Veteran Doctor - Episode 27 - Leashes of Valor

Leashes of Valor

www.leashesofvalor.org

About Founders

About Danique Masingill

President & Co-Founder

Danique’s journey to serving as Leashes of Valor’s president began when she was a member of the U.S. Navy. Her duty was to enforce military law, but she was left with nowhere to turn when she was sexually assaulted by senior leadership. The trauma from this experience led her to leave the military after five years of service. But her will to help fellow veterans remained a guiding force.

As a student at Syracuse University, she quickly established herself as an expert in the field of military working canines and service dogs. Congress, The Department of Transportation and Government Accountability Office each tapped Danique’s knowledge to craft wide-ranging policies regarding service dogs and military canines.

Then, amid surging suicide rates among veterans in 2017, Danique co-founded Leashes of Valor, as a means to help former service members recover from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. In furtherance of this goal, Leashes of Valor recently partnered with Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Nursing to research service dogs as a scientifically proven treatment.

About Jason Haag

CEO & Co-Founder

Captain Jason Haag spent 13 years in the United States Marine Corps, including two tours in Iraq, conducting frontline operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, retiring as a Marine Corps Captain. After sustaining a machine gun injury and multiple traumatic brain injuries (TBI) during service, Captain Haag struggled with the after effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), leading him to be medically retired after numerous combat tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.  In 2012 Captain Haag contacted an organization that provides warriors with service dogs. Within 7 months of applying Captain Haag was paired with his post-battle buddy and lifesaver, a service dog named Axel. Since experiencing the firsthand benefits of service dogs, Captain Haag has toured the country, educating policymakers, warrior organizations and warriors on the importance of service dogs for military warriors. He has been featured on over 50 news outlets including CNN and FOX News, and has been invited to speak publicly at Academic Institutions, Veterans Service Organizations, as well as Congressional briefings. Captain Haag has played an integral role in the creation of new laws regarding the acceptance of service canines in public establishments in Virginia and Florida.

About Matt Masingill

Canine Operations & Co-Founder

Matt T. Masingill is a 21-year retired United States Navy veteran, has spent over 27 years in uniform and is an advocate serving the veteran and military community. Masingill served honorably from 1992 to 2012 as a Boatswains Mate First Class (SW). Throughout his time in the service, he drove small craft in a variety of roles, managed harbor operations overseas and in the continental United States supervising ship maintenance and operated as a combat Coxswain instructor for Anti-terrorism force protection certifying Second Fleet vessels. Over the past five years, Masingill has become very active within the Veteran Service Dog industry. Masingill previously served with organizations such as American Humane Association and K9s for Warriors and has extensive experience in program management and development, training service dogs with veterans, and acting as the lead Warrior trainer with over 200 Warrior K9 teams graduating and recertifying under his leadership. Masingill not only brings his own military experience to his work, but also leverages his perspective as a veteran and military spouse; his wife is a Navy Veteran.

Statement.

Leashes of Valor is a national non-profit working to provide every post 9/11 veteran who needs one with a highly-trained service dog to assist them in mitigating the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Our mission is to bring service dogs and post 9/11 veterans together in order to enrich and improve the lives of both.

What We Do.

We provide task trained service dogs that are public access ready to veterans dealing with PTSD, TBI or MST at no cost to the veteran. We also provide an Emergency care grant called Dust Off for working dogs.

How We Do it.

We rescue dogs and train them at our facility to become Service dogs. Through the application and interview process we derive the necessary tasks to train for a specific dog to mitigate the veteran’s symptoms and assist in their daily life. The 16 day residential program at the ranch is designed to train the veteran on the use of their service dog, conduct tasks for public access and to instill the foundation of their bond. The dog has received all public access and task training prior to the veterans arrival and pairing, so the two-week program is solely for the veteran to focus on their training. The success of this training methodology is based on the peer to peer aspect, in which the veteran is immersed in a small unit of veterans that have been through or are simultaneously going through the training. This is all made possible by generous contributions from our donors, to ensure no veteran has to incur costs in order to receive their service dog.

Facility.

Leashes of Valor is located on a 20-acre farm in rural Virginia, where we have our live-in facility for our Warriors and Service Dogs. At max operation, our facility graduates 3 Service Dog teams per month. Training a Service Dog is expensive, costing upwards of $20,000 per dog. This is due to the long period of time necessary to ensure the quality of training these dogs receive.

Service Dogs.

OUR DOGS
Leashes of Valor provides meticulously trained service dogs to Veterans suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Every one of our dogs receives 100+ hours of training and months of public socialization, obedience and task training. In addition, each must pass their public access testing and the industry leading Canine Good Citizen Test.

We take great pride in the quality of training that our service dogs receive and take great care in ensuring each is accurately paired with the Warrior who is their perfect match. Every one of our dogs is highly qualified to provide the practical physical and emotional support needed to empower their Warrior with greater independence.

Training.

WARRIOR TRAINING
Once a Warrior and dog have been matched, their first step together on this journey is a 16-day in-house training program on our farm in Virginia. During this time, they will receive 120 hours of hands-on training with professional canine and warrior trainers. They will also participate in practical and theoretical seminars and receive basic service dog equipment, veterinary care, meals and housing at no cost. All of this is made possible because of the generous support of our donors.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Leashes of Valors’ philosophy is to pair each Warrior with a top quality trained service dog and ensure their public access training is achieved. We ensure the Warrior is in an environment that fosters the opportunity to be part of the solution to their recovery.

Matt Masingill, K9 Director at Leashes of Valor, heads up our kennel and leads all of training and trainers. Matt is a 21-year veteran of the United States Navy and a graduate of the Carson Long Military Academy. Our facility is located on 20 acres and the planned kennel will house between 18-25 rescued shelter dogs while they go through their rigorous service dog training. Once these brave dogs are paired with their warrior, they stay with their warrior tethered for the entire 16 days of training. This allows for the warrior and their new service dog to strengthen their bond.

Our organization upholds the highest quality of service dog training and overall canine care. We invest in continued education for our canine and Warrior trainers. We ensure our LOV team provide our Warriors with customized training tools that cater to each individual service canine’s needs, as these Warriors lives may depend on it.​