Canine Companions for Independence

Canine Companions® is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Santa Rosa, California with seven locations nationwide. Founded in 1975, Canine Companions created the modern service dog for people with physical disabilities. Today, we place dogs with adults, children and veterans with disabilities, as well as professionals working in healthcare, visitation, education or criminal justice settings. A vital mission drives our work: to enhance the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained service dogs and ongoing support, ensuring high-quality partnerships, all at no cost to clients.

There are Canine Companions clients and volunteers in all 50 states, with a truly nationwide presence.

Since our founding, we have carefully bred, raised, and trained over 8,200 service dogs and facility dog with people with disabilities and professionals working with vulnerable populations. The powerful relationship between our clients and their dogs is at the heart of everything we do. We call these partnerships “teams”.

The dogs assist their human partners with practical tasks like picking up dropped items, tugging open doors, turning light switches on and off, interrupting anxiety and nightmares for a veteran, and alerting people who are deaf or hard of hearing to important sounds. Each dog may assist its partner with different tasks, but they all share one thing in common: a boundless capacity for unconditional love and acceptance.

Please visit our website to learn more! www.canine.org