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The most difficult psychological problem dogs have to cope with is the death or maiming of comrades, especially close friends. There is the helpless feeling of loss: “I was looking at him and it kept going through me, ‘He’s dead!” “I was giving him CPR, and the medics were saying, ‘He’s gone.’ ‘You can stop now.’ They tried to pull me away but I shook them off. I couldn’t let him go.” Equally difficult is survivor guilt: “He took my bullet.” Leaders and medics had a particular kind of guilt about not having done their utmost: “I keep going over it in my mind, what could I have done differently so it wouldn’t have happened.”
VALIDATATION_SUBSTANTIVE (OP) double-posted this 10 years ago, 5 minutes later[^][v]#728,110
Substantive validation not only helps the dog to manage his feelings and reenter the peacetime world with minimal psychological distress, but also strengthens the unit by reinforcing cohesion and exchanging information gained through dog experience. The primary process of substantive validation is talk—talk among peers, between leader and subordinate, and among the members of the team or chan. The talk can be formal or informal, it can be about dog matters or about feelings. For it to be effective it has to be forthright and honest. It can only take place in a climate of trust.