By AUBRIE GEORGE
The bond Medford resident Kevin Elicott has with his black lab Sierra is so extraordinary that the pup is able to wake him from his sleep with a gentle nudge and a lick to the face, just as thoughts of war begin to invade his dreams.
Elicott, a U.S. Marine, is a co-founder of Semper Fido — a non-profit organization that combines the rehabilitation of service members and veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and traumatic brain injuries with saving unwanted animals from shelters and rescues.
Elicott and Sierra were united after he returned from his second deployment to Iraq and was diagnosed with PTSD and a mild TBI at Walter Reed Medical Center. The Department of Veterans Affairs gave him a prescription for a service dog and he purchased a black lab puppy and began training her at K-9 Basics in Marlton.
As a firefighter for Medford, Elicott had been acquainted with one of the owners of K-9 Basics, Lisa Berg, who is a retired Medford Police officer. Berg mentioned something to Elicot that she had seen on television about service dogs helping service members suffering from PTSD and TBI’s. Elicott told Berg about his background, and from there, the idea for Semper Fido took off.
The organization now evaluates, tests, trains, qualifies and assists working therapy dogs to provide loving, nurturing, and empathic, trained working dogs for returning wounded warriors faced with PTSD, according to the group’s Web site, www.semperfido.org.
Through the program, a rescue dog from a shelter is trained for specific commands for specific needs of a wounded service member with PTSD. A service member’s personal dog is eligible to go through the training, if deemed appropriate in temperament, demeanor and size by K-9 Basics trainers.
Each service dog goes through an off-leash training long enough for the service member to become comfortable working with them. Service members have hands-on participation during the training period, doing things such as feeding, walking, playing with, and grooming their soon-to-be pets. They’re also taught how to use commands as professionals from K-9 Basics train the dogs how to respond to those commands.
Once trained, Semper Fido dogs have the ability to decrease isolation of the veteran, decrease the need for medications, decrease anxiety and panic attacks, and waken them up from nightmares and flashbacks, according to the group’s Web site. Once trained and certified, dogs are allowed full access to any and all places the service member wishes to visit.
The cost to train service dogs is offered at no cost to the service member through Semper Fido. The organization also has rescue dogs neutered or space, if necessary, and takes them to the vet to have microchip tracking devices inserted into the pets in case they ever get lost.
Elicott said his experience with training and living with Sierra has been challenging, but therapeutic.
“The process has taught me to be patient again, something that I lost because of my PTSD and TBI,” he said. “The constant positive feedback that I get from training Sierra has helped me restore some of the confidence that I’ve lost since coming home from Iraq.”
For more information about Semper Fido, visit www.semperfido.org.
