More Than Man’s Best Friend
A former Marine finds comfort in the form of his black Labrador.
STORY BY SARAH MIKKELBORG | PHOTOS BY DAISEY JAMES
A big stocky black lab, with fur still wet from playing in a nearby stream, flops into the grass and kicks his legs in anticipation of a belly rub. As his owner obliges him, they both grin. At moments like these, the only thing to set Maverick apart from other pets is the red medical tag on his collar.
Other times, his vest makes his role clearer.
Maverick is a service dog, trained by Brigadoon Service Dogs in Bellingham to help veterans who live with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Enter David Heathers, a former Marine whose service history includes two combat tours in Iraq.
After his time in the military, he was diagnosed with PTSD — experiencing anxiety, paranoia, sleep loss and more.
“I’d been struggling for quite a while,” he says.
“I had a pretty bad spell with drinking and just a bunch of other stuff. I was completely anti-social, just didn’t want to be around people at all. It ruined relationships, friendships,” he says. “Then Maverick came into my life. And I would say within a few months, I really started to notice changes. My family and friends definitely noticed changes in me.”
Heathers first contacted Brigadoon after his mother learned about the nonprofit from local news coverage and encouraged him to reach out. He did, and though he says he didn’t expect much to come of it, founder and program director Denise Costanten called him within several weeks to start conversations about himself and what he might be looking for.
Heathers and the Brigadoon staff began working more closely when he moved from the Seattle area to Whatcom County. They instructed him in how to handle a service dog and Costanten acted as a matchmaker, introducing him to a small string of dogs and watching to see how they clicked.
After about a month, Maverick was the next candidate.
“It took a little while for me and Maverick to click but once we did, it became an instant bond,” Heathers says. “He and I still are just the best of friends.”
One of the first nights Maverick stayed with Heathers, he shot awake from a nightmare — a common aspect of PTSD that can limit people, like Heathers, to only a few hours of sleep a night, sometimes for months on end.
“Maverick was sleeping at the foot of my bed. He jumped up, came over and put his head on my chest, and I laid back down,” Heathers remembers. “That morning, Maverick was still just lying there. He was awake, too. Sitting there, looking right at me, letting me know: ‘I’m here for you, so don’t worry about it. That was the moment I realized he was going to be my dog.’”
Maverick’s main role takes place in social situations, as a soothing presence and to help reduce the attention placed on Heathers. Paranoia from PTSD can make him feel that people are staring at him, he explains, and Maverick tends to draw away all that discomforting attention.
He also creates a comfortable space for Heathers by standing as a “post” behind him in lines or crowded areas, preventing people from getting too close while unseen.
That behavior, along with “watch my back,” where the dog stands at the owners’ side and faces behind them, are two of the most commonly used by veterans with PTSD dogs, Costanten explains.
“For a long time, I was a shut-in. Only left [home] when I really needed to,” Heathers says. “Having him there with me all the time just helps me.”
Heathers credits Maverick with helping him be able to socialize again and return to college. He recently graduated from a veterinary assistant certificate program.
Going back to the school environment and its tight quarters was hectic, he recalls, but Maverick would stay at his feet, pressed up against him. As time passed and Heathers grew more relaxed, Maverick started napping during classes.
“I remember one time we were taking a test — a final for math — and all of a sudden you just hear this snoring. You see the teacher get up and she’s walking the aisles, trying to figure out who’s sleeping and she noticed, ‘Oh, it’s just Maverick.’”
Maverick embodies the calm nature sought after in service dogs.
“Maverick is just about the most laid back dog I’ve ever seen. Really nothing bothers him very much and he’s very quiet,” Heathers says.
He recounts that in the nearly four years they have been together, he has only heard Maverick bark about six times — each occasion alerting Heathers to a danger he couldn’t see.
That calm, unshakable nature, along with a willingness to work and his attentiveness to Heathers are the traits that make him a successful service dog.
“We’re asking these dogs to not be dogs,” Costanten says, explaining that a good service dog will always behave and focus on their handler, not be excitable and distracted as a pet might.
But Maverick’s not just a working animal, either.
“When he has his vest on, he knows he’s working,” Heathers says. “When I take his vest off, he’s like a regular dog. I try to let him be a regular dog as much as possible.”
That is the Maverick that rolls in the grass on a warm day, reveling in Heathers’ affectionate scratches and rubs. Even when he appears to be a normal pet, the particular relationship the pair shares ensures that Maverick is always watching out for Heathers.
And, Heathers adds, the fact that he visits a public park to play with his dog on warm day when others are bound to be out is, in itself, a sign that Maverick is doing his job.
ABOUT BRIGADOON
Brigadoon Service Dogs is a nonprofit organization in Bellingham that trains and provides dogs for adults and children with a range of physical, developmental and behavioral disabilities. The name Brigadoon, founder Denise Costanten explains, is borrowed from her first international show dog — whose son became the first service dog to graduate the school — and from a fictional Scottish village that appears once every hundred years and where a couple falls in love.
“We provide magic to people with disabilities by giving them a service dog that is well trained, which changes their lives — gives them independence and enhances their life,” Costanten says. As of mid-2016, Brigadoon has provided 65 dogs. “That’s a lot of people that got their independence back, and some families,” she says, with a satisfied laugh.
All the dogs learn basic skills, like retrieving items a person might drop or have difficulty reaching, as well as skills specific to a condition. For example, Brigadoon has trained dogs to assist owners with hearing impairments, alert diabetes patients when their blood sugar drops, and help brace people who have difficulty with balance or walking.
In one case, the staff trained a dog to find a girl with autism, who had a tendency to wander away from her family. “Ever since she got that dog, she’s never left the dog’s side,” Costanten smiled. “And now the whole family goes wherever they want to go. They’ve gone skiing, they go to Mariners games, sailing, on picnics. Anywhere they want to go, they go because of the dog.”
Aside from training for a wide variety of conditions, Costanten says Brigadoon also stands apart in the variety of dogs it trains, including small and hypoallergenic breeds. The dogs taken into the program must be willing to work, like people and get along with other animals. Some are bred to be service dogs, while others come from a variety of sources including shelters and people who donate puppies from large or unexpected litters. Raising a puppy and putting it through the program takes about two years and costs $40,000, Costanten estimates. Dogs are provided at no cost to veterans and reduced cost to other clients.