Cory Lutzow, an Air Force and Army veteran in Orange County, FL, shares his experience, hopefully, to help the next veteran through the door:
I did 6 years Air Force, 7 Army… 13 years total, and got out of the service in 2017 right after I got married.
Those years were a little rough. Before I got out I was already having medical issues with my lower black from having been blown up twice when I was deployed in Afghanistan. I was trying to get a waiver to do an alternate PT test because at the time the current PT test was sit-ups, push-ups and the 2-mile run. The pushups I could do, no problem. The sit-ups, slamming your back into the ground, that was killing me because I was having upper and lower back issues from my deployment. So I was trying to get an alternate version so I could complete my PT test and do what I need to do. In their infinite wisdom they said ‘we’ll just give you Motrin.’
I got married. My unit got orders to go on another deployment but I couldn’t tell my wife where I was going. I gave her the option… I said ‘Look, I’ve been single my entire military career; we got orders to go but I can’t tell you were we’re going and I can’t tell you how long it’s going to be. You have to make a decision. Either I re-enlist and go on this deployment and we make decent coin during the deployment, or, I can just get out.’ And the thing is I couldn’t do it unless I passed the PT test which was another hindrance. After talking with my wife she’s like ‘I don’t want to make this decision but I have no support system down here. If you leave I have no one down here supporting me.’ So I made the decision to get out. For her.
It was a rough decision but at the same time I was going through a lot mentally from my previous deployment. A lot of things were in my head. I was still having nightmares, that kind of thing. It was rough coming back from my deployment.
I didn’t really consider a service dog until a friend of mine found K9 Partners for Patriots. He was going to put his dog into the program, but his dog became very, very aggressive. But he told me ‘Dude, you got to look into these guys…’ And after talking with my physician he said ‘yeah, a service dog might be beneficial for your wellbeing…Couldn’t hurt to give it a shot… What’s the worse they can say? No?’
I did all my research on K9P4P and I loved the way the program was laid out. Sure enough, I had a meeting with Mary and Wil, I told them I already have a dog and we brought Stitch in. We were accepted into the program and he was a year old when we started.
They said it would be beneficial if he was at least a year old so we can get some of the kinks worked out when he’s in that puppy stage. So that’s right about when we started. He’s a dachshund. He’ll be 7 in May.
We had two other dachshunds… My wife had two previous ones. Mary knew about them and wanted to be sure they’re good with other dogs. We ended up losing both of them; one passed two years ago and one last June. So Stitch is now our only K9 companion and he is absolutely phenomenal. He never lets me go anywhere alone.
Unless I’m helping somebody out, where I can’t take him. He is with me every single day. By my side. Even around the house. If I leave the room for any reason he follows me just to make sure I’m OK.
If I’m on the couch watching TV he’s cuddled up next to me. He’s with me if I go out on the motorcycle, he’ll ride with me on the motorcycle.
We actually went to Bike Week at Daytona and had a blast just the two of us walking around. He gets so many looks! ‘Oh my gosh, he’s so cute, never seen a service dachshund before!’
And having him is really cool because I get to tell people about K9 Partners for Patriots and the way the program is laid out… And not only that, it shows that dachshunds can become service dogs! Some people say dachshunds are so temperamental; they’ve got minds of their own… and that’s true, but if you work hard with them they become really great companions. Stitch is always by my side and he’s made it to where I don’t feel like I’m going insane most of the time.
In the training Mary spoke about recognizing when you’re dog is trying to help you, and she was 100 % correct in that. The first couple of times when Stitch was jumping up on me and I’d push him down or off because I wasn’t sure what was going on, she goes ‘Cory, he’s working. He’s telling you something. He’s working for you!’
I was like OK, I got it now. It took me a hot minute to realize he was sensing things. The cool thing about Stitch and the way this program is laid out is that Stitch not only works for me, but I’ve actually seen him work for little kids out in public… which is really crazy because most service dogs that I’ve ever seen are only attached to that handler and work for that handler.
My wife and I have seen Stitch work for little kids. For instance, we went to Universal a couple Christmases ago for the Grinchmas thing at Universal, and we were in line to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas live action musical and there was a little girl in a wheelchair. She was a non-verbal autistic child and she was having a bit of a fit. And instead of Stitch laying down where I told him to be, he picked his head up when he heard her and he actually walked towards her.
