BRUNSWICK

Veterans and their new service dogs graduated an intensive 16- week training course last week. The program run by Embrace A Vet, in conjunction with Coastal Humane Society, pairs veterans with post traumatic stress disorder with shelter dogs.

Typically, Coastal Humane Society gets many of their dogs from high-kill shelters in the south. Dogs are trained by instructors from North Edge K9, which was founded by former police officer and K9 trainer Christian Stickney and Director of Anatomic Pathology for Spectrum Medical Group Hagen Blaszyk.

Jeremiah Church graduated with his dog, Quovadis — Czech for “Where you going.”

Church said his Quovadis, or simply, “Q,” came from the Czech Republic and was intended to be a military or police working dog but was found to lack the amount of aggression necessary for the job.

Now 16 weeks into their relationship,

Q still doesn’t know English. Church gives all his commands in Czech.

Chruch said he enjoyed the program and said that it helped him a lot. He said he spent much of his time out of the public after coming home from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Church said Q helps him with reentering public life.

“There’s something strangely, weirdly comforting about having a dog with you the whole time — it takes a lot of the anxiety and pressure away — it works — it just works,” Church said.

Church said Q keeps him from feeling alone and even when it’s just the two of them together, Q keeps him going.

“He’s such a clown that he keeps me happy all the time, too, which is a bonus. It just helps with emotional stability,” Church said.

Church said he’s very thankful for Embrace A Vet, North Edge and Coastal Humane. He said without them, he wouldn’t have made the progress he’s made.

“I’ve been in a better place for the last 16 weeks than I’ve been in a long time since I got home. That’s the biggest thing about it — it’s being happy,” Church said.

Church said he was having a really tough deployment in Iraq in 2006 when he was shot. Upon recovery, Church was sent straight to Afghanistan for what he said was another hard deployment.

“After getting home it was kind of hard to settle back in … especially now that I’m no longer going to be Sgt. Church and I’m going to be Mr. Church — that was a huge difference for me. You feel like you can just transition but you can’t — it’s not that easy,” Church said, “it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Also graduating, Amy Burns said her dog, Mac, has been a life saver for her.

“It’s just incredible that so many people care so much. I didn’t know so many people cared — it’s great,” Burns said.

Joy Johnson of Embrace A Vet said the program is run at no cost to the veterans, although some choose to contribute what they can.

“People have given us ten bucks, one guy gave us $600 and we just pay it right forward to the next class, but we don’t want to put any stress on them so it’s not obligatory,” Johnson said.

In January, Embrace A Vet was awarded a $10,000 PetCo foundation grant. Johnson said the money will fund another six or seven dogs.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com