Every week, Labrador and Golden Retrievers are changing the lives of veterans with visible and invisible wounds at Asheville and Hendersonville area training centers.

Warrior Canine Connection (WCC), a national program based in Maryland, established a branch in Asheville in 2018. Using a unique model known as “Mission Based Trauma Recovery,” WCC enlists recovering veterans in a mission of training future service dogs for their fellow combatants. By interacting with the canines as they journey from puppyhood through training to adult service dogs, volunteer veterans called Warrior Trainers benefit from a highly-therapeutic animal-human connection. Read the full story in the Times-News here.