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Quebec’s injured veterans receive new funding for service dogs
Posted November 5, 2024 9:48 am.
Last Updated November 5, 2024 4:53 pm.
The Royal Canadian Legion Quebec Provincial Command partnered with the Wounded Warriors Canada program on Tuesday to pair service dogs with injured veterans in the province.
The provincial command will fund up to $100,000 every year to support the training and pairing of specially trained PTSD service dogs.
It marks a historic milestone for veterans in Quebec. Many veterans, who have been vocal about struggling once they return home from war, have said they saw improvements after being matched with a service dog.
“I had like veterans that told me that, ‘wow, since I have my dog, it’s the first time I can walk alone outside without my wife, for example, or without my friends.’ So that’s really a game changer,” said Pascale Rabaraona, a social worker with Les Chiens Togo.
“I have them tell me, ‘I don’t need no more medication now since my dog is there, I don’t do no more nightmares.’ Or they can get family life back, so they can go see their kids play outside and play with the school, things like that, that they wouldn’t be able to go because it was too stressful.”
Dogs like Kira, a rescue that was abandoned by her owner, go through rigorous training by Les Chiens Togo after being carefully selected to best match a veteran based on triggers and emotional needs. Physical touch, for instance, is key to calming those going through a crisis.
“I think of one veteran that I met a number of years ago who would not come out of his basement,” recounted Phillip Ralph, the director of health services with Wounded Warriors Canada. “And after receiving his service dog two months later, he was on stage with our national patron, Roméo Dallaire, sharing his experience in his mental health journey. So it can be literally life changing and sometimes life saving.”
Wounded Warriors Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion Quebec Provincial Command say this is the first program brought to the province with proper protocols, measures, and standards to allow veterans the best possible match in consultations with clinicians.
“Service dogs is basically a wild west,” described Terrance Deslage, vice-president of the Royal Canadian Legion Quebec Provincial Command. “Anybody can open up and say I can do a service dog, but is the qualification and the necessary training there? There’s no laws or regulations to do it. So this is a way of putting the standards in place that we know when a dog comes from Les Chiens Togo, which is the accredited for Quebec through Wounded Warriors, they have standards and guidelines that will benefit the veteran and also the dog.”
Funding for the project will be based off donations and funds collected through this year’s poppy campaign, with each dog costing $25,000.
“It is for the veteran or for somebody that struggles with the mental health injury,” Ralph said. “It’s every bit as essential as a wheelchair would be for somebody who has mobility issues. So you can think of it in those terms that it makes that much of a difference.”
