Meet Ruby

Service Dog, Companion & Very Important Member of the Interventions With Love Family

Ruby came into my life when she was two years old. Together, we worked with a specialized service-dog training team to prepare her for work supporting me with the effects of PTSD. That process was not simply about what Ruby could do for me. It was about learning how to work together as a team, building trust, understanding her cues, and helping her understand mine.

Ruby became an important part of my own healing from trauma, alongside the personal work I was doing to understand, recover, and grow from those experiences. During those years, she traveled with me when needed, worked beside me, and provided a steady, grounding presence during a period of my life when that kind of support mattered tremendously.

Over time, life changed, and so did Ruby’s role in it.

These days, her life is much quieter. She is primarily my companion and does not routinely accompany me in my work. She remains a trained service dog, however, and continues to be capable of stepping into that role when needed.

Ruby, a red standard poodle, lying in an airport terminal wearing her service dog vest

A Quiet Kind of Support

Anyone who spends much time with Ruby quickly understands that she has a way of changing the energy in a room. There is something about her quiet presence that seems to invite people to settle. She does not need to fix anything or know what to say. She simply finds her place and stays close.

For someone who is anxious, overwhelmed, grieving, or navigating a difficult family situation, that kind of presence can sometimes be incredibly comforting.

On occasion, when I believe Ruby’s presence could be genuinely supportive and everyone involved is comfortable, she may join me while I am working with an individual or family. Her involvement is never assumed, and I am always thoughtful about the people involved, the setting, individual comfort, allergies, fears, and whether having her there would truly add something meaningful.

Ruby is not a therapy dog and she is not part of a clinical treatment service. She is my trained service dog and companion who, from time to time, has the opportunity to bring some of the same steadiness and comfort to others that she has brought to me for so many years.

Ruby sitting in a green field wearing a red, white, and blue bandana

Close-up of Ruby wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses

What Ruby Has Taught Me

Much of my work with families centers around the understanding that healing rarely happens all at once. It is often built gradually through safety, consistency, trust, connection, and the experience of knowing that we do not have to carry everything by ourselves.

Ruby has been part of teaching me that in my own life.

She has reminded me that presence matters. Sometimes the most helpful thing we can offer another person is not an answer or a solution, but the willingness to stay close without trying to control what happens next. She has also been a reminder that healing can involve both doing the difficult work ourselves and being willing to accept support along the way.

That understanding has naturally found its way into the work I now do with families.

Today, Ruby enjoys a much quieter life and all of the privileges she has earned along the way. She gets plenty of attention, plenty of rest, and is very deeply loved.

And every once in a while, when the circumstances are right and her presence feels appropriate, Ruby still gets the opportunity to be part of the work.

Ruby with Gianna and her team of trainers holding a certificate on graduation day — Her beloved team of trainers on graduation day

The rest of the team

Meet the people working alongside Ruby.

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