Different Roles Dogs Play in Society

Tyson King, CD served the Canadian Armed Forces from Jan 1991 to Jun2016. Duringhisserviceheservedin2xUNtoursand1NATO tour to the Former Yugoslavia while he was in the Infantry, in 1999 he changed trade to the Royal Canadian Navy Marine Engineers in whichheoperatedonvariousvesselsthroughoutthepacific. In 2013, his experiences form the incident regarding the ethnic cleansing in Medak Pocket during his second UN tour in Yugolslavia (Sept1993). HewasdiagnosedwithPTSDthatdatedbacktothat event and was later medically released due to this injury and the fact that Tyson King sought out and was provided a Service Dog, CullyfromCourageousCompanionsCanada. Thisteamwasthefirst serving military member with a service dog in the RCN and on the West Coast.

After the team certification, MSAR Master Trainer invited Tyson King to become a trainer as the team’s performance was considered outstanding and the fact that Tyson King had little support as
there was no one available to provide team support as a trainer orasamentor. TysonKingusedthere-educationallowances available to medically released personnel to be completely

trained up as a service dog trainer in multiple areas including but not limited to: PTSD, Autism, Physical Assistance, Medical Alert (Detection),MedicalResponse,etc. Tyson’ssuccesseswerenot just limited to his change of occupation, much of his PTSD recovery has been directly influenced by Cully’s ability to detect theoncomingtriggersandraiseTyson’sawarenesstoit. Tyson then used a combination of self-help skills and Cully’s tasks to be medically supervised to be completely meds free.

In mid 2015, VI K9 Consulting and Training Inc was established and relocatedtoitscurrenthomebaseinBrentwoodBayin2016. VIK9 uses a combination of service dog trainer skills and his own mental health experiences to successfully relate and train various team of servicedogs. CurrentlyVIK9has3additionaltrainers(onein MissionandtwoinVictoria). Betweenthevariousprogramsof Service Dog Provision and Owner/Trainer, VIK9 has now 2 completely certified teams (to MSAR Elite Standard), 5 progressing through the BC and MSAR certifications and 10 more at various stage of training (one of these Owner/Trainers are being supported inSaskatchewan.) Manyofthesecasesareverycomplexcases where other service providers have actually laughed at the clients telling them “it is not possible to train for such complex needs”.