SD Service Dogs: Saving veterans one dog at a time

By Mark Watson Black Hills Pioneer

RAPID CITY — A South Dakota man is helping fellow military veterans and first responders one dog at a time.

“There are at least two veterans in our program who have a confided in me that they would not be here without their dogs,” said Tony Russell, co-founder of South Dakota Service Dogs. “That’s two people who are still on this earth because of the generosity of our community. That’s incredible.”

Russell, and his wife Eleanor Russell, founded South Dakota Service Dogs and officially launched the 501C3 organization on Veterans Day 2021.

Russell’s desire to form the organization came after a years-long struggle following injuries he sustained in an accident while serving in the Air Force.

Joining the Air Force in 2011, he was a civil engineer. One day, while in Kuwait in 2018, he slipped off a piece of equipment while installing high-voltage lines in the rain. Landing on the ground, he tore his rotator cuff and other parts of his shoulder. Military physicians treated his shoulder injury but noted he had an elevated heart rate and blood pressure.

“Because I was going back stateside in three weeks they said, ‘you’re gonna survive, deal with it when you get back to the states.’”

Once back home, he went and saw a doctor, who agreed that treatment was necessary, but since Russell was transferring to Japan, he could wait until then. He then deployed on a humanitarian mission which further delayed the treatment. It wasn’t until about nine months later that he was sent to the international hospital in Tokyo.

“I met with a Japanese doctor, and he looked at me and … said, ‘well, we found something.’ So I said, ‘what I can’t eat bacon anymore’? Something to break the tension, break the ice. He looks at me and says, ‘I’ll walk you down to surgery now.’ That was a pretty drastic step from no bacon to surgery now.”

It was at that moment that his life changed forever.

His surgery and recovery went awry.

Russell’s heart stopped while being transferred to the intensive care unit. It stopped again in a follow-up surgery, and a third time in the intensive care unit.

At one point, doctors called his wife Eleanor telling her it was time to say goodbye as Tony would not survive. Along with their 4-yearold, Jacoby Russell, and while 36 weeks pregnant with their second son, Evan Russell, she went to the hospital.

But Russell did not die. Instead, he was in a coma for the next month.

Left with a traumatic brain injury, visual and physical defects, Russell spent weeks at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and about three months at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he began a long recovery.

“I had to learn to walk. I had to learn to talk. I had four days of therapy to learn to swallow water again,” he said. “The small things that we take for granted for every day.”

It was at these two hospitals that he was first introduced to service animals working with him as treatment.

“At both places I had therapy dogs involved in my care,” Russell said. “And at both places, doctors said there were days where they could look at my medical charts and say, ‘these are the days you had therapy dogs involved in your therapy. ... Your response to medical care was significantly better.’”

And then came the frustrations of working within the military’s regulations.

“They said, ‘you would definitely benefit from a service dog.’ The problem though is with the (Department of Defense) and the red tape. They can tell you that, medically it would benefit you, but they cannot provide you (with a service animal). ‘You can go to a national agency and find one, but that’s really as far as we can go.’”

This embarked him on search for his own service dog.

“I found a national agency, and I got on the waiting list,” he said.

However, that list was two-anda-half years long, “and they needed a small fee of $20,000 to give me a service dog. At that time I was desperate. I was literally battling for my life. I was trying to recover from my injuries.” It was during the wait for his name to make it to the top of the list that his life began a dark turn of events, battling depression, demons, and the will to go on.

Finding salvation

Ellsworth Air Force Base was Russell’s first duty station after enlisting in the military in 2011.

“I just knew I loved this place from the first moment I sat foot here, he said. “I knew that this is where I wanted to end up someday. So, when we knew I was going to be medically retired we decided to come back out here.”

Eleanor has family in Hot Springs and Russell’s former operations chief, John Pruitt, who knew of his struggles, retired to the area, so Russell said it made sense to make the Rapid City area home.

Suffering from post-traumatic stress, chronic pain, and struggling to recover from complications experienced during surgery, his life began to spiral down. He had night terrors, physical outbursts, and traumatic outbursts.

