From puppy to placement, a single PPH dog connects the countless Warriors, volunteers, donors, and staff members who provide support for a service-dog-in-training. Every person that is touched by a PPH dog will forever be Connected By One Leash.
Serving Those Who Have Served Us
Too many military Service Members and Veterans suffer battlefield scars such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or mobility impairments. And, all too often, the price for inaction results in broken families, isolation, alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty, homelessness, and worst of all, suicide.
Training service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members- as well as for facilities – can help. This is why Paws for Purple Hearts invented this therapeutic intervention. It all started – and was proven beneficial – as a pilot program at Bergin College of Canine Studies in 2006. Then two years later, Paws for Purple Hearts rolled out its very first Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy program at the Palo Alto Health Care System.
What started at a single Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Menlo Park, California has since grown to five centers nationwide. In addition, Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy is now a recognized, and growing, option within trauma-related treatment modalities. All of this together makes Paws for Purple Hearts the nation’s most innovative top tier service dog provider that helps the countless Warriors each and every day.
HOW OUR SERVICE DOGS HELP
Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy is unique way to help many active duty and Veterans suffering from trauma find healing through helping. Together with expert PPH trainers, program participants care for and train future service dogs for Veterans and Service Members with challenges.
One dog can have a big impact. While in training, a single PPH pup helps 40-60 Warriors before beginning its important career. After training is complete, they may become an invaluable facility dog that brightens up a military post or a VA hospital or become a life-changing service dog for a challenged Service Member or Veteran.
Free Services to All Warriors
All Paws for Purple Hearts services are free to qualified Veterans and Service Members. Unlike others in our field, we do not rely on government contracts or charge for services. No Warrior is ever turned away from Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy. All qualified Warriors can help train service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members. Further, a qualified recipient never pays for a service dog. We accept all qualified Service Members or Veterans regardless of their financial circumstances.
This is only possible thanks to generous individual and corporate donors like you. Please donate today.
Watch our new, live puppy cam!
The live camera is ON at 7 o’clock am Pacific, and then OFF at 9 o’clock pm Pacific each day.
How Veterans Help Train Service Dogs for Other Veterans
Paws for Purple Hearts (PPH) Senior Program Instructor, Dan Fudge, is interviewed by Fox TV during the 4th of July weekend. He provides an in-depth explanation of how PPH supports our Veterans. His dog, Kolenko, demonstrates how he helps a Veteran relieve stress.
Become a Volunteer
Want to support our military heroes? If so, taking advantage of Paws for Purple Hearts volunteer opportunities is the perfect way.
Join our energetic crew and pick the task that suits you best. You could help with puppy care, greet Warriors at the front desk, or even help maintain our PPH centers. Regardless of the task, you’re helping Warriors heal. Your time also helps them as Warriors train service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members with challenges.
We Need Your Support
Donations to Paws for Purple Hearts can change a Warrior’s life from hopelessness to optimism.
Your generous, tax-deductible donation helps thousands of Warriors facing the visible and invisible wounds of war. Our Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy helps them heal as they help others – all with the goal of raising top tier service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members with mobility and trauma challenges.
Donations Help With:
Food and Dietary Supplements
To learn nearly 100 service dog commands, each Paws for Purple Hearts dog needs proper nourishment. This includes premium food, supplements, and of course, treats to motivate learning. In the two-year service dog training period, nourishing each pup costs about $1,400.
In addition, high quality nourishment is essential to helping PPH pups thrive. After all, thriving puppies today become tomorrow’s top tier service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members. And just as importantly, it helps them live long, healthy, and productive lives.
Medicine, Vaccines, and Veterinary Care
At PPH, we aim to to raise the healthiest and happiest service dogs for our Warriors. Puppies are vulnerable to illness, parasites, and many medical issues, so routine vet checkups and preventive treatments are critical. Paws for Purple Hearts spends an average cost of $2,925 on vet visits, exams, vaccines, and preventative care to ensure each our of dogs are in great health.
Training Equipment & Simulation Materials
It’s a marvel to see our amazing PPH service dogs perform tasks. Paws for Purple Hearts dogs can open and retrieve items from the refrigerator. They can pull a wheelchair bound Warrior up a ramp. They nose light switches and elevator buttons. Teaching service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members to help means training them where people do these tasks.
This could be in a home-like environments created in our centers. For other tasks, we go to the right kind of location to work with them. On average, we spend about $2,500 per dog on training equipment for service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members.
Operating PPH Training Centers
A PPH center is busy place! At any given time, we may have dogs at various levels of training, volunteers making treats or cleaning kennels, puppy parents doing pick-ups and drop-offs, or members of the community touring the facility.
Paws for Purple Hearts centers also hold therapeutic intervention sessions. Each week, Warriors take part in Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy at our PPH centers where they work with our highly-skilled trainers to learn to train our dogs.
Our centers are the hub for our important work – training service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members. While we try hard to control costs, each center costs around $300,000 to open and an addition $200,000 to operate per year.
Warriors Helping Warriors
Our Next Event:
Giving Tuesday
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SUPPORT PAWS FOR PURPLE HEARTS ON #GIVINGTUESDAY, A DAY THAT INSPIRES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO GIVE, COLLABORATE, AND CELEBRATE GENEROSITY.
Paws for Purple Hearts Success
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Dogs We've Deployed
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Therapy Session Participation (session slots filled) *Many Warriors attend multiple sessions*
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Lives We've Directly Improved
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) #43093