“Glory” was trained and certified as a Therapy K9 with a Crisis Response Endorsement in 2022 under the instruction of master trainers in Columbus, Ohio. Partnered with her handler, Critical Care Paramedic Justin Smith, she serves not only to provide comfort and support to her crew through the Jasper County Sheriff EMS program, but also to provide peer support to Responders in other agencies, and to the general public in the aftermath of a critical incident or disaster. Her training has been specialized for the first responder world – ready to respond with little to no notice, providing a calm, comforting presence in the face of intense emotion, grief, and even chaos. In response to the demand for more Crisis Response Canine teams in First Responder Agencies across the state of Iowa, Justin and his wife, Rebecca, founded a non-profit, Crisis Canines of the Midlands (CCM), with a vision of helping to coordinate and fund the training, care, equipping, certification and deployment of more teams of dogs and their first responder handlers. Through fundraising efforts, handlers are often able to implement a new Crisis Response Canine team at little to no cost to their governing agency, eliminating the budgetary limitations that often play into a decision to add such a program. With non-profit based funding in place, all it takes to add a team to an agency is a First Responder selected to act as a handler, and the acquisition of a canine partner to begin training together. Once certified, these teams are capable of serving at many levels, from providing peer support for other First Responders, to responding to critical incidents within their communities or across the state, providing aid to the individuals or groups of people in the aftermath of a casualty or disaster.