Veterans Affairs committee  When an individual reaches out, one of the things that has to happen is the intake and screening process within Paws Fur Thought, which includes getting the prescriptions from the doctors to become involved in this process. Failure to do that literally means that we could be prov

Veterans Affairs committee  Anyway, the short version is that a service dog is specifically task-trained to mitigate the disabling symptomatology that a handler has from their PTSD. That is why the prescriber guidelines are so important, because that is the linkage with the schools that are going to provide

Veterans Affairs committee  Having the dubious distinction of being a veteran who has survived multiple attempts on my life....

Veterans Affairs committee  You're goddamn right it needs to be asked. You have to ask yourself: What the hell is so goddamn powerful that people who would willingly step into harm's way for other people try to kill themselves? When you can answer that, you can answer why we need these dogs. If you can't an

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Thai has wandered back and forth between sitting on my feet and watching my wife, who is in watching the testimony. For both of us, if you can imagine, after dedicating almost eight solid years of your life to this, it's a pretty emotional issue. She has worked me hard. In

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to do that. I'm sorry for outing you.

Veterans Affairs committee  I considered the fact that you had spoken about it first as my licence to be able to bring it up here. I should have checked beforehand.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, you have my apologies. Because of the physical security threats that accompany PTSD, whether it's a combat threat, whether it's a military sexual trauma scenario, whether it's search and rescue, or whatever happens to be the underlying cause of the trauma, oftentimes it invo

Veterans Affairs committee  The short answer is that we are behind and getting more behind every single day. The cases of new PTSD being diagnosed exceed the capacity for us to provide service dogs. That's a known. I really don't know how to address it, other than the fact that we just have to ramp up capac

Veterans Affairs committee  If you look at the prescriber guidelines, you will find that the service dog readiness decision tree is the second of three decision trees. I think that will lay to rest a lot of these issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  Basically, ADI programs do all of their funding separate of the requirement of placing the dog. Being intaked into a program through Wounded Warriors Canada does not bring with it a financial obligation other than the care and upkeep of the service dog, and we highly recommend th

Veterans Affairs committee  I could not afford that when I got her. The Royal Canadian Legion made her possible.

Veterans Affairs committee  Wounded Warriors provides organization and oversight and ensures that member programs comply with standards.

Veterans Affairs committee  Previously, before my injuries set me down, my email address was Dogfather@woundedwarriorscanada.ca. Because of my involvement in placing, funding and pairing, the one thing I have not done, can't do and will not do, to this day, is train a service dog. I don't have the skills. I

Veterans Affairs committee  It was more than 200.