Even Heroes Need Heroes
We are committed to uniting service dogs with military veterans. We do this by generating awareness of the benefits of service dogs, and hosting fundraisers throughout the year so we can help sponsor their training. Thanks to the continuous generosity of our pet parents and community supporters, we're making an impact.
We're honored to highlight our furry, four-legged heroes who have graduated from training as loyal, hardworking companions for the brave men and women who served our country. It's hard work to become a service dog for a veteran and only the best make the cut. The need for service dogs among veterans is great and with your support, we hope to sponsor many more.
MEET OUR SERVICE DOGS
Danny
K9's for Warriors
02/18/2022
Arlington Heights 1st Service Dog for a Veteran!
Danny is our first sponsored Service Dog for a Veteran through our Dogtopia Foundation partnership with K9's for Warriors.
We started raising funds for our 1st Service Dog right before we opened our doors in July of 2020 with dedicated daycare events and fundraisers to reach our goal. It was challenging times for all in 2020, but our Pet Parents and Dogtopia Foundation supporters stepped up to help us reach our goal of $6,000 by September of 2021!
We selected K9's for Warriors as our partner based on their mission for adopting adult dogs from Animal Shelters to train as life partners for Veterans. We were driven to the organization based on 2 things: 1) Saving a shelter dog to give them a strong purpose in life and 2) Success rate for transition from shelter dog to service dog.
We were assigned Danny in December of 2021 and he was in training for roughly 2 months. K9's for Warriors shared Danny's progress and many stages of his training. He was placed with his Warrior, Jovauna when he graduated in February of 2022. The turn-around from shelter dog to Service Dog is truly amazing.
To learn more about Danny and Jovauna, we have a book proudly displayed in our lobby!
Arlington Heights 1st Service Dog for a Veteran!
Danny is our first sponsored Service Dog for a Veteran through our Dogtopia Foundation partnership with K9's for Warriors.
We started raising funds for our 1st Service Dog right before we opened our doors in July of 2020 with dedicated daycare events and fundraisers to reach our goal. It was challenging times for all in 2020, but our Pet Parents and Dogtopia Foundation supporters stepped up to help us reach our goal of $6,000 by September of 2021!
We selected K9's for Warriors as our partner based on their mission for adopting adult dogs from Animal Shelters to train as life partners for Veterans. We were driven to the organization based on 2 things: 1) Saving a shelter dog to give them a strong purpose in life and 2) Success rate for transition from shelter dog to service dog.
We were assigned Danny in December of 2021 and he was in training for roughly 2 months. K9's for Warriors shared Danny's progress and many stages of his training. He was placed with his Warrior, Jovauna when he graduated in February of 2022. The turn-around from shelter dog to Service Dog is truly amazing.
To learn more about Danny and Jovauna, we have a book proudly displayed in our lobby!
Scout
K9's for Warriors
Introducing SCOUT, OUr 2nd Service Dog for A Veteran!
Scout is currently in training with K9's for Warriors and is excited to take on his new role as forever companion for his new Warrior!
Message from Scout:
Chim chim cher-ee, favorite friends o' mine! Ooo! Guess what?! Not only am I continuing to improve with my skills and specific cues (like "stand" which I got to try for the first time in front of you), but I'm also really improving on *drumroll please* ... my loose leash walking around campus! That's right, folks. I've really turned a corner, and am doing well with this thing that's proven pretty tough for me. Now, my on-campus walking is catching up to my off-campus walking. (Woohoo!) Jen says something called "impulse control" also goes along with this improvement because it includes me learning how to not just run towards anything that catches my eye the moment it catches it, or to always pull ahead of her to try to get somewhere quicker. This will be so incredibly valuable when I'm partnered with my Warrior one day because they will want to be able to count on me to walk nicely next to them and pay attention; if I'm pulling or outwardly-focused all the time, that might really cause them some problems or discomfort. And I don't want to do that! I want to do the best I can do, and brighten people's days. (And play fetch... Lots of fetch.) I gotta tell ya, I am having such a good time blossoming into the doggo I'm meant to become. Thank you so much for the part you all are playing in that. :) -- Scout
Introducing SCOUT, OUr 2nd Service Dog for A Veteran!
Scout is currently in training with K9's for Warriors and is excited to take on his new role as forever companion for his new Warrior!
Message from Scout:
Chim chim cher-ee, favorite friends o' mine! Ooo! Guess what?! Not only am I continuing to improve with my skills and specific cues (like "stand" which I got to try for the first time in front of you), but I'm also really improving on *drumroll please* ... my loose leash walking around campus! That's right, folks. I've really turned a corner, and am doing well with this thing that's proven pretty tough for me. Now, my on-campus walking is catching up to my off-campus walking. (Woohoo!) Jen says something called "impulse control" also goes along with this improvement because it includes me learning how to not just run towards anything that catches my eye the moment it catches it, or to always pull ahead of her to try to get somewhere quicker. This will be so incredibly valuable when I'm partnered with my Warrior one day because they will want to be able to count on me to walk nicely next to them and pay attention; if I'm pulling or outwardly-focused all the time, that might really cause them some problems or discomfort. And I don't want to do that! I want to do the best I can do, and brighten people's days. (And play fetch... Lots of fetch.) I gotta tell ya, I am having such a good time blossoming into the doggo I'm meant to become. Thank you so much for the part you all are playing in that. :) -- Scout
