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 DakotaOEF/OIF VeteranCoordinator 216-299-9694

Lisa SlamaBS, CPDT-KA, IAADP, IAABC, APDT, AKC-CGCCoordinator & 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.

So here is the video snippet of Sandy I wanted to put with my post but......had trouble uploading last night to blog.

Expect the Unexpected

When I first started to read about Psychiatric Service Dogs being used for returning veterans that suffer from PTSD I kind of limited my thinking, subconsciously. Not that I was actively voicing any certain expectations, but I just had some underlying assumptions that comes with limited knowledge. There's nothing like the smell of burnt rubber hitting the road to help change your pre-suppositions.

     Not to be gender-biased, because I do realize that many women are in the Armed Forces and provide valuable and quality service to our military operations and to our country, but somehow in my naivete I expected anyone suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to be someone who was under fire, as in mortar fire. In my mind that translated into wounded MALE soldier, since men are sent onto the front lines. (I am certainly aware that female soldiers can be captured and taken hostage, and are still in harms way, its just not the majority)

  When I arrived at Veteran's Best Friend in Berea, Ohio for filming, I noticed that it wasn't just men going through the program with their dogs, although certainly that was predominant. I immediately realized I needed to get a female voice into the narrative so I asked to talk to Sandy. Here is a snippet of her story and what lead up to her involvement with PS dogs and Veteran's Best Friend. Her story will be expanded on in my Capstone.