There are plenty of reasons why we say dogs are man’s best friend — just ask retired Colonel David Rozelle. “Domi was my first service dog, and she saved my life,” he says. After a landmine exploded under Rozelle’s Humvee during a 2003 tour in Iraq, he had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. Even after his injury, Rozelle went back to serve two additional tours in Iraq, returning from the third in 2010. “I really understood war after the third tour,” he says. “I’d been at war for almost 10 years of my life, and I was so tired. I just didn’t feel right anymore.”
Upon returning home to his wife and children, Rozelle found that the emotional scars he’d sustained were just as deep as the physical ones: “I was a broken soul,” says Rozelle. “I was mean all the time. It’s hard to be a good father when someone spills a glass of milk and you react like there was a roadside bomb incident.”
That’s when Rozelle was matched with his first service dog, a labrador retriever mix named Domi, through Canine Companions, an organization supported by Eukanuba premium formulas which provides highly trained service dogs to people with disabilities. Once they’ve completed their training, Canine Companions service dogs can retrieve dropped items, turn on and off lights, and even open doors. While Rozelle anticipated that Domi would help him with everyday tasks, she ended up doing much more. “She could sense how I was feeling,” says Rozelle. “So if I started acting tense, she would come over and snuggle with me. I’d spent so much time at war that I’d forgotten how to love. Domi taught me how to love again.”
While the service dogs from Canine Companions provide invaluable help and comfort to the people they’re matched with, they also have a profound impact on the volunteer puppy raisers who care for and train them before they move on to professional training. While these dogs are paired with everyone from young children to retirees, some of the volunteers come from a more unexpected place: the Gadsden Correctional Facility (GCF) in Florida.
Since 2006, about 20 female incarcerated volunteer puppy raisers have worked each year to train the dogs who’ll go on to be Canine Companions service animals. These volunteers care for the puppies, keeping them physically, socially, and mentally engaged until they’re old enough to begin professional training.
One of these puppy raisers is Patricia Banks, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison at age 50. “I was extremely depressed, and didn’t know what I was going to do,” says Banks. “When you first get to prison, there’s a lot of negativity. There’s a lot of shame. Friends and family back away.”
During her sentence, Banks learned about the Canine Companions’ puppy-raising program, and was determined to get involved. “I had dogs at home, and I felt very guilty about leaving them when I went to prison,” she says. “Prison can feel hopeless, but caring for a dog can take the focus off where you are.” Three years into her sentence, Banks was transferred to GCF, where she was accepted into the Canine Companions program. There, incarcerated volunteers are with their dogs 24 hours a day, until it’s time for the dogs to move on to the next stage of their training.
For service dogs to perform their best, they require a diet tailored to meet their needs. That’s why, for more than 30 years, Canine Companions has trusted Eukanuba premium formulas to support all stages of development of the dogs in their program. Its science-based nutrition is formulated to support the dogs’ ability to perform the unique physical and mental tasks that are critical to their success, including staying constantly alert to their owner’s physical and emotional needs. Eukanuba products cater to all types of dogs, and are categorized according to life-stage, size, and health-and-performance requirements.
Banks says that this responsibility — preparing the Canine Companions future service dogs to serve people with disabilities — gave her a sense of pride. “Raising a puppy provides you with purpose and structure,” she says. “When you do a good job, it’s exciting. For me, it felt like a second chance.”
While having such a close relationship with a dog and then having to give it away could be emotionally challenging, Banks (who has since completed her prison sentence, and raised 16 dogs for Canine Companions over the course of her incarceration) says the experience was transformative. “It doesn’t erase what I did, but it puts a comma after it,” says Banks. “Yes I went to prison for 20 years. However, while I was there, I did a lot of good.”
The positive impact that Colonel David Rozelle’s service dog has had on his life is proof of the importance of the work Banks and other puppy raisers like her do. Rozelle, whose current service dog Kylynn was raised by Banks, says he’s forever grateful to her for loving Kylynn and then letting her go: “It’s selfless work,” says Rozelle. “I appreciate [Banks’] sacrifice, because Kylynn saved my life.”
Since 1991, Canine Companions has trusted Eukanuba premium formulas to support all stages of development of the dogs in their program. Eukanuba nutrition continues to support the unique physical and mental needs of these service dogs that are critical to their successful daily performance. In May 2024, the organizations announced a three-year renewal preserving Eukanuba as the exclusive nutrition partner for Canine Companions service dogs. With over 55 years of research, Eukanuba delivers exceptional, customized nutrition. Eukanuba products cater to all types of dogs and are categorized according to life-stage, size and health-and-performance requirements.
