Courageous Companions is nationally registered charity which provides service dogs to military veterans, and first responders ... diagnosed with operational stress injuries. Courageous Companions is volunteer run and governed by a board of directors, most of whom have ties to the Canadian Armed Forces or First Responder field. Each Service Dog undertakes specialized training to provide for the needs of the individual for whom they are being trained for. The two are then trained together to become a service dog team. The dogs have been shown to have a calming effect on PTSD sufferers. Among other effects, a service dog can provide the following: • psychiatric support; • interruptive behavior; • deliberate disobedience to redirect the clients’ behavior, then tactile stimulation to disrupt emotional overload; • wakening the client from nightmares; • deep pressure for a calming effect; • crowd control and panic prevention in public; • arousal from fear paralysis or a disassociation spell; • prevention or combating of emotional overload; • assisting a client to leave an area by finding an exit; • home sweep checks; • ability to warn the client of hazards they may not be aware of; • allowing the client to feel calm enabling personal space expansion. Courageous Companions provides all the funding related to acquisition, training, certification, equipment and transportation of the dog and person team. Courageous Companions depends on sponsorship and donations to continue matching service dogs with those in need. The average cost of training, certifying, and maintaining the certification of a service dog is between $15, 000 and $20 000. The initial training takes approximately two years to complete. All donations, go directly to improving the individual’s quality of life by providing them with specially trained companions, specifically chosen to help reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress injury. read more