January 12, 2024 • 29 mins
Talking with Travis and Vicky from Arkansas Service Paws, a non-profit group in Beebe that specialize in training service dogs and teaching Veterans and First Responders suffering from PTSD how to train their own dogs for service. If you are a Veteran or First Responder who has been diagnosed and have been recommended for a service dog, or if you would like to volunteer or donate, you can find information on their website at www.arservicepaws.org
Have a topic, organization, or community event to discuss on the show? Email DJTaylor@iheartmedia.com with your contact information and details!
Have a topic, organization, or community event to discuss on the show? Email DJTaylor@iheartmedia.com with your contact information and details!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome and thanks for tuning in forTalk of the Rock public affairs, community
events, and public services for CentralArkansas from the iHeartRadio Studios in Little Rock.
Here's your host, DJ Taylor.Hey, thank you for joining us
for Talk of the Rock. I'mDJ Taylor and I'm joined by Travis and
Vicky with Arkansas Service. Pause.Ladies and gentlemen, how are you.
(00:20):
We're doing good good. Thank you, absolutely fantastic. And first of all,
I want to start out by sayingthank you both for your service,
both of you veterans, and weappreciate what you do for our country,
and we appreciate everything that you havedone and everything that you are doing for
fellow veterans and everybody in Arkansas firstresponders included with Arkansas Service. Pause,
(00:44):
tell me a little bit about wherewhere this all started, where this all
came from. Well, I havewhen I was in the military, I
s've heard some trauma, and soI have some I have PTSD. It
I had I thought I had itunder control for a while, and then
a situation happened where it flared backup ten times stronger. So at that
(01:10):
point in time, I started seekingyou know, my therapist said you know,
hey, have you thought about aservice dog? And I was like,
well, no, but now thatyou talk about it, that sounds
really nice. And so she pointedme towards an organization and I went through
that organization to get my service dogTank certified. That's that organization has since
(01:37):
gone away, and we felt thatthe mission that it was providing was essential.
I know what Tank did for me, I mean he saved he saved
my life. I mean I cansay that. You know, he takes
my you know, the situations aroundme, and he makes them tolerable.
(02:00):
I know, he has my back. That's one of his tasks is to
watch my back because I have issueswith people behind me. So that's one
of his tasks is to watch behindme, and that's what he does.
So when the other organization went away, we were like, no, we
can't let this faulter. So westood up Arkansas Service PAUS and it has
(02:24):
been full blasts, full blasts forwardsever since. It's NonStop. And as
we were setting it up, wehad a lot of conversations with the founders
about it, and we wanted toinclude more than just the veterans because if
(02:45):
somebody in the veterans family is suffering. The vets take that burden on themselves.
I can vouch for that, beinga veteran. I don't have PTSD,
but all of her troubles that itbrought her carried over to me.
There were things I had to dowhen we went to restaurants. I had
to be over vigilant for her toeven go out. I had to do
(03:07):
more things outside of the house becauseshe wouldn't before tank. So we're like,
we want to include this to helpeverybody in the family out, not
just one person. You help thefamily by helping somebody. So we included
family members, the dependents that stillqualify, you know, spouses and children.
Sure, and in conversations we're alsolike first responders, fire, police
(03:31):
EMTs. They're seeing a lot ofgraphic situations, deaths that they can't avoid
that they're trying to fight, youknow, So they suffer a lot,
and they suffer a lot in silence, just like veterans and active duty do
because as soon as you bring itup in the profession, it's a career
(03:52):
ender. It's almost impossible to openlytalk about PTSD while you're on active duty
or a police officer or fire becausenow you've become a liability in the job.
So we're like everybody's hiding the samething, and there I can do
it because that's how you're viewed andhow you look at things when you're in
(04:15):
Well, I'm just going to toughthrough it. I have to. This
is what I'm doing. And mostpeople doing fire emt police, military.
They're not doing it for a job. It is who they are. It's
they're committed to it and they can'tgive up who they are, so they're
going to fight through those things.So that's why we included the first responders
(04:36):
and family members in the program.Absolutely. I have a a cousin who's
been a police officer since the dayhe turned twenty one, and you know,
he's seen things and been through things, and that's just that was what
he wanted to be from day one. So it isn't like you said,
it's not just a job. Thisis this is who that person is,
(04:59):
and anything we can do to helpthese people that help us every single day,
that is a That is a hugepart of it. Now you've spoken
a little bit about how Tank madethings tolerable for you and made things better
for you in everyday life. Whatis what is something that most people might
not know about a service dog?That's that's very important. What's what's some
(05:23):
good information for people to keep thatthe service dog has a task to do.
They're they're not there as a pet. They're they're working providing a medical
service to that individual that has adisability. In order to qualify as a
service dog, they must be taskqualified in order to meet that qualification.
(05:48):
So you really need to think ofthem as a as a medical device.
You know that it's just like somebody'soxygen bottled. You know. Are you
going to walk up and ask ifI can pet your oxygen bottle? You
know, But that's kind of thescenario, is that when you walk I
mean, yes, it's an animal, it's a living human being, but
it's not there for the public's entertainment. Sure, they're there to do a
(06:14):
job, and every time you comeup and you ask the pet that dog,
you're taking that dog away from theirtask. That's important to remember.
Absolutely. I know, I've gota four year old and he loves animals.
