“Winston” and Jeff Wells found each other. During a devastating snowstorm in Texas in 2021, Wells rescued the then-puppy from a ditch and nursed the All-American Dog back to health. Winston soon grew to mean more to Wells, an army veteran with PTSD, than just a pet. They found a love for agility together, and now use their incredible bond to help other veterans and rescue dogs find an outlet, hope, and healing through the sport.
Winston’s impact on Wells’ mental health, as well as their community in San Antonio, Texas, earned him the 2024 Award for Canine Excellence in the Exemplary Companion category. Each year, the AKC Humane Fund awards five dogs who dog extraordinary things in the service of humankind in different categories: Service Dog, Search and Rescue Dogs, Therapy Dogs, Uniformed Service K-9s, and Exemplary Companions like Winston. Dogs in this category are without formal training or certification that have nonetheless distinguished themselves in some way and have made a meaningful contribution to their owners or communities.
Jeffrey Wells
Wells rescued Winston, who is now 4 years old, in the middle of one of Texas’ worst snowstorms to date. A member of a neighborhood group posted that there was a puppy trapped in a ditch, and they were worried that it would freeze. Wells made the drive, normally 20–30 minutes, in two hours with his truck to get the dog. Winston had a broken leg, but no significant, long-term health problems. He immediately recognized that Wells had saved his life. “Some dogs have ‘their person,’ and that was me to him from day one,” Wells says. “Winston likes a lot of different people, but there’s a very unique situation that he and I have in our relationship.”
Winston spent a long time as a puppy in fear, not knowing when his next meal would be. Wells was deployed in the army in Baghdad for 15 months and says he felt a similar sense of life or death-desperation any time he and his unit would leave the base camp. “Both of us really understand that, and we bond because of it.”
Wells was directly responsible for 35 soldiers and recalls that his unit was in a particularly difficult area, averaging about four attacks every day. The hardest part of coming home has been trusting people again in the same way. “Everyone responds to coming home differently. I think it’s a very difficult thing for me to trust after dealing with all of that,” Wells says. For 10 years, Wells dealt with his PTSD with little solace, until Winston came into his life. “Winston is the only living thing that’s really been able to build that level of trust again, tearing down those barriers and rebuilding it.”
Jeffrey Wells
After a year of having Winston in his home, Wells began to pick up on things that Winston was doing, completely untrained, to ease his PTSD and depression symptoms that resulted from the trauma he experienced overseas. “I don’t know how he does it, but it could be as simple as bringing me a toy and playing, even though he’s not the most toy-driven dog,” Wells says. “He just senses the right thing to do to bring me out of it. Sometimes physical, sometimes it’s mental.”
Part of the aftermath of Wells’ time in the military is dealing with the periods of the year when he’ll be reminded of soldiers in his unit that were lost. “When you sign up for the army, that’s part of what you’re signing up for,” Wells says. “But you leave a little bit of yourself over there, and Winston’s helped rebuild part of that.”
Jeffrey Wells
Winston steps up during these months like it’s his job—and Wells never has to say a word. “His demeanor would physically change whenever I fell into one of those situations. Whenever I had a situation where I was upset internally, whether it be PTSD or something else, he would take some sort of action, whatever it needed at the time,” Wells recalls. “It’s like that was his job. And when I’m happy, he’d be content, just laying or sleeping there as dogs do when they’re ‘off-duty,’ so to speak.”
Winston’s responses to Wells’ mental health, as well as their bond, only grew stronger when they began doing agility together. Considering that Winston grew up not knowing where his next meal would come from, and Wells would go to work every day not knowing if he’d make it back alive, the pressures of the agility ring pale in comparison.
When Wells first brought Winston home, he had a lot of energy. So once his leg healed, Wells set up an agility course in the backyard. At this point, Winston was already very tuned into Wells, and it only continued as they learned the sport together.
“The key with agility is the ability to read and understand each other from a distance. Winston has the ability to read me without even knowing what I want to do. He has the ability to understand where it is we need to go and what he needs to do. It’s the same thing when I have a PTSD outbreak or a panic attack—he can sense it before I can. He’s not a licensed service dog, he just has the uncanny ability to know what’s happening to me before I do, and that’s taken some time to develop.”
Jeffrey Wells
In 2024, they competed in their first AKC National Agility Championship, putting their bond to the test in a new arena. “So many things that we’ve learned in that world have applied to the rest of life, including real-life things like dealing with my PTSD,” says Wells. “We’ve learned to handle a lot of that stuff through our bond that we formed during that, so I’m really thankful that we started the sport.”
The impact of their agility journey isn’t limited to this dog-handler team. Wells found agility to be such a great outlet for him and Winston, that he worked with his agility trainer, Catherine Laria, in her organization, K-9 SWAT. This program helps pair rescue dogs with veterans or first responders, and train them to be service dogs. Wells had the idea to expand the program, creating a separate branch of K-9 SWAT that would help pair veterans with rescue dogs and help train them in dog sports. He called it: “Winston’s Warriors.”
