Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Healing with Paws: Brenda Lauer from the Truman Foundation on Service Dogs Transforming Veterans' Lives
Meet Brenda Lauer, founder of the Truman Foundation, who shares her remarkable journey from serving in the Army to advocating for veterans with PTSD. Discover how a service dog named Truman transformed Brenda's life and inspired her to help others through her foundation.
In this episode, we explore the crucial role of service dogs for veterans and the lack of a national training standard. Brenda opens up about the emotional toll of losing her service dog, Truman. She even talks about writing two books to educate children and veterans about the importance of service dogs, making a compelling case for public education on service dog etiquette and ADA laws.
Join us as we discuss the transformative impact of service dogs on veterans' mental health and well-being. Brenda shares personal anecdotes and practical advice on the rigorous training required, the potential for shelter dogs to become service animals, and the diverse breeds that can be trained. We also highlight Brenda's active participation in veterans' events in Northern Virginia, encouraging listeners to connect with her and Teddy Roosevelt. Don't miss this heartfelt episode emphasizing the importance of integrating service dogs into veterans' lives for a brighter, more secure future.
Good morning. I'm Larry Zilliak, director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and this week we have Brenda Lahr. She is the founder of the Truman Foundation and this is an organization that helps veterans get service dogs, points them in the right directions, gives them the information they need to find a service dog that is right for them and hopefully they're not getting taken to the cleaners or getting a dog that really doesn't work for them and just then becomes a pet. We hate to see that, but Brenda is a veteran. I've been looking forward to her coming and sharing her story as well, as the Truman Foundation is named after her first service dog, truman, who is a beautiful soul, just the sweetest dog you ever want to meet, and so we're really excited to have her. Brenda, welcome to the podcast.
Brenda Lauer:Thank you, larry, thank you for having me.
Larry Zilliox:Let's start with telling us a little bit about your service background and your military journey. Telling us a little bit about your service background and your military journey that led you eventually to separate and decide. You know, I need a service dog. And then the founding of the Truman Foundation. How did this all start?
Brenda Lauer:Well, I did join the Army to see the world and I went from Montana to Missouri and that ended up being my whole world. Oh my goodness, yeah, I ended up injured and assaulted and I received a medical discharge. I didn't understand what happened to me and for a long time I was making bad choices and not understanding I had post-traumatic stress disorder. I was very lucky. Maybe about a year later I was working for a VA state rep and he literally like threw a pamphlet at me and ran off. And when I looked at the pamphlet it said woman that were assaulted in the military and I was like, oh my God, that's me. And from there the wheels started rolling. I was on the phone with a woman named Teddy and she was the first person. I realized what happened to me, about the assaults, and she hooked me up with therapy and group therapy and from there I went to college, I became a therapist right outside of a military base and I was able to work with other veterans and really help them with their PTSD because of my inside knowledge, possibly, but I think I also was avoiding my PTSD at the same time, because it's easy to help other people but it's not so easy to work on yourself. So in 2013, I had a motor vehicle accident that gave me a brain injury and then eventually, a benign tumor on my right side. In 2013, I thought I wanted to die, because that's what brain injuries do they convince you? You want to die, and I knew I didn't want to die, but I just felt like it. So I was very fortunate.
Brenda Lauer:One of my friends had a service dog named Sapper Army and he came into the office with her and that dog immediately wrapped himself around me and I looked down. I was like what's wrong with your dog? And she said, girl, what's wrong with you? My dog is telling me something, and that's when I told her everything that happened to me and what was going on in my life and the car accident, and so she helped me get a service dog. I went through Missouri Patriot Paws. They recruited Truman from the prison system. He was a prison dog puppies and parolees, a great program but his original name was Sonic and I just didn't like it. So they offered me some name changes and when they said Truman, it was perfect, he's from Missouri, president Truman, and he just looked like a Truman raisers are incarcerated and it gives the prisoners meaning, it gives them somebody to care for some and it's just a wonderful program.
Larry Zilliox:How old was Truman when you, when you got him?
Brenda Lauer:He was. I think he was almost two years old, yeah.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, so he had had quite a bit of training, so more than a year.
Brenda Lauer:Then I'd say I believe it's a six-week program and what happened was he was a bait dog but he wouldn't fight back, so they dumped him at a shelter and then the shelter picked him up and brought him over to the program so he could get trained. He literally had scars from head to toe and the recidivism rate is 50% less if an inmate has worked with a dog. It's a fantastic program and nowadays they can get certifications, so when they're out they have a job that's kind of flexible around all the appointments and all the things they need to do when they're on probation.