“I had got to a point I felt like I was too much of a burden on my family, which is a very real thing for most veterans who end up in that situation,” he said. “I made a decision that I was going to take my own life. I knew I was on a two-year waiting list. I wasn’t going to get help anytime soon. So there’s no help in sight. There was no end to my pain, so the easiest thing for me to do, and the best thing for my family at that time was to eliminate myself from the equation.”

Providence then found Russell.

“It was by the grace of God,” he said. “It was by my wife coming home early from a shopping trip. It was a combination of things.”

Ultimately, it was a phone call telling him that he would be receiving a service dog that he says saved his life.

It was Russell’s former operation’s chief who heard that the Rapid City Rush hockey team was raising a service dog to give a local veteran in need, and so he put Russell’s name in the hat.

In January 2020, Russell was invited to a Rush hockey game where he was formally presented with his dog, appropriately named Rush.

Growing up in western New York, Russell had dogs.

But they were drastically different to his own service animal, Rush, who is a constant companion at his side day and night.

Russell’s struggles didn’t end as soon as he received the dog, but they became manageable. And when they didn’t, Rush rushed in.

“… receiving Rush truly gave me my kids back,” Russell said. “Dealing with PTSD, my kids wouldn’t approach me in the beginning. They didn’t know when I would have a traumatic outburst or a physical outburst. Rush would come between us and form a barrier, and he would help me with night terrors, and so my rest improved. My quality of life improved with the children. Some of my mental and emotional health improved, and that just transferred into a better scenario for everyone.”

Finding purpose

Russell wanted to use his life-changing experience with his service dog to help his fellow veterans suffering from combat and non-combat related injuries and torment.

“When I got myself to a better position medically, and part of that is because of Rush, I sat down with my wife and said we’ve got to do something about this. There are 22 veterans a day committing suicide. … (In 2021) Ellsworth Air Force Base had 16 suicides with people associated to that base. It’s not something we talk about, but there are active duty military personnel who are taking their lives because of the stress that they are under. We have a $20,000 fee, and we have dogs in shelters that are overflowing. That to me just seems all we need to do is connect certain dogs and we could solve a major problem for our veterans. That’s what we set out to do. It’s a very personal thing for me.”

Thus putting Russell and his wife on a journey to create South Dakota Service Dogs on Veterans Day 2021.

Russell said working with doctors help, but not always.

“That’s not to say that medication and mental health counseling don’t work,” he said. “Those things do

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“A service dog is so special because the handler doesn’t have to have a choice in the matter,” Russell added. “The dog is going to interject themselves on your bad days. When you are mentally at your wits end and you are so depressed that you can’t get out of bed, the dog doesn’t care. The dog is going to force you to literally get out of bed because the dog has to eat. The dog has to go out.”

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During this interview, when Russell began talking about taking his own life, both dogs he had with him, Rush, his constant companion, and Rip, service dog in training, approached him, placed their heads in his lap, and waited for his response. A simple pat on their head, and they sensed that Russell was not in a crisis and they went on their way, roaming the South Dakota Service Dogs facility located at the Rushmore Mall in Rapid City.

“When the dogs are trying to get you out of bed, they’ll jump on you, and they will make you get out of bed,” he continued. “Both dogs have woken me up because of sleep apnea when I stop breathing. Both these dogs have a learned and responded to panic attacks.”

How do the dogs know of a pending crisis?

he said. “Right now, being vest off, both will come and check in, but at the same time they’re able to go and play and do things. But then if I need them they’re able to be right there.”

He discussed the dogs’ response to him talking about his decision to kill himself.

“That is essentially a baseline reaction,” Russell said. “So they’ll come over and sit there waiting for me to respond. Then if (either dogs) just sits there, and I don’t acknowledge him, he will actually start whining, which is kind of annoying. We’ve been given the opportunity to speak at different organizations. At times, I’ll get a little bit anxious, and he’ll sit there and start whining.

“I’m like dude you need to stop, but he’ll start whining until I acknowledge him,” he continued. “If that doesn’t get his attention, he’ll jump up on me, and if that doesn’t help he will start licking me.”

The dogs are essentially doing what he in the Air Force was trained to do.

