FIRST IN US: OLEAN POSTAL CARRIER WORKS WITH SUPPORT DOG

It’s an age-old potential conflict that concerns every postal carrier — run-ins with dogs along a day’s route.

But in a turnabout, a postal carrier in Olean, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, is joined by a canine friend providing support during the workday.

Dwayne Jensen is driving and walking his routes with Beau (pronounced Bow), an emotional support service dog, at his side. It’s a pairing, Jensen’s supervisor said, that is a first in the nation for the U.S. Postal Service.

“I had been reading about service dogs helping veterans for a long time,” Jensen said, adding he wasn’t sure how well a service dog would fit with the nature of his work. “We see a lot of dogs along the routes.”

While mail carriers themselves can elicit vociferous — and sometimes aggressive — reactions from dogs, there was the added concern of how neighborhood dogs might respond to one of their own also coming up the walkway to the mailbox.

Nevertheless, Jensen contacted Western New York Heroes, a veterans services organization based in Williamsville that includes the Pawsitive for Heroes program, and filled out an application. He also embarked on a relatively lengthy process for approval from USPS managers and executives — from Olean to Albany and all the way to Washington, D.C.

“There were just a lot of unknowns … no one had ever done this before,” Jensen said, adding he was supported by supervisors and coworkers at the Olean Post Office but everyone had a lot of questions. “We had to make sure there were accommodations” at the postal facility at South Union and West State streets, and even whether a service dog would fit in a mail delivery vehicle.

It took almost a year to get final approval from the U.S. Postal Service to allow Beau, a laid-back German shepherd mix that was a rescue, to work with Jensen while he’s on duty. Beau began accompanying Jensen earlier this week, and the two have been seen walking routes Jensen covers throughout the city.

“It’s been good so far,” said Jensen, a Gowanda native who deals with anxiety stemming from his experiences in Operation Desert Storm, the military action started in January 1991 to expel Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces for neighboring Kuwait. “He gives me support and is trained to react … if I have anxiety or anything like that.”

Beau, only 2 years old, is still in training — he and Jensen still attend sessions once a week. While working Beau is in his service dog vest and, despite his youth, is all business. At home and off duty, out of his vest, the dog is loving and playful just like any pet, Jensen added.

“He’s doing really well,” Jensen, a 25-year veteran of the postal service, said of Beau, as the dog was quiet and patient at his feet, paying little attention to the reporter asking questions. “We’re learning as we go along.”

While definitely supportive of Jensen having a service dog, Kris Linderman, Jensen’s supervisor at the Olean Post Office, echoed the concerns about what might happen if the pair were to encounter a loose, aggressive dog on a route. He welcomed the chance to talk about Jensen and Beau in the hope that residents will understand even more the need to make sure dogs in the city are secured.

Linderman said there is less concern about meeting a loose dog when Jensen is working a route in Olean’s downtown business district, but Jensen also works neighborhood routes in South Olean and the King Street area of East Olean.

“That’s where mailboxes are on the porch and there is a concern if there’s a dog in the household, is it going to get out?” Linderman said, noting there is a 30-day probationary period on Beau working with Jensen. “We don’t know what is going to happen with this, but residents can really help by making sure their dogs aren’t loose.”

Both Linderman and Jensen also ask residents to remember that, while working, Beau is not a pet to be called to or approached for petting.

A mail processing clerk, who is blind, has been helped by a guide dog while working in a USPS shipping center in San Diego, but no service dog has gone on routes with a mail carrier.

“This is all uncharted territory, a first for the U.S. Postal Service, anywhere in the nation,” Linderman said. “But so far so good … and Dwayne seems pretty happy with it.”