Making a PAWSitive Impact
Story by Megan Myers, CVMBS Communications
CVM ambassadors Angelica Frazer and Colton Aleman train service dogs to provide veterans with a source of comfort in the home they served to protect.
Texas A&M students are often known for having the desire to help others in their communities and beyond. Angelica Frazer, an ambassador for the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM), is a perfect example of this dedication to selfless service.
As the incoming president of the student organization Patriot PAWS of Aggieland, Frazer spends much of her free time training service dogs for veterans.
“Our end goal is to reduce the veteran suicide rate in the U.S., because right now there are 22 veterans, on average, who commit suicide every single day,” Frazer said.
Patriot PAWS of Aggieland and its parent organization, based in Rockwell, Texas, offer trained service dogs at no cost to veterans with physical disabilities, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or other mental health conditions.
Since her freshman year at Texas A&M, Frazer has helped raise and train 11 dogs for Patriot PAWS, caring for each for about four months. Patriot PAWS of Aggieland, the largest service dog organization at Texas A&M, typically has around 100 students training dogs each semester.
Members of the student organization spend one semester learning cues, attending weekly training classes, and shadowing experienced trainers. They can then be certified and start training a service dog, as long as they continue to remain active within the organization.
“After that first semester, you can literally get a dog the week after, as I did my freshman year,” Frazer said. “It’s a commitment, but it’s worth it.”
Though Frazer does the majority of dog care and training on her own, she always has the support of her boyfriend and fellow CVM Ambassador, Colton Aleman.
“It’s a large time commitment,” Aleman said. “I’ve seen how much time she puts into it. I’d actually love to know the hours per week; I feel like it would be a full-time job.”
Aleman, a senior biomedical sciences major and member of the Corps of Cadets, has a passion for mental health awareness and hopes to one day serve as a clinical social worker with the U.S. Navy. At Texas A&M, he was one of the first members of Aggie Mental Health Ambassadors, an organization that works to end the stigma against mental health on campus.
Having lost his uncle to suicide as a result of PTSD, Aleman said he really appreciates what Patriot PAWS stands for and hopes to accomplish. Though too busy to take on a dog himself, he does what he can to help Frazer with hers.
Frazer’s current service dog, a 1-year-old Labrador Retriever named McDermott, will stay with her until December before moving on to another trainer. Thanks to a partnership with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Patriot PAWS is able to rotate dogs between the care of Texas A&M students and the men and women in Texas prisons.
“It’s a great community service for those who are in the prison system,” Frazer said. “They fall in love with the dogs, and it really helps them through their hard times as well.”
The dogs, usually puppies when they begin training, need about two years of practice before they can pass the American Canine Good Citizen Test and be sent to live with a veteran.
When the dogs are trained within the Texas prison system, they learn in an environment that offers few distractions for them; when Texas A&M students take over handling the dogs, that training is reinforced in a distraction-filled environment that more readily aligns with what they will encounter as a certified service dog.
Besides traditional behavioral cues, the dogs are also taught a large variety of skills, such as how to close and
open doors, bring over a drink or prosthetic leg, and put on their own service vests.
“Once we have them paired with a veteran, we work with the dog for a couple of weeks to teach them how to help with that veteran’s specific disability,” Frazer said.
“Sometimes the dogs are a better match for social companions,” she said. “We do find veterans who just need a social companion, someone to be there and guide them and be with them all the time.”
After the veterans and dogs work together for a short trial period, Patriot PAWS hosts “Pairing Day” to permanently match each veteran with the best dog for his or her needs and personality.
“We often see that the dog picks the person,” Frazer said. “They definitely bond during Pairing Day; you can see it just click.”
Pairing Day is full of celebration, but can also be bittersweet for the Patriot PAWS trainers who must say goodbye to their dogs.
“You feel like a mom because you see your child up on the stage running with the diploma in his mouth to his veteran and you’re just so proud of them for actually making it and graduating,” Frazer said. “But you’re also really sad because they’re leaving ‘home.’”
With caring for her dogs, serving as the Patriot PAWS president, and being a CVM Ambassador, Frazer keeps a very busy schedule. In addition to leading tours of the CVM, she also shows guests around main campus for MSC Hospitality, the official host of the Memorial Student Center.
She said her goal is to attend veterinary school, preferably at the CVM, where she can also be a member of the Veterinary Emergency Team. One day, she hopes to work as a mixed-practice veterinarian.
Besides her temporary service dog in training, Frazer also has a Great Pyrenees-Lab mix named Dante whom she adopted after he dropped out of the Patriot PAWS program.
“It’s interesting having a pet at home and then having my service dog with me on campus,” she said. “Dante gets the fun part of it, but the service dog gets the working part. Both of them love it, though. If they get fed, they’re happy dogs.”
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Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2019 edition of CVMBS Today.
For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of CVMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu; 979-862-4216
