Soldiers who have experienced wars and seen the worst things usually suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. So when Veteran Carlos came home after 20 long years of providing his service in the military, acclimating back to civilian life proved to be way too difficult for him.
His family started to fall apart as he started lashing out in anger and drinking lots of medicine to try and go back to his previous self.
But everything changed for the better for him when he met his service dog, Hannah. Before, he used to hate crowds and going out because it always triggered a lot of trauma for him. But thanks to Hannah, he was able to go back slowly to a normal life.
Carlos got his dog, Hannah, from K9s for Warriors, an American charity and veterans service organization. And when they first met, Hannah was very scrawny and she had those really big paws. But upon actually getting to know each other better, Carlos realized that Hannah was very smart and she was also quick to learn.
And since Carlos was a former military canine handler and dog trainer, the transition wasn’t very difficult for the both of them. Carlos knew a lot of the commands that Hannah was already trained for. One of the most used commands that they do was brace which was Hannah providing support for Carlos so that he would be able to easily get up from the ground.
Over the years, their bond grew even stronger and Carlos was able to finally experience normalcy again like going to the gym, running errands, or just simply going outside without fear. To even make their bond official, Carlos customized Hannah’s service dog vest from his deployment uniform.
Carlos saved Hannah and gave her a home and Hannah saved him from losing himself. They helped each other heal and grow.
Source: YouTube via The Dodo