Larry Zilliox:Oh yeah, it's just a great program. I you got to commend somebody who just thought of that. I just would have never thought of that. It's just crazy.
Brenda Lauer:Absolutely. Sometimes that's the first real deep connection they've had.
Larry Zilliox:Yes. So now you've got Truman and tell us the difference that Truman made in your life. Tell us the difference that Truman made in your life.
Brenda Lauer:Well, I'll tell you about the first day when I picked him up from the shelter.
Brenda Lauer:It was kind of like a Turner and Hooch episode. He drooled all over the car and I was nervous too, because he's part pit bull and I've never been around a pit bull and you know they have a reputation with some people, sure, but so do veterans with PTSD, right. So when we got home I was like I don't know if this is going to work. But that night, when I was having one of my usual nightmares at night terrors for the first time I just felt something in my hand that was really, really gentle and I was kind of disoriented. But when I looked down I saw it was Truman nuzzling my hand and I was like whoa, he just met me and he knows I'm having a nightmare and I can't explain it. But I know other veterans that have service dogs understand this. When you feel like somebody has your six, like that, you can sleep at night because he's watching the door, he's listening, he's doing all the stuff that I used to do. I gave that job to him.
Larry Zilliox:And it just relieves you of a real burden.
Brenda Lauer:Absolutely and it's always consistent, unlike a person who has faults. Naturally, the next morning when I went to take a shower and, believe me, since I got out of the army up to that point, I never took a real shower. I'd always close one eye and scrub, close the other eye and scrub because of what happened to me in the military but that day, truman plopped himself on the mat facing the door and I just felt this. I got you and I took my first real shower in over a decade and it was glorious.
Larry Zilliox:Wow.
Brenda Lauer:And that was just at home. That wasn't even the stuff he did out in public.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, Then you pick him up and what's the training process like?
Brenda Lauer:Well with. Every organization is going to have a different protocol and none is more right than the other. It's just what their preferences are and how trainable the animal is. Trill and I, we train with a wonderful trainer named Jesse for six weeks, yeah, and I really believe that the training in itself is therapeutic. It teaches you how to be present, it teaches you how to listen to your dog and your dog to listen to you, and you're trusting the trainer to help you. The webpage is truman-foundationorg. Yes, okay.
Larry Zilliox:So we want all of our listeners to go to the webpage, read about Truman. Just look at what they're doing Now. Brenda and I will have a talk about the webpage when we're done here today, because I want to help you make some changes to it, because the donate button is at the bottom of the page. Okay, it's got to be at the top. Every other VSO out there. It's up at the top right-hand corner. We'll fix that. Go to this webpage, take a look at Truman and then go down all the way to the bottom. I mean, most people don't make it to the bottom, but I want everybody to go to the bottom and click on that donate button and donate whatever you can $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000,. Donate because this is a great organization.
Larry Zilliox:Helping veterans get service dogs changes their life. It absolutely. I've never met a veteran with a service dog who says, yeah, it was good, it was okay, I'm glad I got the dog. You know they are over the moon about having a dog. It changes their life and they are the best ambassadors for other veterans to get dogs because they can explain it in ways that generally other people can't and also, too, when you're in the presence. So today Brenda has Teddy Roosevelt with her, her new service dog connection. You see the connection. My sister has a wonderful service dog, prince, and the connection between the dog and the veteran is just it's amazing Very often the closest thing they have to that connection to the people they served with.
Larry Zilliox:So it's a hard thing to explain to people who've never been in the military the connection you get with the people that you serve with, because it's a deeper connection that you'll ever get when you're in civilian life, because you're there with people that are on either side of you, who are willing to risk their life and die for you, and so that deep connection, that bond is forged in service. The closest thing you're going to get to that and see, is the connection between a veteran and their service doc, is the connection between a veteran and their service doc. And so go to the webpage and you know, bang on that donate button and make whatever kind of donation you can. Again, that webpage is truman-foundationorg. So tell us about just founding this organization. Just founding this organization, truman passes, and I know that was hard.
Brenda Lauer:Very.
Larry Zilliox:Very, very hard. You know you pick yourself up and you say, okay, I need to do something. And what a great way to honor Truman, because he is still out there informing other veterans about the benefit of having a service dog. So what made you decide to create the Truman Foundation?
