Service Dogs for Patriots

Service dogs like Ziggy are trained to stay in a standing position behind their veteran, creating a larger space bubble or safe zone around their veteran. 🐕‍🦺 Veterans with PTSD often don't like being approached from behind. It feels quite threatening to them.😡
If you see a service dog in this position
❌️ Don't talk to the dog - he's working and his veteran needs him. 🤐
❌️ Don't stare - veterans already feel uncomfortable and their service dog needs to watch them, not you.🥸
✅️ Do give them their space. It's respectful and appreciated. 😊
✅️ Go ahead and allow yourself to think "Omigosh!🤩 It's a service dog! So super cool!😃 I bet he's wicked smart and can do all sorts of awesome things!😘 I wonder what kind of service dog he is..."😍
❌️ But DON'T say any of this out loud and DON'T ask the veteran about their dog.🫢 Yeah, we know it's hard. He's cute, he's smart, you 🩷 dogs. 🐶 But keep yourself together. It's a dog, not a unicorn. 🦄 (They're stabby anyway so you should ignore those, too.)

A grocery store presents many visual distractions - 🌟 reflections on the floor, 🔁 repeating patterns on items on the shelves,💡bright lights overhead - all of which overload an already anxious mind 😟. Add to that the dread of going around a blind corner 🫣, the perceived danger of being caught in the middle of an aisle with only one way in and one way out 🚫, and the mental toll of always being hypervigilant of your surroundings 👀 - and it's understandable why veterans with PTSD avoid grocery shopping. 🙅🏽

That's why we do extensive training in grocery stores and teach this specific task-trained behavior called Grounding. When you start to get overwhelmed, you reach down to your service dog, the one you've trained yourself, the one you trust more than anyone, and you take a moment to breath, talk with your dog, remind yourself where you are, and feel the support of your service dog helping you de-escalate. 🐕‍🦺

Service Dogs must ignore other dogs while working. It's not easy, especially for dogs who like to interact with other dogs. When they're off-duty, Service Dogs can play and be silly. But when they're on the job, they have to ignore dogs, even cute little beagles like Phoebe. 🩷

Never forget 🇺🇲

Come meet a graduated service dog team, shop, sip, and support our mission to help veterans today from 3pm til 6pm at Kendra Scott in Butler Town Center.

Come meet a graduated service dog team, shop, sip, and support Service Dogs for Patriots this Saturday. 🩷

Come meet a graduated service dog team, shop, sip, and support Service Dogs for Patriots this Saturday. 🩷

"Don't let the bad days win." - Service Dog Sarge

It's important for a service dog to ignore other dogs while working. This Very Good Boy did a stellar job of focusing on his veteran in their first public training session together! 💯

This Very Good Boy's veteran prefers to keep his name and his veteran's identity private. So you'll see his progress here without any other identifiers. We honor and respect the preferences of our veterans. 🇺🇲

Sorcha Allen Michelle Dunlap

Thank you to Joe and Munch for volunteering at this training session. 🙂

HUGE thank you to the amazing folks at Amvets Post 88 of Florida for raising $2,500 for our organization at their recent Poker Run!! This generous contribution enables us to continue our mission to instill within veterans battling a sense of independence, confidence, and freedom through training their own service dog. 🐕‍🦺

Pictured are Sharon & Harold from Post 88, Cathy with Ziggy, and Anna & Lance from AmVets Post 88. 🇺🇲

We couldn't do what we do without YOU! Thank you!!

Welcome, Sarah and Mazikeen! 😀

Sarah is a who is re-entering our program with her new dog, Mazi (rhymes with daisy). She previously worked her German shepherd, Havoc, through our training program up to public access. However, Havoc took his job as protector too seriously for a public service dog, so he retired to a work-from-home position where he has eyes on Sarah 24/7. 👀

Understandably, Sarah was discouraged when it became evident Havoc was too focused on protecting Sarah to be her service dog. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to return to our program with her new dog. When she asked to return, we answered with a resounding YES! We are behind our veterans 100% and believe in their and . 🇺🇲

So Sarah is back and ready to complete her ! 🐕‍🦺

When asked what Mazi means to her, Sarah said, "Mazikeen means and . I can't leave the house on my own, but I'm starting to learn to her and her instinct to see the things that I'm not able to." ❤️

We know you'll keep at it, Sarah. We are so proud of your dogged pursuit of living your best life with a devoted service dog at your side. 😊

We're pretty sure how John feels about having his back wide open to the entrance of the store. Good thing Service Dog Jameson has his Six.

Thank you to everyone who participated in, organized, sponsored, and supported the Poker Run! 🐕‍🦺
Many thanks to all the riders from AmVets Posts 42, 88, 113, 444. And a special thank you to the Southern Sons who were well represented. 🇺🇸

Amvets Post 88 of Florida WE APPRECIATE YOU!!

