Our Custom Approach
Paws With A Cause transforms lives by creating personalized partnerships through custom assistance dog training. Each dog is carefully matched and trained to meet the unique needs of the individual they support.
Custom-Matched
Assistance Dogs
What can a PAWS dog do to help you become more independent?
Our first question to every client reveals our core mission. We understand every disability is different, which is why each assistance dog is matched and custom-trained for your unique environment and needs.
To ensure an assistance dog meets your specific requirements, each dog passes a specialized temperament test and comprehensive health screening before entering the PAWS’ training program. Your dog is matched to you based on many factors, including your lifestyle, activity level, and the physical characteristics required to complete your needed tasks.
What does custom training really look like?
Meet two of our clients and their PAWS dog in the video below to see how we tailored the training to fit their life, routine, and personality. It’s a perfect match in action!
In-Home Training & Certification
Once your dog completes training, PAWS brings your assistance dog to your home. You’ll work with a PAWS field representative to partner with your dog in your home, workplace, school, and community—until you’re certified as an official assistance dog team.
Two Journeys, One Perfect Match
While you complete your application process, your future companion begins customized training. See how both paths lead to your life-changing partnership.
Your Journey
Your Dog's Journey
Do You Qualify?
PAWS clients begin their journey with a brief online questionnaire to see if you meet the basic qualifications for a PAWS dog. PAWS trains assistance dogs for physical disabilities, seizure response, hearing loss, service dogs for children with autism, and medical alert detection.
Submit an Application
If a client meets the basic criteria outlined, PAWS will send a full application to learn more about the individual’s background, lifestyle, and support needs.
Meet With a Field Representative
A PAWS field representative will visit the client’s home to complete a needs assessment. This helps PAWS understand how a working dog could support the client in their daily life and enhance their independence.
Ready To Be Matched
After completing the Needs Assessment, you officially become a PAWS client! Clients will receive quarterly updates while waiting to be matched with their PAWS dog.
Puppy Love
Each PAWS puppy is purposefully bred for health and temperament characteristics that make great working dogs. All dogs are born in volunteer breeding dog homes where they’re surrounded by love and care from the very beginning.
Living With a Volunteer
At around eight weeks old, the puppy moves in with a volunteer foster puppy raiser. Here, they learn basic obedience and build confidence in new environments to prepare them for a future partnership with a client.
Come, Sit, Stay
After about the first year of their life, PAWS dogs go through the Prison Partner Program for advanced obedience training with inmate handlers. Through this program, PAWS dogs develop foundational skills through consistency and repetition.
Evaluation & Placement
When the PAWS dog comes back from the prison, the PAWS team evaluates what career option will be best, taking into consideration health, structure, and energy levels. A PAWS dog might be matched with a client in-waiting, or be placed as a facility dog, visiting PAWS dog, or other working dog career.
It's a Match!
Once the PAWS team finds the perfect dog for a client’s lifestyle and needs, PAWS makes a match and begins custom training the dog for the individual.
Custom Training
Custom Training PAWS trainers will work with the dog to simulate real-life situations the client faces each day, preparing the dog for success in their new partnership and everyday environment.
Placement & In-Home Training
The dog is placed with the client in their home to finish training with a PAWS field representative. The field representative provides hands-on training in the client’s home, workplace, and community.
Team Certification
About six months after placement, the client and dog are certified as a working team. Ownership of the PAWS dog is transferred, and PAWS continues to provide lifelong support throughout the dog’s working life.
Two Journeys, One Perfect Match
While you complete your application process, your future companion begins customized training. See how both paths lead to your life-changing partnership.
Your Journey
Do You Qualify?
PAWS clients begin their journey with a brief online questionnaire to see if you meet the basic qualifications for a PAWS dog. PAWS trains assistance dogs for physical disabilities, seizure response, hearing loss, service dogs for children with autism, and medical alert detection.
Submit an Application
If a client meets the basic criteria outlined, PAWS will send a full application to learn more about the individual’s background, lifestyle, and support needs.
Meet With a Field Representative
A PAWS field representative will visit the client’s home to complete a needs assessment. This helps PAWS understand how a working dog could support the client in their daily life and enhance their independence.
Ready To Be Matched
After completing the Needs Assessment, you officially become a PAWS client! Clients will receive quarterly updates while waiting to be matched with their PAWS dog.
Your Dog's Journey
Puppy Love
Each PAWS puppy is purposefully bred for health and temperament characteristics that make great working dogs. All dogs are born in volunteer breeding dog homes where they’re surrounded by love and care from the very beginning.
Living With a Volunteer
At around eight weeks old, the puppy moves in with a volunteer foster puppy raiser. Here, they learn basic obedience and build confidence in new environments to prepare them for a future partnership with a client.
Come, Sit, Stay
After about the first year of their life, PAWS dogs go through the Prison Partner Program for advanced obedience training with inmate handlers. Through this program, PAWS dogs develop foundational skills through consistency and repetition.
Evaluation & Placement
When the PAWS dog comes back from the prison, the PAWS team evaluates what career option will be best, taking into consideration health, structure, and energy levels. A PAWS dog might be matched with a client in-waiting, or be placed as a facility dog, visiting PAWS dog, or other working dog career.
It's a Match!
Once the PAWS team finds the perfect dog for a client’s lifestyle and needs, PAWS makes a match and begins custom training the dog for the individual.
Custom Training
Custom Training PAWS trainers will work with the dog to simulate real-life situations the client faces each day, preparing the dog for success in their new partnership and everyday environment.
Placement & In-Home Training
The dog is placed with the client in their home to finish training with a PAWS field representative. The field representative provides hands-on training in the client’s home, workplace, and community.
Team Certification
About six months after placement, the client and dog are certified as a working team. Ownership of the PAWS dog is transferred, and PAWS continues to provide lifelong support throughout the dog’s working life.
A Lifetime of Support
Adapting with you, every step of the way.
PAWS offers support through the lifetime of your PAWS Dog. When your needs change, we’re there with in-home retraining and new skill development, keeping your assistance dog perfectly matched to your evolving requirements. When your PAWS dog retires or passes away, you are invited to apply for a successor dog.
Facing access challenges?
Our advocacy and legal guidance protect your rights in public spaces, schools, and workplaces. You’re never alone—we stand with you every step of the way.
