Couple wants to turn troops' uniforms into vests of honor for service dogs
By TARA GORMAN, St. Cloud Times
BIG LAKE, Minn. (AP) — Greg Shartle and his fiancee, Alana Curtis, are trying to get the word out about the work they want to do to help veterans who use service dogs.
They want to make vests for the dogs from the veterans' camouflage Army Combat Uniforms.
"I want people to be able to go, 'That's my uniform, that's my service dog.' It puts a lot more pride into it, and veterans deserve that," Curtis said.
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Inspiration to make the vests came from a failed search by Curtis when she wanted to get an Army-styled vest for Shartle's service dog, Cadence. What she found had no pockets for Shartle's medicine or his dog's toys. Now both are stored in a vest made from one of Shartle's old uniforms. It includes his Army patches and the dog's medical patches.
"It's nice especially being able to say, 'She's actually wearing a set of my uniform,"' said Shartle, a former U.S. Army sergeant who has had post-traumatic stress disorder since he returned from Iraq in 2005.
"It's nice to be recognized that he's a veteran," Curtis said about Shartle. "It gives him that confidence and merit that he truly deserves."
The couple also wants to express through the personalized vests how important their service dogs have been to them.
They have not made vests for others, but they want to start. For them, it's important to show Shartle's service in the Army and they want to give that opportunity to other veterans. As long as ACU material and patches are provided, they will make the vests at no charge for anyone who is a veteran and has a service dog.
Cadence, an Irish setter mix, can sense when Shartle is about to have one of his violent flashbacks. His body posture and the way he acts triggers her to jump into his lap or get close to him and keep others away so they don't get hurt.
A touch from Cadence is nonthreatening to Shartle, Curtis said, and helps bring him back to reality faster.
The flashbacks tend to focus on some key events during his time in Iraq. One is the day he had to give a friend emergency medical service.
Shartle was driving the truck behind his friend, a truck he was supposed to be in. The two had similar names and were mixed up when they were assigned to their trucks. An improvised explosive device detonated on the road. Shartle took quick action to save his friend and waited to get him into a helicopter.
It wasn't until later that he realized the close call he'd had. Other explosives were nearby and could've gone off at any moment.
"It was a matter of being in the right spot at the right time, and being lucky that none of the others went off," Shartle said. "That was the roughest over there, is basically facing reality."
But Cadence isn't the only service dog who makes Shartle and Curtis' lives easier.
Curtis has had epileptic seizures since she was a little girl. Bravo, an all-black German shepherd, can sense when Curtis will have a seizure hours before it happens. He alerts her so she can be as prepared as possible.
"The little things ... those two do is more of a help, so everything's going better now," Shartle said. Curtis' seizures dropped to one or two a month from about 15 a day.
The way Shartle and Curtis acquired the two dogs was coincidental. They adopted Bravo because of his breed and realized later that he would alert Curtis when she was about to have a seizure.
"Bravo was pretty much a complete accident," Shartle said. "To find (a dog) that will actually alert before seizures, it's like finding a needle in a haystack."
They decided to make him into a certified service dog so he could assist her at home, work and in public places.
"Every dog can do it, not every dog knows how to," Curtis said.
A friend helped with some of the training, but they decided to self-train Bravo to fit Curtis' specific needs.
Soon after, Curtis got Cadence for Shartle from the Central Minnesota Animal Care and Control center in St. Cloud. They self-trained her to help him with his flashbacks.
After going through almost 18 weeks of training each, the dogs took a final test to become certified service dogs.
Now the dogs go everywhere their humans go, brandishing their specialized service dog vests and making a path through crowds along streets and store aisles.
Curtis is working toward receiving a certification to train service dogs, specifically for seizure alert. She wants to give people with invisible disorders, such as seizures and flashbacks, a chance to get the help that Bravo and Cadence have given them.
As long as you have the patience and are serious about it, we will do everything we can to help you get the right service dog, Curtis said.
Shartle and Curtis plan to marry this May, knowing that going through all this together has brought them closer and they are even more in love.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
