How Dogs Can Help Veterans Overcome PTSD by Chris Colins

In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.

Stress is a massive struggle for many students in school. The solution is allowing dogs in school. In schools, students grades are lower due to stress over tests, assignments, and homework. If students could bring their dogs to school, the stressed children's grades would improve. It has been proven that petting a dog will relives stress, which would help grades increase. Business insider.com stated, “Petting your dog stops your body making cortisone, or the stress hormone, so the student will be able to think more clear.” (Business insider 1)Then, according to The Ohio State University studies, “ 7 out of 10 students are too stressed out, so there grades drop. Stress is a big part in tests, and if stress is not controlled, it is harder to think and harder to focus.” (Ohio State 3) This is a big reason, why students should be allowed to bring their dogs to school. In contrast, an antagonist of this cause say that dogs might relieve stress for some kids, but some

Veterans. All of those that have previously served our country in the United states military. Sadly much to often, these veterans come back from their tours physically and mentally damaged. Along with broken and or missing limbs, they are often diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD. I found the fascination for this illness and veterans while watching a new show on t.v. with my family. It’s called Dogs of War. This show is about a program called “Paws and Stripes” that connects veterans that are harshly affected on a daily basis to service dogs. I know that the concept of veterans and service dogs isnt a new concept, but what is different about this program is that they get the dogs from an animal shelter, then

In an article published by Time magazine, they stated “40,000 troops have been physically wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, but 10 times as many exhibit symptoms of PTSD.” This means four-hundred thousand troops are still suffering from these symptoms. In the Time article, it talks about how scientists learned that dogs can lower these symptoms in veterans. These scientist have proven this by using many individuals cases and comparing the intensity of their symptoms without therapy dogs to the patients with therapy dogs. Although many people believe dogs cannot lower symptoms of disorders, scientists like those interviewed for the Time article are proving them wrong. Therapy dogs positively affect war veterans by lowering their Post Traumatic

War and combat experiences have a way of changing lives in dramatic ways. Deployments can range in length but experiences during those times can forever change a soldier. For veterans, the consequences of combat can be long lasting. According to a study done by the RAND corporation, “post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, are specific disorders that have been shown to be extremely prevalent among soldiers returning from combat” (“RAND Assesses Post-Deployment Health-Related Needs Of Iraq Veterans.”). Effective treatments for PTSD exist however, no one method or therapeutic technique is appropriate for every client. For this reason new approaches for treatment are being tested. Positive results are being seen with the new treatment of PTSD called canine assisted therapy. Every veteran should get the opportunity to find a treatment that works best for his/her condition. That is why we need a bill that will help this problem. Therefore, a bill to establish canine therapy programs for veterans in the medical centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs

Dogs , a man’s best friend are now used for medical issues. They are really helpful and can even save our life. A service dog helps in many different ways. For example, dog are great at encouraging communication on adults and kids, helping blind people, and people with anxiety. They are very helpful and needed a lot.

There has been a long history with animals and their natural bonds with humans for many decades now. Dogs have helped people with a multitude of illnesses for some time now, however Americans were not the first to discover this natural trait in animals. The Germans during World War 1 were the first to discover this. In the book, History of Guide Dog Use by Veterans it states that the German army in particular “relied heavily on the use of German shepherds as ambulance and messenger dogs. The Germans reportedly used more than 25,000 dogs during World War I. ' these dogs were ideally suited for this type of work, with ell-known traits such as trainability, loyalty, intelligence, strength, and endurance” (Ostermeier 587). In today 's society, we have numerous people who are unaware of the services that animals can provide for humans. Specifically humans with mental or physical disabilities. In this paper I will present various types of service animals as well as the many services they provide.

Dogs can help us humans with mental health. Many service dogs are used to help people who are deaf or people that are blind. How about people with mental issues? Dogs not only help us with physical problems but also with mental problems like depression. In the article “Therapy pets and humans with mental health issues” the author “ dog time” starts to state in the 3 paragraph “Trained animals [iii] are used to benefit patients suffering with emotional and behavioral disorders, depression, autism, substance abuse, and dementia.” (2010) This can show how animals can help us with mental issues because animals can understand many struggles us humans have, because after their trained they can not only understand us but also

Questions arise concerning the treatment of therapy dogs when visiting patients and whether animal-assisted therapy really works at all; however, those who disagree aren’t looking at the big picture. Animal-assisted therapy is both an ethical and effective therapy method due to its success in treating those with chronic diseases, disorders, and managing stress and anxiety. The varieties of cases regarding the success of therapy dog treatments far surmount the amount of cases saying otherwise. Animal-assisted therapy stems from the human-animal connection, one of the most unique and powerful bonds man has ever experienced. It is that connection that allows animal assisted therapy to be a critical part of everyone’s daily

Every year there are well over 7 million cases of PTSD that are announced (Kledzik). A small percentage of the people on Earth at some point in their life span will have some form of PTSD. A solution that will be able to help these people is commonly referred to as “man’s best friend.” For many years PTSD dogs have been useful to relieve the severe symptoms of this disorder. They have proven themselves to be more than just an animal. Post-traumatic stress disorder dogs are far beyond just man’s best friend; they protect the protectors far after the wars end.

Animals can play a significant role in a human's life. Some animals that we know do that are dogs. Dogs can change a human's life in a positive way. Some dogs are trained then later used in war. Other dogs are used as pets and to cheer their owners up that suffer from PTSD. In the article “Feeling Depressed? There’s a Dog for That” by Jacqueline Bennett as you get to the 12th paragraph it says “There are a growing number of organizations dedicated to training service dogs to help those suffering from PTSD, particularly veterans. In fact, dogs have been proven so effective at helping combat anxiety, stress, and depression, the government

“A Healthy Dose of Puppy Love” by Kathryn Satterfield describes a new study that shows that dogs can improve an individual’s health by lowering anxiety levels and by improving cardiac function. Specially trained therapy dogs visited a hospital in November in Dallas, Texas to help conduct a study that animals can improve an individual’s health, to do this people split the seventy six patients into a total of three groups: visitors with dogs, visitors, and an “at rest group.” For accurate results researches preformed anxiety tests on the patients before, during, and after the visit, and the results concluded that patients who received visits from people had encountered a ten percent drop in anxiety, while patients who received visits from dogs

A dog’s ability to predict an episode is also something profound. In fact, some have been able to predict incidents 6 to 24 hours in advance. In Gregory L. Krauss journal, “Pseudo seizure dogs” A study involved six patients with seizure response dogs. Four of the six experienced PNES while the other two patients had epilepsy. After the article went to press, they saw three additional patients with seizure response dogs – of whom two had PNES and one had epilepsy. They further cited one study in which a patient was “alerted by his dog 7 minutes prior to having psychogenic seizures.” (Neurology 2007; 68:308-309). In Melissa Fay Greene’s “Wonder Dog” article, published on the New York Times, Greene reports on Donnie Kanter Winokur and her husband,

I believe that all servicemen and woman should be able to keep the dogs they have trained. Even if the serviceman or woman is hurt, disabled, or mentally ill. I think it is important that all servicemen and women get their dog back.

Dogs can also help lower your cholesterol, relieve stress, and boost your self-esteem and of course, we don't need research to tell us they are always there when we need a