WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION INC

Mission and Overview

Warrior Canine Connection (WCC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit supporting recovering combat Veterans and their families through the healing power of dogs. Founded in 2011 by Executive Director Rick Yount, WCC enlists Service Members and Veterans suffering from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) in the critical mission of training service dogs for their fellow wounded Warriors with physical disabilities. Based on the Warrior Ethos of caring for your brothers and sisters in arms, WCC’s therapeutic service dog training program provides recovering combat Veterans with a sense of purpose while they are in treatment at Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities, and is designed to mitigate their symptoms of combat stress. In preparing WCC’s purpose bred Golden and Labrador Retrievers to provide years of mobility and social support to Veterans with disabilities, WCC’s Warrior Trainers are addressing their symptoms of PTSD and TBI, better reintegrating into their communities, and strengthening their family relationships. The program has also inspired several Warrior Trainers to become professional service dog trainers to continue their support of their fellow Veterans and to assist civilians with disabilities.

Therapeutic Service Dog Training Program

WCC's service dog training therapy program is designed to specifically address the symptoms of combat stress of returning Warriors, such as isolation, emotional numbness and re-experiencing. The Warriors must train the dogs to be comfortable and confident in all environments. In teaching the dogs that the world is a safe place, the Warrior Trainers challenge their symptoms of combat stress. By focusing on making the dog successful, they are able to visit places they usually avoid, like stores, restaurants, and crowded public transportation stations. Training a service dog requires emotionally-based praise which challenges patterns of emotional numbing often associated with Post Traumatic Stress. Learning to communicate assertively, practicing patience and demonstrating empathy are skills that improve social and emotional competence, which are behaviors also compromised by PTSD and TBI. WCC dogs also act as social lubricants and facilitate positive interactions between combat Veterans and the public. Family relationships also benefit, as the program has been shown to build good parenting skills.

Since Rick Yount created the first pilot program on service dog training therapy for combat Veterans with psychological injuries at the VA Palo Alto in 2008, the following observations have been reported by participating Warriors and their clinical providers:

• Increase in patience, impulse control, emotional regulation
• Improved ability to display affect, decrease in emotional numbness
• Improved sleep
• Decreased depression, increase in positive sense of purpose
• Decrease in startle responses
• Decrease in pain medications
• Increased sense of belongingness/acceptance
• Increase in assertiveness skills
• Improved parenting skills and family dynamics
• Less war stories and more in the moment thinking
• Lowered stress levels, increased sense of calm

Locations

WCC’s flagship program is at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), MD, the DOD’s state-of-the-art facility dedicated to advancing the diagnosis, clinical care and research of Traumatic Brain Injury and psychological health conditions of Service Members and their families. Other program sites include Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, MD; the Palo Alto VA Health Care System, CA; Baltimore Veterans Treatment Court, MD; San Mateo County Veterans Treatment Court, CA; University of Pennsylvania, PA; Stanford University, CA; Buncombe County Veterans Treatment Court, NC; Charles George VA Medical Center, NC; and WCC’s “Healing Quarters” (HQ) in Boyds, MD.

WCC Dogs

WCC service dogs in training are Golden and Labrador Retrievers, purpose bred for health and temperament, and nurtured to be emotionally stable and socially engaged to help ensure they will be able to provide mobility and social support to their future Veteran partners. From birth, WCC pups are carefully socialized by hundreds of Warrior and civilian “puppy petters” to form strong connections with humans and to provide them with the foundation to become successful service dogs. WCC’s Puppy Cam at the Puppy Enrichment Center in Boyds, MD, has allowed millions of people all over the world to view the socialization and early training of young puppies destined to be the partners of Veterans with disabilities.

It takes approximately two years of training for WCC dogs to be ready to be placed as service dogs with Veterans with disabilities. During that period each dog may help to heal the invisible wounds of approximately 60 recovering Warriors Trainers. WCC service dogs are trained and placed in accordance with service dog industry standards. Veterans with disabilities receive WCC’s Warrior trained service dogs, and the necessary instruction to care and partner with them, at no cost.

Research

WCC is currently collaborating with researchers at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and civilian academic institutions to conduct studies to measure the psychological, behavioral and biological effects of service dog training therapy on the symptoms of combat stress.