With my interest in working with PTSD in the military and my love for animals, specifically dogs, I have become very fascinated in the effectiveness of dogs that are trained for PTSD. These dogs can perform a variety of tasks all centered around making their owners life easier, especially when it comes to transitioning veterans with PTSD back into their civilian lives. A key part of the effectiveness that these service dogs, as well as dogs in general, have on these veterans wellbeing has to do with the human-animal bond and the impact that the dogs have as a part of our social network.

These dogs are trained for various tasks, many of them having to do with assisting the veteran in public access and lessening anxiety in public. While this level of anxiety in public places is not due to social anxiety and the people that are in public places, these dogs assist their owners in being able to access public, seemingly uncontrolled, areas without being triggered by various stimuli. As a part of assisting in public access, dogs certified for service for PTSD are trained to warn veterans before they are triggered, such as touching the veteran with their nose when someone is approaching behind them or securing a room before the veteran walks in to insure him that the room is safe and free of threats.

          In addition to service dogs providing assistance for veterans and people with various other disorders, dogs as pets alone provide people with important social benefits that help to reduce stress. One of the many reasons that researchers think that dogs provide this sense of stress relief is due to these pets functioning as an attachment figure in which they provide a feeling of security and safety. The second impact that dogs have on human’s social well being is believe to be due to the fact that owning a dog, or any form of furry animal for that matter, facilitates human social approach and interaction. This social interaction includes people of all ages as well as people both with and without disabilities.

          Because of these social and emotional benefits of owning a pet dog help to reduce stress in individuals without PTSD, it is easy to assume that simply owning a dog, whether it is trained for service or not, would be beneficial to someone suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. That being said, giving a veteran with PTSD a dog that has been trained to assist him with his symptoms will not only help the veteran with every day tasks, but the dog will also help to increase his social and emotional well being, simply just by being a dog.