Tampa Teen Builds Service Dog Training Course for Veterans’ Program
A 17-year-old high school senior built a training area for K9 Partners for Patriots, putting in countless hours to build obstacles that help veterans connect with their service dogs. The new course was delivered to the training facility in mid-January.
Grace Pleinis took on this big project through American Heritage Girls as she worked to earn her Stars and Stripes Award. Her work provides a place where veterans and their dogs can learn to trust each other and develop important skills.
K9 Partners for Patriots works across 41 Florida counties and has helped change the lives of more than 600 veterans. They rescue shelter dogs and match them with veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress, brain injuries, or military-related trauma.
“The people in this program treat you like family all the time. You’re family from the beginning and it never ends,” said Dennis Holloway to Bay News 9.
Veterans join this free program for six months. While training rescue dogs to become service animals, they also learn important skills to help them adjust to civilian life.
“When they’re here experiencing those triggers in a fairly controlled environment with a mental health professional like myself, it assists them in developing coping skills to be able to navigate those issues that they might come into contact in the civilian world,” said Damian Watson, a clinical social worker at the organization.
The numbers show it’s working. Veteran suicides dropped from 6,489 to 6,146 between 2019 and 2020. Programs like K9 Partners helped make this improvement possible.
For Pleinis, this cause hits close to home. In 2020, her mom, a veteran herself, went through K9 Partners’ training with her own service dog.
Pleinis is headed to Palm Beach Atlantic University next fall with a soccer scholarship. She’s already finished both high school and earned her associate’s degree and plans to study psychology with a minor in criminal justice.
