Learn more about the research, which is being conducted in partnership with the Warrior Canine Connection, in “CATALYST” magazine.
Todd, Laura, Lucy. From the sound of it, the two military veterans could be mentioning relatives or teammates. Yet their tone is more like that of teachers, recalling star pupils or the class clown who later shaped up. Charles, Dewey, Shannon.
All those named are indeed pupils — canine ones. They are service dogs in training, and the classroom is usually a field among farms in Boyds, Md. The students are Golden or Labrador Retrievers that are bred, trained, and placed by Warrior Canine Connection (WCC), a nonprofit organization serving veterans and military families.
The two veterans, both women, bonded with the dogs during research conducted by the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) in partnership with WCC. The study’s purpose is to understand how canine interaction, motivated by a desire to help other veterans, affects stress in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Principal Investigator Erika Friedmann, PhD, associate dean for research and professor at UMSON, seeks to establish the health impact by measuring physiological and post-traumatic stress symptoms of veterans enrolled in the study as trainers.
“A large number of veterans suffer from PTSD. It’s important to develop ways to help them that are complementary to other treatments,” says Friedmann, observing that individuals respond differently. “There are many modalities.”
Read more and see photos of the training at CATALYST magazine.
You can read the Fall 2021 issue of CATALYST magazine, which highlights the incredible work being done to help educate people about the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines; a celebration of our new Community Engagement Center; outreach by the School of Social Work’s Positive Schools Center; Diane Forbes Berthoud, PhD, MA, UMB’s first chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer and vice president; our students returning to in-person learning; and much, much more at https://catalystmag.umaryland.edu/.