K9 Partners for Patriots

All right, everyone. This Veterans Day, we are spotlighting a local organization, helping veterans find support, confidence, and a Partner by their side, Canine Partners for Patriots, helping veterans train their own service dogs at no cost to them. And joining us live here on Fox Tampa Bay Live, Mary Peter, founder and executive director. And on the floor here, we are going to zoom into him at some point, is her canine Justice. Mary Peter, Justice, thank you so much for being with us here today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. We are so excited to hear all about Canine Partners for Patriots because I understand you and I were talking. I know you didn't serve but your husband served. So I guess walk me through how this started for you guys. I think for me was Yeah. Yeah. I had a for profit dog training business and it was back about 12 years ago, 13 years ago when we had veterans coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq more looking for help and came to my for profit business to get help. But they didn't have the right dogs and they couldn't I couldn't handle the civilian Environment. And so they would come and then they wouldn't come and come and not come. And so I ended up talking to many of them and found out that all of them had PTSD, some with traumatic brain injury and different levels of severity. And as I watched them, and it's a faith thing, I feel like this is something God said I need to do because I had the skills to do this. It was to close my for-profit business. And Found an organization that was for veterans only, so that they would all have a place where they felt safe, could build camaraderie again, have a unit, have a family. They're in our program for life. So once they start, I keep telling them, you're lifers now. So they are welcome to anything, training all the time, everything is free anytime they want to, work their dogs even after they've graduated. And we actually had the camera on Justice not too long ago, but we're showing amazing Amazing video of what you guys do. So tell me the process of partnering a canine with a vet because I also, you were telling me Mary that this also involves rescuing the canines. Tell me a little bit about that. Well, our greatest hope when I founded this was to give not only the veteran a second chance at life, but to give the dog a second chance at life. If there are so many dogs in shelters that are good dogs and just- They had no training, so we wanted to try and save them too. And we now have saved and rescued 303 dogs so far, many just from the day before euthanasia. And we work with the Tampa Bay area and all the rescues and animal control, animal shelters here, so we can pull dogs from here. Some of our veterans come with a dog they already have and ask, can I use my dog? And the first thing I ask them is, does your dog do anything for you? Because if the dog has lived with them for a year or two years, and they have PTSD, and whenever they have an episode, the dog goes the other way, then we know that's not going to be the right dog. But we will evaluate the dog. And if it is, if it's working already for their owner, then yes, we will put that dog in our program at no cost to the veteran as well for six months. And the veteran and the dog does all the training. That's it. That's incredible. Linz, can we go back? Linz is punching for us. She's incredible. Can we go back to King Justice here? Tell me about Justice and his relationship with you and your family. Where do I start? I know. All the dogs love this carpet. Every four pod guests we have loves this carpet. I'm happy he's comfortable. Well, I have been a German Shepherd girl. I've been a professional trainer for 37 years and still training. German Shepherds, I've had more German Shepherds than working dogs. I couldn't watch one more die after when they age out, unfortunately, and we have to make those horrible decisions. So I decided to get a lab and I have a friend that breeds the English Labradors in Washington State and she wanted me to have a puppy so she gave him to me. He is our demo dog for teaching the veterans what to watch and see what the dogs do so they'll get a visual of Of how we're gonna train them with their dogs. And, uh, he goes to all speaking engagements with me, but he's also my personal service dog. Uh, I have low blood pressure. He's a cardiac alert service dog. So when my blood pressure gets too low, I don't even know it sometimes. And he, if I'm sitting, he comes across and holds me in a chair so I can't fall out. And if I'm down on the floor, he comes beside me, brings me his leash, lays his head on my stomach until I can sit up. He helps me sit up Oh, best boy. And now he just gets to relax as he should, you know, and that brings me to my next question, Mary Peter, because, you know, for someone who has never seen a service dog at work, what can these dogs be trained to do to help a veteran through a difficult moment that they're having? It's a myriad of things. Their noses are incredible. Their hearing is incredible. One of the things for us, we specifically work with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and military sexual trauma. So those are the only three things. For us, our dogs help wake them up from nightmares. They help. That's the first veteran that's ever been in our program that you're showing right now, and he is now our CEO. Wow. And that's how his life changed from, sorry, I got off track. No, no, you're good. Clearly, I had loved that we've done stories with you guys before, because this is incredible work. I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, no. I forgot where I was going, actually. Um, How can they help in a situation? I know you said- For us, we have the dogs, especially for PTSD, they redirect their focus when a panic attack starts or when a flashback is starting. We see that frequently in our training center. And as a veteran is going into a flashback, that dog now alerts them. And so it redirects their focus and it prevents it from escalating. It helps with anger issues and just so many things that veterans don't have to be hypervigilant anymore. They don't have to check their homes, their windows, their doors. The dogs do all that for them so they can sleep for a change. That's incredible. Mary Peter, I'm looking at my notes here because I see you have 892 veterans active in the program and over 500 veteran and K9 team graduates. Did you ever imagine when you started this that you would be talking about those numbers? No, I get very emotional, I'm sorry. As you should, this is incredible- I founded this because of the veterans that that came to my for-profit, and I saw them just so discouraged. There's no, they had no more hope. Most of them have tried the alcohol, they've tried the drugs, they've tried the counseling and they needed more. So they came. To us to see if a dog would help and the dogs have been amazing, but I only did it to help the veterans in my community. And now we're serving veterans in 46 counties in the state of Florida and veterans from out of state. So we started with two veterans and yes, we're at 892 now. And what is, do you, I'd imagine you still keep in touch with a lot of these families. One of them became the CEO. What is it like to get photos and hear the stories of how much support this did give them? It's overwhelming, you know, and it wasn't done to get accolades or anything like that. It was done, created to save lives, to help families. We had a little boy that was, I think, 11, and he did, for his birthday, he did a GoFundMe fundraiser for Canine Partners to thank us for giving him his daddy back. Oh, stop. So these are the things that... Make me cry now. Oh, Mary Peter, that's so awesome. Awesome, for somebody watching this. Who would love to get in touch with you guys and inquire about this program, how can they do that? You can go onto our website, which is letter K, number nine, partnersforpatriots.com or .org, either way, go on our website. We have a special tab there for veterans that want to find out more information and everything is free. It costs us $21,400 to put one vet and dog through our program, but there is no charge For equipment, for dogs, for training, for our veterans, they've earned it. And with that being said, obviously, I can imagine how much community support helps. We're coming up on the season of giving. How can people work with you guys or donate to the cause and support you from afar? Yes, as any nonprofit, we're always asking for funding. And we worked last year without any grants. It was very difficult to get grants. We need them. I'm obsessed with him. Mary Peter, thank you so much for your work. We are so happy to have you here and Justice. Oh, okay. There he is, there he is, the goodest boy. Mention that website one more time. K9 Partners for Patriots. CaninePartnersForPatriots.com or .org. Canine partners for patriots. CaninePartnersForPatriots.com or .org, right on your screens there, guys. Mary Peter, Justice, a pleasure to have you. Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for all you're doing. I know you have a busy day of events. We will let you go. But guys, thank you, and thank you for tuning into this wonderful conversation. We'll be right back after this break. I'm starting to speak.