Sunday, August 2, 2009

What is AfghanDogZ?

The mission of the AfghanDogZTM Program is to rescue stray or abandoned dogs from the war zone in Afghanistan. This process is accomplished through a strategic partnership with a rescue organization in Afghanistan.
 
Many of these stray dogs are adopted by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Some soldiers are able to get their dogs home to their families; others cannot. These “abandoned” dogs thus become available for programs such as AfghanDogZTM.
 
Upon their arrival in the United States, these dogs are placed into the paws4prisonsTM / SlammerDogZTM training program within federal prison facilities. Here, the dogs are rehabilitated and taught basic/advanced obedience skills by the fed­eral inmates within the program.
 
Upon graduation from training, the AfghanDogZTM / SlammerDogZTM will be placed with veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD and/or Traumatic Brian Injury (TBI) as a tool to aid them in their recovery proc­ess and to reconnect them with personal relationships in society.
 
While paws4vetsTM does obtain abandoned dogs from shelters in the U.S. for training and placement with physically or mentally disabled children and seniors, the dogs rescued from the Afghan war zone provide a very unique, amazing and important psychological dimension for soldiers suffering from Complex - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and/or Traumatic Brian Injury (TBI) because these dogs ”share” the Veterans’ trauma caused by their mutual experience in a war zone. This is an added tool to help both the dogs and wounded Veterans through their recovery process.
 
Our first AfghanDogZTM, “TAZIE”, arrived from Kabul in May 2009 and she is currently being rehabilitated and trained by two female inmates at a prison in West Virginia. She is progressing magnificently and she has captured the javascript:void(0)hearts of both the inmates and prison staff. She will be a real “life-changer” for one of our wounded soldiers !