Guiding Them Out Of Darkness

DAVIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, NATURAL RESOURCES AND DESIGN

GUIDING THEM OUT OF DARKNESS

Casting all doubts aside, one former Marine discovers restorative healing through a unique bond with his service dog.

WRITTEN BY NIKKY LUNA

For Bradley Knox, former United States Marine Corps corporal and recent graduate of West Virginia University, hope was running out.

“I had written off the possibility of any human helping me. And I didn’t think an animal would come close to being able to help me,” said Knox, when asked about his early expectations of the service dog training program, coordinated by Hearts of Gold and the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.

Knox, who graduated in December 2015 from the WVU Regents Bachelor of Arts program, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after fulfilling his four-year active duty contract that included deployments to Afghanistan in 2008 and 2010.

“I learned about the service dog training program through a friend,” Knox explained. “She knew I was in the military and not having the best time dealing with it.”

From volatile sleep patterns caused by nightmares to feeling paralyzed by stress and anxiety in a crowded supermarket, the manifestation of Knox’s

PTSD symptoms, which he had been experiencing for more than half a year, had reached its peak.

“I’d be in a grocery store just holding my breath, anticipating some goof ball doing something that would harm me,” he described. “I’d just stop and leave the cart – a half-full cart. I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I quit.’”

Knox also suffered from physiological symptoms.

“For about eight months, my eye was constantly twitching,” he said. “From the time I’d wake up in the morning, it would start twitching and never stop.”

After months of trying to cope with these life-disrupting symptoms, Knox had reached the point of surrender.

“I didn’t think there was anything that was going to stop this,” he said. “It was about that time that I started thinking, ‘maybe prescription drugs were going to be the answer.”

But that was not a route Knox wanted to take. And fortunately, he wouldn’t have to.

After learning about the program, Knox met with Jean Meade and Lindsay Parenti. Meade is an adjunct professor of animal and nutritional sciences in the WVU Davis College and co-founder of the Human-Animal Bond, the nonprofit that facilitates the Hearts of Gold program through WVU. Parenti serves as director of program operations for Hearts of Gold and is a board certified behavior analyst in the WVU Davis College.

They convinced him to give the program a chance and paired him up with Dally, a German shepherd going through the service dog training program

Students working with their four-legged classmates in the service dog training facility.

at the time. Their training together would not only open Knox’s eyes to the potential impact a service dog could have on his life, but it would also expedite a potentially lengthy process required to get a service dog.

“A veteran who needs a service dog can be on a wait-list for up two years, on average,” said Meade. “So we like to let student-veterans know that they can come to WVU, participate in the course and train a dog, and potentially walk away with that same dog.”

This outcome is among many other valuable incentives of the program and one that was not anticipated when Meade first integrated the course into the WVU pre-veterinarian program nearly 10 years ago. At that time, her focus was primarily on addressing curricular needs.

“I saw the need for preveterinary students to have a handson canine course,” Meade said. “Additionally, I wanted to address an area that is a deficit in veterinary training – animal behavior.”

The service dog training program evolved, advancing through research collaborations with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and expanding through critical financial support from organizations like the William F. and Lynn D. Gauss Foundation and Snee- Reinhardt Charitable Foundation.

The program currently consists of three courses in the WVU Davis College — an introductory course followed by two advanced courses.

Knox enrolled in an introductory course during the summer 2014 semester. His strong ability as a trainer and the fast-forming connection between he and Dally solidified the decision to pair her with him.

“They worked really well together from the start,” said Parenti. “The improvement in Dally’s general behavior after being placed with Bradley was astounding. Before Bradley came into the picture, Dally had issues with other dogs, but after he started working with her, those issues disappeared.”

The strong bond between the two was apparent.

“I remember seeing the connection they had every time I saw them together,” Parenti recalled. “Dally would just gaze at him constantly. She looked at him as if he were her entire world.”

Knox soon learned that he had, indeed, become her entire world, and that realization began to reshape his own world.

As he continued to work with her, Knox began to realize that Dally actually wanted to listen to him. It wasn’t just about earning treats as a reward for obedience. Rather, she wanted to listen to him because she wanted to make him happy. And making him happy meant that she would earn the ultimate reward: his companionship.

“The best feeling I got was when I realized that it was my presence — it was me — that became the reward after awhile,” he said. “My playing with her and giving her attention was the treat.”

About midway through the course, Knox started taking Dally home with him, and it was from that point on when he could really see the difference in her behaviors — and his.

"The first big change in me that I noticed was that I was sleeping better,” Knox recalled, adding, with a chuckle, “I was probably looking a little healthier, too.”

Another area where Knox noticed a dramatic change in his behavior was in public.

“Going out in public to really heavily trafficked stores is where she is most beneficial,” Knox said. “I’m no longer concerned with what other people are doing; before, I was overwhelmed with everybody around me.”

Knox also noted that about a month after having Dally, his eye stopped twitching.

In terms of Dally’s behavior, the few “bad habits” she had – like chewing up her toys when Knox would leave the house and playfully biting him when he would return — started to diminish after she realized that her home was now with Knox and his fiancée Launa.

“A lot of her behaviors that weren’t so acceptable of a service dog started to subside,” Knox said. “It was very apparent that it was me she was always waiting for. She was always wanting to appease me and make sure that I was happy. And I only wanted to make sure she was happy.”

This codependence is one of the reasons why a service dog can have such a transformative impact on the life of a veteran who has PTSD.

“Providing a service dog to veterans with PTSD gives them some hope by giving them something that depends on them every day,” said Parenti. “I think it also provides some of the structure that became so ingrained in them from the military, so this helps them transition back to civilian life.”

Thanks to Dally and the unique bond she shares with Knox, transitioning back into civilian life has become much easier for him.

“She makes me feel like I have someone — a support group — that cares about me,” said Knox. “There’s a bond there … I trust her.”

In addition to their unique bond, Knox credits their reciprocal relationship as being at the heart of why he has benefited so much from this experience.

“Dally depends on me, and it’s in this codependence where she provides the service without even knowing she’s doing it.”

STRENGTHENING THE PROGRAM

The majority of the training takes place in the service dog training facility located on the WVU Davis College Animal Sciences Farm in Morgantown. In 2015, a grant from the William F. and Lynn D. Gauss Foundation, combined with the work of many volunteers, made facility upgrades possible.

Later that year, a grant from the Snee-Reinhardt Charitable Foundation provided funding to support the purchase of five service dogs.

VETERANS TO VETERANS

In 2013, WVU and Hearts of Gold partnered with the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Morgantown, to create the Veterans to Veterans Dog Program, an outreach initiative that gives veteran inmates the chance to train service dogs for other veterans with PTSD.

To date, more than 60 veteran inmates have participated, in some tangible way, in the program. For trainers, the dogs live with them 24/7.

WVU THERAPY DOGS

In addition to placing service dogs with veterans, the program also produces therapy dogs that serve WVU students.

Over the past few years, therapy dogs have been placed in the following areas at WVU: the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources; College of Business and Economics; College of Education and Human Resources; Honors College; Reed College of Media; and WELLWVU’s Students’ Center of Health.