St. Francis to provide service dogs to veterans

St. Francis to provide service dogs to veterans (Added: February 20, 2012)

St. Francis Service Dog Foundation which trains and places service dogs with people with disabilities is now ready to match dogs with veterans. (more)

0 Ratings | 48 Video Views

Post a Comment or Rate this Video

» View More Videos

By: Dawn Jefferies | WSLS 10
Published: February 20, 2012

ROANOKE, VA --

Working with St. Francis Service Dogs is therapeutic for Michael Rindorf. "I just spend time with them," he said. "Everything from giving them baths to playing ball with them."

Rindorf spent 15 years in the Army before being medically discharged. He served in Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. He says his counselor at the VA Medical Center in Salem recommended he volunteer with the service dog foundation. "They know," he says, describing working with the dogs. "They have a sense, They know you are stressed."

It's that "sense" service dogs have that led St. Francis to start its "Dog Tags Program" last year. It trains dogs and pairs them with people with disabilities and now service members who suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "We don't know where they're going until they're fully trained and then we make the match," explained St. Francis dog trainer Connie Kniseley.

Jim Maxwell has his own service dog to help him with physical injuries but says service dogs can help veterans like him with wounds you don't see. "There's so many of these veterans that's coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and even Vietnam," Maxwell said. "They're having flashbacks and really a lot of PTSD problems. These service dogs can take their minds off these things."

Dogs who flip a light switch for someone who can't do it on his own, can do the same task for a veteran. "I have a lot of issue with sleep and nightmares," said Rindorf who has PTSD and TBI. "They can wake you up in the middle of the night. They'll put their heads right next to you on the bed as if they know. They can turn on a light like a reality check."

He says dealing with PTSD can mean wanting to keep his distance from others. "Veterans with PTSD-- closeness is a bad thing," he said. But having a service dog changes that. "You go out with a service dog, it empowers you to go out and go to the grocery store store and walk around because the dog is there to kind of keep the distance."

Keep the distance but open the world back up to men and women who served their country.