In my original paper, I was very repetitive and non-descriptive in my persuasion to convince my audience that my argument was true. I took research directly from my ILP’s without explaining it or applying it. After several revisions and lessons, I learned how to turn my paper into something that was capable of convincing my audience of all the reasons why my argument was valid. I learned how to take the information I researched and use those sources to back up theories that I had explained. I summarized information that had to be summed up into shorter descriptions and I expanded on information that needed further explaining. This made my paper much better, making the claim I supported a lot clearer than the idea that argued my claim. Although, I do think the ILP assignments most definitely helped the progression of my paper. Without those weekly assignments guiding my research, my paper would no doubt be lacking information. All of the ILP’s were useful in these sense of directing my research and brought my topic from being so wide ranged to direct and to the point. This made it easier for me to clearly get my point across in this 10-page paper. This class has helped my writing skills flourish, teaching me how to do proper research and how to properly apply it to support my ideas. My past research papers are no-where near as informative and convincing as this paper, all thanks to the informative and valuable lessons I learned and will continue to apply in the future. 

Many veterans come back from war with a toll taken on their mental and physical health, often this toll appears in these veterans as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that occurs after witnessing or experiencing a life threatening or life altering event. Being in a war, there is no shortage of traumas and life-altering scenarios which makes veterans vulnerable to this debilitating disorder. People suffering from this disorder relive the experience that traumatized them over and over again and it haunts them through nightmares and flashbacks. This disease often causes those who suffer from it to perceive every day occurrences as dangerous. Victims of the disorder may have a hard time going through the motions of everyday life because of these symptoms. Those affected often isolate themselves from society and their loved ones because they are afraid they might snap and react aggressively and harmfully over a situation that is, in reality, harmless. Patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder do this because they are scared to make a scene or hurt a loved one. Veterans go through millions of doctors, medications and therapy treatments to help heal from this painful disorder. Many veterans lose what is important and closest to them when they do not seek the necessary relief after a long period of time because they distance themselves from the people they love. Since this disorder is so widespread and ravages the lives of those who fight for our country, new means of therapy have been introduced to lessen the effects of PTSD. Many recent studies have shown that dog therapy has become the newest most efficient treatment to post-traumatic stress disorder. 

My interest in pursuing this research question stems from my interest in post-traumatic stress disorder and how it’s treated, the psychological reasoning behind post-traumatic stress disorder has always intrigued me and once I took my first psychology class last semester my teacher touched on the topic of dogs used as treatment and I became very curious about the process. My research focused my interest towards the relationship between veterans who return home from war and dogs. My personal interest in this topic comes from my dad. My dad worked as a police officer and a firefighter for many years and experienced a number of traumatizing events during his career. Almost all of the traumatic events my dad faced, he was able to move past, with the exception for one particularly traumatizing event. My dad was on the scene as a firefighter during the tragedy of 9/11. Luckily, my dad only suffered a very acute form of post-traumatic stress disorder from this event. I was not yet old enough to know anything about his suffering until he sat me down when I was much older and gave me the opportunity to ask questions about what it was like to be there. His suffering was minimal in comparison to the extent where he would need a therapy dog, but when the anniversaries of 9/11 come around he gets particularly introverted. I began to wonder if his suffering was worse, would a service dog have been help to his suffering. It was this curiosity that manifested my interest in this topic. I didn’t come into this project with a strong opinion or point of view, I came into it very open-minded and eager to learn more about the subject which really helped me in avoiding bias. Researchers have developed and studied many cases involving the dynamic of dogs and veterans. Many studies have shown that dogs can help heal veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

This evolving theory that dogs can help heal veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is widely approved because of its abundance of positive feedback supported by an article I did research on, “Animal Therapy is Making strides in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”. This article summarizes my argument and supports my thesis of how dogs help veterans recover from post-traumatic stress disorder because animals, have a positive impact on those suffering from a traumatic event. This is frequently portrayed between veterans and dogs, as dogs require nurture, allowing for distraction from one’s focus on damaging memories. Creating a distraction for the veteran, giving them something to preoccupy themselves with. Another positive aspect that has come from this relationship is that the veteran does not feel judged or pitied by a dog, instead the veteran is viewed as a fully capable person and caretaker. Often times one feels as if their peers perceive them to be weak, so any chance to be strong in a relationship, even a relationship with a dog, significantly boosts their confidence. Overall, pets boost immune system, promote exercise, reduces stress, anxiety, and blood pressure. Most importantly, dogs decrease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, helping veterans recover from this life altering disorder. According to the article, soldiers have a common belief that only one another can understand the traumatic experiences they have suffered, they believe no one can help or understand what they went through other than someone who actually did. When returning from war, it’s hard for one to connect with their peers, which leads to solitude and angst. However, often times therapy, medication, and group counseling, does not help one cope with their PTSD. Luckily animal assisted therapy has been frequently praised for its exceptional outcomes, especially in a field of such negative results in recovery. 

