels better than what would have happened otherwise (the old result was to be feeling more and more anxious, spiraling into a panic attack).

Long explanation:

Dogs live in the moment, so they are good at helping veterans notice their emotional and physical state. Dogs don't think about the past or future as much as humans do, so they can notice things that are happening right now, rather than what the human is thinking about.
Service dogs are trained to do specific tasks. For veterans with PTSD, one of the most important tasks is to alert the veteran when they are starting to feel anxious or stressed. This can help the veteran to take steps to manage their anxiety before it becomes overwhelming.
For example, if a veteran's blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing start to increase, the service dog may place a paw on the veteran's foot. This alerts the veteran to their anxiety and gives them a chance to take a few deep breaths or listen to some calming music.
Petting the dog can also help to reduce anxiety. This is because petting a dog releases oxytocin, which is a hormone that has calming effects.
It is important that the veteran and the service dog be a good match. The dog should be calm and focused on the person, rather than on prey animals or other people. The dog should also be trained to do the specific tasks that the veteran needs help with.
The veteran is taught several important concepts to help read a dog's body language, including the concept of "arousal."

2. Creating a Personal Shield in Crowded Places

The second biggest benefit most veterans find is that having a service dog helps with is the ability to go to public places.
For many veterans with PTSD, the idea of going to a public place can be terrifying. But with the help of a service dog, they can finally start to live their lives again. Service dogs can help veterans deal with crowds in a number of ways. For example, they can sit behind their handler in line and block people from getting too close in an elevator. This can help the veteran to feel safe and secure in a crowded place.

3. Bridging Social Barriers with Service Dogs"

In public, we work with the veteran to see show the dog can be a good way to meet people (as well as a way to block crowds). To do this, we practice interactions, starting with me playing the stranger (asking questions), and practice common replies for the common questions. Such as: “Are you the trainer? Is that a service dog? What breed is the dog?” If these Q&A can become automatic, the hope is that the handler will actually enjoy these encounters. If that result is too much, we can still try to make the meetings pleasant and simple. We really want the veteran to feel excited about going out and about with them in the long run. The service dog can help the veteran by blocking obstacles and also by helping them socialize. We hope that each experience will add up and improve over time, creating a positive cycle instead of a negative one. Even small improvements, one step at a time, can make it easier for them to go out in public.
Before entering a house or public building, the veteran should take a moment to get ready. They should make sure their treat bag and waist-leash are on properly, and that the dog is calm. If the dog is not calm, the veteran can do some "figure eights" to help the dog focus. "Figure eights" are a training exercise where the veteran walks in a figure eight shape, with the dog following them. This helps the dog to focus on the veteran and to stay calm.
When a veteran enters a public building, the first thing they should do is find a quiet place with no people. These "safe zones" are places where the veteran can take a break and calm down if they need to. This will help to keep the veteran and the dog from getting stressed.

4. Calming Team Member: A Trusted Partner for Emotional Stability and Grounding

A service dog can help a veteran calm down in a crowd by sitting on their lap and putting pressure on them. The pressure of the dog's body helps to ground the veteran and make them feel more secure.
The dog can also help calm the veteran down because it gives them something to touch and helps them focus on the dog instead of feeling panicky.

5. The Lifelong Companionship and Safety of a Service Dog

A service dog can help a veteran feel safe and comfortable when they feel that they can't talk to people.
Dogs need to be walked, and this exercise can help the veteran feel better.
Talking to a dog is easier than talking to a person.
After building trust with the dog, the veteran can start to build relationships with other people.

Every day, veterans wait for a service dog to help them reclaim their lives. Your donation today can make a difference.

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