JOPLIN, Mo. — There was a very special graduation, this morning, for one special pup and his new owner.

This is “Archie”, the two-year-old standard poodle, who is officially a veteran-specific service dog for US Veteran Larry Mills.

“Archie” graduated from his training, today, at a ceremony held by the “Heartland Canines for Veterans” non-profit at the “Cup-o-Joe” coffee shop in Joplin.

The organization worked with the Mt. Vernon “VA” to pair Larry and Archie with each other.

The two created a bond quickly, with Archie’s playful, but laid-back and loving character.

Archie responds to voice commands and hand signals to alert Mills.

He can even let him know when he’s going to have a headache.

This is a great honor to be awarded a dog and go through the training. Uh, it’s taken us, uh, four months to get through the training to be able to work together. Um, he performs tasks for me, um, to keep crowds away, to block people coming up on me to keep people off the rear of me. He can separate crowds around me,” said Larry Mills & Archie, U.S. Veteran, and Service Dog.”

“We’re a non-profit organization, so we don’t charge the veterans anything to come through this program. And everything for us is by donations and grants,” said Jimmy Burgess, Heartland Canines For Veterans Executive Director.

“Heartland Canines for Veterans” has a goal of training and graduating eight dogs throughout this year.