Power of Puppies: Advocates Promote Canine Care to Treat Veterans' Mental Health Conditions

Rick Yount remembers meeting a veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder who wouldn't leave the safe confines of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was being treated. Yount, founder of Warrior Canine Connection, a nonprofit that supplies service dogs to veterans, handed over a puppy to train.

From that day forward, the service member would need to take the young golden retriever everywhere -- stores, crowds and Washington, D.C.'s Metro transit system, with its steep escalators that frighten even the most docile dogs.

"He was teaching the dog that the world was a safe place and the only way he could teach the dog ... he had to convince himself at the same time. It changed everything," Yount said.
brown and white dog on grass by Anna Dudkova is licensed under Unsplash unsplash.com
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