Charity Footprints Partner - Wardogs-Making It Home Inc.

The vet saves the dog, and the dog saves the vet.

War Dogs Making It Home saves dogs from euthanasia and trains them to be service dogs under the ADA guidelines for veterans with PTSD/TBI &MST. We pair our rescue dogs with veterans from Vietnam to the present who are suffering daily, oftentimes for years, with this debilitating disorder. The dogs are trained in basic obedience and fundamentals of service work to mitigate the symptoms and stressors associated with PTSD/TBI. They are taught to interrupt attacks of panic, anger, stress and hyper-vigilance as well as wake the veterans from night terrors: all hallmarks of PTSD/TBI. In a two-year program of bi-weekly service dog training and ongoing group support, our veterans work and bond with their service dogs. These dogs become their “four legged lifelines” in the daily struggle to regain confidence, reconnect with loved ones, and resume activities in their communities, at no financial cost to them. We also provide our veteran/service dog teams food and supplies at cost, free boarding when necessary and and free grooming once a month for the life of the dog.

Our Mission

War Dogs helps veterans better manage the invisible and lifelong challenges of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and brain injury (PTSD/TBI) by pairing them with dogs they help rescue and train to be their service dogs. The vets are saving the dogs lives. The dogs are saving theirs, creating a better life for both. War Dogs is taking a cutting edge approach to helping veterans. Under the direction of Elana Morgan it pairs dogs rescued from shelters with veterans in an intense training process that has proven to be highly effective while also saving time and money. Simply put, this program is dramatically changing the lives of veterans who might otherwise still be waiting for an already trained dog to become available. And it does so while providing an extra therapeutic dimension whose benefits are only beginning to be understood. This involves the sense of responsibility and commitment that the veterans feel for their dogs—who they know were facing euthanasia before being selected for the program. For those suffering from PTSD, time is not on their side. Please understand that this is truly a life and death situation for our vets and that programs like War Dogs are proving that by combining the ideas, talent and dedication of people like Elana Morgan with the generosity of donors like you, lives can be saved. And the quality of those lives saved can be dramatically-wonderfully-improved.