Kristen Wells
“Veterans can choose whatever sport they resonate with. We have some veterans that are, for example, amputees, who can’t run agility physically,” Wells notes. In some cases, veterans will already have dogs that they want to try dog sports with, while others do not have a dog and want one.
Although Winston has no official certification as a service or therapy dog, he has made a world of difference in Wells’ life. “When you’re in the military, they teach you ‘Don’t ever ask for help, it’s a sign of weakness,’ and so on. I honestly never entertained the possibility of a service dog, and maybe I should have,” he says. “I would encourage particularly service members or first responders that are dealing with those types of things to do so, because dogs are proven to have that ability to bond.”
Winston’s Warriors helps veterans will all aspects of getting involved in dog sports, from entry fees to AKC registration. “The whole idea is that, through the experience that Winston and I have had in the athletic realm and all the things that it’s done for us mentally and physically, we want other veterans to have that same opportunity.”
Jeffrey Wells
Wells recounts that a lot of PTSD symptoms in veterans can manifest when you’re idle. He says that some of his lowest moments in his mental health journey after returning home were when he was alone with his thoughts. “A lot of the challenge with veterans is that, particularly if you’re mentally ill or an amputee, or have a physical injury, a lot of times you just sit around,” he says. “When you’re struggling, your most vulnerable situation is when you’re alone. Really bad things can happen, horrible things like suicide.”
Wells’ relationship with Winston was what changed that for him, long before they even started agility or Winston’s Warriors. The thinking behind the program is simply this: if a veteran can be paired with a dog, they’ll never be alone. “They’ll see it as, ‘I’m taking care of this dog,’ but they don’t know that the dog is going to take care of them in many ways.” Whether they’re service dogs or not, Wells says that as the human-canine relationship gets stronger, the veterans will form a bond with their dog that could not only improve their lives, but even save them. “It’s very positive, because now the veteran has a sense of worth, a sense of need, a sense of purpose, a mission,” he says.
“Everywhere we go, Winston inspires people at some level,” says Wells. Winston’s Warriors is perhaps the grandest example so far. He hopes that the program will expand outside of their community in San Antonio, which has one of the biggest veteran populations of any city in the United States. Wells felt that, aside from it being his home, it’s a great place to develop the program before expanding the program in support of his goal of helping as many veterans and dogs as possible.
Kristen Wells
“My hope is that somebody will take a chance on a dog that didn’t have a chance in life, in the same way that I was a human that was broken. Maybe both of us were broken by some definition, but by taking that on with each other, we’re able to thrive.”
The post All-American Dog ‘Winston’ Wins Exemplary Companion Award for Canine Excellence appeared first on American Kennel Club.
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Winston’s impact on Wells’ mental health, as well as their community in San Antonio, Texas, earned him the 2024 Award for Canine Excellence in the Exemplary Companion category. Each year, the AKC Humane Fund awards five dogs who dog extraordinary things in the service of humankind in different categories: Service Dog, Search and Rescue Dogs, Therapy Dogs, Uniformed Service K-9s, and Exemplary Companions like Winston. Dogs in this category are without formal training or certification that have nonetheless distinguished themselves in some way and have made a meaningful contribution to their owners or communities.
A Deeper Understanding
Jeffrey Wells
Wells rescued Winston, who is now 4 years old, in the middle of one of Texas’ worst snowstorms to date. A member of a neighborhood group posted that there was a puppy trapped in a ditch, and they were worried that it would freeze. Wells made the drive, normally 20–30 minutes, in two hours with his truck to get the dog. Winston had a broken leg, but no significant, long-term health problems. He immediately recognized that Wells had saved his life. “Some dogs have ‘their person,’ and that was me to him from day one,” Wells says. “Winston likes a lot of different people, but there’s a very unique situation that he and I have in our relationship.”
Winston spent a long time as a puppy in fear, not knowing when his next meal would be. Wells was deployed in the army in Baghdad for 15 months and says he felt a similar sense of life or death-desperation any time he and his unit would leave the base camp. “Both of us really understand that, and we bond because of it.”
Wells was directly responsible for 35 soldiers and recalls that his unit was in a particularly difficult area, averaging about four attacks every day. The hardest part of coming home has been trusting people again in the same way. “Everyone responds to coming home differently. I think it’s a very difficult thing for me to trust after dealing with all of that,” Wells says. For 10 years, Wells dealt with his PTSD with little solace, until Winston came into his life. “Winston is the only living thing that’s really been able to build that level of trust again, tearing down those barriers and rebuilding it.”
Jeffrey Wells
Early Signs of Support
After a year of having Winston in his home, Wells began to pick up on things that Winston was doing, completely untrained, to ease his PTSD and depression symptoms that resulted from the trauma he experienced overseas. “I don’t know how he does it, but it could be as simple as bringing me a toy and playing, even though he’s not the most toy-driven dog,” Wells says. “He just senses the right thing to do to bring me out of it. Sometimes physical, sometimes it’s mental.”
