Columbia program pairs shelter dogs with veterans returning from service
August 14, 2011 10:22:00 pm
by MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS - The Kansas City Star
Even fried chicken couldn’t coax Legs to get down on his belly and crawl through the yellow tunnel to meet his buddy beckoning from the other end.
But that was OK with John Picray. The Navy veteran, who served two deployments to Iraq and flew strikes over Afghanistan, understands fear.
Besides, Picray, 26, knows how far Legs, 3, has come. This was only the third hourlong training session the two had shared. When the part-Airedale mutt started, he wouldn’t even sit and stay.
Now that trick is a yawner. He heels, jumps a low obstacle and comes to Picray’s calls.
Legs learned it all from his amateur trainer, Picray, in the Veterans & Shelter Dogs program, part of a study at the Research Center for Human/Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
The program puts two potentially troubled souls together — abandoned dogs and veterans, like Picray, just home from war.
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