Service dogs for military veterans helps them overcome PTSD

The moment Eric Zdrojkowski has been looking forward to for five years.

“I can’t stop smiling,” Zdrojkowski said, a military veteran. “I was afraid it wasn’t gonna work out.”

Zdrojkowski was anxious when his flight from Virginia arrived in Southwest Florida on Friday night.

But those nerves quickly dwindled when he saw this German Shepard, Chance, waiting for him.

“When I saw him,” Zdrojkowski said, “I just knew it.”

Now Chance and his nonstop energy has been giving Zdrojkowski hope for a new life.

“I need something like that for me to get up and get out and do stuff that I used to enjoy that I haven’t been able to do so because of the PTSD,” Zdrojkowski said, referring to post traumatic stress disorder.

When he was 24-years-old, Zdrojkowski enlisted into the United States Air Forece. He served as a medic in Germany and Florida for over four years.

It wasn’t an easy job.

“Shotgun wounds, burns, amputations, things that are really hard to describe,” Zdrojkowski  said. “Just seeing the wounds and dealing with the family members, and having been in combat, it was really really hard to come back and adjust.”

And when he returned home, he noticed something was missing. That’s where Wolfhounds Legacy, a Cape Coral organization that trains service dogs for veterans, came to the rescue.

“We could tell Chance chose him by the way he looks at him,” Faye Keller said, president of Wolfhounds Legacy. “Then you look at Erik and you see that big smile, their journey just began.”

And not only are they helping veterans heal their battle scars, they are also giving the dogs a second chance.

“He was found on the side of the road,” Keller said. “To be able to train a dog, a service dog, for our veterans, you can’t put a price on that.”

But the two are leaving their pasts behind while they move towards a brighter future together.

“He’s a life changer for me,” Zdrojkowski said, “because the soon as I saw him, I don’t even think about it anymore.”