Chris Banyas
Life Editor
Mental or emotional trauma, unlike a laceration or other physical manifestation of harm, cannot be remedied by sealing up flesh with stitches, removing a foreign body or any other manner of fixing in the traditional sense.
Experiences cannot be excised from the mind and must instead be treated through various types of therapy, a means of processing traumatic events so that life may continue.
Therapy is not always conventional, does not always take place on a chair in a darkened office and is not always facilitated by a psychologist or other specialist.
Sometimes therapy comes on four legs.
Hero is the latest asset and family member of the Idaho State University Veterans Sanctuary.
“She is a labradoodle. She’s a lab poodle mix. We did that intentionally as well; one of the least allergenic dogs there are. Very little shedding and low allergy,” said Todd Johnson, director of the Veterans Sanctuary. “I bathe her twice a week and brush her every day so she can be around other people. They’re also excessively loving and they’re really smart.”
Hero is still a puppy, but has already been trained to fill a very serious role, one which she will continue to grow into.
A graduate student working with Johnson named Rebecca Chidester came across an article about a service dog which she brought to Johnson’s attention.
“[Chidester] found an article about that dog that they use in a military capacity but for rape crisis and things like that,” said Johnson. “So they’re getting the victims to calm down quicker, they give clearer testimony, the dog’s very helpful in those regards.”
Chidester began researching the possibility of bringing a dog into the veterans sanctuary at ISU.
“She really did her homework, I mean just outstanding work. She’s the one that eventually found Snake River Doodles,” said Johnson. “Nichole Jorgenson at Snake River Doodles has a great reputation for raising seizure dogs and we thought a seizure dog would be right in line with a dog that could watch the emotions and the moods and the temperaments of the people she’s serving.”
Hero began to integrate into the veterans sanctuary office by working with new student orientation staff over the summer and soon after was sent to a seizure dog trainer, Teri Pope, in Idaho Falls.
“Hero went with her for about a month and I’d go pick her up one day and spend a day with her, or I’d go over in the evenings and Teri would teach me how to train her,” said Johnson.
Hero is now about 18 weeks old and is already conscious of her responsibilities and that she has a very important job to do.
“In the morning I open the gate and I go, ‘let’s go to work,’ and she runs right to the car door. I open the car door and she’s right in the kennel and she sleeps all the way,” said Johnson. “I drive from Idaho Falls, so she’s got a two hour commute every day and I never hear a peep from her. She just knows that’s part of her day.”
When the two arrive at the Veterans Sanctuary, Hero proceeds from office to office, making sure that everyone is alright.
Hero has become part of the Veterans Sanctuary team and, like all the other members of that team, fulfills her daily duties which are largely to help people deal with stress.
“I had a vet with some family stuff going on and she sat with Hero quite a while and she left with a different temperament that day and just a different mood,” said Johnson.
Johnson, a veteran himself, takes great pride in what the sanctuary is able to offer student veterans.
“This is such a landmark program for the state, it’s so well known,” said Johnson. “It’s become the standard for all the other colleges and universities in the state. We’re one of the only programs that has a space like we have, a computer lab for the vets, we’re paired up with Bannock County Veterans Services so we can take care of not only the veterans’ education needs but their health needs and things like that.”
Through his work at ISU, Johnson hopes to change how veterans are perceived.
“One of my goals is to get rid of the stigma of veterans on a college campus. They are the number one leaders on campus, they are outstanding leaders, they’re stable people, they’re caring people, they’re patriotic people,” said Johnson. “Hero being kind of a catalyst for bringing attention to our outstanding student veteran population, that’s big for me.”
The addition of Hero to the ISU family was made possible largely through financial gifts. Funding to support her cause and that of the Veterans Sanctuary is enabled by these gifts, through the ISU Foundation.
Hero also has her own Facebook page, which can be viewed at www.facebook.com/isuhero.