Service Dogs for Patriots serves a vital function for veterans. The 100s of hours and $1000s spent to train service dogs for our veterans, ensures that those living with PTSD and other service related issues can have a viable quality of life.

Those that fake/exploit their dogs as service dogs, actually do a disservice to our veterans and others who need service dogs to live their lives. When we encounter these situations, however distressing it is to service dog owners/handlers, we have to remember that the dogs are victims of the owners who have exploited them for personal gain or use.

The dogs are not the ones who faked it. The deceitful owners are the ones who faked it.

A huge thanks to those who spend countless hours of their time to train service dogs for our veterans, first responders, and others that truly require this vital service!

Thank you to Agapanthus in Butler Town Center for participating in today's training session with Veteran Cathy and Service Dog Ziggy! We asked Manager Charley McWhorter to challenge Cathy about Ziggy's presence in the store, and we tested Cathy's training when Charley informed her of a "customer complaint" about Ziggy. The store owner and staff supported this role play as a training opportunity for Cathy and Ziggy.

Some store owners and staff aren't aware that they can ask a service dog handler if their dog is a service dog and what tasks the dog has been trained to perform. Some aren't aware that vests and identification aren't required. Some wrongly believe they can tell a service dog handler to leave if a customer complains about them. But the well-trained staff at Agapanthus knew ALL the service dog rules (Manager Charley had to dig deep to act the part of an uninformed store manager)! Thank you to the owner of Agapanthus for training your staff so well and allowing your manager to participate in today's training session!

We greatly appreciate this opportunity to fine-tune Cathy and Ziggy's training. If your store would like to participate in service dog training scenarios, please message us. 🙂

Ziggy the dudeL

We'd like to welcome this Very Good Boy and his veteran to our PTSD Service Dog Training Program! 🐕‍🦺

His veteran prefers to keep his name and his veteran's identity private. So you'll see his progress here without any other identifiers. We honor and respect the preferences of our veterans.

We're able to provide services to veterans at no cost thanks in part to the generosity of organizations like the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association. Chapter 20 - 2 and the Ladies Auxiliary raised $4,000 for Service Dogs for Patriots at their annual Rocketman Run. These funds will be used to work with veterans like Dwayne and his dog Hershyll. Our sincerest gratitude goes to the good folks at CVMA Chapter 20-2 and the Ladies Auxiliary!

Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association-reg TM Chapter 20-2

We're excited to start off the New Year with a new veteran/dog team! Army Veteran Dwayne and his dog, Hershyll, are beginning their training program together this month.

Let's give Dwayne and Hershyll a warm welcome! 🙂

Christmas shout out to our four-legged fur buddies!

A little historical holiday humour!

This link provides more facts about General Washington and his troop's Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River.
https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/washingtons-revolutionary-war-battles/the-trenton-princeton-campaign/10-facts-about-washingtons-crossing-of-the-delaware-river/ #:~:text=Washington%20crossed%20the%20Delaware%20River,located%20at%20Trenton%2C%20New%20Jersey.

The Christmas Truce

On Christmas Eve 1914, in the dank, muddy trenches on the Western Front of the first world war, a remarkable thing happened.

It came to be called the Christmas Truce. And it remains one of the most storied and strangest moments of the Great War—or of any war in history.

British machine gunner Bruce Bairnsfather, later a prominent cartoonist, wrote about it in his memoirs. Like most of his fellow infantrymen of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he was spending the holiday eve shivering in the muck, trying to keep warm. He had spent a good part of the past few months fighting the Germans. And now, in a part of Belgium called Bois de Ploegsteert, he was crouched in a trench that stretched just three feet deep by three feet wide, his days and nights marked by an endless cycle of sleeplessness and fear, stale biscuits and ci******es too wet to light.

“Here I was, in this horrible clay cavity,” Bairnsfather wrote, “…miles and miles from home. Cold, wet through and covered with mud.” There didn’t “seem the slightest chance of leaving—except in an ambulance.”

At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise. “I listened,” he recalled. “Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices.” He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench and said, “Do you hear the Boches [Germans] kicking up that racket over there?”

“Yes,” came the reply. “They’ve been at it some time!”

The Germans were singing carols, as it was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. “Suddenly,” Bairnsfather recalled, “we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again.” The voice was from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent. He was saying, “Come over here.”

One of the British sergeants answered: “You come half-way. I come half-way.”

What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled “No Man’s Land” that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, to***co and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night.

Bairnsfather could not believe his eyes. “Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side.”

And it wasn’t confined to that one battlefield. Starting on Christmas Eve, small pockets of French, German, Belgian and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western Front, with reports of some on the Eastern Front as well. Some accounts suggest a few of these unofficial truces remained in effect for days.

