"My first night at Canine Companions, I sat in the corner with my hat pulled low. Even though I had already visited the campus, everything about being there felt unfamiliar. I kept scanning the room. Counting exits, checking doors, making sure I knew where I could go if I needed to get out. The truth is, I didn’t want to be there ... but that wasn’t a new feeling. For years, I had been avoiding people, avoiding places, avoiding anything that made me feel like I wasn’t in control. After serving nine years in the usairforce, something inside me had changed. I felt… broken. Like pieces of me were missing. But after a long wait — more than two years from applying to finally arriving — I knew I had to try. That’s when I met #servicedog Bernice. 🐕‍🦺 She wasn’t what I expected at first. Smaller than I imagined. Quiet. Steady. But over those two weeks of training, I started to see something different. Bernice had a way of noticing what I felt before I said a word. When I got o...