At the time I wasn’t really paying attention, and I pulled him back and said, ‘No… down.’ And he went back down but he gave me this look that said ‘Dad, she needs me.’ I looked at the mom and she said “She really, really likes dogs.”
At that point I released Stitch real quick and he walked over to her and her eyes just lit up! Her fit went away. She had a calmness about her and the mom started crying.
I was like… he really works for other people too. Holy crap! It was a cool experience. The mom asked about him being a service dog and, of course, I was telling her about the program. She said ‘That’s absolutely amazing.’
We’ve had a few other encounters like that as well.
The other day I went to Universal and ran into a fellow veteran who went through the same stuff I went through and I told him about K9 Partners for Patriots and her eyes just lit up. She said ‘I’ve been given so much wrong information’ and I said ‘This is why veterans help veterans.’
Doctors don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about some of the time. She’s supposed to be contacting K9P4P here soon to see if she can get into the program.
I’ve had times when people look at me negatively with Stitch. After talking with them some change their outlook. And others are just downright nasty.
I had a lady a couple of years ago follow me through a Walmart screaming at the top of her lungs “That’s not a service dog! He’s faking!”
Literally just harassing my dog and me. I told her ‘Ma’am, you need to back off. You’re scaring my dog. And she just kept following me and this went on for a few minutes. And finally she almost ran Stitch over with her ECV.
That’s the only major one that I’ve had. I’ve had a few others who looked at me like ‘He’s not a real service dog…’ Overall about a handful of negative comments. I think the reason why Stitch has been getting those is only because of his size. There are so many people out there doing the fake service dog thing because they don’t want to leave their dog at home.
Just this past Sunday, my wife and I, we both serve in our church. And there’s a lady who comes to our church who’s confined to a wheelchair and she brought her so-called ‘service’ dog into the church. Now you know that a true service dog is trained to ignore other animals. Dogs do have that natural instinct to notice there’s another dog… and sniff their way, but if the dog is really trained to be a service dog they’re trained to ignore most of their surroundings.
Michelle and I were both working ‘production’ and usually in between services I will take him outside. Now everybody absolutely loves Stitch. If I walk in and I don’t have him, everyone goes ‘Where’s Stitch?!’
So I take him outside and this lady in her wheelchair had her dog with her and the dog tried to attack Stitch. Full on lunging, barking, growling. Stitch looked at him like ‘dude, what’s your problem?’
And I walked him outside to do his thing. It’s stuff like that that makes it hard for me because with Stitch being so tiny, most people think of service dogs as German shepherds or golden retrievers… something large. That’s when I educate them. I tell them it depends on what they’re trained to provide. Just because he’s tiny doesn’t mean he can’t do his job. I explain to them about PTSD, about blood sugars, that kind of thing and they say ‘Oh my God, he really does that?’
Diabetes runs in my family. I have not been clinically diagnosed but my doctor told me to keep an eye on my blood sugar just to be on the safe side. And there’s been times when we’ve been out and I haven’t eaten… that kind of thing and he will jump on me when I’m about to crash. He does it for my wife too.
Stitch will actually get up on his hind legs and jump up on mine, or he’ll whine and sit straight up almost like a meerkat. I’m just glad. Having Stitch has kept my sanity.
I self-isolated a lot. I got to the point where I just didn’t go out any more. I was trying to go out with friends. They’d try to get me to go out every so often… and a lot of times I’d tell them ‘no, I don’t feel like it,’… And of course when I was telling that to Mary she said: ‘That’s not good! Don’t self-isolate! Get out. Go do things… Try to get some sense of your independence back.’
For the first year, having Stitch as a service dog, we did go out during the program just so we could get more training, real world stuff. And then after the first year, I wasn’t afraid that he wasn’t going to act right, I was just afraid of everybody else.
It takes a lot of work for me to not be like this. But I’ve always had the mentality of ‘If you’re going to attack me, I’m going to turn around and attack you. I don’t do the flight thing, I do the fight thing. If you’re gonna come at me I’m gonna go back at you. And I’m gonna come at you like a freakin’ bull in a china shop.