For those who participated, it was surely a welcome break from the hell they had been enduring. When the war had begun just six months earlier, most soldiers figured it would be over quickly and they’d be home with their families in time for the holidays. Not only would the war drag on for four more years, but it would prove to be the bloodiest conflict ever up to that time. The Industrial Revolution had made it possible to mass-produce new and devastating tools for killing—among them fleets of airplanes and guns that could fire hundreds of rounds per minute. And bad news on both sides had left soldiers with plummeting morale. There was the devastating Russian defeat at Tannenberg in August 1914 and the German losses in the Battle of the Marne a week later.

By the time winter approached in 1914, and the chill set in, the Western Front stretched hundreds of miles. Countless soldiers were living in misery in the trenches on the fronts, while tens of thousands had already died.

Then Christmas came.

Descriptions of the Christmas Truce appear in numerous diaries and letters of the time. One British soldier, a rifleman named J. Reading, wrote a letter home to his wife describing his holiday experience in 1914: “My company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas eve, and it was my turn…to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6:30 on Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning the Germans started singing and shouting, all in good English. They shouted out: ‘Are you the Rifle Brigade; have you a spare bottle; if so we will come half way and you come the other half.’”

“Later on in the day they came towards us,” Reading described. “And our chaps went out to meet them…I shook hands with some of them, and they gave us ci******es and ci**rs. We did not fire that day, and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream.”

Another British soldier, named John Ferguson, recalled it this way: “Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!”

Other diaries and letters describe German soldiers using candles to light Christmas trees around their trenches. One German infantryman described how a British soldier set up a makeshift barbershop, charging Germans a few ci******es each for a haircut. Other accounts describe vivid scenes of men helping enemy soldiers collect their dead, of which there was plenty.

One British fighter named Ernie Williams later described in an interview his recollection of some makeshift soccer play on what turned out to be an icy pitch: "The ball appeared from somewhere, I don't know where... They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kick-about. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part.”

German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134 Saxons Infantry, a schoolteacher who spoke both English and German, also described a pick-up soccer game in his diary, which was discovered in an attic near Leipzig in 1999, written in an archaic German form of shorthand. “Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued,” he wrote. “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”

Gradually, news of the Christmas Truce made it into the press. “Christmas has come and gone—certainly the most extraordinary celebration of it any of us will ever experience,” one soldier wrote in a letter that appeared in The Irish Times on January 15, 1915. He described a “large crowd of officers and men, English and German, grouped around the [dead] bodies, which had been gathered together and laid out in rows.” The Germans, this British soldier said, “were quite affable.”

Just how many soldiers participated in these informal holiday gatherings has been debated; there is no way to know for sure since the ceasefires were small-scale, haphazard and entirely unauthorized. A Time magazine story on the 100 anniversary claimed that as many as 100,000 people took part.

At least one account has survived of a Christmas Truce gone bad: the story of Private Percy Huggins, a Briton who was relaxing in No Man’s Land with the enemy when a sniper shot to the head killed him and set off more bloodshed. The sergeant who took Huggins’ place, hoping to avenge his death, was then himself picked off and killed.

In another account, a German scolded his fellow soldiers during the Christmas Truce: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no German sense of honor left?” That 25-year old soldier’s name was Adolf Hi**er.

Neither was high command pleased with the festivities. On Dec. 7, 1914, Pope Benedict had implored leaders of the battling nations to hold a Christmas truce, asking "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." The plea was officially ignored.

So when a truce spontaneously broke out, the leaders of all the armies were reportedly horrified. British General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien wrote in a confidential memorandum that "this is only illustrative of the apathetic state we are gradually sinking into." Some accounts of the Christmas Truce hold that soldiers were punished for fraternization, and top command issued orders that it should never happen again.

For the rest of World War I—a conflict that would ultimately claim roughly 15 million lives—no Christmas Truces appear to have occurred. But in 1914, these curious holiday get-togethers reminded all those involved that wars were fought not by forces but by human beings. For years after, the Truce became fodder for everything from artwork to made-for-TV-movies to advertisements and popular songs.

Today, a memorial stands in England’s National Memorial Arboretum commemorating the Christmas Truce; it was dedicated by Prince William of England. On the 100 anniversary in 2014, the English and German national soccer teams staged a friendly match in England in remembrance of the soldiers’ impromptu soccer games in 1914. (England won 1-0.)

What stands out most today, however, are the memories of the soldiers themselves, preserved in their own penmanship. One riflemen of Britain’s 3rd Rifle Brigade recounted a German soldier saying, “Today we have peace. Tomorrow you fight for your country. I fight for mine. Good luck!”

As for Britain’s Bruce Bairnsfather, he summed up the distinct historic moment this way: “Looking back on it all, I wouldn't have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything.”

