In this Veterans Day special episode on KVI, host Ari Hoffman sits down with Shannon Walker, Executive Director of The Association of Service Dog Providers for Military Veterans and Founder/CEO of Northwest Battle Buddies (NWBB). Joined by a local Veteran and their service dog, Walker shares inspiring stories of healing, hope, and transformation for Veterans battling PTSD.
Listen to the audio here:
Key highlights:
- Milestone Celebration: NWBB, founded in 2012 in Battle Ground, WA, has gifted its 300th professionally trained service dog to a Veteran with PTSD this fall—marking over a decade of life-changing impact.
- Landmark Study Validation: A 2025 peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Archives in Military Medicine demonstrates clinically significant PTSD symptom reductions, with 60% of participant teams from NWBB. Benefits include relief across all PTSD categories, reduced depression, boosted resilience, life satisfaction, emotional well-being, less isolation, and greater social engagement. Veterans overwhelmingly reported positive perceptions of healing.
- Quote from Walker: “For many Veterans, a service dog is the difference between life and death. This study confirms what we see every day as Veterans reclaim parts of themselves they thought they had lost forever.”
- Program Details: Dogs (many rescued from shelters) undergo 5 months of intensive training, plus 5 weeks with their Veteran handler. Skills include waking from nightmares, interrupting anxiety/flashbacks, alerting to adrenaline, providing social barriers, pressure therapy, and constant safety.
- Personal Story: The featured Veteran and service dog duo illustrate real-world transformation, emphasizing regained freedom, independence, and hope.
Walker highlights NWBB’s nonprofit mission to pair Veterans with these “battle buddies” at no cost. Listeners are directed to northwestbattlebuddies.org for more. The episode underscores service dogs as a proven, therapeutic lifeline for PTSD.