It doesn't matter what kind cat,dog, possum. We went to
the Museum of Discovery and they hadanimals out and he loved every single one
(06:36):
of them. But a service dogis that a service dog and very important
to remember that. Now as faras that goes, I know that they
have to be extremely well trained inorder to qualify as a service dog.
I mean they have to be ableto ignore everything around them except the human
(06:59):
the they're protecting and helping. Sothat's a very rigorous process, it is,
and it takes in our program,it takes over a year in order
for that person and that dog teamto complete the program, and they have
to have a tremendous number of hours, like four hundred and eighty hours in
(07:20):
order of training hours in order tograduate. So that is it. And
with that, most dog breeds canbe a service dog, depending on the
needs of the individual. There arecertain breeds that we tend to avoid with
(07:41):
our program, but it's not becausethe dog's not capable of doing it.
It's we deal specifically with PTSD andthere are certain dog breeds that when they
walk into a environment in public,they elicit the wrong reaction. I mean,
they can be the most intelligent dogsout there, but if they make
the people around you nervous, that'snot good for somebody with PTSD because that
(08:03):
heightens their awareness, which can spiralthe entire process. The other thing about
it is even the dogs you thinkof, the breeds that you think of
that are, oh, these arealways service dogs, not every one of
those dogs qualifies because it's a temperamentand a desire. Just like being in
the military or police or fire,you have to want to do it,
(08:24):
and if the dogs aren't wanting todo it, they're not going to qualify.
Statistically, when you look at anyof the programs out there that do
this, they'll tell you about onein ten dogs qualify for the program.
And of that, even the onesthat qualify and show the temperament, not
all of those are going to makeit through the training. Even with a
(08:46):
fully qualified and knowledgeable trainer, itjust doesn't work. And your dogs,
just like people, events can changetheir path. Sure they can suffer from
PTSD, so things that their experiencewhen training or just in life can take
what looks like a perfectly good servicedog and put that dog off that path
(09:11):
because now they're dog aggressive or fearfulof children. And once they start reacting
to their environment, they stopped takingcare of their teammate or their handler.
Right. Well, we've had we'vehad animals that have washed because of loose
dogs in their neighborhood came on theirproperty and attacked them, and then it
(09:33):
made that dog reactive. And eventhough they were, you know, five
months into training, we had towash the dog because it became way too
reactive. Wow, that is somethingnow, I will, I do want
to ask this. I've got mycuriosity peaked here. You said certain breeds
you just sort of expected. Iimmediately German shepherd was the first one that
(09:54):
came on the list. I seeyou have brought with you. Who is
this fella that's with you today?This is Tank and is a rotweller.
Yes, and he is absolutely beautiful. And it's everything I can do not
to pet this guy, but Iunderstand how that goes. Now, let
me ask you about this. Whatwould be what was probably the most unusual
(10:15):
service dog breed you've ever seen?Being fairly young with a program here,
we haven't seen a whole lot ofreally bizarre We we do get mixes out
of shelters, sure, we've seen. The smallest we've seen was a what
was boo? He was multipoo?A multipoo. Okay, that was our
(10:39):
smallest that we've dealt with. Okay. We try to stay more with the
medium to larger sized breeds because ofa lot of our veterans have mobility issues
as well. Okay, and sothe large breeds like Tank provides counterbalance for
me. Okay, So that's oneof his tasks. But he's big enough
(11:00):
in order to do that, becausehe's one hundred and thirty pounds. Sure.
Sure, But they have to bea certain size and weight equation versus
the handler in order to be ableto qualify for mobility assistance tasks and other
factors that go into that. Rottweilersare a very strong personality dog. Sure.
(11:24):
Yeah, So their handlers have tobe very confident and strong leaders because
and most working dogs are this way. If the handler doesn't take charge,
the animals will, and when thathappens, their training goes away. It's
like your four year old. Surementioned, Sure, if you're not in
(11:45):
charge, they will be, andwhen they are, it's usually destructive.
Yeah, don't tell him he's notin charge though, No, no,
no, no, no, no, that's important, and that reference is
really common. We use one similaryour dog, whether it's your pet at
home or your service dog. Whenyour training, they maintain the IQ and
(12:07):
temperament approximately of a toddler, thinka two to three year old. Okay,
so you have that mentality in yourhouse. If you're not constantly reinforcing
their training by at least practicing thosetasks, they're going to forget sure,
and then you'll have problems. Andif you're not always in charge, they
(12:28):
start to expand that time when they'rein charge. And that's not because they're
out to be vindictive or mean.Sure, they are very intelligent dogs and
they want to be busy. They'rebred to work. Sure. Yeah yeah,
so yeah, I've had several dogsthat were working class dogs and they
(12:48):
have to have something to do orthey start chewing on the furniture exactly.
No, I get that, Andthat does bring up an interesting question.
Once the service dog is issued,I guess is the is the correct term
or once they're assigned, is therea continuation of training or like you said,
a continued practice. Okay, letthe dogs. Let me explain how
(13:11):
our program works. Okay, Becausethe way our program works is we have
ten weeks of what we call handler'straining, which is a very and we
meet once a week okay, Sothat's why there's we have ten sessions of
handler's training where it's very intense ofinformation, overload laws, laws, you
(13:37):
know, service dog laws, youknow in the state, in the federal
you know, things like this,how to take care of their animal and
things like that. At the veryend of that process, about week seven,
we start bringing in the dogs andwe do a we have the the
handler and the dog basically you know, together for that whole class period,
(14:01):
and then we'll switch. And thenat the end of that period, we'll
ask the handlers give us your topthree an order of preference that you like
of the dogs. And then weas handlers have been observing what was going
on between you know, how theenergy level was between the handler and the
(14:26):
dog. So you know, ifwe have a where we have two individuals
that want the same dog, thenas the trainers, we will step in
and say, well, this onehas better energy with that dog and this
one has better energy with this dog. So but a lot of times we
have generally half owner dogs and halfdogs that we bring into the program.
