Marine veteran, former inmate reaping benefits from service dog trained in special prison program

SANTA CLARA -- A service dog trained in a special prison rehabilitation program is now helping a Marine veteran with PTSD. The same dog has also helped changed the life of a former inmate.

Spend all of two minutes with Daniel Rhyne and his puppy, Diya, and you'll see how the two of them truly care for one another.

Rhyne is a Marine Corps veteran and Diya is his service dog.

"I was diagnosed with PTSD, co-morbid with anxiety and major depression," Rhyne said.

With Diya by his side, Rhyne finds new comfort in regular walks through their Santa Clara neighborhood, often with his two-year-old son along for the journey, too.

"It's really peaceful," he said. "I think it's just a really nice way to spend time together."

When she's working, Rhyne says Diya is all business - very well-behaved and disciplined. She's trained to help with anxiety interruption in a variety of ways and scenarios.

"If we're sitting, say in my office and she's on her bed under the desk and my leg starts shaking, she'll offer a visit. She'll do - hey Diya, visit - where she stands up, puts her head on your lap, and applies a forward pressure, he said. "It's both a grounding thing, an opportunity to pet her - really, to interrupt the anxiety and ground."

Rhyne says when he releases her from work mode, she's an incredibly loving dog.

"She is the most loving and gentle dog that I have ever had the privilege of being around," he said. "She will absolutely just love on you or cuddle with you on the couch."

A puppy, with an incredible purpose.

"She's really kind of, helped me re-engage with life," he said.

While Diya learned that purpose she had a similar effect on another man.

Aaron Hargrove was more than 20 years into a prison sentence when he met Diya. He was a participant in a program run at the prison by the non-profit Canine Companions, where inmates raise and train puppies that will become service dogs for veterans and people with disabilities.

"It was a form of making amends for me, also," Hargrove said. "If I could get this puppy to a person, then I was doing good rather than being destructive."

Hargrove was incarcerated at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, where the program was called, "BARK."

"BARK stands for behavior, attitude, rehabilitation, and knowledge," he said. "It changes lives on many different levels."

Hargrove was granted parole earlier this year. He holds his time with Diya close to his heart.

"If you plant the right seeds, they will grow," he said.

As an inmate, he was able to teach Diya, and she was able to teach him.

"You develop compassion. It also teaches patience. It also for me, gave me work ethic, because before going into prison is something that I didn't have," he said.

Hargrove says some of the motivating factors were that wanted to turn his life around, find ways to do well, and give back to society however he could.

"What I did can never be taken back. The trauma will probably linger well beyond my years," he said. "If I can give a puppy to a person that is in need, that's my form of giving back in a small way."

Hargrove raised several puppies during his time behind bars for the program. He is now adjusting to life outside of prison, living in transitional housing in Sacramento, with a loving and supportive fiancée back home in Stockton. He's now working on getting his own non-profit up and running, called "Peaceful Unity Community Coalition."

"I want to work with at-risk youth and people recently released from prison to help give them resources and make that transition a little bit easier," he said. "I'm a different person. I'm 51 as opposed to 25, 26. I've matured. I'm no longer a criminal, drug dealer, gang member, any of those things that I did. I'm no longer using substances, alcohol, or marijuana. My lifestyle today is totally opposite of what it was then."

Hargrove is also getting to know a new friend, an unlikely friendship, forged by Diya.

"Having her go to Daniel was like, she is where she's meant to be. She is serving her purpose, and I was a part of that," Hargrove said. "He's right there in Santa Clara. So, it's like extended family, if you will."

Rhyne feels the same way, and said Hargrove is, "an extended part of our family."

"He poured so much love into the relationship he had with her, and it really shows in how she works with me and how she interacts with my family," said Rhyne. "I think you never know the potential that somebody has to make a difference in somebody else's life until you give them the chance."

The human-canine bond is something remarkable. Diya makes a difference on a daily basis, delivering compassion and courage, while inspiring people to do their best.

"I'm grateful," Hargrove said.

"She is just a really special dog," Rhyne said.

Through the Canine Companions program, inmates at the California Health Care Facility have raised 35 dogs for veterans and people with disabilities. Canine Companions places the service dogs with people free of charge, and they will follow up with them for life.