Saving Two Lives at Once
Andy and Marylynn Gladstein celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary in 2013. Marylynn’s father was a veteran, and she always had a place in her heart for our service members. Andy knew that nothing would honor his wife more than giving a service dog to a wounded warrior. It was then the realization hit Andy.
What our veterans need is someone who will fight for them as they fought for their country; faithfully, every day, without question or complaint. The idea for Dogs For Our Brave was born.
Between the cost of training, food, pharmaceuticals, and veterinary care, Andy soon discovered how expensive a service dog is. The average veteran couldn’t afford one. Andy decided that in order to be successful, Dogs For Our Brave needed to completely cover the cost of the service dogs' financial needs. This was the key point that made his vision different from every other.
He met with trainers, with experts, with shelters and with veterinarians, and put together an infrastructure that would result in a superior service dog. The 18 month training period for the first dog started in 2013, and in 2014, the first service dog, Gabby, a rescued mixed breed, was placed with Chris Roseberry.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide professionally trained service dogs at no cost to veterans who have suffered debilitating injury or illness while in service to our country. Our goal is to use rescue dogs at every opportunity, thus saving two lives at once. In order to fully realize our mission without adding financial burden, we also provide a continuum of free support that covers all food, veterinary care, and pharmaceuticals for the life of the dog.
Each dog will be trained to do the normal commands (sit, lay, come, stay) in addition each dog will be able to:
- Turn on and off light switches
- Opening doors
- Bracing
- Retrieval
- Pulling
- Other commands will be taught to help and special needs tailored to each veteran’s needs