From now through December 2nd, I’m fundraising to support Paws With A Cause®, a nonprofit organization, which supports individuals with disabilities through custom-trained assistance (more commonly known as service) dogs.

PAWS is an organization that is incredibly important to me, my own assistance dog, Haslett, was trained and bread through this organization in order to help me with my own disability. Haslett, is not only a fantastic companion, but she gives me the independence for my day to day life.

I'm hoping to raise $5,000 this year in order to name a litter of Poodle puppies! One day, it's possible that one of these poodles will be able to help someone, just like Haslett is able to help me. The funds that are raised today will be used to train and place more dogs with the people who need them the most, and thanks to generous supporters, every gift that is donated through December 2nd will be matched, doubling your impact.

Background on the Organization:

Paws With A Cause® is a nonprofit organization that breeds and trains assistance dogs. Paws custom-trains these dogs for physical mobility, hearing dogs, seizure response dogs, service dogs for children with autism, and medical alert dogs. These dogs are eligible for public access rights under the ADA. Paws specifically trains Standard Poodles, Papillons, Golden Retrievers and Labs.

Given the intensive training of these dogs, not all Paws dogs will be placed with a person with a disability and have full public access rights. Some dogs are in fact more well suited for other types of work, and those dogs may go on to become facility dogs, in settings like schools, hospitals, and courtrooms, or via a visiting therapy dog program. Other dogs may also go on to be trained as veteran social support dogs or detection dogs. Each dog is specifically trained based on their individual interests to ensure they are going out into the world with a job they love.

More about Assistance/Service Dogs:

The term 'assistance dog' is a broad term for any dog that has been trained to perform specific tasks to assist an individual with a disability (this can look like alerting to sounds, alerting to rising blood sugars or calming someone with PTSD during an anxiety attack). This is an internationally established term, although the US common denotes these dogs as 'service dogs' and both are fully recognized under the ADA. Which ever terminology that is used should not be confused with an emotional support animal (which are not task trained), and which do not receive public access rights under the ADA.

If you have any questions at all about these dogs, I would love to share more about my story.