These puppies born on Memorial Day will be given to veterans for support

Lauren Clark
·2 min read

It was a symbolic birthday for Valley puppies born just hours into this Memorial Day.

Nonprofit AT&T Veterans donated dozens of puppies, and once this litter is old enough, it will mark 40 donated in just a year and a half.

The impact on local veterans is priceless.

Mom, Dutchess, brought her doodle-shepherd babies into the world for a special purpose.

"These puppies have no idea who they are going to be connected with, but they are going to serve those people for their entire lives," said Dan McSparran with the Arizona chapter of AT&T Veterans.

The nonprofit works alongside several partners to donate dogs to veterans in need.

"Veterans pay nothing for the puppies," McSparran said. "They pay nothing for the training."

They'll be touching the lives of veterans like Heath Horton who served in the Air Force. He has pup Ben Kenobi from the same mom of the litter born on this Memorial Day.

"Ben is mostly there for my emotional support. My military career has afforded me a lot of things, one of them is PTSD I guess, and that’s what he’s there for," Horton said.

Once the vets get their pets, they attend Dogs4Vets in Gilbert for training classes.

"A service dog performs a task directly related to the owner’s disability. So when we are dealing with disabled veterans, it could be something as simple as hearing loss, all the way up to anything that PTSD involves. Whether it’s anxiety, anger issues, night terrors, anything like that," Shaun Claseman with Dogs4Vets said.

Tasks that pup Maverick can perform for his owner, Patrick.

"Anxiety, depression, PTSD moments. I don’t know what I would do without him, because he senses it before I do," Patrick Daugherty, a veteran, said. "He’ll actually break my hands away from my face and be up with me and want me to pet him."

Ben Inkenbrandt owns the mom of the puppies, Dutchess.

Below are links to help get you connected with these services:

AT&T Veterans: https://www.attveterans.org/az/dood/

Dogs4Vets: https://dogs4vets.org/donate/