(14:52):
So because people can't bring their owndogs into the program, they just have
to do the same. They justhave to pass the temperament test, just
like any other the other dogs wouldhave to do. And if they can
pass that temperament test, I broughtTank into the program and they're of a
appropriate age. We should quickly lookfor dogs that we're picking up to be
(15:13):
between ten months and two years whenthey start our program, because it's going
to take a year on the shortside to train them. So if they're
ten months old, they're pushing twoby the time they finish the program.
Look at your dog's life expectancy.A Rottweiler is about a ten year lifespan,
(15:33):
so we're down to eight possible years. Take the last year off or
two off, you're looking at asix year working life for that dog.
So you've got to factor those intoit when you bring them in. And
the other thing when we're doing thatpairing process, you have to look at
lifestyles and capabilities of the dog andthe handler. If you have a handler
(15:54):
that is athletic and hiking and runningall the time, rottweiler is not the
best dog for them because they're notrunning dogs. Right. If you have
a sedentary household, you're not bringingin a husky, right. Yes,
No, there's a lot that youhave to look at when you're doing the
pairing process. But after the pairingprocess, we move into the CGC,
(16:19):
which is the American Kennel Club CanineGood Citizenship Training. Okay, And the
way we do it is the handlersnow take their dogs home with them and
we provide a weekly lesson and theytrain that they trained their own dog to
(16:41):
learn that whole week, because that'sthat's that's the way we find it works
best is when a handler trains theirown dog, that dog listens to the
handler. I can train a dogall day long, and I can get
that dog listening to me and listento everything I say, but it's not
(17:02):
going to listen to you, gotcha. So that's why we have we prefer
to have the handlers training their dog. So we provide them with a lesson
that they train with for that week, and then they go home and they
train that lesson. That is fantastic. And also I do want to point
out that I think this is thisis a great program because I understand I
(17:23):
have friends that have medical dogs,and if you have to purchase one,
we are talking thousands of dollars insome cases twenty five to fifty thousand dollars
for service dog, thousands upon thousandsof dollars. And this is a way
to help veterans, to help ourfirst responders, our law enforcement, our
(17:47):
fire departments, EMTs to get theadequate service dog that they need without having
to worry about whether or not they'regoing to come up with that those thousands
of dollars to make this work.Now, if someone say, for example,
a veteran that's listening to the programor someone in law enforcement that's listening
(18:07):
to the program, they feel thatthis is in need, is that does
it need to have a medical diagnosisfirst? Or can anyone who is in
those service areas if they feel thatthey need it? Is that? Is
that enough? No, you dohave to have a medical diagnosis to get
(18:30):
into our program. We require botha physical your primary care manager say that
you're healthy enough to do a yearto a year and a half of the
very light CARDO training, because you'regoing to be doing a half hour to
an hour of training per day withyour dog and that could include walking,
bending, and we need to makesure that you're healthy enough you're not going
to have an issue completing the program. But also because to be a service
(18:56):
dog. It has to be adisability. Do you have to be medically
diagnosed with a disability in order tojoin? So your mental health provider would
have to say that you have thedisability, but they also have to recommend
a service dog because simply having PTSDand not to minimize PTSD here, of
(19:17):
course, having the condition does notmean that you're a good fit for a
service dog. You may not beat a stable place in your life and
your treatment to where you can takecare of and respond appropriately. Because service
dogs are trained to intelligently disobey thehandler. So if the disobedience is going
(19:40):
to cause you to ramp up insteadof bringing you down, then you're not
a good fit for a program,not just ours, for any program when
it comes to a service dog.If you could be violent, neglectful,
sure, so we need to makesure that you're at a place where you're
going to both parties are going tobe safe and secure when this takes place.
(20:03):
Now, if someone does have theappropriate diagnosis and someone does want to
be a part of the program,if you're a veteran or a first responder
listening and you want to be apart of this, how do they go
about becoming a part of the programor what is the process for application there.
First thing you can do is youcan go to our website at arservicepos
(20:26):
dot org and you can fill outour application. We will review that application.
You have to submit some letters,recommendation if you have animals, some
vet records, information like that,and it's all listed on there what you
need to give us. Our officemanager will review your file. Once we
get everything, then we will arrangeto do a home visit where we come
(20:49):
out and look at your house.We're not doing a white glove inspection,
but we're making sure the home thatwe are potentially bringing a dog into is
safe for the dog because there areplants they're poisonous that people may have for
decoration. Sure, some people andsuffering with disabilities such as PTSD have other
(21:11):
things that will affect them, andthe conditions are living in may not be
suitable for an animal. Sometimes they'renot always suitable for the people. So
we need to make sure that we'renot adding problems to the situation. Absolutely,
that's very important. And we're alsolooking for things that you may not
(21:32):
be looking for. I mean,you, as a father of a four
year old, you know what it'slike to have a toddler in the home.