Brenda Lauer:When I was in Missouri with Truman, I realized a lot of people didn't understand service dog etiquette or the ADA law or the therapeutic relationship and sometimes we would have problems therapeutic relationship and sometimes we would have problems. And I realized early on I needed to be an ambassador and educate and not humiliate or get upset. And because there's a lot of veterans out there that are one confrontation away with their service dog from just staying home and that would be really tragic, considering all the time it takes to get out into public all the time it takes to get out into public. So in 2018, my best friend and I decided to start the Truman Foundation because we were doing it anyway. We were educating people and connecting people to resources and, as a therapist, I was supporting veterans with their mental health. So we decided why not go official and make it a nonprofit?
Brenda Lauer:And I also am in the process of writing a book about Truman.
Brenda Lauer:Well, actually, two books. One's a kid's book on service dog education and it's a book of him and his real life best friend, trinity, their relationship, and then she talks about what a service dog does and it's called Trinity and Truman Tales T-A-I-L-S. And then my second book is going to be a self-help workbook type situation where it's actual things that Truman taught me about my mental health, and the first half of the chapter I'll discuss that and maybe I'll have a Facebook posting related to it or somebody that Truman has touched in their life. And then the second half, I'm going to have a therapist help you put it into your life so that you can learn those lessons too. And then the high end we get little stuffed Truman's so we can hand those out and you can have one for comfort too. Wow, yeah, I went to a pet psychic a while ago because I didn't know what to do with my grief. I mean, I really, I mean, even to this day, I miss Truman oh yeah it's like losing a child.
Brenda Lauer:Sure In my world, and the psychic was like oh wow, there's a dog pushing their way to the front and he's wearing something. I said, is it a fetish? She said yeah. I said is he? And I described she goes yeah, that's him. I said that's Truman. She goes oh, oh, my goodness, he wants me to tell you to finish those books. He wants to keep helping people. He wants the foundation to keep going. Because I was ready to stop doing it because the grief was overwhelming at times. And then she told me that he sent me Teddy so I could laugh again. There you go.
Larry Zilliox:And Teddy's a handful.
Brenda Lauer:Oh he is. He's a canine comedian.
Larry Zilliox:I wish our listeners could see him, but he's got a big green bow tie on right now and he just kind of crashed out, which is great.
Brenda Lauer:Yes, and he's using Truman's graduation blanket.
Larry Zilliox:Nice, nice Well, I can't wait for the book to come out. I think that's going to be just an amazing resource. One of the things that comes to mind that's an issue around service dogs is one there's no national standard for what training has to take place to qualify a dog as a service dog. There's no way to know. Okay, is this a legitimate service dog, or did somebody just get a vest off eBay and slap it on their dog so that the dog can fly for free? So I think that's a real issue.
Larry Zilliox:One Two is the lack of support for service dogs from the VA, and I understand it.
Larry Zilliox:I get it because what people don't realize is that if you have a rated disability from the VA, all the treatment, everything that surrounds that disability, is paid for by the VA. So in one of my ratings is my hearing aids. So these are very expensive hearing aids. When I need batteries, I just fill out a form, mail it off and I get a whole bunch of batteries in the mail. So everything about the hearing aids is covered by the VA. Now if the VA says service dogs, they're going to cover and provide service dogs, then everything related to that service dog is an expense, that the VA covers medical treatment, all sorts of things, and so the money involved would be substantial. But I think that at some point organizations, veterans who have service dogs, and VSOs like the larger ones the American Legion, the VFW, dav need to make a push to say it's about time that the VA started to help veterans get service dogs. What do you think the possibility of that happening anytime soon?
Brenda Lauer:I think it's a long road to go because I think was it two years ago the last study that they did on service dogs benefiting veterans? They decided it was inconclusive. So I think there's some pushback. But that's a personal opinion. But I do know from my experience. I've seen, like combat vets, that their family was on the brink of destruction. They were staying at home, they were feeling less valued because they couldn't go out and do things anymore. And then you put a service dog into that dynamic and the family reunites. The veteran is out having coffee at the coffee shop and going to the commissary again and getting their life back. So it's kind of a ripple effect when it's a successful match. And I don't know if the VA understands that in its entirety because I think they're more medical model, like here's a pill for this, here's a pill for that, and the typical veteran's on at least 10 prescriptions.
Larry Zilliox:I also wonder too one of the leading causes of veteran suicide is isolation and when you have a service dog it expands your world and it enables you to get out and starts to take care of that issue of isolation. So that's sort of an intangible byproduct that I don't know how they would measure, but I don't think it can be ignored because I think, especially this year, the VA's push has been around the suicide issue with veterans. This could be, I would think, play right into that and say you know what somebody needs to look at. What is the rate of veteran suicide amongst veterans who have service dogs? And my guess is it's close to zero. I think it's very low. If for any other reason, that from every veteran I know who has a service dog in their mind, I think they would say that that would be abandoning their partner.
