K9s for Veterans opens its second service dog training location in Joliet

When Navy veteran Kent Sears starts to feel something trigger his post-traumatic stress disorder, his service dog, Duchess, is there to help.

Sears, a Joliet resident who said he served from 1999 to 2000, received the dachshund and labrador mix through the nonprofit K9s for Veterans in the summer of 2021. It’s been transformative, he said.

“With my PTSD and anxiety, I’ve taught her to bring things to me, and if I start to have a trigger of PTSD, she’ll come up and make sure I’m OK, showing love,” Sears said. “It’s been life changing.”

Sears was among dozens of people on hand Wednesday in Joliet — including veterans already benefiting from the program — as the service dog training organization had a ribbon-cutting at its new training center at the Gina & Jim Glasgow Training Campus, located at 1 Doris Ave. in Joliet. Glasgow is the Will County State’s Attorney, and Gina Glasgow is his wife.

The organization already had one location at 5430 W. Roosevelt Road in Chicago.

K9s for Veterans provides and helps train service dogs for veterans and aims to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder transition back to civilian life with the help of trained service dogs, according to the organization’s website.

Sears said it took about six weeks for him to get Duchess, and the organization took into account that he lives in a one-bedroom apartment, making sure he received a smaller dog. Sears said he’s been amazed at the generosity of the program, even after he received Duchess, who was rescued from a shelter in Cleveland, Texas, Sears said.

K9s for Veterans provides all food and veterinary care for the life of the dog.

“I couldn’t fathom them providing all that,” Sears said. “Whatever you need for the dog, they help you get it so it doesn’t eat you out of house and home. Every week I come for training, they ask if I have enough food. K9s (for Veterans) has been a godsend.”

K9s for Veterans CEO and founder Michael Tellerino, an Army veteran, said he was inspired to start the organization after seeing what a difference service dogs made in his own life and for those around him. The program has 76 dogs and none of the veterans who has been given a dog has been lost to PTSD suicide, Tellerino said.

“These dogs have been a game-changer,” Tellerino said. “So many veterans need it. We opened our Chicago training center at Roosevelt and Central, but had so many veterans who couldn’t travel from this area to Chicago. So Jim Glasgow found this building for us, and Terry D’Arcy helped fund the building. We’ve been blessed.”

D’Arcy, a car dealer and prominent businessperson, is challenging Mayor Bob O’Dekirk in this year’s Joliet mayoral race. Tycee Bell, a community advocate, also is running.

K9s for Veterans co-founder Dennis Mele, while not a veteran, said getting involved with the organization with Tellerino was his way of serving.

“These guys come back with an injury (PTSD) they got from serving, and there’s no obvious way to put a Band-Aid on the wound, so we found a way we can help,” Mele said. “Most of these guys, if they don’t commit suicide, they think about it, and it’s a proven fact that these dogs can prevent that from happening.”

“And we don’t know who saved who, because the veterans save the dogs from kill shelters, and the dog ends up saving the veteran,” Mele said.

Another veteran who came out Wednesday was Braidwood resident Mike Grygiel, who said he served in the Marines in Vietnam. His dog, Otter, a 9-month-old airedale terrier, was close to his side. Grygiel said he received Otter three weeks ago.

Otter came into Grygiel’s life thanks to a Girl Scout.

“She sold cookies and donated a dog to K9s for Veterans,” Grygiel’s wife, Karen, said. “He wanted to get into the program, and they donated the dog to him.”

The Grygiels said they are thankful for the Joliet location. They said it was too difficult for Mike to make it to the Chicago training location. Otter will be trained to respond to Grygiel’s PTSD and detect if his blood sugars are too low or too high.

“He’s already much happier, I can tell,” Karen said of her husband. “We’ll be here for training three times a week.”

Kyle Tietz of Palos Heights, an Army veteran who said he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has had his American bulldog, Omega, for about a year and has been training him at the Chicago K9s for Veterans location.

“Training is a new thing for both of us,” he said of himself and Omega. “They rescued him from a shelter in Blue Island, and he’s going to help me through bouts of depression and PTSD. Things have already gotten a lot better for me. I’m so happy to be a part of this.”

To learn more about K9s for Veterans and their new Joliet training center, visit k9sforveteransnfp.org.