SAN ANTONIO — Rob Gunsel and Elsa are still getting to know each other. Gunsel walks the dog around on a leash and goes over some commands; Elsa can sit, stay and lie down.
“She is in our third week, so she's just learning the foundations here,” Gunsel said. “Basically, teaching her that training is fun and it's worth doing.”
Elsa is eager to please, almost smiling as she quickly responds to Gunsel’s commands. Gunsel said that’s one of the qualities that make her a great fit for their program.
“We want a dog who wants to engage with us, who's willing to work, who's willing to please, who accepts love, everything like that,” Gunsel said.
Gunsel is the manager of K9 training for K9s for Warriors in San Antonio, the nation’s largest provider of service dogs for veterans. It’s Gunsel’s job to prepare dogs like Elsa for a life of service. They’re hand-picked from animal shelters for this opportunity.
Lina Eklof, the campus director of K9s for Warriors in San Antonio, said they currently have 21 dogs in their care. And each one has that “special something."
“We have our procurement team; they go, they create or establish partnerships with shelters throughout Texas,” Eklof said. “They walk the kennels to see what types of dogs are there.”
Eklof said the dogs need to be a certain age and size. They also need to pass a temperament test.
She said it’s not easy to find dogs that have what they’re looking for.
“For example, we went to Dallas a few weeks ago and we came back with two dogs out of the three shelters that we visited,” Eklof said.
Once the dogs are accepted into the program, they become part of the K9s for Warriors family. They will train for about six months before they’re paired with a Warrior.
“It's really neat to follow the progress, of course, from when we first pull them from a shelter and just seeing how they blossom into what I believe, what they were meant to do,” Eklof said. “It's like two somewhat-lost souls finding each other and they just make this whole complete new soul together.”
As service dogs, they’ll help veterans who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Military Sexual Trauma.
Sergeant Amanda Peterson spent nine years in the U.S. Army Reserves. During that time, she deployed once to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq. After that, she spent another nine years struggling with PTSD and a TBI.
The pain she felt, she said, was hurting her relationship with her husband, children and friends.
“All of my emotions came out as anger,” Peterson said. “When I was scared or upset, all my emotions came out as anger instead of being sad. It made it difficult, especially for my kids.”
She was paired with her K9, Chesdin, in 2019. Peterson said Chesdin has given her independence, confidence and comfort. The two go everywhere together.
“He’s an extension of me,” Peterson said. “And he was a stray. He was rescued and I don't know his story before this, but now we get to write our own story.”
Gunsel said it’s rewarding to see countless hours of training come to fruition. He smiles down at Elsa, who continues to impress. He knows her second chance is full of promise.
“We're not just saving the dog's life, or just the Warriors life,” Gunsel said. “We're saving two lives at the same time here.”
To date, K9s for Warriors has graduated nearly 700 Warrior-K9 teams and rescued more than 1,300 dogs overall. The service dogs are given to veterans at no charge.
There is a high demand for service dogs from K9s for Warriors, with the waitlist reaching as far as to 2026.
If you’re interested in supporting K9s for Warriors, click here to learn more.