But if you don't have children andyou've never had a dog, and
we've had clients like that, thenyou're not looking at your house from a
dog's perspective. Sure, Like,we had a client that went to her
house and she had a small littleplastic thing of holy water on her mantle
(21:57):
that was accessible to the well thatthe dog would be about. Said,
you might want to just move that, you know, because that's a that's
a precious ite me. You wantto get that up out of the dog's
way. And it's just we goin and we point out things that our
dog appropriate, you know, appropriateor inappropriate. Sure, sure, definitely
(22:18):
not any of the cleaning chemicals downwhere they're open and accessible, or in
that case, a plastic container thatis easily chewed up, exactly exactly,
Definitely important there and a lot ofteaching for those people that have never had
it. You bring a dog intoyour house, you have dog hair everywhere,
Yes, accept it. Okay,you can clean and you can minimize
(22:41):
that, but you're going to havedog hair everywhere. You can't avoid it.
Oh yes, And these are notdogs that'll be outside when they move
in, they are moving into yourhouse right right. Definitely not an outdoor
dog. This is this is Iwould like to say companion that is with
you twenty four to seven because itis so important for them to be around
(23:04):
now. Also, I do wantto ask about this. You did mention
that people can bring their own dogin an attempt to make them a service
dog. If that doesn't work out, there are other options, of course.
Yes, if they don't work out, we go to local shelters and
we will look for dogs that meetthe requirements of the class and our clients.
(23:26):
We have a couple breeders throughout thestate that have donated dogs to us
on a regular basis. So dependingon what we have or what we can
find at the shelters, we'll getthem. If you're looking for a specific
breed of dog and you're wanting tobe in our program, that's fine,
but that's on you to find thedog. We would only ask that in
(23:48):
those situations you let us know inadvance. We can come help you pick
a dog that will be more likelyto succeed as a service dog. We
can't guarantee that they will, butwe have an idea of what we want
what you should be looking for.Sure, Absolutely, the different nuances about
each dog that make them a goodservice dog. That's very important. Now
(24:11):
let me ask you about this forthose listening that maybe would like to help
out with the program, is thereare there is there room for volunteers always
at Arkansas Service Pause, So wecan always use volunteers that for the most
part, we're a couple families rightnow that do this and there's about ten
(24:32):
of us in the program total asvolunteers. That's from office manager to trainers,
are management the board, it's onlyabout ten people. So running two
classes at a time, that's threetraining nights a week. That's a lot
of time spent with the individuals wecurrently have, so we can always use
(24:53):
additional trainers. One area, wedefinitely need people that are willing to step
up our short term and even longterm fosters for animals because we have people
wanting to donate dogs. We don'thave places to raise them. Sure,
and you can only have so manydogs in a house and still provide that
(25:15):
quality interaction that they need for thistype of program because they have to socialize
and interact daily even as puppies,so that they're getting used to people and
things, And right now the fostersare me and Vicki and Marty and Adrey.
Those are our fosters. We've alreadygot three dogs in our house,
(25:37):
so we're very limited on how manymore we can bring in. Sure and
Marty and can only have a coupleat their house at a time, So
it's very limited. And nobody inour program gets any financial compensation. Everything
we get from donations goes to handlefood, that and gear for the dogs.
(26:03):
And the only thing not going directlyto a dog goes to the minimal
amount of office supplies that we haveto have in order to document the training
and absolutely process. Now, well, that does bring another interesting point.
Maybe somebody doesn't have time to volunteer, but they've got some extra cash that
they would like to donate in orderto help our veterans and our first responders
(26:26):
and to help with Arkansas Service pause. Is there a way to do that
on the website or can they call? Can they what's the best way to
do that if they'd like to donate. We do have a PayPal link on
our website. You can also mailchecks to us if you wish. It's
the addresses on the website as well. It's a peel box out of BB
(26:47):
our training classes and the organization iskind of dispersed. We we have a
bb mailing address. We were foundedout of Cabot because that's where one of
our founders is from. So thephysical addresses address nobody's there. Okay.
Our classroom is in Ward. Wehave have to do a shout out for
(27:07):
that. The Mayor Ward is graciouslyallowing us to use two classrooms out of
the Ward Municipality building at no charge, So that's fantastic. That's where we
do our classroom teaching. And thenbecause they're service dogs and they have to
deal with public situations, we usea variety of locations throughout Central Arkansas.
(27:32):
Common ones are the home improvement stores, your farm stores. We do train
at the mall in North Little Rock, so and there are other places we
have gone and will continue to gosure, and there are places that we're
going to expand to to make surewe're covering more needs. And all these
(27:52):
vary with the actual locations out andabout very somewhat based on our class because
the activities that the members in theclass take part in on a regular basis
we need to make sure we're trainingthe team to handle those environments. If
you have a and we have this. We have one member in right now
(28:15):
that has children that play sports,so they are at baseball games, oh
wow, constantly. Their dog hasto be at baseball games, right,
So it's to handle the crowds.So those are things we discussed. We
have teachers, so we have toinvite and expose the animals to those situations
(28:37):
so that they can deal with thosesituations. So a lot of different well
basically any life situation. They haveto be able to handle that and manage
that so that they can continue towork with their handler and be a part
of that team. And I dowant to say a very big thank you
Travis Vicki, thank you all forcoming in and sharing this with us.
