At least $1,000 is being offered as a reward for a missing service dog that helps a United States Army veteran who lives in Mineola deal with life.

The 1 ½-year-old German shepherd went missing from Harley Thompson’s backyard in the 700 block of Newsom Street Wednesday and reported gone at 7:26 p.m.

Mineola Police Captain Joyce Box said last week the department sent out a teletype to every law enforcement agency in the state concerning the dog.

On Monday morning Box said that the department had received several calls from all over the state about German shepherds. The department has also received several calls from people wanting to pitch in on the reward but “there is nothing to go on now,” as far as the investigation.

Thompson served a little over six years with time in Korea, Iraq and Fort Hood, having served 12 months overseas. “I guess it’s never easy. I was a scout so I did personal security overseas.”

Thompson is originally from Tyler and works there. But his mother who lives in Yantis watches his children while he works in Tyler and Mineola is halfway between those two places.

Thompson has had Chacco a year. “I just got out (of the Army) ast year,” he said. It wasn’t easy for the veteran to get the dog. “The first part was getting the VA to approve it, which was a big hassle itself. And the second part, obviously, was the funding. They have a bunch of nonprofits that do it, but it’s about a three-year wait to get a dog through a nonprofit.”

“So getting a dog that’s capable of doing it – a lot of people think any dog can do it but they really can’t – it’s got to be a really high caliber dog. And so it was an initial $5,000 investment just for the dog and then thousands more in the training.”

As far as how the dog helped him, Thompson said that PTSD is “crowd anxiety, you overanalyze people when you don’t have the need to. So this essentially gives you a break from that - having something there to distract you from doing it - just breaking the habit.”

“He was a great dog. I think that’s part of the problem. He’s so friendly and well-mannered. He just goes to anybody … He goes to work with me everyday. I work at Unclaimed Furniture downtown and he sees between 30 and a 100 people every day. Almost all of the kids who come in there play with him so he was just super friendly.”

Thompson said that as soon as he comes home everyday, at about 6:30 p.m., he lets the dog out in the fenced back yard for about 30 to 45 minutes. “He’s a dog, I feel like he should be outside at some point during the day. He’s got to get some play time by himself. And I came back out to let him back in and he was gone.” During that time he had gone to a gas station a few blocks away and when he returned, he was gone.

“And so I was gone for maybe 15 minutes, probably less than that.”

Thompson said the dog, which had never been neutered, has never acted like he wanted to try to get out of the yard. “Never,” he said.” He probably has worse separation anxiety than even I do. If I even leave the room he’ll be trying to figure ways to get in that room.”

He noted there is an alley behind his home, but he had never seen anyone around the dog when it was in the yard. He said, “There’s really no one ever around here. I’ve seen one person in the alley and that was months ago. All I can imagine is that they’ve (down the street) been doing a garage sale” during which someone may have seen the dog in his yard. “That was the only thing that was out of the ordinary at all.”

Chacco was wearing a black collar which had a service dog emblem on it and weighs about 85 pounds. Asked if the dog had any distinguishing marks, his owner said “That’s kind of the downside to being fullblooded, he looks like every other true blooded shepherd. The only thing is, he’s from Germany. He came here as a puppy.” One of the characteristics of these dogs is they have the sloped back.

Box said the backyard is bordered by a privacy fence and a chain link fence in the back. Box noted that if the dog had gotten out, it would have been expected to still be somewhere in the area.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of this dog is asked to call the police department at 903-569-6294.