How it Works - Canines for Heroes

How it Works

Service Dogs & PTSD

Canines For Heroes DBA The National PTSD Service Association is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization providing service dogs to qualified veterans with Post Traumatic Disorder (PTSD). Founded in 2016, the National PTSD Service Association has outreach efforts to veterans in Charlotte County, Sarasota, Manatee & Hillsborough County. Qualified veterans, who suffer from PTSD and reside in southwest Florida, need access to trained service dogs. The trained service dogs will help them return to life with confidence and independence. Contradictory viewpoints on veterans’ post deployment assimilation suggest treating veterans with PTSD with FDA-approved drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (Alexander, 2012). However, the secondary research studies presented in this market and consumer analysis suggest otherwise, and provide research statistical data that a highly skilled, trained service dog, indeed, helps a veteran with PTSD. Veterans with PTSD need the support of a service dog in order to regain balance in their lives. The National PTSD Service Association is leading the way to help restore veterans’ lives.

What Drives Us

We have point-to-point training where top-notch, award-winning dog trainers, like Natasha Wilhelm, teach the dogs that the world is a safe place. Through that process, the dogs provide the same for their new partners: Public Safety Personnel and Veterans with PTSD.

Through Train-the-Trainer Training, the service dog that has been paired with our recipient is given weekly opportunities to step out and be part of the larger collaboration of Profession Award Winning Trainers and Competition Handlers. Closely monitored and by invitation only — Natasha Innovator of the “Wilhelm Way” Canine Training Program. Just ask those that have watched Natasha Wilhelm work. She has a unique way with dogs. Her proven “Wilhelm Way” Canine Training Program, developed over a 10 year period, combines innovative Canine Marker Training with her proprietary Psychological Imprinting Technique. In addition, Natasha specializes in Canine Problem Solving & Behavior Modification. She is an expert canine behaviorist and customizes her training approach, based on each dog’s unique character rather than being “married” to a particular training method. Her results speak for themselves and, at times, can be amazingly swift. Addressing the emotional component is an integral and inseparable part of her daily training. She prefers to be thought of as a “Canine Psychologist & Behaviorist” rather than a “Dog Trainer”. With over 10 years of proven breeding, training and competition experience, Natasha’s diverse and well rounded professional background has been instrumental in bringing numerous dogs to their full potential as family pets or as performers in high-level international competition.

From the very beginning our T2T equips the recipient and their family with the first elements of ALERT for their puppy — praise and provide nutrition to their dogs when they experience a “dramatized startling PTSD event”. Rather than turning inward to focus on their past trauma, the collaboration allows for the recipients to get outside of their own heads to focus on the dogs and their personal mission. We always support integration into the public based on the prescribed clinical analysis supports. Additionally, our highly trained and tactically stable dogs offer opportunities to our recipients – who might often isolate themselves from society – to experience positive interactions with members of the community.