It's are Service Pause out of bbArkansas. You can go buy the website
(29:03):
there, find out how to donate, find out how to volunteer, or
if you're one of our servicemen orwomen, you're one of our first responders
with APTSD diagnosis, definitely reach outto them and they will help you to
find the service animal that is rightfor you. Thank you so much for
coming in today, I really appreciateit. Thank you for having us,
and thank you for helping me gettingthe word out there. Absolutely thanks for
(29:29):
listening to Talk of the Rock publicaffairs and community events from the iHeartRadio studios
in Little Rock. Be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and listen next week
as we talk to more guests aboutpublic service, local charities, and events
going on in your neighborhood.
Welcome and thanks for tuning in forTalk of the Rock public affairs, community
events, and public services for CentralArkansas from the iHeartRadio Studios in Little Rock.
Here's your host, DJ Taylor.Hey, thank you for joining us
for Talk of the Rock. I'mDJ Taylor and I'm joined by Travis and
Vicky with Arkansas Service. Pause.Ladies and gentlemen, how are you.
(00:20):
We're doing good good. Thank you, absolutely fantastic. And first of all,
I want to start out by sayingthank you both for your service,
both of you veterans, and weappreciate what you do for our country,
and we appreciate everything that you havedone and everything that you are doing for
fellow veterans and everybody in Arkansas firstresponders included with Arkansas Service. Pause,
(00:44):
tell me a little bit about wherewhere this all started, where this all
came from. Well, I havewhen I was in the military, I
s've heard some trauma, and soI have some I have PTSD. It
I had I thought I had itunder control for a while, and then
a situation happened where it flared backup ten times stronger. So at that
(01:10):
point in time, I started seekingyou know, my therapist said you know,
hey, have you thought about aservice dog? And I was like,
well, no, but now thatyou talk about it, that sounds
really nice. And so she pointedme towards an organization and I went through
that organization to get my service dogTank certified. That's that organization has since
(01:37):
gone away, and we felt thatthe mission that it was providing was essential.
I know what Tank did for me, I mean he saved he saved
my life. I mean I cansay that. You know, he takes
my you know, the situations aroundme, and he makes them tolerable.
(02:00):
I know, he has my back. That's one of his tasks is to
watch my back because I have issueswith people behind me. So that's one
of his tasks is to watch behindme, and that's what he does.
So when the other organization went away, we were like, no, we
can't let this faulter. So westood up Arkansas Service PAUS and it has
(02:24):
been full blasts, full blasts forwardsever since. It's NonStop. And as
we were setting it up, wehad a lot of conversations with the founders
about it, and we wanted toinclude more than just the veterans because if
(02:45):
somebody in the veterans family is suffering. The vets take that burden on themselves.
I can vouch for that, beinga veteran. I don't have PTSD,
but all of her troubles that itbrought her carried over to me.
There were things I had to dowhen we went to restaurants. I had
to be over vigilant for her toeven go out. I had to do
(03:07):
more things outside of the house becauseshe wouldn't before tank. So we're like,
we want to include this to helpeverybody in the family out, not
just one person. You help thefamily by helping somebody. So we included
family members, the dependents that stillqualify, you know, spouses and children.
Sure, and in conversations we're alsolike first responders, fire, police
(03:31):
EMTs. They're seeing a lot ofgraphic situations, deaths that they can't avoid
that they're trying to fight, youknow, So they suffer a lot,
and they suffer a lot in silence, just like veterans and active duty do
because as soon as you bring itup in the profession, it's a career
(03:52):
ender. It's almost impossible to openlytalk about PTSD while you're on active duty
or a police officer or fire becausenow you've become a liability in the job.
So we're like everybody's hiding the samething, and there I can do
it because that's how you're viewed andhow you look at things when you're in
(04:15):
Well, I'm just going to toughthrough it. I have to. This
is what I'm doing. And mostpeople doing fire emt police, military.
They're not doing it for a job. It is who they are. It's
they're committed to it and they can'tgive up who they are, so they're
going to fight through those things.So that's why we included the first responders
(04:36):
and family members in the program.Absolutely. I have a a cousin who's
been a police officer since the dayhe turned twenty one, and you know,
he's seen things and been through things, and that's just that was what
he wanted to be from day one. So it isn't like you said,
it's not just a job. Thisis this is who that person is,
(04:59):
and anything we can do to helpthese people that help us every single day,
that is a That is a hugepart of it. Now you've spoken
a little bit about how Tank madethings tolerable for you and made things better
for you in everyday life. Whatis what is something that most people might
not know about a service dog?That's that's very important. What's what's some
(05:23):
good information for people to keep thatthe service dog has a task to do.
They're they're not there as a pet. They're they're working providing a medical
service to that individual that has adisability. In order to qualify as a
service dog, they must be taskqualified in order to meet that qualification.
(05:48):
So you really need to think ofthem as a as a medical device.
You know that it's just like somebody'soxygen bottled. You know. Are you
going to walk up and ask ifI can pet your oxygen bottle? You
know, But that's kind of thescenario, is that when you walk I
mean, yes, it's an animal, it's a living human being, but
it's not there for the public's entertainment. Sure, they're there to do a
(06:14):
job, and every time you comeup and you ask the pet that dog,
you're taking that dog away from theirtask. That's important to remember.
Absolutely. I know, I've gota four year old and he loves animals.
It doesn't matter what kind cat,dog, possum. We went to
the Museum of Discovery and they hadanimals out and he loved every single one
(06:36):
of them. But a service dogis that a service dog and very important
to remember that. Now as faras that goes, I know that they
have to be extremely well trained inorder to qualify as a service dog.