 Chris Colin wrote an article for The Smithsonian supporting my argument that dogs can help veterans suffering from PTSD. His study is regarding evidence proving this. His article is based on a 31year-old former Army specialist, Robert Soliz. After being discharged from Baghdad, fear, anxiety, and depression took over his life. Soliz was unable to interact with other people and even family members in an affectionate way due to his depression. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His family was falling apart, as he isolated himself completely, being unable to hug or kiss his two children. Soliz turned to the Palo Alto Medical Center for help. They recommended Robert Soliz to participate in “Paws for Purple Hearts” program. This is where veterans suffering from PTSD are paired with labs and or golden retrievers for six weeks. Colin states “The animals draw out even the most isolated personality, and having to praise the animals helps traumatized veterans overcome emotional numbness” (Colin). Researchers have gathered a ton of information and found that by bonding with dogs, your Oxytocin levels will become elevated, improving trust, overcoming paranoia and other PTSD symptoms. Meanwhile, patients are able to work on communication skills by teaching the dogs service commands. This program led participants to be able to tackle everyday tasks with more confidence and ease. Veterans who participated in this experiment reported they actually got a full night sleep knowing the dog, a naturally alert being, was sleeping by them ready to protect them. These relationships strengthen the skills that were negatively affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, such as interpersonal skills, communication, and self-control. This helps veterans come to recognition that situations that they once interpreted as harmful, are actually everyday normal situations, and tackle such situations head on. All of this positive feedback goes to show that dogs can help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder heal from all of their tragic symptoms. 

My argument that dogs can help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can also be argued with good reason. This article from the “U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs” is very consistent in making sure post-traumatic stress disorder patients are aware that even though dogs are comforting and helpful in the healing process, people with mental health issues can become dependent on dogs and only dogs. The author of this article uses this example “ if the dog keeps strangers from coming too close, the owner will not have a chance to learn that they can handle this situation without the dog. Becoming dependent on a dog can get in the way of the recovery process for PTSD” (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). It will become problematic if the patient feels they physically cannot go anywhere without the dog because then the patient will not excel in social and confidence skills. This proves that even though the dog can help the veteran to feel confident enough to go places they before could not, researchers want to make it clear that the veteran can become reliant on the dog. This could hurt them in the sense that they will never excel to become better in the long run. This argument is valid because the veteran does in fact become dependent on the dog for safety, love, acceptance and control. Eventually, all of these things are something the veteran will need to adapt to doing alone. 

My argument is still strong despite this argument because with the dog, the veteran can finally feel emotions they were incapable of feeling before the dog therapy. Their dependence on the dog in turn strengthens within the skills they need to become independent. In addition, the veteran can feel in control as they did when they were stationed at war, giving demands, by giving demands to their dog. No matter if the veteran is disabled or crippled, dogs do not judge humans. The feeling of acceptance from the dog that the veteran may have been longing for is achieved, helping the veteran learn to feel comfortable with their situation and come to terms with it. Another source I gathered information from is from an article “Nudging Them Back to Reality” backing my argument provides insight on how dogs work as therapeutic agents. For example, “Just as “seeing eye” dogs cannot cure blindness and “hearing” dogs cannot cure deafness, PSDs cannot and should not be expected to cure PTSD. They can, however, reduce the severity of symptoms and make life more bearable for veterans, as attested to by participants in the current study.”(Taylor,Edwards,Pooley) This points out that PTSD can’t be magically healed but it can reduce symptoms, making the veterans life easier, needing less therapy and less narcotics.

There have been many new programs using this method. This article, “Service Dogs for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” is informative for supporting my argument. This is regarding a social worker, Rick Yount, who specialized with children is the foster care system. He used dogs to help the children and found that golden retrievers had a special trick for soothing a kid even in the child’s hardest, most traumatic times. Soon after Yount then created a similar program for former troops returning from combat. This was called the Warrior-trained service dog program. This program was strictly for veterans suffering from PTSD. “The Warrior Ethos has inspired even the most traumatized service members to participate in and benefit from the program.” This shows how much the program has worked and how much veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder have benefited from dogs as a part of their therapy. “The WCC training philosophy is based on positive methods of shaping behaviors that are most effective at forming strong social bonds” (Weinmeyer) They try to help veterans fix their relationships socially and emotionally by training the dogs to do so. “The WCC program has been observed to reach well beyond its participants.” (Weinmeyer) This is proving that this program is capable of helping not only veterans but any normal person suffering from PTSD heal and become socially and emotionally recover from this mental alteration. 