Brenda Lauer:Yes, that's how I felt.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, and so they could never do it because of that. So I think that VA really needs to take a real look at that aspect of it and how it impacts veteran suicide. What do you say to veterans? Veteran says okay, I think a service dog would benefit me, but I really don't know. How do I find out?
Brenda Lauer:Well, that is part of what the organization loves to do and that's my passion, and I'll ask them a series of questions like what is their disability? What would they expect the dog to do for their disability? Because a service dog is meant to help you navigate your disability, so you can be out in public. So we it would be like anxiety alert or blocking people or watching your back, diabetic alert, seizure alert. There's so many jobs a service dog can do and if there's one of those, then we could talk about the responsibility and the time and energy you put in. And I always recommend volunteer at your local service dog organization, get to know the ins and outs and see if that's what you want. That's a great way to get to know them, a great way to understand the training ahead of time and to see, because it is a big responsibility and on top of it's a great reward, but it's a great responsibility.
Larry Zilliox:It really is a commitment because if you're isolating, you can't. You can't get a service dog and isolate, you have to get out, you have to train with that dog, you have to go to the facility. So that's a commitment right there to say, okay, I need to be more involved in the outside world. I need to get myself from point A to point B. Not really good at that, I don't like it. I don't want to ride the bus, it's too crazy, it's too expensive to take an Uber. I don't want to ride the bus, it's too crazy, it's too expensive to take an Uber.
Larry Zilliox:There's probably a million reasons why that veteran believes they should isolate. If you're that veteran out there and you're thinking of a service dog but you don't want to make that commitment because of, I don't know, the transportation issues, things like that, there are a million veteran service organizations to help you with all that. Whether it's not, it's beyond the service dog organization, but there are organizations that can help you with transportation. There are organizations that can help you with cost. There are plenty of organizations that can help you get to the point where you can get that service dog. Do you have a sense of what breed or dog makes the best service dog.
Brenda Lauer:Pretty much any breed that's willing to train. And my passion, of course, is shelter dogs becoming service dogs, because a lot of organizations have a two-year wait and COVID kind of made that wait longer for some and it wasn't anything on their behalf, just COVID prevented a lot of things with the breeding and work and stuff like that. So I believe that shelter dogs are out there and they're waiting to help a veteran just as well as a service dog that's been trained from birth. But there are a few breeds that trainers will tell me that they just won't. I mean, I don't think I've seen certain breeds as a service dog, but that's my experience. I could be wrong. I've seen Rottweiler service dogs that are great. I've seen even a Husky. So I can't say, because I'm not a dog trainer, exactly what breeds would be the worst for it. But I do believe that a lot more breeds are out there than just labs and German Shepherds.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, Golden Retrievers are a big one. Yeah, they're great. What is Teddy Roosevelt there? What is he?
Brenda Lauer:Well, I would like to know. I want to do a DNA test, but at the very least he's a lab because he has a little cone head on top that labs have and the trainer thinks he's part pitbull because he has a crazy underbite.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, Come from a shelter. He did right.
Brenda Lauer:Yes, he was only three months old when they found him and he was underweight severely and he was covered with fleas, possibly left for dead. So he entered the shelter system at three months old and he'd been in several shelters. They pulled him from a kill shelter. He went to at least three different adoption events and nobody showed interest. But for me I was missing Truman and I was kind of like Truman, I really want another dog, Can you send me a dog? And I went online and I put in Truman's breed and everything and there he was and his name was Julio Julio and when I contacted them he was in Alabama. So we did all the paperwork virtually and there's a couple that runs up and down Route 66 that takes dog back and forth and they met me like near Front Royal and I was able to pick them up that way. That's awesome, yeah.
Larry Zilliox:That's just great. Let me just say this webpage again. It's Truman Foundation, so it's truman-foundationorg and the donate button is down at the bottom of the page. So scroll all the way down and hit that donate button and make a donation. It's a wonderful program. It's really changing veterans' lives and I want everybody to support the organization. A lot of what you do is outreach, so you may see Brenda at a Northern Virginia tabling event for all sorts of organizations when you're in the veteran service organization space in Northern Virginia. There's a lot of opportunity to get out there. So if you go into a veteran event, look for her, look for Teddy Roosevelt, say hello. But Brenda, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it.
Brenda Lauer:And thank you as well, Larry. I appreciate you.
Larry Zilliox:For our listeners. We'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcast, at willingwarriorsorg.
