Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Enter Lisa Slama

   Back in March of 2012, as I finally nailed down the concept for my Capstone, I truly was excited about the choice.  I found the subject matter interesting and really looked forward to learning more about PTSD and the training of Psychiatric Service Dogs, but the process of finding a facility that would be local and available was something I wasn't sure would work out. This meant I would have to rely on second hand film coverage, or one long summer trip to who knows where.

  My first attempt to find an organization that worked with veterans with PTSD and PS dogs was through the internet . When I came across  Veterans Best Friend  near Cleveland, Ohio I was thrilled. A trip there was possible in one day without huge expense. The question that remained to be answered was would they let me come hang around and stick a camera in their face? or their dog's? (not really, but it feels like when you first see the camera)

Enter Lisa Slama, the director of VBF. She responded to my inquiring e-mail with incredible swiftness and friendliness. She welcomed the idea, had lots of questions, feedback, and a willingness to help. She is also impressively qualified at several levels with multiple certification for dog training and a degree in Psychiatry (I'm serious... she has an alphabet after her name. Here is her picture from the VBF website.)




Jesse Tanner
Service Dog Dakota
OEF/OIF VeteranCoordinator
216-299-9694
Lisa SlamaBS, CPDT-KA, IAADP,
IAABC, APDT, AKC-CGC
Coordinator & Trainer216-390-2754


So needless to say, without her opening the doors to her organization, letting me intrude upon her schedule and training sessions, introducing me to the people I have interviewed so far, answering my questions, I would not have the footage I need to do anything for my Capstone. Nor would I have seen this process up close and in action with both Veterans and dogs.

Here is a snippet of my starting interview with Lisa. I ask her how working with dogs all got started for her.











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