I mean they have to be ableto ignore everything around them except the human
(06:59):
the they're protecting and helping. Sothat's a very rigorous process, it is,
and it takes in our program,it takes over a year in order
for that person and that dog teamto complete the program, and they have
to have a tremendous number of hours, like four hundred and eighty hours in
(07:20):
order of training hours in order tograduate. So that is it. And
with that, most dog breeds canbe a service dog, depending on the
needs of the individual. There arecertain breeds that we tend to avoid with
(07:41):
our program, but it's not becausethe dog's not capable of doing it.
It's we deal specifically with PTSD andthere are certain dog breeds that when they
walk into a environment in public,they elicit the wrong reaction. I mean,
they can be the most intelligent dogsout there, but if they make
the people around you nervous, that'snot good for somebody with PTSD because that
(08:03):
heightens their awareness, which can spiralthe entire process. The other thing about
it is even the dogs you thinkof, the breeds that you think of
that are, oh, these arealways service dogs, not every one of
those dogs qualifies because it's a temperamentand a desire. Just like being in
the military or police or fire,you have to want to do it,
(08:24):
and if the dogs aren't wanting todo it, they're not going to qualify.
Statistically, when you look at anyof the programs out there that do
this, they'll tell you about onein ten dogs qualify for the program.
And of that, even the onesthat qualify and show the temperament, not
all of those are going to makeit through the training. Even with a
(08:46):
fully qualified and knowledgeable trainer, itjust doesn't work. And your dogs,
just like people, events can changetheir path. Sure they can suffer from
PTSD, so things that their experiencewhen training or just in life can take
what looks like a perfectly good servicedog and put that dog off that path
(09:11):
because now they're dog aggressive or fearfulof children. And once they start reacting
to their environment, they stopped takingcare of their teammate or their handler.
Right. Well, we've had we'vehad animals that have washed because of loose
dogs in their neighborhood came on theirproperty and attacked them, and then it
(09:33):
made that dog reactive. And eventhough they were, you know, five
months into training, we had towash the dog because it became way too
reactive. Wow, that is somethingnow, I will, I do want
to ask this. I've got mycuriosity peaked here. You said certain breeds
you just sort of expected. Iimmediately German shepherd was the first one that
(09:54):
came on the list. I seeyou have brought with you. Who is
this fella that's with you today?This is Tank and is a rotweller.
Yes, and he is absolutely beautiful. And it's everything I can do not
to pet this guy, but Iunderstand how that goes. Now, let
me ask you about this. Whatwould be what was probably the most unusual
(10:15):
service dog breed you've ever seen?Being fairly young with a program here,
we haven't seen a whole lot ofreally bizarre We we do get mixes out
of shelters, sure, we've seen. The smallest we've seen was a what
was boo? He was multipoo?A multipoo. Okay, that was our
(10:39):
smallest that we've dealt with. Okay. We try to stay more with the
medium to larger sized breeds because ofa lot of our veterans have mobility issues
as well. Okay, and sothe large breeds like Tank provides counterbalance for
me. Okay, So that's oneof his tasks. But he's big enough
(11:00):
in order to do that, becausehe's one hundred and thirty pounds. Sure.
Sure, But they have to bea certain size and weight equation versus
the handler in order to be ableto qualify for mobility assistance tasks and other
factors that go into that. Rottweilersare a very strong personality dog. Sure.
(11:24):
Yeah, So their handlers have tobe very confident and strong leaders because
and most working dogs are this way. If the handler doesn't take charge,
the animals will, and when thathappens, their training goes away. It's
like your four year old. Surementioned, Sure, if you're not in
(11:45):
charge, they will be, andwhen they are, it's usually destructive.
Yeah, don't tell him he's notin charge though, No, no,
no, no, no, no, that's important, and that reference is
really common. We use one similaryour dog, whether it's your pet at
home or your service dog. Whenyour training, they maintain the IQ and
(12:07):
temperament approximately of a toddler, thinka two to three year old. Okay,
so you have that mentality in yourhouse. If you're not constantly reinforcing
their training by at least practicing thosetasks, they're going to forget sure,
and then you'll have problems. Andif you're not always in charge, they
(12:28):
start to expand that time when they'rein charge. And that's not because they're
out to be vindictive or mean.Sure, they are very intelligent dogs and
they want to be busy. They'rebred to work. Sure. Yeah yeah,
so yeah, I've had several dogsthat were working class dogs and they
(12:48):
have to have something to do orthey start chewing on the furniture exactly.
No, I get that, Andthat does bring up an interesting question.
Once the service dog is issued,I guess is the is the correct term
or once they're assigned, is therea continuation of training or like you said,
a continued practice. Okay, letthe dogs. Let me explain how
(13:11):
our program works. Okay, Becausethe way our program works is we have
ten weeks of what we call handler'straining, which is a very and we
meet once a week okay, Sothat's why there's we have ten sessions of
handler's training where it's very intense ofinformation, overload laws, laws, you
(13:37):
know, service dog laws, youknow in the state, in the federal
you know, things like this,how to take care of their animal and
things like that. At the veryend of that process, about week seven,
we start bringing in the dogs andwe do a we have the the
handler and the dog basically you know, together for that whole class period,
(14:01):
and then we'll switch. And thenat the end of that period, we'll
ask the handlers give us your topthree an order of preference that you like
of the dogs. And then weas handlers have been observing what was going
on between you know, how theenergy level was between the handler and the
(14:26):
dog. So you know, ifwe have a where we have two individuals
that want the same dog, thenas the trainers, we will step in
and say, well, this onehas better energy with that dog and this
one has better energy with this dog. So but a lot of times we
have generally half owner dogs and halfdogs that we bring into the program.
