- St. Lucie County Fire District trains three therapy dogs for first responders
- Dog Training Elite Treasure Coast provides training, which is paid for by Vets Helping Heroes
ST. LUCIE COUNTY − A trio of four-legged friends – Kona, Birdie and Pierce – are coming to work at the St. Lucie County Fire District as part of a behavioral health program to help firefighters and first responders after stressful situations.
The gentle pooches sported nifty vests Thursday morning, and kept their tails wagging. They received plenty of pets and rubs from those at the fire district’s Station 14 on Northwest California Boulevard in the St. Lucie West area.
“When a firefighter is going through a stressful event, sometimes we tend to get in our heads a little bit and get stuck there,” Battalion Chief Aaron Shaw said. “I think the dogs are a good way to ground us, push the reset button and get us out of our heads a little bit and get our minds off of the stressful call, the stressful event that we just went through.”
Shaw has Kona, an English Labrador retriever, and said the dogs could respond as part of the critical incident stress management team.
Battalion Chief Jesus Bayona got Pierce, also an English Lab, when Pierce was 8 weeks old. Pierce now is 20 weeks and Bayona described him as “very active and very friendly.”
“He loves people and loves dogs,” Bayona said.
Bayona said Pierce still is being trained.
Shaw said part of the training includes putting pressure on a person, and walking up to “almost give them a hug and nuzzle them.”
“It’s known that it’s going to lower heart rate, it’s going to lower blood pressure and help with that cortisol response that you get after a stressful call,” Shaw said.
Birdie, who is 18 months, is a Labradoodle and Golden doodle mix that Jessica Bolduc, a fire investigator, got for her family, but has trained for the program.
Therapy dogs at fire rescue agencies, Bolduc said, are relatively new.
“I think the idea of mental health is more acceptable now and is more of a cultural norm,” she said. “We have a lot of folks that play different roles within our district, and these dogs will be able to benefit everybody … to make sure our agency is doing everything that they can to support our community.”
Representatives from Martin County Fire Rescue and Indian River County Fire Rescue reported this week their agencies do not have such dogs.
Training for the pooches is by Dog Training Elite Treasure Coast, and begins with basic manners and obedience, said Shelley Walker, who owns the business with her husband. The training takes place at the old Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce.
“We kind of want to have them all well-rounded,” she said. “We’re going to treat them a little bit like a service dog, but a lot like a therapy dog.”
Vets Helping Heroes, a non-profit charity, pays for the training. The group raises money to pay for the acquisition, if necessary, and training of a variety of types of dogs, such as facility therapy dogs and service dogs, said Lisa Fendrich, executive director of the Boca Raton-based organization. She said a World War II prisoner of war founded the group in 2007, and that it’s funded more than 1,500 dogs.
Fendrich said the Vets group paid for the Labrador puppies and the training for all three dogs. They will supply dogs and training for the three first responders for as long as they remain at the Fire District. The total cost could exceed $50,000.
“These guys and women face trauma every day,” Fendrich said. “So we wanted to recognize the heroes that they are and help them, and that’s what the dogs do.”
(This story was updated with more information.)
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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
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