Canine comfort in a crisis

A new deputy was sworn into the Union County Sheriff’s Office, though this one is a little hairier than most. Meet Patch, the county’s Crisis Response Canine.

“A Crisis Response Canine is different from a therapy dog. Only a first responder can be a Crisis Response Canine handler. That first responder is trained in de-escalation, in peer support and in critical incident stress management,” Union County Sheriff Brian Bolton said.

Bolton first learned about the canine program when working as the Iowa coordinator for the First Responder Force Task, an organization that works to provide survivor benefits to first responders and their families.

While there is not one single program that trains Crisis Response Canines nationwide, various regional groups have seen success. Between hearing stories and seeing firsthand the benefit these dogs provided, Bolton started thinking about his family dog, Patch.

“He’s always just had a great disposition, a great demeanor. He’s very calm and loves people, loves kids,” Bolton said. “For a border collie, he’s extremely calm, but he’s also very obedient too, so I thought, he would work perfect for that program.”

In Iowa, these dogs are trained through Crisis Canines of the Midlands, a fairly new program that spawned after German shepherd Glory was trained as a Crisis Response Canine for the Jasper County Sheriff EMS program in 2022 in Columbus, Ohio. Their first class of canines graduated in 2024. Patch and Bolton attended this month.

Between Glory and the two graduating classes at Crisis Canines of the Midlands, there are now 32 Crisis Response Canines in Iowa. Three of these are in Southwest Iowa, including EMA Coordinator Byron Jimmerson and canine Kai in Clarke County, Deputy Logan Roberts and canine Sally in Fremont County and now Bolton and Patch in Union County.

Bolton explained why crisis canines help emergency services and victims so much.

“Something about when you pet a dog, it just helps to calm you down. There’s actually scientific research that supports that, so when you’re interacting with a dog, you’re using four of your senses,” Bolton said. “When you’re using four of your senses, you can’t really live in a past traumatic experience or be worried about the future; you’re kind of right there in the present.”

Though Patch had passed his temperament training, he still had a lot to do before becoming a certified Crisis Response Canine. Crisis Canines of the Midlands holds a week-long intensive course for both dogs and their handlers.

“They actually had a mock medical scene where they had an ambulance come in with lights and sirens on,” Bolton said. “They had a dummy set up there where they had five medics rushing to this person and CPR, the entire works, so we just gathered around with our dogs to sit and watch this whole thing.”

Not only do the dogs have to get used to common sounds and sights at emergency scenes, these canines had to learn to stay calm in various other circumstances, includes meeting other animals at a petting zoo, taking a boat ride and working alongside drones and bomb-disposal robots.

Along with training for the dogs, the handlers heard from various speakers about how crisis canines have been used in the past.

“From the experiences that the people from Ohio shared with us, they recognized it when they had a victim that had experienced a traumatic situation, and that victim would sit there and tell the dog her story,” Bolton said. “They’re able to open up.”

Though Patch has only been out of the academy for a couple weeks, his presence in Union County has been thoroughly appreciated.

“We can already see the benefit of using him. He kind of wanders around the law center during the day,” Bolton said. “He interacts with the dispatchers, the police officers, the deputies. He just kind of lightens the mood. Everybody out at the courthouse loves him.”

While Patch’s skills haven’t been put to the test in a real world situation, Bolton knows that day will come.

“He’s only been certified for not even a week yet, but unfortunately I’m sure we’re going to have those situations here,” Bolton said. “I’m not looking forward to that, but if we can provide some sort of comfort when everything else is chaos, that’s what we want to do. His job is to bring comfort and joy to those around him.”