ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — There's a new fury four-legged member of the firehouse in St. Johns County.
Garrett started as a therapy dog for St. Johns County Fire Rescue about five weeks ago.
"His job here is really just to make people happy," Battalion Chief Brian Mitzel, who's also Garrett's handler, said. "I saw a bunch of articles and did some research on therapy dogs in the fire service and there’s a big push for mental health in the fire service and so we decided through the department initiative to try it out and it has been amazing so far."
The department reached out to K9s for Warriors where Garrett is a retired service dog.
“When St. Johns County Fire and Rescue called, we were able to get the ball really moving forward and rolling," Greg Wells, Manager of Programs for K9s, said. "It’s a no brainer to pair him with the fire department. He has the drive to help everybody, obviously, and he’s so amicable with everybody."
“His skills and training are basically being bled over into this program, so he is well behaved, he’s obedient, he does what he’s supposed to do, and he keys in on things," Wells added. "He has been taught how to do stress mitigation and all of that. Being able to transfer all of that from the warrior setting to the first responder setting has been key for this department."
Garrett even has his on headshot.
"He’s a huge part of this firehouse. I mean, he is part of our daily life now. He’s like one of the crew. He is one of the crew," Mitzel said.
Since he started, Mitzel said Garrett has already been to a few stress debriefings, helping members of the department.
"One of the debriefings, somebody was speaking about the call and got upset, and he got up and went right to them, and I’ve noticed that he hones in on people when they seem like they’re having a tough day," Mitzel said. "And he’ll, on his own, take his own initiative and kind of go over and interact with them."
"Usually, they kind of just watch him and just smile and kind of relax about the whole thing," Mitzel added.
Mitzel said if an agency or department doesn't have a therapy dog program, he encourages them to look into it.
"It has been a really great thing for our agency," he said.
According to Wells, K9s has placed nine station dogs across Florida. He said they're always looking for dogs for the station dog program as well.