Bravo Zulu House lands partnership for canine therapy

MARTIN COUNTY - Bravo Zulu House has partnered with K9s for Warriors to enhance the canine therapy portion of their program.

Canine therapy has been in the plans for Bravo Zulu House since initial discussions about what the house itself would look like back in 2023.

"We pulled all kinds of ideas in from around the country on the most effective modalities and protocols for addressing both recovery as well as PTSD," Servant Leader Tim Murray said. "Some version of animal therapy, equine therapy, dog therapy kept coming up."

Eventually, as they looked at the pros and cons for different types, a dog therapy program was settled on, kennels were constructed and an expansive space was made for dogs to run around. Veterans in the Bravo Zulu House program are also able to bring their own dog with them. Finding dogs for veterans who did not already have one was the unsolved part of the therapy model, according to Murray.

"The one unsolved solution is where you are going to get the dogs from," he said. "That was an unknown. We wanted to wait and see what emerged. Some ideas were maybe they would come from a rescue organization. Some might come from homes that had to give up dogs, but all of those seemed like less than ideal solutions. I’ve learned part of bringing God into the equation with this model is if you wait long enough and you don’t force it, a solution appears. You just got to be patient enough to be able to let it happen."

As for how they found out about K9s for Warriors, Murray said they looked for only the best of the best for their veterans.

"They provide more service dogs to veterans than any organization in the country," he said.

The program will start with K9s for Warriors providing what is called a station dog named Polar on Aug. 20. Canine Therapy Program Director Elizabeth Odenthal said the dogs are ones that were too friendly to become a service dog, and instead will be used for the whole Bravo Zulu House.

"We’re going to pretty much mold it for a house dog for the gentleman to enjoy," Odenthal said. "From what I understand, the first is going to be the first house dog that we’re going to not really assign to one person."

To have this initial collaboration, Odenthal said it is giving back and making sure they are helping the people that have given us the most sacrifice. Murray said he is grateful that K9s for Warriors are willing to take a risk on a startup organization.

"We’re very small compared to their very big footprint," he said. "I think they see in us a similar desire to want to save veterans one life at a time. We have similar core values and a similar core mission, and I’m confident that down the road we’ll look back at this and say that this was the beginning of something wonderful in terms of integrating dog and canine therapy into saving veteran lives."

When the dog arrives and gets settled in, the therapy process will begin with the dog serving to help all of the veterans in the house. From there, the process will be evaluated, and there is potential for more dogs to be brought into the house and dogs to be paired up with specific veterans in the house, if everything goes to plan.

"We’re going to be covering all bases with that dog being present," Odenthal said. "Sometimes people just need that little dog to give them a push to being socially accepted back into society. There’s so many benefits of having a dog work with a human to be able to get them to come back out of their bubble. You’re covering your physical, mental, emotional, just helping them."

A grand opening and ribbon cutting for the house's kennels and introduction of Polar the station dog will be held from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21 at Bravo Zulu House, 2949 230th Street, Winnebago, MN.

For more information on Bravo Zulu House, visit bravozuluhouse.org/.