“In the military, we train de-escalation of force,” he said. “We escalate until you get to a level that the force is appropriate and then you de-escalate that down.” or who have complex situations.

The dog does the same thing.

Using puppies donated to the program, each animal is raised and trained for an individual with specific needs.

“We know those issues are going to be long-term and ongoing and we want to get as young a dog as possible so they have as much time with that dog as possible,” Russell said. “But then we have our rapid rescue program. That is for folks who have an immediate need for a mental health dog. They have some type of PTSD, or it could be some sort of mental health issue that we see. What we know on our end is that a good dog with no training is way better than no dog at all.”

For the rapid rescue program, Russell’s team has partnered with the Humane Society in Rapid City.

“If we have a veteran who is a need we can go down there grab a dog and have a dog to a veteran within 24 to 48 hours,” he said.

Before that crisis occurs, the service dog organization has already scouted out the dogs at the shelter, spending hours with it to understand which dogs would be suitable, their temperament, and what drives them to work – food or toys.

When it comes to training the dogs, Russell said the dogs started for the planned partnership program will be started as young as 9 weeks old. That training can take as long as two years. The person slated to receive the dog is instrumental in the process to make that bond as early as possible, but also to train alongside their companion.

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“… they can sense (the mental or physical problem) through odor detection, through chemical imbalances in your body. They can sense a panic attack or anxiety attack three to five minute before it occurs,” Russell said. “If you’ve ever dealt with anxiety or a panic attack, and you understand how debilitating that can be, three to five minutes is a huge amount of time for you to get to a safer situation or excuse yourself from the situation to a place where you can deal with it one-on-one with your dog. … They are amazing. It is amazing how in tune they are with their handler.”

During this interview, both dogs were not wearing their vests identifying them as a service animal. They roamed the facility, but would continuously check on Russell. Had their vests been on, both would have been much more attentive, he said.

“Right now, they know there’s a difference between vest on and vest off,”

“It slowly escalates until his response is the same level of your anxiety,” he said. “Then he can de-escalate himself back down. All of it to say, ‘that the trauma that you are feeling, whether it’s for some of these folks it was a warzone, or whatever your traumatic event that you experienced, you’re no longer in the traumatic event. You’re now a dog handler. I am the dog. Look at me. Pay attention to me. Tell me what you need me to do.’

Getting the right dog

So where does his organization get dogs that are otherwise unaffordable to most people?

The solution was surprisingly simple. In many communities across the country, animal shelters are full of cats and dogs waiting their forever home. That’s not to say that every dog is appropriate to be a service dog, but some are, “If we could take these local dogs, we could and pair them with the veterans, we could solve this problem why wouldn’t we? We set out for a way to do that,” Russell said. “We partnered with some people locally; we have three amazing local trainers in our program.”

Now, the organization has a twopronged approach – its planned partnership program, and its rapid rescue program.

The planned partnership program is for people in need of a multiuse dog

“There are some situations where that it is not possible because the veteran has mobility issues or some of the mental health issues. Some of the veterans with PTSD they cannot handle a puppy whining,” he said. “That’s where we have host families who come alongside and will raise the puppy to a point where that the veteran is able to come along and take over the training. That’s different for every veteran.”

Pairing the right dog with the veteran

When a veteran submits an application, a team, to include a mental health professional, an occupational therapist, a dog trainer, and a board member review the veteran’s conditions.

“They sit down and say, ‘OK, this is how we’re going to train this dog,’” Russell said.

They will go through the pool of dogs in the program and then determine what dog is going to be best for the veteran.

Even the appropriate side of the handler that the dog will post on is discussed.

From small beginnings to life-saving goals

The gap that South Dakota Service

DOGS Pg

Dogs has filled has humbled Russell, he said.

“We now have over 50 dogs and 98 veterans in our program,” Russell said. “Last year, we gave 16 dogs to veterans, which to me is incredible. And absolutely humbling.”

And the help the program, which is run solely on donations, has proven it saves lives.

He said some days, he’ll sneak in the back door of the facility and watch the dogs and their handlers work together.

“I’ll watch in amazement for what truly our community has allowed to happen,” Rush said. “Without the community support of the Rush puppy and the Rush hockey team I would not have received Rush, and that was what I needed to get better and that truly sparked (the organization.)”

