Dogs Help Recovering Veterans

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
CBS
October 6, 2008
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Finally tonight, for many veterans, recovering from the horrors of war can be a long and grueling process. But some are making great strides, thanks to a new breed of therapist.
Here’s Richard Schlesinger.
SGT. JIM MASON (RET.) [U.S. Army]: Up, stay.
RICHARD SCHLESINGER: For two solid weeks, retired Army Sgt. Jim Mason and Yankee have been in intensive training.
MASON: There you go.
SCHLESINGER: Yankee is already a fully qualified service dog. It’s Sgt. Mason who is learning the ropes. He’s learning to use Yankee to cope with what doctors have diagnosed as severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
MASON: I can say “hello” to anybody with that dog and they’ll all smile and say “hello” back.
SCHLESINGER: And that alone is a huge step for Mason, who still feels trapped in the real life nightmares he lived in both Gulf wars and in Somalia – especially Somalia, where his unit was ambushed while trying to provide humanitarian aid.
MASON: I had to kill some people.
SCHLESINGER: Fifteen years later, he still can barely talk about it.
MASON: You know, I mean, they shot at us first. We were ambushed. And if we didn’t fight back they were going to kill us. But in my heart, I didn’t go there for that.
SCHLESINGER: When he retired after 20 years in the military, he started noticing changes in himself. He couldn’t sleep, he snapped at people, and he was afraid he would become violent.
MASON: Tug. That’s it, that’s it.
SCHLESINGER: Now he’s got Yankee – a brand new solution for a problem as old as war. He can sense when Mason gets tense and help avoid panic attacks by staying close – a four-legged security blanket.
MASON: There you go. Watch.
SCHLESINGER: He’s also trained to keep an eye out behind Mason, and barks when he sees something or someone that Mason may consider a threat.
So Yankee has your back?
MASON: Yeah, he’ll watch it.
Where’s the car, Yankee?
SCHLESINGER: Yankee is used to watching and being watched. He was trained by inmates in this New York penitentiary, as part of a program called Puppies Behind Bars. And what Yankee learned in prison helps him free Mason from lingering terror.
And you feel different already?
MASON: Yeah, I like being with him.
SCHLESINGER: I don’t blame you. (Laughter.)
The cliché is a dog is man’s best friend.
MASON: All right. Sit down.
SCHLESINGER: The reality is, Yankee’s a lot more to Jim Mason.
MASON: There you go.
SCHLESINGER: He’s indispensable.
Richard Schlesinger, CBS News, Lafayette, Colorado.
COURIC: What a great story.
 
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