- [Gabe] I was in the Marines for four and a half years.
I was forced out of the military.
I still wanted to be in,
but they basically told me I had too many injuries with my
TBI, my PTSD and everything
I have just accumulate all throughout the years.
And so when I got out,
like I wouldn't leave my house ever because you know,
being in crowds, loud noises, my heart starts racing.
You're just like start going back into survival mode.
Because at that time, I didn't know how to handle myself.
I didn't know what I was doing.
But then my cousin was actually coming down to Tom's ranch
here to get a service dog.
And he's like, let's check it out and let's see,
it might be able to do something for you.
But I was just like, what's the dog gonna do
for me, you know
because I didn't trust anybody or anyone else to do anything
for me.
- [Tom] A Patriotic Service Dog Foundation supports
all the things that it takes
to get these dogs trained up properly,
and provided to our veterans and first responders at no
cost to them. We have a slogan that is 22 to zero.
And what that represents is that 22 veterans a day commit
suicide.
And our goal is to make that zero.
And so that's where the dog's really,
really help in change things.
And so they can be functional humans again,
and really enjoy life.
The difference between a service dog and say a therapy dog
is service dog is trained to perform specific tasks that
mitigates a person's disability, such as turning on lights,
picking things up for them,
interrupting them with a nightmare flashback,
that type of thing.
Most of the veterans that come to us have post-traumatic
stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
So we teach our dogs, various tasks
that mitigate those issues. Okay?
So we will teach them to block, which creates a buffer.
- [Gabe] Block is definitely like a big one for me,
because I need that buffer. You know,
someone's getting too close to me and my anxiety starts
going up and he gives me that space.
So the training process here,
you got to come at least two days a week.
Up, up, up.
Because, you really got to bond with the dog.
And that's the whole point.
It's like the dog that you might be getting paired up with.
He's already trained. You know,
we're basically training you on how to handle the dog.
- [Tom] This is Gabe with Doc.
(praises dog)
- [Gabe] Good boy!
- [Tom] And Gabe and Doc working on doing all the obstacles.
- [Gabe] Up, up, up.
Up, up, up.
Doc here. Come on.
- Gabes really become a special guy to us.
He came to us a Marine that really was struggling
and ended up getting a dog that's very special
to me, Pistol.
You know, my first impression
of Gabe when he came was there's just something about him.
I liked his character and then watching him kind of
gravitate to Pistol.
- [Gabe] When I first met Pistol, I was
a little intimidating.
He has an intimidating look about him.
Tom had about 600 dogs at that time, but I was like,
really like, I, I went to pistol.
I went to go check out all the other dogs.
And then I just kinda went back to him.
And I guess Tom had noticed that, you know,
he kept on coming up to me like he was interested in me.
- [Tom] So the real key to this is matching the dog
with the person.
But typically the dog chooses the handler and it's,
it's fun to watch, because just boom it clicks.
- [Gabe] He really did like save my life
because that was my start
again. You know, for me not isolating,
I started coming out more because I had to come here and I
had to train with Pistol. I wanted to be with him.
I had to come out here and that just slowly started getting
me out of my shell.
So I started feeling better about myself.
And I started feeling better about going out in public
because I had my buddy Pistol with me,
which allowed me to like go out to the VA to seek help and
like all that stuff I was not doing before I came here.
- [Tom] We saw that Gabe has a nice natural touch with dogs.
He really likes dogs.
He's just a genuine,
Got a soul about him.
That the dogs feel it from him.
- [Gabe] So Tom was in need of a,
another trainer and he gave me a shot. And you know,
I'm forever grateful for him because this is by far the best
job I've ever had.
It's not a job to me.
It's not work. I love this place.
- [Tom] He's just flourished.
Gabe's good.
And when you watch him train it's really inspiring.
- [Gabe] I was about two weeks away
from taking my life in all reality.
So when I say it, like they saved my life, they really did.
This place was important.
I thank God for this place every day,
because they really did save my life.
And now when I see another dog gets paired up and I see that
love and I see that joy that makes me happy.
Cause I know, you know what?
It's not so long ago.
That was me.
Tom and Terry saved my life and I owe them
so much.
My family owes them so much and I want to
do that for someone else.
And get them out of the same situation that I was in.
I want to help them navigate out of that
because there's light at the end of the tunnel.
You just got to get through all that muck.
(upbeat
music)