Canine Assistants breeds, trains, and places service dogs with people who have physical disabilities, seizure disorders, and other needs. Founded by Jennifer Arnold in 1991, Canine Assistants is located near Atlanta, Georgia.

The majority of the dogs in the program are retrievers, and are born and bred on the premises. Puppy training is designed to increase resilience and build trust.

Recipients adopt their dogs; they do not pay for them. Instead, Canine Assistants covers the $20,000 lifelong costs of training, food, and medical care for each dog through sponsorships. The organization has placed over 1,000 assistance dogs to date.

Mingling and Matching

Canine Assistants hosts bi-monthly training camps where applicants are matched and learn to work with their dogs. The dogs arrive having already mastered over 90 commands.

Jennifer relies upon detailed personality evaluations of both applicants and dogs to pre-select compatible pairs.  But it's really all about chemistry. Most recipients end up with their first choice of dog, and over 92% of those matches are still going strong a year later.

Bryson and Wagner exemplify this strong emotional connection.