By Heidi Dahms Foster
When Amy Fillingim joined Prescott Police Department in 2016 as its Victim Advocate, she already had a dream for this much needed service in the community. She wanted to see another advocate on staff, and she wanted to bring a dog into the department, both within five years.
“I had seen the work the dogs had done in hospital environments and during ailing health or trauma,” Amy said.
Fillingim presented a proposal to then deputy chief Amy Bonney to bring a canine on board. “When (Chief Bonney) had gone for training, she was engaged by the first law enforcement agency to bring dogs into this capacity to work with victims and first responders alike,” she said.
That agency was the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio, and the program was started by Deputy Darrah Metz. Metz pioneered the program in her own agency and then designed training for other law enforcement agencies to participate at no cost. “She wanted them to see the value and understand what these dogs do,” Fillingim said.
After that discussion, Chief Bonney returned and was adamant that the department needed a facilities dog. “There was a lot of excitement. I found that my Victim Services grant through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) would pay for these types of dogs. I wrote the proposal into the grant cycle for 2020.”
Unfortunately, that’s when COVID hit. No changes could be made to the current grant, and none would be made for three years. “It was disheartening,” Fillingim said.
Then, a wonderful blessing happened both to first responders and to trauma victims in the Prescott area. The Department of Public Safety reached out to Prescott PD and told them they had purchased two facilities dogs. They were paid for and in training, but DPS was unable to bring them on board in their existing program. They offered one to Prescott PD. “Our department was ecstatic,” Fillingim said, and it was decided that the dog would come to Prescott.
Enter Eden, an impossibly cute, amazingly empathetic goldendoodle who has since won the hearts of everyone she meets. “This was a tremendous gift,” Fillingim said.
“It all happened so fast,” she said. “Eden came to us named after fallen DPS trooper Tyler Edenhofer, who lost his life during his last day of field training in Phoenix. Normally we would ask local school kids to write an essay and then pick a name, but we of course kept Eden’s the same.”
Eden comes from Arizona Goldendoodles and has been specially trained from the time she was eight weeks old. “When she came to us, she was just a baby,” Fillingim said. “She’s now a year and half old.”
Eden lives with Fillingim and her husband. Fillingim still almost wants to pinch herself to believe she and the department can enjoy such a wonderful dog, and they are still discovering what she can do. “This is a dream come to fruition, from growing the Unit to include a second advocate and now a canine to help victims from crime victims to first responders,” she said.
The engaging dark red-colored pup spent time with Yavapai County Sheriff’s Officers and other first responders when YCSO Sgt. Richard Lopez was shot and killed in the line of duty on June 28 this year. Recently, Eden provided comfort to Central Yavapai Fire & Medical Authority personnel after the loss of CAFMA Captain Zach Fields.
There is just something about a friendly dog that melts people’s hearts and helps them cope. “Having Eden be here to support the community in that fashion…staff members would see her and just break out in tears,” Fillingim said.
Eden has been trained from a young puppy to detect Cortisol, the primary stress. When people experience trauma, adrenaline dumps a cocktail of hormones into the system, Fillingim said.
“Eden can detect those hormones, and her job is to render four tasks to help sedate trauma, depending on how people react. Stroking a dog trained in this capacity creates a natural response to release serotonin, which leads to clearer thinking, and the increase of a feeling of wellbeing,” she said.
One way Eden will comfort is to approach and sit across a person’s lap, putting her entire weight on the individual. “It’s like a 48 lb. weighted blanket for a person to cry on and hug,” Fillingim said
