After Service Dog Helped her Recovery Journey, Grad Student is Spreading the Word About Their Important Role 

Two years ago, student veteran Nadia Elieff was struggling to find ways to alleviate her PTSD until she attended a panel on service dogs and discovered she qualified for such help.

After just three months with her golden lab mix service dog Truffle by her side, she can’t imagine her recovery without him.

“He provides me with so much support that I was missing before. He is the final puzzle piece to my recovery,” said Elieff, 23, who served five years in the Army Reserves and is now in the last year of her master’s program in labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

On Oct. 28, Elieff will speak about her positive experience with Truffle at  “Unleashing Independence: The Vital Role of Service Dogs.” The annual panel discussion is one of more than 40 campus events planned during this year’s Disability Awareness Month at Rutgers. Participating in the panel is Elieff’s way of giving back since it’s where she first learned about how veterans can benefit from service dogs. 

As a survivor of sexual assault during her military service, Elieff said her recovery from the resulting PTSD had plateaued, despite her work in therapy and advocating on behalf of other survivors. But when she was paired with Truffle, who was trained by Canine Companions, she regained confidence and found it easier to regulate her anxiety almost immediately. 

“Even with different treatments before, I was still afraid to go outside by myself. But he makes me feel more comfortable in public. I’ve gained a lot of the independence that I lost before because of how unsafe I used to feel in public spaces,” she said. “There are a couple of commands that help him create space between me and other people. When I’m standing in line, he stands behind me, so I don’t have to look over my shoulder.”

Or when she is in class and starts to experience a wave of anxiety, Truffle is trained to interrupt it by offering comfort.

“If he sees me tapping my leg in class or fidgeting, he’ll come up to me and put his head in my lap as a way of saying, ‘Hey, girl, you’ve got to figure this out. Stop doing that,' ” she said.

Just feeding, walking and playing with Truffle is therapeutic in and of itself, she said.

“Caring for him provides a lot of structure in my life that I really needed,” said Elieff. “When I wake up, I’m so happy to see him and take care of him.”

As a person without a visible disability, Elieff answers a lot of questions about Truffle on campus and around New Brunswick, where she lives while attending Rutgers. 

“A lot of people assume I’m training him, because I don’t look like your stereotypical veteran,” she said. “I guess I want people to know veterans come from all different backgrounds and people with disabilities don’t particularly look a certain way.”

A fluffy, friendly-looking dog like Truffle on campus also attracts a lot of positive attention, said Elieff, who needs to remind people “at least 20 times a day” that they cannot pet Truffle while he is wearing his service vest.

However, that constant activity on campus is precisely what makes colleges an ideal environment to socialize service dogs, said Javier Robles, a professor of kinesiology with Rutgers-New Brunswick’s School of Arts and Sciences and Director of the Center for Disability Sports, Health, and Wellness. Robles, a C5 quadriplegic, was recently paired with Gonzalo, his fourth service dog through Canine Companions in 35 years.

“Fifty percent of dogs that go through the program do not make it for a variety of reasons, including, reactions to certain environmental issues,” said Robles. “Nothing phases Gonzalo, and that’s what you want. You want a dog who can behave in public around a lot of people, noise and distractions.”

In fact, Gonzalo and his now-retired service dog, Delbert, were both trained on college campuses, said Robles. He is working with the Office of Disability Services to hopefully one day make that a possibility at Rutgers. 

“Right now, there is a waiting list for service dogs,” he said. “So, the more puppy raisers they have, the more people who can be helped.”

Tuesday’s panel discussion will also feature Robles, who plans to speak about the distinction between service animals and therapy animals. Therapy dogs are often retired service dogs. They are invited into spaces such as schools, hospitals, physical and occupational therapy centers to support the emotional wellbeing of students, patients and others. 

Robles said there has been a proliferation of knockoff certificates and faux service vests online in recent years that make it possible for people to bring their untrained pets into public places. That has caused confusion and push back against those with actual service dogs, Robles said.

“That’s a really big problem for those of us who use a seeing eye dog or service dog,” he said. “After people use these fake certificates and the dogs cause havoc or make a mess in a store, they don’t want to allow our dogs in. But by law, they have to.”

Service animals are specially trained to assist those with physical, sensory or emotional disabilities. They are not to be distracted or played with unless you receive express permission from the service dog’s handler.

For instance, Gonzalo understands 40 commands, and can open doors and retrieve items for Robles. During one harrowing incident, when Robles accidentally tipped sideways in his wheelchair while his wife was at school, he found himself trapped for several hours. His first service dog, Tess, immediately came to his aid – instinctively positioning herself beneath him so he could lean against her. For three hours, Tess supported his weight, easing the pressure on Robles’s ribs and lungs and likely preventing a much more serious injury.

“I had to go to the ER. I had bruised ribs, but the doctor said it would have been a lot worse if I didn’t have the dog to keep me up,” he explained.  “She was committed and did it for me without having formal training for that response. For me, that was my first experience seeing how a dog could really help someone.”