Joe Nieves, 40, of Frederick, Maryland, passed out on the couch there. His three-year-old assistance dog, Jem, a Labrador-Golden Retriever mix, leaped up behind him and placed her head on his leg. He ran his hands over her ears and started to pet her.
“Well, take a look at her. He said, “You don’t need her here right now.” She has a choice to be here even though she might be in the bedroom, and that means a lot to me.
A service dog named Jem has been trained specifically to help PTSD sufferers like Nieves. Jem serves as a buffer for Nieves when he feels overworked or cut off from the outer world, he claimed.
The two were matched in March. She has helped him more than he could have imagined, he said.
Nieves, a former soldier, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD in 2006.
He claims that his 2004 and 2005 deployments to Iraq were another worry. Like many soldiers, he carries the invisible scars of what he witnessed in war.
It’s odd how frequently the things that haunt individuals are the things that occurred to them, he commented. Although things have happened to me, I have been more troubled by what I saw happening to individuals around me.
In June at Washington, D.C.’s Awesome Con, a Comic-Con extravaganza that draws tens of thousands of “geek culture” lovers, Nieves attended his first gathering in almost five years thanks to Jem.
Jem is capable of performing a multitude of tasks to assist Nieves. Nieves described her assistance in reducing his social anxiety as being quite helpful. She might serve as a barrier, preventing anyone from approaching him from the front or the back, for example.
He asserted that the fact that she can enter locations before Nieves can relieves him of some of his burden. Since he is an introvert, when guests enter the room, they frequently pay more attention to Jem than to him.
“I think the order had something to do with it. The fact that she is the center of attention rather than myself is fantastic for me,” he said.
Throughout his journey, Nieves gained a lot of experience. One episode in particular continues to jump out.
One night in Iraq, while Nieves was manning a checkpoint at his camp, a mortar shell blasted a building about 100 yards away. He said there were six or seven soldiers asleep. The roof of the structure caught fire, erupting into a shroud of metal.
As in a movie, it seemed to be moving slowly. It’s simply slow motion. He continued, “I feel it sitting in my eyes and cheeks like the hundred yards just flew forward.
He heard the mortars before they exploded. He asserted that he then realized what mortal dread was. He wasn’t sure whether to move or remain put to avoid being hit.
He said that all of the soldiers survived with only minor injuries. But he was frightened by the possibility of losing his entire squad that night.
In 2012, he was medically released from the military.
Nieves tried a lot of different things to calm her anxiety, but none of them worked. As an example, his wife Katharina Nieves gave him a camera to use when he went out with his two daughters.
“The camera was to help me concentrate downward in my viewfinder. As a result, I am not aware of everything else.
She and my daughters were all I could make out when I peeked through the camera,” Nieves observed.
He was discouraged from having a service dog even though he was aware that it was an option. Up until some time in 2018, when he encountered the service dog of a veteran friend at Wounded Warrior Project support group meetings, he had lost hope that a service dog could be able to assist him.
In 2019, he was added to the roster of Canine Companions.
The organization’s public relations and marketing coordinator, John Bentzinger, claims that Canine Companions has six training sites dispersed around the United States and invests about $50,000 in the upbringing and training of each dog.
A veteran must go through a protracted process in order to get a service dog. According to Nieves, the company’s matching process is efficient.
The group decides on a number of puppies who might be paired with a veteran. Nieves recognized the potential heir right away. first love and first pet.
“She truly was great, the perfect amount of passion,” Nieves said.
Nieves asserts that Jem has assimilated into the family and altered the game beyond the home. The rowdy French bulldog named Nemesis is another dog that Nieves has. She is gorgeous, he said, but Jem offers something different.
He remarked, “the love and affection, as I’ve seen before, but it’s different with her and not in a better way than the other dog,” in the way that only she can. The speaker said, “I’m eternally grateful, simply to have somebody lay on the couch with me.”