Part of the aftermath of Wells’ time in the military is dealing with the periods of the year when he’ll be reminded of soldiers in his unit that were lost. “When you sign up for the army, that’s part of what you’re signing up for,” Wells says. “But you leave a little bit of yourself over there, and Winston’s helped rebuild part of that.”
Jeffrey Wells
Winston steps up during these months like it’s his job—and Wells never has to say a word. “His demeanor would physically change whenever I fell into one of those situations. Whenever I had a situation where I was upset internally, whether it be PTSD or something else, he would take some sort of action, whatever it needed at the time,” Wells recalls. “It’s like that was his job. And when I’m happy, he’d be content, just laying or sleeping there as dogs do when they’re ‘off-duty,’ so to speak.”
Transferring Their Unspoken Communication to Agility
Winston’s responses to Wells’ mental health, as well as their bond, only grew stronger when they began doing agility together. Considering that Winston grew up not knowing where his next meal would come from, and Wells would go to work every day not knowing if he’d make it back alive, the pressures of the agility ring pale in comparison.
When Wells first brought Winston home, he had a lot of energy. So once his leg healed, Wells set up an agility course in the backyard. At this point, Winston was already very tuned into Wells, and it only continued as they learned the sport together.
“The key with agility is the ability to read and understand each other from a distance. Winston has the ability to read me without even knowing what I want to do. He has the ability to understand where it is we need to go and what he needs to do. It’s the same thing when I have a PTSD outbreak or a panic attack—he can sense it before I can. He’s not a licensed service dog, he just has the uncanny ability to know what’s happening to me before I do, and that’s taken some time to develop.”
Jeffrey Wells
In 2024, they competed in their first AKC National Agility Championship, putting their bond to the test in a new arena. “So many things that we’ve learned in that world have applied to the rest of life, including real-life things like dealing with my PTSD,” says Wells. “We’ve learned to handle a lot of that stuff through our bond that we formed during that, so I’m really thankful that we started the sport.”
Forming a Dog Sport Community for Veterans
The impact of their agility journey isn’t limited to this dog-handler team. Wells found agility to be such a great outlet for him and Winston, that he worked with his agility trainer, Catherine Laria, in her organization, K-9 SWAT. This program helps pair rescue dogs with veterans or first responders, and train them to be service dogs. Wells had the idea to expand the program, creating a separate branch of K-9 SWAT that would help pair veterans with rescue dogs and help train them in dog sports. He called it: “Winston’s Warriors.”
Kristen Wells
“Veterans can choose whatever sport they resonate with. We have some veterans that are, for example, amputees, who can’t run agility physically,” Wells notes. In some cases, veterans will already have dogs that they want to try dog sports with, while others do not have a dog and want one.
Although Winston has no official certification as a service or therapy dog, he has made a world of difference in Wells’ life. “When you’re in the military, they teach you ‘Don’t ever ask for help, it’s a sign of weakness,’ and so on. I honestly never entertained the possibility of a service dog, and maybe I should have,” he says. “I would encourage particularly service members or first responders that are dealing with those types of things to do so, because dogs are proven to have that ability to bond.”
Winston’s Warriors helps veterans will all aspects of getting involved in dog sports, from entry fees to AKC registration. “The whole idea is that, through the experience that Winston and I have had in the athletic realm and all the things that it’s done for us mentally and physically, we want other veterans to have that same opportunity.”
Winston’s Warriors
Jeffrey Wells
Wells recounts that a lot of PTSD symptoms in veterans can manifest when you’re idle. He says that some of his lowest moments in his mental health journey after returning home were when he was alone with his thoughts. “A lot of the challenge with veterans is that, particularly if you’re mentally ill or an amputee, or have a physical injury, a lot of times you just sit around,” he says. “When you’re struggling, your most vulnerable situation is when you’re alone. Really bad things can happen, horrible things like suicide.”
Wells’ relationship with Winston was what changed that for him, long before they even started agility or Winston’s Warriors. The thinking behind the program is simply this: if a veteran can be paired with a dog, they’ll never be alone. “They’ll see it as, ‘I’m taking care of this dog,’ but they don’t know that the dog is going to take care of them in many ways.” Whether they’re service dogs or not, Wells says that as the human-canine relationship gets stronger, the veterans will form a bond with their dog that could not only improve their lives, but even save them. “It’s very positive, because now the veteran has a sense of worth, a sense of need, a sense of purpose, a mission,” he says.
“Everywhere we go, Winston inspires people at some level,” says Wells. Winston’s Warriors is perhaps the grandest example so far. He hopes that the program will expand outside of their community in San Antonio, which has one of the biggest veteran populations of any city in the United States. Wells felt that, aside from it being his home, it’s a great place to develop the program before expanding the program in support of his goal of helping as many veterans and dogs as possible.
Kristen Wells
“My hope is that somebody will take a chance on a dog that didn’t have a chance in life, in the same way that I was a human that was broken. Maybe both of us were broken by some definition, but by taking that on with each other, we’re able to thrive.”
The post All-American Dog ‘Winston’ Wins Exemplary Companion Award for Canine Excellence appeared first on American Kennel Club.
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