Jack Sterling is not a dog trainer.
He usually likes to mention that right away, although that can confuse people, given the jet-black German shepherd that is beside him at all times these days.
“I just don’t consider myself a dog trainer,” Sterling says. “I couldn’t train someone else to train a dog, and I couldn’t train another dog from scratch. But Echo is my dog. We’re training together.”
Wherever Sterling goes now, Echo follows — for the most part. She is still a puppy, early in her journey to become a service dog. The vest she wears still reads “Service Dog In Training,” and she can occasionally get distracted by another dog across the road, for instance, or a squirrel darting across the sidewalk. She still has the demeanor of a puppy, too: eager for attention from strangers and especially playtime.
Recognizable by her ears — one perked up at all times, the other flopped down — Echo was never intended to be by Sterling’s side at all times. She was supposed to be with another trainer, but when those plans fell through, the group Service Dogs for Veterans reached out to Sterling, himself a former Navy SEAL, to see if he could take her.
“Back in May, I got a text from a buddy of mine asking if I’d be interested in adopting this dog, a cute puppy, and of course my wife was all about it,” Sterling says. “There was one string attached — she’s not meant to be a pet, but a service dog, and I would have to train her.”
Based in Greenville, Service Dogs for Veterans helps to provide “battle buddies” to veterans trying to heal and recover from the wounds — both physical and mental — they endured during their military service. She’s named for Sterling’s former Navy company. Echo Company.
Sterling never thought he would ever seek out a service dog. He spent nine years in the SEALs, serving as communications expert for his team, ensuring their communications equipment was secure and operable. When they needed to coordinate air craft and air strikes, or connect with external assets like jets, helicopters, gunships and ships at sea, the responsibility was on Sterling.
When he left the military, he transferred those skills over to the private sector by starting his own business, CloudHound, providing strategic telecom and cloud solutions with an emphasis on companies in the Upstate.
The original intention of the company name, CloudHound, was to tell clients “we’ll be the dog in the fight for them,” according to Sterling.
Now he sees the irony of that choice.
“It’s kind of funny that CloudHound has nothing to do with dogs literally, but I’ve become the guy with the dog now,” he says.
With Echo, Sterling finds himself using his communication skills in an entirely different manner. When he was communicating with aircraft, he always had to stay calm and even-keeled, not letting the circumstances dictate his tone. The same applies when he communicates with Echo. If he stays calm, she’ll stay calm, and if he can provide that relaxed, consistent communication, it helps her mental health, too.
Some of the training is relatable for any dog owner — come, sit, stay, heel, lay.
Other tasks, what are called non-natural tasks, are more nuanced, aimed at addressing the specific needs of veterans.
“If you have PTSD or anxiety, which I do, going out in public by yourself for routine tasks can be kind of stressful,” Sterling says. “Your brain is always thinking through the worst case scenario — what if an active shooter comes through, for example, or if I get attacked from behind.”
With a simple command, Echo will know her job is to sit behind Sterling and keep watch, alerting him if someone approaches — literally having his back.
There are other skills she’ll learn, such as providing physical support if Sterling gets vertigo or dizziness from inner-ear blast damage and can’t stand, something he hasn’t had much trouble with but which is common among veterans. Or there are tasks that are based on emotional support, such as sensing panic or anxiety and coming up to place her head in his lap, her paw on his thigh.
“Something as simple as providing comfort, of being there,” Sterling says.
It’s also given Sterling a rare ability to return to the sense of purpose that drove his life during his time as a SEAL, something he’d lost when he returned to civilian life.
He compares SEAL life to “a giant bucket.” Each day he would go in and dump his cup into that bucket, pouring all his resources into one endeavor. But life outside of the military feels like a series of many smaller buckets.
“You’ve got to figure out which buckets I’m going to pour my limited resources into every day, whether that be my business, my education, my family life, my mental health,” Sterling says. “When you’re in the SEALs, you pour it all into that one bucket, so every day your mental math is easy.”
Now his purpose is clear: training Echo.
In that way, the two are not so different. Echo was meant to be a service dog. She would have been a bad pet, Sterling says, what with all the drive and intelligence she has, the need for a specific purpose at all times.
“Dogs like Echo would be miserable as a house pet, and they would’ve taken their stress and anxiety and restlessness out by misbehaving. She’d get stubborn, stop listening to you, chew stuff up. She’d be unhappy,” he says.
But now both she and Sterling have that purpose together.
“It’s not just training the dog but me, too,” he says. “We’re going to be together as a team. There’s no intention of ever giving her up. She’ll be my service dog for life.”
If you or a loved one are interested in learning more about service dogs, visit Service Dogs for Veterans.
Did you know?
Service dog for veterans has
92 graduates
Serving five counties
Across the Carolinas
300 thousand veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been diagnosed with PTSD
20% of all American suicides are veterans
Up to 20% of all military personal deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced a traumatic brain injury
-Service Dogs for Veterans
“It’s not just training the dog but me too. We’re going to be together as a team.”
-Jack Sterling, former Navy Seal and owner of CloudHound
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Battle buddies: Former SEAL Jack Sterling and service dog Echo have each other's backs - Greenville Journal
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