After talking with my wife, and Mary, and even Vreli, they were like,
‘you just got to get out there. It’s up to you whether you choose to respond, to do this or that…’
And I realized I can’t be in that shell any more. Being cooped up in the house all the time was really driving me insane. The same routine every day. So I decided once or twice a week I’m just going to go out. I’ll talk with Michelle, we’ll pick a destination and we’ll go. The other day Stitch and I went to Universal.
We’ve gone several times. The team members at Universal love Stitch, they absolutely love him. There are some rides he can go on and there are others where I have to put him in a cage. We usually hit our favorite rides, like the Jurassic World VelociCoaster! Most of the team members at VelociCoaster know who Stitch is. They have a cage and there’s a little elevator we go up and they always have a team member who will sit right there with him until we come back. We might go walk around a mall, like Disney Springs outlet mall… just to get me out of the house. We don’t necessarily go and buy anything, it’s just for me to get out. He walks with me and it’s always ‘Oh my God, he’s so cute! What’s his name? They absolutely love him when I go out.
When there’s fireworks he’s really good with that. We’ve desensitized him and gone to places like Disney that have fireworks. But fireworks still get me. Right now, the explosions I can handle. It’s the ones that I can’t see, or the ones that whistle that will get me.
If I can see them coming, like most fireworks you see the little ball of fire go up in the air… if I can see that I’m fine. It’s the random ones that all of a sudden explode, that will get me.
The ones that whistle, those will put me in a fetal position. For the most part with fireworks he doesn’t jump. If something startles him from time to time, then yeah, he’ll jump if he’s not prepared for it.
Yesterday we went to Lakeland to an antique mall and there was a white fox. It was killed and stuffed and mounted in a certain position that scared the shit out of Stitch. He was like ‘What the hell is that?’ I told him it’s fake… it’s stuffed. He wouldn’t go near it. He was cowering. Once I showed him it wasn’t going to hurt him he walked up to it and he was fine.
Fourth of July, the last couple we’ve gone out before the fireworks and we’ll come home before the fireworks, and we’ll be in the house and we’ll have music playing. I know my neighbors love to light them off. I’ve told them I’m not going to be one of those people…if you want to light them off, light them off, but please, please, please do not have the ones that whistle!
If you want the ones that go boom or pop… fine. Bring the booms, bring the pops but please if you’re going to do the ones that whistle please let me know. I wish more people would understand that. It really sucks when you’re in that position of vulnerability. But one of the things I told Mary was I don’t want this to be a crutch.
She also reaffirmed to me that something like this can take years, and sometimes it never goes away. It just sticks with you for a lifetime.
I’m due for recertification in July and I love the recert process with K9P4P. It shows Mary and Jess and all the other trainers that the program works! It shows that those who are truly dedicated to the program will do what it takes to keep their dogs certified.
There are certain things that we do with Stitch every day. We still practice every day. The sit, the stay, and I know there’s new requirements that they require on recerts so that’s why we’ve been working with that. The one I’m still having trouble with is getting him from a lay-down position to a stand position.
He’s a dachshund. He’ll stay. He’ll lay down. Someone at our church wanted to know if he really was a truly trained service dog. I told Stitch ‘Sit’ and he sat. She goes ‘Well anybody can do that.’ I told him down for him to lay down. And I unhooked him from his harness and said ‘Stay’ and I walked off.
And he just stayed there. Didn’t budge. Didn’t whine. No nothing. I went around the corner. I walked out of his sight for a few seconds… I came back and stood right where I was. I looked at him and said ‘Stich, come.’
And he walked over to me, stood in front of me and looked up. And I looked at the lady and said, ‘Any more questions?’ She goes, ‘Oh my God!’
It’s been great. I can’t wait to get back and recertify this year. It’s always nerve- wracking. I don’t know why. Recerting him always gives me the nerves. Is he going to act up today? Is he not going to act up? It’s just more in my head. It’s like taking a test. I hate tests! But I know at the end of the day, he does just fine. And he’s absolutely amazing at what he does.
Michelle (Cory’s wife) says with Stitch I’m less agitated. Before I had Stitch I was easily agitated. Easily startled. Moody. I still get moody from time to time, but Stitch will be like ‘Dad, you might want to calm down…’ He keeps me very well-grounded and she fully agrees that having him as my service dog has done wonders for my mental health.
