Canine Assistants

Jennifer Arnold first recognized the need for this program when she was sixteen years old and diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She needed to use a wheelchair for several years and came to realize how dependent she was on others. Jennifer found it difficult to perform simple tasks, such as picking up dropped items, opening doors and turning on and off lights. She had heard of an organization in California that was training dogs to help people like her with those basic tasks. However, she was unable to obtain a service dog because of geographical limitations.

Jennifer has dedicated her efforts to building Canine Assistants, since she founded it in 1991. In that time the organization has placed over 1,700 service dogs nationally, reached more than 400,000 students through disabilities awareness educational presentations, and provide communities with over 120,000 hours of animal assisted therapy. Approximately 95% of all donations are directed towards the various programs and sponsorships.

Most Canine Assistants service dogs are born, raised, and trained at our facility in Milton, Georgia, while some are occasionally adopted from local organizations or breeders. The majority of our service dogs are retrievers, including goldens, golden/lab mixes and goldendoodles.