Elle And Jason: A Tale Of A Dog And Her Veteran

By LYDIA BERLGAR
News Editor

It’s a normal Tuesday morning at the Rising Fawn Post Office. About every 15 minutes, a customer or two comes in, and Rising Fawn Postal Clerk Jason Hurst greets them by name. Hurst remembers details from previous conversations and asks about their lives. The customers chat away while Hurst goes above and beyond to help them.

All the while, faithful Elle stays near Hurst, sometimes lying down, sometimes standing to greet customers. The fox red labrador is two-and-a-half-years-old, and although she’s only been with Hurst since August 2024, she’s become a staple at the post office and has dramatically changed Hurst’s life.

Long before becoming a postal clerk, Hurst served in the U.S. Army in Iraq. While this was a great opportunity for him, the experience also left him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

After 9/11, a 28-year-old Hurst enlisted, leaving his bride and newborn baby at home. He’d been laid off and was looking for something meaningful to do, so he signed up to protect his country. Hurst reflected, “Every couple of generations, there’s a defining moment in the course of our country. You can’t let something like that happen and not respond.”

However, there was no way to be prepared for what lay ahead in Iraq. “It was chaotic. It was very violent. We saw and experienced things that the human psyche isn’t set up for. We went from a place where there’s peace and law (at home in America) to a place where it’s every man for himself.”

When Hurst couldn’t re-enlist due to medical reasons, his wife, Caroline, wanted to return to her home of Dade County, so the family landed here. From the start of his return to civilian life, Hurst knew that he wasn’t okay. He had returned to a place of peace and order, but the violence of war left him with depression, severe anxiety, anger issues, and terrible nightmares.

The nightmares affected Hurst’s sleep which in turn impacted the rest of his life. Sometimes, the nightmares were violent enough that he attacked Caroline in his sleep, but through it all, she was a rock. “She somehow just knew how to deal with it,” Hurst said, “She’s either a soldier or a saint. She was always encouraging me to get help.”

However, it took him a long time to seek help. “We’re programmed to not ask for help, and you’re afraid of sticking out,” he said, “so I just bottled it all up.”

He attempted suicide twice. “When you look back, you realize that the end result would’ve been that selfishly your suffering would be over, but you caused a bunch of suffering for the people you leave behind.”

Hurst eventually got treatment for his mental help through the Department of Veterans Affairs which helped immensely. However, it wasn’t a complete fix. “My doctor told me I’d get diminishing returns from medication, which has been the case over the years.”

Beyond the mental and emotional issues, Hurst was also battling physical conditions. His weight reached 250 pounds, he was very out of shape, he developed type two diabetes, and his blood pressure reached stroke levels.

One critical day, his blood sugar was close to 800 mg/dL. “I should’ve been dead from a stroke,” said Hurst. This forced him to get medical treatment.

After getting an insulin pump and medication for his blood pressure, Hurst returned to his healthy weight of 175 pounds. “I felt better, but I still had problems with severe anxiety.”

His doctor suggested getting a service dog, but Hurst’s initial reaction was that he didn’t want to draw attention to himself by having a service dog with him. However, Caroline encouraged him to pursue the option.

After quite a bit of research, the Hursts found America’s VetDogs, a nonprofit founded in 2003 by the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind. Most other organizations said it could take one or two years to get a service dog, but in under eight months, Hurst completed the America’s VetDogs process and came home with Elle.

He was very impressed by the nonprofit which works carefully to match veterans with a dog that works well with their personality. The dogs are even trained to match each veteran’s gait and mobility level. To find the perfect match, Hurst had to complete paperwork and video interviews, talk to a psychologist, submit medical records and videos of his house, and spend two weeks on site.

America’s VetDogs paid for the plane tickets and room and board while Hurst was at the nonprofit’s New York site. The team taught Hurst and the other veterans how to navigate airports with a service dog and tipped them off that Delta Air Lines is the best airline for traveling with service animals.

At last, Elle came to her new home and began changing Hurst’s life. She can sense when he begins having a nightmare, and she nudges his leg enough to rouse him out of the dream but not enough to fully wake him. Hurst doesn’t remember the nightmares when he wakes up, so he now sleeps peacefully after going through decades of terrible dreams.

Elle also senses when his anxiety is rising, even before Hurst himself is aware. Using a method called deep pressure therapy, she lays her head firmly on his leg. Hurst said, “She just looks at me while I pet her, and it distracts my mind.”

Before Elle, Hurst found it difficult to go out to eat with his family, run errands, or go to church. He was always paranoid, watching the exits, fighting hyperawareness. “I felt amped up, hyped up, and nervous all the time, scanning everything for stuff that’s not there.”

Working at the post office was a comfortable place where Hurst knew the people and the building, but aside from work and spending time at home with his family, he didn’t venture out much at all.

Now, Elle interrupts these cycles of hyperawareness and anxiety. After she joined the family, the Hursts went out to eat as a test. “At first, I was really nervous,” recalled Hurst. “Elle sensed it and put her head in my lap. I started rubbing her head, and I forgot about what I was nervous about, and I started actually enjoying myself.”

A few days later, Hurst wanted to take a big step by going to Lowes and Home Depot alone. “It was nerve-wracking at first, but she reacted to the cues of me being nervous and interrupted that cycle. Suddenly, I was looking around and having fun. I wasn’t thinking, ‘I have to get out of here.’”

“It doesn’t mean I don’t have bad days,” he added. “There are days where it’s tough to get out, but I feel better knowing that she’s with me.”

Hurst explained that a human can’t constantly be at someone’s side with a laser focus on his or her companion’s well-being, but a dog can. “Elle literally lives to be at my side.” She has his routine memorized. One morning, Hurst’s alarm didn’t go off at its usual 5:15 time because he forgot to set it, but he felt Elle nudging him and sniffing his face until he woke up—at exactly 5:15 a.m.

While Hurst is Elle’s top person and responsibility, she also loves Caroline and the rest of the family. Customers who frequent the Rising Fawn Post Office now enjoy seeing Elle, and Dade County Postmaster Jodi Robertson has been completely supportive of Hurst’s journey to get a service dog.

Elle not only notices Hurst’s anxiety, but she also picks up on customers’ and carriers’ stress. During the busy holiday season, Hurst’s team was overwhelmed, and Elle walked around to each carrier to get a pat on the head and calm them down. The mood in the mailroom quickly improved.

“I think a lot of dogs have the ability to sense stress,” said Hurst, “but because of the way she’s trained to be that empathetic, she immediately responds to people around her who she feels need some assistance.”

Elle is a true working dog, but when her vest comes off, she enters play mode. When it’s on, she knows she’s on the clock. Hurst said, “The moment I put that vest on and the last strap clips into place, she’s in work mode. It’s a testament to the amount of training that went into putting her in the position she’s in.”

America’s VetDogs training is no joke—it takes between one-and-a-half to two years for the dogs to be fully trained to their specific handler’s needs.

Although it costs more than $50,000 to breed, raise, train, and place one service dog, America’s VetDogs provides services to veterans and first responders free of charge, thanks to donations from individuals, corporations, foundations, businesses, and service and civic clubs.

Hurst often recommends America’s VetDogs to other veterans. “We all have different experiences when it comes to PTSD,” he said, “but the base of it is the same. There’s no point in battling it on your own.”

He concluded, “I wish I would’ve done this 15 years ago. I think about how much more of my life I would have lived if I’d had a dog there for me. I wish more people would give it a shot. It’ll change their lives—it’s changed mine.”