Sonoma County’s Dr. Bonnie Bergen reflects on 50 years of service dog concept she began

By Sharon Chin

The founder and president of Paws for Purple Hearts is celebrating 50 years of the modern-day service dog concept she began by training dogs to serve people.

Dr. Bonnie Bergin’s nonprofit trains dogs to support military veterans with mobility and mental health challenges.

“It’s exceptional what these dogs are able to do,” Bergin said.

Bergin shook up the concept of a canine companion back in 1975. At the time, she and her husband traveled to Australia to teach, then visited countries in Asia and Europe.

Her overseas experiences inspired her to help people living with disabilities.

“What can we do to get them out and about on their own?” Bergin said. “And I sat there and thought, ‘Dogs! Dogs could do it!'”

She had no background in dog training, but she began teaching her own puppy, Abdul, to perform tasks for Kerry Knaus, a quadriplegic.

Bergin taught Abdul to do what Knaus needed: he flipped light switches, picked up objects off the floor, opened the refrigerator door to retrieve food, and then closed the door. In all, he learned nearly 100 commands, which became Bergin’s training template in a whole new body of work.

In 1991, she founded what’s now known as the Bergin College of Canine Studies, the first college of its kind dedicated to training service dogs.

Paws for Purple Hearts began as a Bergin research project and became its own Sonoma County nonprofit in 2011 to help combat veterans find healing. Participants do not need to be Purple Heart recipients to receive the free services.

“They help them love again,” Bergin said. “Trusting and loving are two missing links that the dogs are so great at bringing back.”

Army veteran Ralph Avalon found relief from PTSD as he took part in the nonprofit’s signature program, canine-assisted warrior therapy. Participants help train dogs in a variety of tasks so they can become service dogs for other military veterans.

“You can be dragged down mentally, and working with the dogs brought a new sense of self and centered me,” Avalon said.

He now volunteers his time training Poppy, a young Labrador Retriever that’s one of 200 dogs that the nonprofit has deployed to touch the lives of more than 20,000 people.

Paws for Purple Hearts has expanded from the Bay Area and California to Alaska, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Bergin says she would like to increase the nonprofit’s base of donations and grants to extend its work into the Midwest and East Coast.

After its headquarters moved to Oregon last year, the 80-year-old Bergin still leads the pack in brainstorming new ways for dogs to bring love and support.

“When one of those kids, the child of one of those veterans, comes to us and turns to the dog and says, ‘Thank you for giving me my dad back,’ I think, for all of us, nothing can say it better,” Bergin said.