SANDY, Utah — For years, tail-wagging companions have been helping veterans struggling with mental health disorders.
“Service dogs have been doing amazing work all along,” said Betsy Feaster, an Air Force veteran and the CEO of Dog Training Elite.
When Feaster came back from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, she noticed the number of veterans needing support and who could benefit from a service dog continuing to grow.
“I noticed a lot of veterans with some pretty serious mental health issues because it's a different type of war than we've been fighting in the more recent history," she said. "So people were really suffering from either, you know, mobility support for things that happened, losing limbs, things like that, or more commonly psychiatric support with PTSD.”
In Sandy, Feaster is hosting the first class of trainers to train dogs for advanced cases of PTSD, suicide prevention, severe mobility challenges, and psychiatric support.
“I think the mental health environment is changing. So we're trying to evolve with it,” said Feaster, who added that veteran suicide rates are at an all-time high, “So this [course] is specifically designed to help veterans who are suicide ideation that have the more complex levels of mental health.”
The class is a step up from normal training, openly tackling what can be an invisible struggle so many veterans deal with. And it’s designed to save lives.
“We’re teaching dogs, for example, how to alert on mental health conditions before they become extreme,” explained Feaster. “So for example if you have a tendency for self-harm, how can the dog interrupt your behavior before that happens?”
Many of the graduates like Jeff Slack will go on to continue helping veterans and their service dogs at the highest level here in Utah.
“It's a very humbling experience, especially for me just being a civilian, seeing these guys and what they go through and being able to help their dog know how to help them in their times of panic or anxiety or something like that,” said Slack, “And seeing the difference that these dogs can make for veterans is one of the main reasons why I became a trainer ... because I can see the value in it and how much of a tool and an asset these dogs can be for their handlers.”