(14:52):
So because people can't bring their owndogs into the program, they just have
to do the same. They justhave to pass the temperament test, just
like any other the other dogs wouldhave to do. And if they can
pass that temperament test, I broughtTank into the program and they're of a
appropriate age. We should quickly lookfor dogs that we're picking up to be
(15:13):
between ten months and two years whenthey start our program, because it's going
to take a year on the shortside to train them. So if they're
ten months old, they're pushing twoby the time they finish the program.
Look at your dog's life expectancy.A Rottweiler is about a ten year lifespan,
(15:33):
so we're down to eight possible years. Take the last year off or
two off, you're looking at asix year working life for that dog.
So you've got to factor those intoit when you bring them in. And
the other thing when we're doing thatpairing process, you have to look at
lifestyles and capabilities of the dog andthe handler. If you have a handler
(15:54):
that is athletic and hiking and runningall the time, rottweiler is not the
best dog for them because they're notrunning dogs. Right. If you have
a sedentary household, you're not bringingin a husky, right. Yes,
No, there's a lot that youhave to look at when you're doing the
pairing process. But after the pairingprocess, we move into the CGC,
(16:19):
which is the American Kennel Club CanineGood Citizenship Training. Okay, And the
way we do it is the handlersnow take their dogs home with them and
we provide a weekly lesson and theytrain that they trained their own dog to
(16:41):
learn that whole week, because that'sthat's that's the way we find it works
best is when a handler trains theirown dog, that dog listens to the
handler. I can train a dogall day long, and I can get
that dog listening to me and listento everything I say, but it's not
(17:02):
going to listen to you, gotcha. So that's why we have we prefer
to have the handlers training their dog. So we provide them with a lesson
that they train with for that week, and then they go home and they
train that lesson. That is fantastic. And also I do want to point
out that I think this is thisis a great program because I understand I
(17:23):
have friends that have medical dogs,and if you have to purchase one,
we are talking thousands of dollars insome cases twenty five to fifty thousand dollars
for service dog, thousands upon thousandsof dollars. And this is a way
to help veterans, to help ourfirst responders, our law enforcement, our
(17:47):
fire departments, EMTs to get theadequate service dog that they need without having
to worry about whether or not they'regoing to come up with that those thousands
of dollars to make this work.Now, if someone say, for example,
a veteran that's listening to the programor someone in law enforcement that's listening
(18:07):
to the program, they feel thatthis is in need, is that does
it need to have a medical diagnosisfirst? Or can anyone who is in
those service areas if they feel thatthey need it? Is that? Is
that enough? No, you dohave to have a medical diagnosis to get
(18:30):
into our program. We require botha physical your primary care manager say that
you're healthy enough to do a yearto a year and a half of the
very light CARDO training, because you'regoing to be doing a half hour to
an hour of training per day withyour dog and that could include walking,
bending, and we need to makesure that you're healthy enough you're not going
to have an issue completing the program. But also because to be a service
(18:56):
dog. It has to be adisability. Do you have to be medically
diagnosed with a disability in order tojoin? So your mental health provider would
have to say that you have thedisability, but they also have to recommend
a service dog because simply having PTSDand not to minimize PTSD here, of
(19:17):
course, having the condition does notmean that you're a good fit for a
service dog. You may not beat a stable place in your life and
your treatment to where you can takecare of and respond appropriately. Because service
dogs are trained to intelligently disobey thehandler. So if the disobedience is going
(19:40):
to cause you to ramp up insteadof bringing you down, then you're not
a good fit for a program,not just ours, for any program when
it comes to a service dog.If you could be violent, neglectful,
sure, so we need to makesure that you're at a place where you're
going to both parties are going tobe safe and secure when this takes place.
(20:03):
Now, if someone does have theappropriate diagnosis and someone does want to
be a part of the program,if you're a veteran or a first responder
listening and you want to be apart of this, how do they go
about becoming a part of the programor what is the process for application there.
First thing you can do is youcan go to our website at arservicepos
(20:26):
dot org and you can fill outour application. We will review that application.
You have to submit some letters,recommendation if you have animals, some
vet records, information like that,and it's all listed on there what you
need to give us. Our officemanager will review your file. Once we
get everything, then we will arrangeto do a home visit where we come
(20:49):
out and look at your house.We're not doing a white glove inspection,
but we're making sure the home thatwe are potentially bringing a dog into is
safe for the dog because there areplants they're poisonous that people may have for
decoration. Sure, some people andsuffering with disabilities such as PTSD have other
(21:11):
things that will affect them, andthe conditions are living in may not be
suitable for an animal. Sometimes they'renot always suitable for the people. So
we need to make sure that we'renot adding problems to the situation. Absolutely,
that's very important. And we're alsolooking for things that you may not
(21:32):
be looking for. I mean,you, as a father of a four
year old, you know what it'slike to have a toddler in the home.
But if you don't have children andyou've never had a dog, and
we've had clients like that, thenyou're not looking at your house from a
dog's perspective. Sure, Like,we had a client that went to her
house and she had a small littleplastic thing of holy water on her mantle
(21:57):
that was accessible to the well thatthe dog would be about. Said,
you might want to just move that, you know, because that's a that's
a precious ite me. You wantto get that up out of the dog's
way. And it's just we goin and we point out things that our
dog appropriate, you know, appropriateor inappropriate. Sure, sure, definitely
(22:18):
not any of the cleaning chemicals downwhere they're open and accessible, or in
that case, a plastic container thatis easily chewed up, exactly exactly,
Definitely important there and a lot ofteaching for those people that have never had
it. You bring a dog intoyour house, you have dog hair everywhere,
Yes, accept it. Okay,you can clean and you can minimize
(22:41):
that, but you're going to havedog hair everywhere. You can't avoid it.
