OkcPets Magazine March 2022

10 OKC Pets • March/April 2022 Unconditional L OV E Anthem Trains Dogs To Help People by Lauren Cavagnolo | Photographs by Kate Friedl “I t’s like a hobby with unconditional love attached to it.” That’s how Kate Friedl, founder and executive director of Anthem Service Dogs, describes her work training service dogs. “Animals have always been my thing, dogs especially,” Friedl added. “The more I have learned over the years, the more I have enjoyed all aspects of dog ownership and learning about dogs and what they can do for us and what we can do for them to enrich their lives.” Founded in 2018, Anthem Service Dogs has a mission of training and providing service dogs free of charge to those in need. Anthem currently focuses on training mo- bility and PTSD service dogs but is looking to expand in the future. PTSD service dogs can act as grounding agents if a person is having a flashback or is triggered. The dog can also signal the person to move out of a situation, get the medication, apply deep pressure therapy, or even wake from a nightmare. “A lot of times, our coping mechanisms can be our own worst enemy,” Friedl said. “We tend to ignore all the signs and signals that our body’s stress level is getting too high, and so the dog can interrupt that.” Most people tend to connect PTSD service dogs with military veterans, but Anthem also assists civilians who have been diagnosed with PTSD. “We have clients who have had a lot of childhood trauma or have been in domestic trauma. We accept those people as long as they are being seen and treated by a profes- sional in that area,” Friedl added. Taco, a three-year-old yellow Labrador, will be a classroom therapy dog at Tulsa Public Schools provided by Anthem Service Dogs.