When Cole T. Lyle was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Afghanistan, his service dog, Kaya, was able to help him in ways that therapy and medication couldn’t.
The German shepherd was trained to wake up the former Marine from the nightmares that plagued his sleep by turning the light on, pulling down the sheets and sitting with him “until my heart rate went down and I would go back to sleep.”
“When you’re in that awful spiral of depression and feel alone, you look at the dog and say, I can’t leave the dog because the dog would miss me,” he said. “The dog provides a sense of purpose and a sense of responsibility that pills and therapy just won’t ever do. I 100% think that service dogs are a tool to fight veterans’ suicide.”
About 100 dogs have been placed through the PAWS Act with veterans, but already demand is exceeding supply, Mr. Lyle said. The Department of Veterans Affairs agreed that dogs can “lift your mood and be a good companion,” but cautioned against treating service dogs as a substitute for medication and therapy.
The SAVES Act, which has bipartisan support, comes amid concerns about the speed at which the PAWS Act is being implemented.
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