Puppy parents love to answer call of duty
Volunteers train service dogs to eventually assist veterans
Two days a week, Karen Chiu is the most popular employee in the Barefoot Networks office.
She admits that’s because she brings along Gregg, a 6-month-old black Labrador Retriever.
“On the days he comes in, I get a lot more visitors,” the Cupertino resident said.
Chiu is training the energetic lab to become a service dog for the Warrior Canine Connection, an organization that breeds and trains dogs specifically to assist military veterans.
The organization, headquartered in Boyds, Maryland, flies puppies to volunteers all over the country who care for and train them for nearly two years.
This is the fourth time since 2015 that Chiu has been a “puppy parent” with Warrior Canine Connection. Each dog is named after a fallen soldier, and Gregg’s namesake was Army National Guard Specialist Greggery Mandeville.
While dogs are under a volunteer’s care, they learn simple obedience commands such as sit, stay and follow. Then come the more complex commands, such as opening and closing doors and drawers, turning light switches on and off and picking up items. Dogs are trained using positive reinforcement with treats and kind words.
They’re even trained how to behave in and out of “uniform.” The dogs wear a Warrior Canine Connection vest when they “go to work” using their training, Chiu said. When the vest is off, they’re free to play with toys, run around and do things typical dogs do.
Chiu underwent training before she received Gregg. The two attend class once a week, and Gregg spends three days a week at the Menlo Park Division of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Trainers there work alongside veterans.
“Veterans at the VA help train the dogs as part of therapy,” said Jessica Podkulski, a trainer with Warrior Canine Connection.
Podkulski said participating veterans look forward to assisting with training and that strong bonds form between them and the dogs.
“These veterans build relationships with these dogs, and it’s super rewarding to see an eight-week puppy from the time they start to when they complete their training,” Podkulski said.
She said pups are at their training location for eight hours each session, which helps them adapt to the various needs of prospective veterans.
Chiu said that’s why it is important for Barefoot Networks to allow Gregg to accompany her to work; the office setting helps train him for working with veterans.
According to Prem Jonnalagadda, Barefoot Networks’ director of product management, Gregg was welcomed with open arms, so much so that employees visit him when they’re feeling stressed. Gregg even has an employee badge.
Army veteran Hector Munoz-Navarro, 62, received his dog, Johnny, from the Warrior Canine Connection a little more than a month ago.
The Washington D.C. resident said he enlisted in the Army in 1978 when he was 23 and served as first sergeant. During his 20 years of enlistment, Munoz-Navarro sustained brain and other injuries during the Gulf War.
In 1991 he sustained his first mild traumatic brain injury, and in 1995 he was wounded from a truck bomb in Saudi Arabia.
“The recovery process was difficult,” Munoz-Navarro said, adding he has difficulty with vision and depth perception, back pain, and memory and cognitive issues.
During an evaluation at a veterans hospital, a counselor suggested a service dog would help him with day-today activities.
“I did some research and found” the Warrior Canine Connection, Munoz-Navarro said. “They were local, so I connected with them and got involved helping to train dogs, and then I was able to get my own dog.”
Munoz-Navarro eventually received the 28-monthold black lab, whose training matched his needs. The two had even crossed paths during training.
“It’s like having a big brother,” he said. “It was a match made in heaven.”
Johnny takes the metro train with Munoz-Navarro, making sure they get off at the right stop. He is trained to help Munoz-Navarro locate stairs, even sitting at each one to better help him find his way up and down. Johnny is also adept at finding dropped items, such as the occasional fumbled train ticket card.
Johnny sits next to Munoz-Navarro at the Department of Justice, where the veteran works as an analyst.
“Without Johnny, I’d still be struggling,” he said.
Chiu’s dedication to training dogs began when she read “Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him,” a biography about a service dog helping a traumatized soldier.
“It just made such an impact on me and it made me want to get involved,” Chiu said. Her desire to volunteer was so great that she saw an allergist to see what could be done about her dog allergy.
She learned about Warrior Canine Connection through the organization’s Internet live stream, which showed puppies being trained 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She contacted the group and in 2015 received her first dog, Jenny.
Chiu said she’s made strides training the dogs, especially compared to the first time around. She said she’s gotten better at learning each dog’s personalities and getting them potty trained. But saying goodbye still remains difficult.
When the roughly two years’ worth of training concludes, Gregg will leave Chiu and return to Warrior Canine Connection headquarters in Maryland. There he will do some advanced training before he’s evaluated to be a veteran’s service dog.
The dogs participate in a graduation ceremony and are handed over to a veteran. Chiu has personally witnessed these emotional handoffs multiple times, and letting go of Gregg looms in the very near future.
“For all three dogs that I’ve had, it was really hard in the moment to say goodbye, but I’ve gotten to see all of them,” she said. “It is not easy because you’ve developed a bond with a dog, but you go into it knowing this is not your dog and that this dog has a greater purpose.”
To keep up with Gregg and his training, visit facebook.com/wccgregg. For more information about the Warrior Canine Connection, visit warriorcanineconnection.org.