(upbeat music) - Canines with a Cause is a nonprofit that pairs rescue dogs with military veterans to become psychiatric service or assistance dogs.

The Programs Managers, Chloe Chinchilla and Trainer, Harleigh Poulson are here to tell us more about the organization.

Hi Chloe.

Let's start with you.

So tell us how the program works.

You pair them up, so the vets have various issues, so talk about how you pair them up.

- Sure.

So we train psychiatric service dogs for veterans with psychiatric disabilities like PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

A lot of the veterans we work with also have traumatic brain injuries as well.

So all of the dogs coming into our program are temperament evaluated for service dog work.

They go into a pre-training program in our prison and they get basic pre-training, sits, downs, stays, you know, the basic stuff like that.

And then we pair the dog with the veteran and that's based on kind of the veteran's needs as well as the temperament of the dog.

You know, some veterans are higher energy, some are lower energy.

So we kind of pair them that way.

And then once they're paired, they will start working with Harleigh.

- Okay.

- In our training program.

- Okay, great.

- Yeah.

- So Harleigh, you train these dogs, so tell me how you train them.

- Yeah, so I actually don't train the dogs.

I train the veterans to train their own dogs, which is a really unique distinction in our program from other service dog training programs.

Sometimes dogs are placed pre-trained, so they're a hundred percent trained.

But we work with the veterans every week to train them how to train their own dogs.

We focus on positive reinforcement training, which just means that we focus on rewarding the good behaviors, setting the dogs and the veterans up for success instead of like yelling or doing harsh corrections.

- Okay.

And the veterans sometimes bring their own dogs?

- Yes, they can.

We temperament evaluate all of the dogs.

So even if they're bringing their own dog, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be a good candidate for service work.

We have very high standards, but we will evaluate the veterans' dogs.

- Okay, great.

Well thank you both for what you do.

Thanks for being here and thanks for bringing Giza.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about Canines with a Cause, go to CaninesWithaCause.org.

CaninesWithaCause.org.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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