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Soldier Shoots Dog With Smoke Round — Page 2

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"Now for something completely different"

Here is a "feel good" story for you all on how dogs are used to help rehabilitate soldiers.

Dogs therapeutic for recovering soldiers

By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2007 13:01:21 EST

For a moment, the lobby of Walter Reed Army Medical Center looked like a veterinary clinic.

About 20 curious canines and their handlers gathered near the hospital’s main entrance on a recent weekday to visit recovering combat veterans.

The tail-wagging and wet noses drew instant smiles from family members sitting nearby. Strangers and owners rubbed the heads, jowls and backs of mostly light-haired breeds, from golden retriever to Shetland sheepdog. Wisps of blond fur wafted above the ground.

“The joke in our house is dog hair is a condiment,” one of the handlers quipped.

Noticeable among the pack was Marlee, a dark-haired 3-year-old Australian shepherd mix who — like many of the soldiers upstairs — was missing a limb.

Karen Lanz adopted Marlee more than a year ago. She said Marlee’s leg had been badly injured, probably in a car accident, and doctors had amputated it.

Many of the patients she meets, particularly the amputees, have a soft spot for Marlee, Lanz said.

“They can relate to her,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘Wow, I’m missing a leg, too.’”

Lanz is a volunteer with People Animals Love, a nonprofit organization whose members visit Walter Reed with their specially certified four-legged friends every other week for about two hours. The idea behind the pet therapy program is similar to others at hospitals across the country: bring a cheerful distraction to patients facing serious injury or illness.

The dogs that bring the cheer are screened to make sure they’ll be suitable. To be eligible for the program, each dog must be more than a year old and must have successfully completed the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen test, said Molly Morgan, a PAL pet therapy team leader at Walter Reed. She carefully screens each would-be team during a minimum of three hospital visits.

Finding volunteers isn’t a problem. “We have a waiting list of 30 people,” she said.

The dogs don’t just absorb attention, they absorb stress — an especially important therapeutic benefit for soldiers recovering from injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, the volunteers said.

“Science has proven that pet therapy helps drop blood pressure a little bit,” Morgan said.

“Dogs absorb stress like a sponge,” she said. “They can feel it long before you and I can feel it.”

Soldiers rehabilitating in the physical therapy and occupational therapy wards reacted to the dogs immediately during a visit Nov. 9.

“She’s a pretty girl,” Sgt. Bruce Dunlap said, referring to Hannah, a purebred golden retriever who, along with her owner, Sandi Getler, stopped by his workout machine.

Dunlap, 29, of Kansas City, Mo., served in Iraq as part of the Kansas Army National Guard’s 161st Field Artillery unit. On Dec. 11, 2006, he was riding in an armored Humvee that was hit by an improvised explosive device. The blast and accompanying shrapnel broke both of his hands, severed fingertips, and sliced open his left arm and both of his legs.

In therapy at Walter Reed, Dunlap was sweating on a machine that resembled a cross between a treadmill and kayak. A bag around his waist filled with pressurized air, reducing his weight and allowing him to jog.

He said he recently completed the Marine Corps Marathon on a hand-crank bike and plans to become a school teacher and coach. “If I can get through this, I can do anything,” he said.

Dunlap said he welcomes the presence of the playful dogs. “They bring a little touch of home,” he said.

Others agreed.

Spc. David Cordick, 35, of Watkins Glen, N.Y., served in Iraq with 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. He was shot by a sniper three weeks into his tour.

The bullet fractured his right humerus bone and cut in half the nerves that provide mobility and sensation to the arm.

“He basically has a dead arm,” explained Maj. Matthew St. Laurent, an occupational therapist working with Cordick. “You could stab him with a knife and he wouldn’t feel any of it.”

Cordick said the several appointments he has each day at Walter Reed can be overwhelming.

“Sometimes, I wonder if it would’ve been easier if they just amputated it,” he said. “Now, I probably got two years ahead of me just to hold a cup of coffee.”

The dogs help him cope with his situation.

Cordick likes to see George, a spunky golden retriever assigned to the OT ward. “It gives you a piece of normalcy,” he said. “It takes you out of the hospital.”

Morgan said patients sometimes decline offers to visit with one of her “dogs-de-camp.”

“The goal is to not intrude,” she said. “Our goal is to give them respite from the pain and horror that they’re going through, even if it’s only for a minute or two.”

Despite the relatively brief visit, the dogs are usually exhausted from the ordeal and sleep for hours afterward, volunteers said.

“For humans, they understand the environment, what the mission is and what they’re supposed to be doing,” said William Waybourn, who said his long-haired German shepherd, Hank, always naps after the hospital visits. “For dogs, they’re constantly being paraded around. There’s a lot being asked of them.”

Hank was popular with the patients and staff, often falling onto his back for a belly scratch. PAL was the brainchild of Dr. Earl Strimple, a former captain in the Army Veterinary Corps who founded the organization in 1981 to bring animals to the newly bereaved.

Today, PAL has more than 300 volunteers in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area and even offers an after-school program for at-risk kids featuring guinea pigs, rabbits, parakeets and lizards.

Strimple said his volunteers have been visiting Walter Reed since about 2000.

“It brings a home environment to the warriors there, someone for them to talk to,” he said. “Dogs are nonjudgmental. They don’t care what you look like.”

Source: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/army_therapydogs_071124/

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison