Helping Paws is a nationally recognized nonprofit that breeds, trains, and places assistance dogs. We place service dogs with individuals who have physical disabilities, service dogs with veterans and first responders living with service-related PTSD, and facility dogs with professionals in courthouse, educational, and mental health settings.
Founded in 1988, Helping Paws is accredited by Assistance Dogs International and meets all standards of the Charities Review Council.
Our staff stays abreast of industry trends, unique opportunities, and community developments to ensure we best meet the needs of the people we serve and the dogs we respect and love.
Helping Paws relies on the dedication and compassion of volunteers to fulfill our mission—and serve as ambassadors for our work in the community. Each year, more than 400 volunteers give their time and talents to support our dogs and the people they’ll go on to serve.
Helping Paws dogs are already at work in the community, with more in training every day. What does that look like in daily life? It means a veteran who can sleep through the night, a parent with PTSD who can confidently drive their child to school, and countless keys, gloves, and phones retrieved for those who can’t reach them alone. It means doors opened, lights turned on, and lives transformed through four paws and a powerful bond.
It means changed lives.
Mission
The mission of Helping Paws is to further people’s independence and quality of life through the use of Assistance Dogs.
Values
The core values of Helping Paws reflect our commitment to
- Govern our actions with integrity and respect.
- Embrace education, flexibility and adaptability in our programs.
- Cultivate a spirit of teamwork to achieve our goals.
- Approach our mission with a view of the whole life of our dogs, with follow-up from birth to end of service.
- Recognize and celebrate the passion and power of volunteers, providing opportunities for life enrichment.
- Uphold our organization and ourselves to the highest standards of excellence.
- Diversity and inclusion at all levels of the organization.
History
Helping Paws began in 1985 as a pilot project of the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Human-Animal Relationships and Environment (CENSHARE), and became an independent nonprofit in 1988. Early experiences showed that for successful service dog training, we needed to start with puppies to begin shaping behaviors early in each dog’s life. The first dog to complete such training and be placed was Alpha, a Golden Retriever who went on to serve his partner for many years.
We moved to our current location in Eden Prairie in 2024, a space that offers a large, indoor, fully accessible training center for classes and team training. We are deeply grateful to Pat and Jim Hemak for their generous support in establishing our very first endowment fund. Their kindness and generosity have inspired us to name the building the Hemak Training Center, a tribute to their remarkable contribution and the lasting impact they’ve had on the Helping Paws community.
In addition, we are excited to announce the opening of the Herman Puppy Enrichment Center in January 2025. This groundbreaking facility is designed to provide our service dog puppies with essential developmental opportunities throughout their two-year training journey. Made possible by a generous donation from Cindy Mauck Herman in honor of her late husband, Fran, the center will support the puppies’ growth in profound ways, further advancing our mission.
As we celebrate 38 years, we’re reminded that the core of Helping Paws remains its inspiring base of volunteers and community support that allows us to change lives each day.
