DEFENCE Force veteran Joe Scott could feel himself falling “back into a hole” late last year, but has a new ally by his side after taking ownership of a former rescue dog on Tuesday.
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Sunny, a border collie, has spent months undergoing basic obedience training and advanced assistance-dog work with the Defence Community Dogs program at Bathurst Correctional Centre.
The program pairs former rescue dogs, who are trained by inmates to assist people with post-traumatic stress disorder, with Defence Force veterans.
Mr Scott, who lives in Brisbane, and Sunny spent a night getting to know each other before Tuesday’s official handover at the Bathurst Correctional Centre, which was attended by Minister for Corrections and Veterans Affairs David Elliott.
“I have had to make a step, push myself to make a step,” Mr Scott said. “And last night, he [Sunny] was stepping beside me and it was great.”
The other dog to get a new owner on Tuesday, red cattle dog Jimmy, will be going to Amanda’s household to be an ally for her husband.
“Hopefully he will be able to get back into the community and engage a bit more,” Amanda said of her husband.
Veteran David, who received dog Haze in May, said he could say for a fact “that if I was not lucky enough to have him, I would not be here now”.
Defence Community Dogs is sponsored by the Defence Bank Foundation, a registered charity that raises funds to support serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members suffering from injuries or illnesses, including PTSD.