Source: WWI’s Christmas Truce: When Fighting Paused for the Holiday
BY: A.J. BAIME & VOLKER JANSSEN

UPDATED: DECEMBER 18, 2023 | ORIGINAL: OCTOBER 29, 2018

Huge congratulations to our Board Member, Susie Keel, on her major accomplishments with Kashi at the AKC National Dog Show in Orlando this weekend! 🐶

Susie co-owns Kashi the Shiba Inu, who is already a Grand Champion & was competing against other Champions & Grand Champions in the Shiba Inu Specialty on Friday. 🏅

With Susie handling, Kashi won Select Bitch (out of 48 Shiba Inus!). The Best of Breed winner was a beautiful girl who also won Best of Breed at Westminster, so Kashi was right behind her! 👑

For those who don't speak dog show, Susie and Kashi won Second Place out of 48 dogs to a dog who was Best of Breed at Westminster! 😲

Kashi and Susie also won Best of Breed Owner-Handler in the Shiba Inu Specialty! 🏆

We're fortunate to have accomplished dog handlers and trainers on our board, who are passionate about dogs and dog behavior. Susie brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our Board of Directors. 🤓

Huge congratulations to Susie and Kashi! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

📷 Copyright: Winners Pix -- photo by Tammie Wilkerson

“December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” - President Roosevelt.

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Naval Base Pearl Harbor, during which 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 were wounded. Despite the heavy casualties, there were acts of heroism throughout the attack as Marines and Sailors reacted quickly to defend the base.

Although eight U.S. Navy Battleships, three cruisers, and over 180 aircraft were damaged or destroyed, the survival of the base’s repair docks, fuel farms, aircraft carriers and submarines allowed American forces to rapidly return to operations in the Pacific Theater. Just six months later, Allied forces would win a strategic victory at the Battle of Midway, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific.

For all the fans of “It’s A Wonderful Life” and Jimmy Stewart . . .

Just months after winning his 1941 Academy Award for best actor in “The Philadelphia Story,” Jimmy Stewart, one of the best-known actors of the day, left Hollywood and joined the US Army. He was the first big-name movie star to enlist in World War II.

An accomplished private pilot, the 33-year-old Hollywood icon became a US Army Air Force aviator, earning his 2nd Lieutenant commission in early 1942. With his celebrity status and huge popularity with the American public, he was assigned to starring in recruiting films, attending rallies, and training younger pilots.

Stewart, however, wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to fly combat missions in Europe, not spend time in a stateside training command. By 1944, frustrated and feeling the war was passing him by, he asked his commanding officer to transfer him to a unit deploying to Europe. His request was reluctantly granted.

Stewart, now a Captain, was sent to England, where he spent the next 18 months flying B-24 Liberator bombers over Germany. Throughout his time overseas, the US Army Air Corps' top brass had tried to keep the popular movie star from flying over enemy territory. But Stewart would hear nothing of it.
Determined to lead by example, he bucked the system, assigning himself to every combat mission he could. By the end of the war he was one of the most respected and decorated pilots in his unit.
But his wartime service came at a high personal price.

In the final months of WWII he was grounded for being “flak happy,” today called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

When he returned to the US in August 1945, Stewart was a changed man. He had lost so much weight that he looked sickly. He rarely slept, and when he did he had nightmares of planes exploding and men falling through the air screaming (in one mission alone his unit had lost 13 planes and 130 men, most of whom he knew personally).

He was depressed, couldn’t focus, and refused to talk to anyone about his war experiences. His acting career was all but over.

As one of Stewart's biographers put it, "Every decision he made [during the war] was going to preserve life or cost lives. He took back to Hollywood all the stress that he had built up.”

In 1946 he got his break. He took the role of George Bailey, the suicidal father in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The rest is history.

Actors and crew of the set realized that in many of the disturbing scenes of George Bailey unraveling in front of his family, Stewart wasn’t acting. His PTSD was being captured on filmed for potentially millions to see.

But despite Stewart's inner turmoil, making the movie was therapeutic for the combat veteran. He would go on to become one of the most accomplished and loved actors in American history.

When asked in 1941 why he wanted to leave his acting career to fly combat missions over N**i Germany, he said, "This country's conscience is bigger than all the studios in Hollywood put together, and the time will come when we'll have to fight.”
This weekend, as many of us watch the classic Christmas film, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” it’s also a fitting time to remember the sacrifices of Jimmy Stewart and all the men who gave up so much to serve their country during wartime. We will always remember you!

Postscript:

While fighting in Europe, Stewart's Oscar statue was proudly displayed in his father’s Pennsylvania hardware store. Throughout his life, the beloved actor always said his father, a World War I veteran, was the person who had made the biggest impact on him.

Jimmy Stewart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and died in 1997 at the age of 89.

Information shared from Steven Mitre - The Mustang Marine

60 years ago today, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald while questioning him during the ongoing murder investigation of President Kennedy.
Ofcr. Tippit was an Army veteran, having served during WWII before joining the Dallas PD.