Bryan, a veteran from Wadsworth, Ohio, and his service dog, Fahrny, receive training at the Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs headquarters in Williston, Fla. During the training veterans learn how to live with their new companions, which are paid for by customer donations to Armstrong's Healing Heroes Initiative.

Armstrong is encouraging military veterans who need a little help to submit an application to partner up with service dogs paid for by customer donations.

Contributions to the Healing Heroes Initiative, which Armstrong started on Veterans Day 2016, have provided six veterans with dogs from Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs in Williston, Fla. Enough money is available to partner five more veterans with dogs.

There is almost enough money for a sixth veteran-dog team, said Adam Daniels, Armstrong spokesman.

“Our original goal was to raise enough money to pair five veterans with five dogs. The outpouring has continued. We've raised enough for 11 and we're heading toward 12,” Daniels said.

Four veterans from Armstrong's service area, which includes Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, returned in February with their dogs from the Guardian Angels' facility after spending some time training together.

“They go to the facility to work and train together. They show the veteran how to utilize the dog that has special skills to help them with anxiety and recurring nightmares that many of them have,” Daniels said.

“The dogs are trained to pick up on scents when the veterans are getting upset, which visually would be impossible to tell,” he said. “Some don't like being in public and large crowds. They help calm them down.”

Service dogs can help address a troubling statistic.

Every day, 22 veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury commit suicide, according to reports.

Guardian Angels says there have been no suicides involving veterans paired with service dogs.

“The training and pairing expense for each service dog is approximately $22,000,” said Sam Pietrangelo, Armstrong's Healing Heroes committee chairman. “Armstrong, our customers and our communities have helped to raise over $245,000 to date. We've paired a total of six veterans so far with at least five more to go.”

Daniels said the fundraising effort began when one of the company's longtime partners, Veterans Cable Services of Pittsburgh, a subcontractor that employs veterans, asked Armstrong to join its efforts to raise money for another organization that provides service dogs to veterans.

“It turned out to be a community thing and everybody enjoyed raising money for these dogs and veterans. Their (asking) kind of inspired us to do our own thing,” Daniels said.

Guardian Angels spends 18 months to two years training each dog. The positive effects the dogs have on veterans become evident soon after a veteran and dog are paired, he said.

Most dogs in the program are German shepherds bred specially for service work, but rescued dogs are occasionally used, he said.

The application for Healing Heroes is available on Armstrong's website, which also has a link to Guardian Angels' website and application.