Thank you, Chair.
I want to thank you both for coming here today. I believe you demonstrated the bravery and courage that we expect and admire in soldiers. As you pointed out, it's a different field of struggle or battle, and I know it's difficult to appear before a committee like this and tell your personal stories, but I want to say that I certainly, and I think all of our committee, still regard you as soldiers who have served your country honourably, and you deserve to be treated properly in return as part of our duty to you. Thank you for coming and telling these stories.
I do have some questions. I have some previous experience with individuals who have suffered from PTSD and other related types of psychological injuries.
Master Corporal Nachuk, you read a couple of terms from the letter. Maybe if you could help us with it, we could understand how this interaction with the use of a therapeutic dog would help. The letter says that you had experiences of what was called “hypervigilance” and that these symptoms were assisted by or diminished by the availability and the presence of the dog, and also that the dog helps to enable you to “regulate...emotional responses to triggers”.
Could you give us a little help with what that means in practice? What is hypervigilance, and how does the dog help? What does it mean by “emotional responses to triggers”? How is that helped by the presence of the dog, or is it helped?