Humans bond to dogs emotionally, this article “Prisoners, pups, and PTSD: the grass roots response to veterans with PTSD” talks about how this bond is key to the recovery process. In this article, an experiment is conducted, veterans are paired with dogs and are watched to see how they progressed. The dogs built an effective therapeutic relationship and helped heal all types of emotional, mental wounds. This is another positive outcome I have studied and continue to see a common factor of emotional support. The emotional support the dog gives the veteran is huge, they build a strong connection and bond to each other making the veteran feel as though the dog is trust worthy enough to protect them. “As the first known domesticated animal, canines not only worked alongside humans as protectors from the wilderness but also served as partners in play and companionship. Rather than diminishing as we advance through the digital age, the functions of dogs in society continue to grow. In this post-9/11 world, dogs have become increasingly visible members of law enforcement and the military. In contrast to their roles as working dogs, is the relief they provide in their therapeutic roles.”(Furst) This helps us realize that even before we realized, dogs have always been companions to humans, acting as protectors and playmates. Even now, dogs are used and depended on in law enforcement. Furst mentions our world since 9/11 and how traumatic events are inevitable, continually occurring, the introduction to the use of dogs was just what we needed. Dogs will help therapeutically heal people suffering from such events. 

Through researching this argument, Can Dogs Help Heal Veterans Suffering from PTSD?, I stumbled across several you tube videos supporting my claim of yes they can help. One video that particularly stood out to me by showing me exactly how this works. This video shows a former veteran being interviewed about his progress with dog therapy with his dog by his side. While being interviewed, answering questions about his experience the former veteran starts to get worked up, beginning to get upset with how much he struggled thinking about all the bad things he has gone through with no relief. The dog senses the former veteran’s change in mood before he even realizes himself and his dog licks his face and jumps on him to grab his attention to calm him down.  

Many veterans find no relief, struggling with an ungodly amount of narcotics and useless therapy meetings. This next video I found informational was “Service dog helps save war veteran suffering from PTSD” this video shows that situation exactly and how dog therapy was effective. Being interviewed, a former veteran was talking 12 narcotics to try to heal from his suffering.  Nothing worked for him, including the narcotics, until he found his service dog. His dog changed his life, his dog can sense when he is having nightmares and wake him up from them, lead him out of a room if he’s in a trance with no control having flash backs, the dog is even capable of getting him his medication and much more. My argument is further supported by “Service Dogs Help Veterans Suffering from PTSD” this video is about how a few veterans were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and only they found relief within the use of service dogs. This source provides information like most of the dogs they use are retrievers, labs and shepherds. They discuss the training process for the dogs and the amount of time and money that goes into the training to help give veterans the relief they deserve. Lastly, this video “Service Dog Helps Veteran with PTSD” conducted a test and played sirens like they flew helicopters to make it feel as though it was Iraq. The former veteran was having a PTSD reaction, having flash-backs and staring to panic, in a trance. His dog was capable of noticing that the former veteran was in a trance. The dog continued to pull him out of the trance, grounding him by jumping on him and kissing him to get him to pay attention to her. All of these videos prove my argument that dogs can actually help cam and heal a veteran suffering from the symptoms in real life situations. 

Upon reflection, millions of veterans return home from war and are tragically consumed by the horrifying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and find little to no relief. While this is something I am not personally affected by, but something I am personally interested in finding information about it because of how appreciative I am of all the work veterans do for us. I was beyond pleased with the information I have gathered from my research regarding how helpful dog therapy is for veterans and all they can attain from it. The constant variable of veterans finding no relief, resulting in suicides or complete isolation from anything and everyone the veteran cares about is beginning to lessen more and more due to the therapeutic treatment of service dogs. My call to action is for any individual suffering or know of someone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to give dog therapy a try. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a very common disorder among veterans and it is nothing to be ashamed of or feel as though it needs to be hidden. Animal therapy is a brand new resource available to anyone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and with all of the displayed positive outcomes, it is worth trying so the relief needed is received. 
