Gets Real: ‘Paws for Purple Hearts’ trains service dogs for struggling veterans

TACOMA, Wash. — The challenges veterans face continue, even after they hang up their uniforms.  That’s why a local organization is investing in service dogs; using man’s best friend to provide comfort and companionship.

The organization, Paws for Purple Hearts, is tucked away in a corner of downtown Tacoma. It sits in an unassuming warehouse. Inside is a modest interior, yet it’s the place where Greg Prichard continues to find solace.

“For me, it’s like my only escape from a week of pretty intensive therapy,” says Prichard.

Pritchard served in the U.S. Army for 24 years. He was a First Sergeant with tours in Yugoslavia and Iraq. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and still struggles with his mental health.  He tells KIRO 7 having dogs in his life is a part of the reason he’s still here.

“They’re loyal, they’re faithful, they’re focused on you. You can tell them your worst nightmares, and they will look at you with love, and there’s no price tag you put on that,” says Prichard.

So, each week he comes to the warehouse, where the organization, connects veterans with service dogs in the making. Prichard sits in on trainings and interacts with the dogs.

“Our veterans benefit from this because they get to hang out with very well-mannered dogs. But they also leave the program knowing that what they did with us will eventually benefit somebody who needs that service dog, and they are helping train that dog for the veteran who will one day receive it,” says Sonja Jordan. She works with the Washington branch of Paws for Purple Hearts.

Dogs, Mark and Olivia, are two of their loveable and latest recruits.

Throughout their multi-year training, the dogs will learn more than 100 commands. They’re preparing to help veterans with mobility issues. They work with trainers to do things like pick up pill bottles and turn on a light fixture. But perhaps the dogs’ greatest skillset is the therapy they provide. Taught to identify anxiety indicators, like ringing hands or a bouncing knee.

The dogs are trained to identify the anxiousness and alert their handler. It’s the dog’s way of providing awareness and reassurance during a stressful time.

Prichard believes that the comfort dogs bring is innate. He’s seen it firsthand with his own dog.

“I have a tendency to have really bad nightmares, and I leave the bed, and that’s not safe because I’m not conscious, and my dog, she gets on my chest, and she keeps me in the bed. So that’s a safety mechanism for me,” says Prichard.

That safety and security is something the organization hopes to bring to hundreds of military members across Western Washington.

Once their training is complete, Mark and Olivia will likely be matched with a veteran as a full-time service dog. But in the interim, they travel to places like Joint Base Lewis-McChord for mini-therapy sessions.

“We also provide different programs such as social therapy, which is where we take our service dogs into different places, like soldiers homes, or we’ll take them on base and they’ll meet with active-duty service members [and] veteran service members,” says Jordan. “Just give them a lighthearted reprieve for the day.”

The dogs also travel to places around the city, like the Foss Waterway Seaport. Their trainers preparing the dogs for any setting. It’s so that when they are matched with a veteran, the dogs provide them the confidence they need to go anywhere.

“If I can do anything to support this program, I will do it, because I know that from friends of mine, veterans who have been gifted with these dogs, that it changes their life that they are no longer trapped in the darkness. Most of us never leave our houses, and the dog is your ticket out that door,” says Prichard.

His words, affirmation of the work this organization does. Paws for Purple Hearts, working to give a new life to those who were willing to risk theirs.

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