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Puppies Behind Bars helping Iraq Vets

Meet a golden retriever named Tuesday who is helping an Iraq war veteran with severe post-traumatic stress in a The Wall Street Journal story, ‘Sit! Stay! Snuggle!’: An Iraq Vet Finds His Dog Tuesday .

As a “Seeing Eye dog for the mind,” Tuesday is a psychiatric-service dog trained to help Luis Carlos Montalvan, a retired Army captain who received a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered during an ambush in Iraq, with his unseen injuries. Tuesday, who is with Montalvan 24-7, has been taught to recognize the effects of post-traumatic stress Disorder, such as changes in his breathing, perspiration or scent that can indicate an imminent panic attack.

Tuesday is one of 11 psychiatric-service dogs Puppies Behind Bars Inc. has placed. It hopes to provide 14 more this year. Tuesday was eight weeks old when he and five siblings were turned over to Puppies Behind Bars. He was sent to New York’s Fishkill Correctional Facility.

John Pucci, a 64-year-old convicted killer who served 29 years, who trained Tuesday, taught the pup to respond to 82 commands geared toward helping the physically disabled – turning on lights with his nose, retrieving food from shelves, helping load washing machines. After that,Tuesday received additional training, based on Montalvan’s needs – such as reminding him to take his pills, and serving as a buffer when Montalvan gets stressed out by large crowds.

“Tuesday is just extraordinarily empathetic,” said Montalvan, 36. “In bad moments, he’ll lay his head on my leg, and it’’ll be like he’s saying, ‘You’re OK. You’re not alone.’”

READ THE FULL STORY: ‘Sit! Stay! Snuggle!’: An Iraq Vet Finds His Dog Tuesday

This was written by admin. Posted on Monday, July 13, 2009, at 6:05 am. Filed under Puppies Behind Bars, Therapy dogs. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.

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