Applications for dogs have increased in pace.

“We’re just humbled by that. Everything is 100% donation base,” Russell said. “We’ve been able to do that and survive through a very challenging and turbulent times in our economy. With that, we’re still able to succeed in our mission and help people. Allowing people to truly see where their dollars are going. They are truly saving lives. There are at least two veterans in our program who have a confided in me that they would not be here without their dogs. That’s two people who are still on this earth because of the generosity of our community. That’s incredible.”

Training process

When most people think of training a dog, we think of commands like sit, stay, and come. If you want the dog to sit, you tell it to sit and then press down on its rump until it sits. Then it is rewarded.

“We will never push a dog’s butt down when it comes to service dogs,” Russell said.

He explained why.

There are three forms for teaching a dog actions: luring, molding, and capturing.

“Capture behavior is something that dogs already do,” Russell said. “Typically you’re going to have treats. That’s usually the best kind of reward. “They do a good sit you reward that.”

He said lure behavior is when you physically lure the dog into a position or action you want, and when it does, it is rewarded. He gave the example of sit. The dog was at his side and he held a treat in front of its nose attracting it back into a sit position. When it does this, it is immediately rewarded.

“Molding is when you play push down on their haunches, which is very effective for training animals, but when it comes to service dogs we do discourage that because of special advanced training,” Russell said.

“When it comes to that, we don’t want to mold the behavior, we want the dog to start thinking on their own. We want the dog to think, ‘if I do this behavior, what’s next?’”

So while the command sit is relatively easy to master, how on earth do you get a dog to whine on cue?

To get the dog to whine, “there are things we can do to mimic, an elevated cortisol level, or we can get or we can create an environment where we can get the dog to whine. When they do, then we reward it.”

But obviously the trainers, and service dog owners, don’t want it to whine all the time, so the timing is critical.

“The dog is doing it at a specific time. It is essentially targeted training if you will. It is not just a free-forall,” Russell said.

Pairing the dog to the handler

When a veteran submits an application to South Dakota Service Dogs, the board and other mental and occupational health officials review it to determine specific needs of the veteran. A meticulous training plan is then created catering to distinct needs and disabilities.

Dogs are trained to a certain level and then they are paired with the veteran to continue the individualized training.

Once the dog is paired with the veteran, both will undergo training until they graduate from the program. But it doesn’t end there. Quarterly evaluations are conducted until they are deemed proficient. And then there are annual check-ins and training. If something is amiss, further corrective training is held.

All dogs go to heaven

When a pet dies, the household loses a member of the family. When a service animal dies, their handler loses a lifeline. But more often, that service animal is taken off duty as they are physically and mentally drained.

“How long can they work?

Everyone has a cell phone is the easiest way to put it. Your cell phone is going to last two to three years, and then you need to get a new one,” Russell said. “The reason primarily is because that cell phone is running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s not turned on all the time, but it’s always running in the background. Even when you’re sleeping, it’s still turned on. It’s the same with a service dog. Even when they’re sleeping, they are still hyper vigilant. They’re still aware of what’s going on around them. That’s stressful on a dog. It takes a significant toll on them. For the health and well-being of the dog if you’re looking at seven to eight years of the dog for the service life of a dog and then you retire them. You give them a quality of life and retirement so that they can … enjoy the last couple years.”

But it’s not as simple as sending the dog out to greener pastures. “Retiring a service dog to another person’s home, sometimes the dog will only last a month or two and then will pass away from the depression,” he said. “Because they are so driven, and it’s so used to working with one handler for so long. And now you take them out of that environment, and now there’s that depression element and that takes a toll on them as well. So we do really evaluate the dog and try to figure out what’s the best for them. For some dogs it’s keeping them in the home with their veteran but just taking them off duty and replacing them with a new service dog.”

This can be beneficial for the second dog as it learns tasks from the first dog.

To learn more about the organization, visit www.southdakotaservicedogs.com .

If you are a veteran and are having thoughts of suicide, dial 988 then press 1 or visit the Veterans Crisis Line at www.veteranscrisisline.net

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