Oh yes, And these are notdogs that'll be outside when they move
in, they are moving into yourhouse right right. Definitely not an outdoor
dog. This is this is Iwould like to say companion that is with
you twenty four to seven because itis so important for them to be around
(23:04):
now. Also, I do wantto ask about this. You did mention
that people can bring their own dogin an attempt to make them a service
dog. If that doesn't work out, there are other options, of course.
Yes, if they don't work out, we go to local shelters and
we will look for dogs that meetthe requirements of the class and our clients.
(23:26):
We have a couple breeders throughout thestate that have donated dogs to us
on a regular basis. So dependingon what we have or what we can
find at the shelters, we'll getthem. If you're looking for a specific
breed of dog and you're wanting tobe in our program, that's fine,
but that's on you to find thedog. We would only ask that in
(23:48):
those situations you let us know inadvance. We can come help you pick
a dog that will be more likelyto succeed as a service dog. We
can't guarantee that they will, butwe have an idea of what we want
what you should be looking for.Sure, Absolutely, the different nuances about
each dog that make them a goodservice dog. That's very important. Now
(24:11):
let me ask you about this forthose listening that maybe would like to help
out with the program, is thereare there is there room for volunteers always
at Arkansas Service Pause, So wecan always use volunteers that for the most
part, we're a couple families rightnow that do this and there's about ten
(24:32):
of us in the program total asvolunteers. That's from office manager to trainers,
are management the board, it's onlyabout ten people. So running two
classes at a time, that's threetraining nights a week. That's a lot
of time spent with the individuals wecurrently have, so we can always use
(24:53):
additional trainers. One area, wedefinitely need people that are willing to step
up our short term and even longterm fosters for animals because we have people
wanting to donate dogs. We don'thave places to raise them. Sure,
and you can only have so manydogs in a house and still provide that
(25:15):
quality interaction that they need for thistype of program because they have to socialize
and interact daily even as puppies,so that they're getting used to people and
things, And right now the fostersare me and Vicki and Marty and Adrey.
Those are our fosters. We've alreadygot three dogs in our house,
(25:37):
so we're very limited on how manymore we can bring in. Sure and
Marty and can only have a coupleat their house at a time, So
it's very limited. And nobody inour program gets any financial compensation. Everything
we get from donations goes to handlefood, that and gear for the dogs.
(26:03):
And the only thing not going directlyto a dog goes to the minimal
amount of office supplies that we haveto have in order to document the training
and absolutely process. Now, well, that does bring another interesting point.
Maybe somebody doesn't have time to volunteer, but they've got some extra cash that
they would like to donate in orderto help our veterans and our first responders
(26:26):
and to help with Arkansas Service pause. Is there a way to do that
on the website or can they call? Can they what's the best way to
do that if they'd like to donate. We do have a PayPal link on
our website. You can also mailchecks to us if you wish. It's
the addresses on the website as well. It's a peel box out of BB
(26:47):
our training classes and the organization iskind of dispersed. We we have a
bb mailing address. We were foundedout of Cabot because that's where one of
our founders is from. So thephysical addresses address nobody's there. Okay.
Our classroom is in Ward. Wehave have to do a shout out for
(27:07):
that. The Mayor Ward is graciouslyallowing us to use two classrooms out of
the Ward Municipality building at no charge, So that's fantastic. That's where we
do our classroom teaching. And thenbecause they're service dogs and they have to
deal with public situations, we usea variety of locations throughout Central Arkansas.
(27:32):
Common ones are the home improvement stores, your farm stores. We do train
at the mall in North Little Rock, so and there are other places we
have gone and will continue to gosure, and there are places that we're
going to expand to to make surewe're covering more needs. And all these
(27:52):
vary with the actual locations out andabout very somewhat based on our class because
the activities that the members in theclass take part in on a regular basis
we need to make sure we're trainingthe team to handle those environments. If
you have a and we have this. We have one member in right now
(28:15):
that has children that play sports,so they are at baseball games, oh
wow, constantly. Their dog hasto be at baseball games, right,
So it's to handle the crowds.So those are things we discussed. We
have teachers, so we have toinvite and expose the animals to those situations
(28:37):
so that they can deal with thosesituations. So a lot of different well
basically any life situation. They haveto be able to handle that and manage
that so that they can continue towork with their handler and be a part
of that team. And I dowant to say a very big thank you
Travis Vicki, thank you all forcoming in and sharing this with us.
It's are Service Pause out of bbArkansas. You can go buy the website
(29:03):
there, find out how to donate, find out how to volunteer, or
if you're one of our servicemen orwomen, you're one of our first responders
with APTSD diagnosis, definitely reach outto them and they will help you to
find the service animal that is rightfor you. Thank you so much for
coming in today, I really appreciateit. Thank you for having us,
and thank you for helping me gettingthe word out there. Absolutely thanks for
(29:29):
listening to Talk of the Rock publicaffairs and community events from the iHeartRadio studios
in Little Rock. Be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and listen next week
as we talk to more guests aboutpublic service, local charities, and events
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