Free Veteran Mobility Service Dogs
Did you know that several government casualty charts show between 30,000 and 35,000 soldiers injured in Iraq alone since the start of the war?
Our new vet program is designed to help those men and women who have served our country in defending independence at the expense of their own independence.
It is our hope to build relationships with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other groups serving our veterans today to both identify those in need and to assist in the funding of these much needed service dogs.
While 4 Paws For Ability is founded on a partnership in funding with our families, this program will be provided at no cost or effort on the part of the soldier in need or their family. By using inmates to provide a majority of the task training we will be able to keep the cost to a minimum.
In a document titled “Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans of the Global War on terrorism” in was reported that as of July 20, 2006 152,669 veterans filed disability claims after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
News stories, movies, and articles have shown the faces of thousands of veterans missing limbs and having lost the ability to walk. These are the veterans our program will focus on.
Similar programs have begun to work training dogs for those veterans with vision loss and PTSD.
Here at 4 Paws we choose to focus on those returning with a permanent loss of independence due to mobility issues.
In our Warren Correction Institution Mission Pawsible TM Rover Rehab Program we have several inmates who excel at Mobility Assistance Dog Training and who would love an opportunity to give of themselves to bring more independence to these veterans.
Free Veteran Mobility Service Dogs will be trained to help with each individual veteran’s needs. After submitting an application and upon acceptance a plan of action will be set to identify what services the veteran needs the dog to perform for them.
These dogs can provide balance work for the veteran who can still walk with a helping paw or assist those who use a wheelchair. Some of the skills the dog might be trained to do include the following:
Balance work- Stand and brace
- Helping pulling a manual chair
- Turning lights on and off
- Opening household doors
- Pushing buttons to open doors in public
- Retrieval of dropped items
- Retrieval of the phone in an emergency or other specialty items on command
- Retrieving items from shelves and counters
- Paying the cashier
- Carrying items in a backpack
- Many other useful skills unique to the individual using the dog
Once the dog has been fully trained the veteran will spend two weeks at our facility learning how to use his or her new partner.
Each day of intense training will build on the day before with a final test at the end for certification to use the dog in all aspects of their life, at home and in public. Low-cost housing will be available to veterans and their family.
Round trip airfare will be provided free of charge by: http://www.aircompassionforveterans.org/
Investigate the Free Veteran Mobility Service Dogs program today and help a disabled veteran find the support and companionship provided by a 4 Paws for Ability service dog.
Note: I highly endorse 4 Paws for Ability as a source for extremely well-trained service dogs. The organization is sound and its goals exceptional. Judy Vorfeld.