‘The dog literally saved her life’: N.S. organization pairs service dogs with veterans

Mike Gingell from Paws Fur Thought shares how the organization pairs services dogs with veterans coping with operational stress injuries.

Paws Fur Thought is a Nova Scotia based not-for-profit organization that pairs service dogs with military and RCMP veterans that suffer from health conditions such as PTSD.

The organization started after learning the benefits service dogs have on those suffering from Operational Stress Injury (OSI) and PTSD as a result of military or policing careers.

Mike Gingell, a liaison at Paws Fur Thought, began the not-for-profit with his wife who suffered from PTSD after a tour in Sierra Leone.

“She discovered the service dogs through our MLA at the time and was paired with her service dog Omega,” Gingell told CTV News Atlantic’s Crystal Garrett. “[The] changes were immediate. The dog literally saved her life.”

Paws Fur Thought helps with the administration and logistics of pairing the service dogs, as well as ensuring the dogs are properly trained to assist veterans with their specific disability.

Gingell says the dogs can help veterans have a better quality of life by training them to do tasks such as reminding their handlers to take medication, waking them from night terrors, and creating physical barriers for their handlers when in a public setting.

“Service dogs, they’re very special,” Gingell said.

Paws Fur Thought relies on donations to be able to pair handlers with service dogs, which can be made through veterans’ groups such as Wounded Warriors Canada.

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