Our Story

Founded in 2024, Hope Paws and Second Chances is designated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Hope Paws and Second Chances is committed to saving the lives of rescue animals that show the qualities of a service animal. By providing nurturing environments and an understanding of how dogs learn, we will train these dogs to be superior partners to humans in need.

Hope Paws and Second Chances is joining forces with our local shelters and rescue agencies to find the “unicorns” an give these canines the ultimate purpose in life - allow our recipients to be free of some of the confines of their disabilities. We are diversified in the disabilities and recipients that we will place our dogs with, as we are not pairing a recipient to a dog, but rather the dog to their forever human.

With appropriate funding, Hope Paws and Second Chances will provide ongoing support to the recipients and will forever be a landing base for dogs that are in our program. Once a Hope Paws and Second Chances dog, always a family member. We will be there for the lifetime of the dog.

They will never be a “rescue” again.

Mission

Hope Paws and Second Chances is committed to saving the lives of rescue animals that show qualities of a service animal. By providing nurturing environments and the understanding of how dogs learn, we will train these dogs to be superior partners to humans in need.

Vision

Hope Paws and Second Chances is the future of service dogs. Committed to the rescue community of canines that have qualities often overlooked, we will be looking for these qualities to take and place them in our training program. Providing the highest standards of excellence in training service dogs.

Dreams to Reality

I started training dogs on a small scale in late 2014 with Andrew Nelson of The Clever Canine. Never would I have believed the turn of events my life would take, nor the aspirations I would fulfill. My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, OCD, and Anxiety. I am no expert in child care and even less of an expert in parenting. But what I do know is how to communicate and understand animals. So I utilized that knowledge with my daughter and that is how we began to navigate this neurotypical world. Through interactions with our dogs and clients' dogs, I watched in pure amazement the connection and communication they shared. I embraced it and began to speak of one day combining my soft spot for rescues with assisting children with disabilities.

Fast forward to 2023 when I met a young boy and a fluffy blue dog, this young boy had recently been diagnosed with Autism and he hand-picked his puppy. And no puppy would do, they had looked at numerous puppies before “Oliver” was the one. The mother came to me when Oliver was about nine months old and asked if he could be turned into a service dog. Oliver and the child’s bond was astounding. My mission to become more knowledgeable in service animals began, as I felt the need to help this young boy and his fluffy blue dog. In early 2024, I was accepted into the Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach program and became certified. Adding this to my list of accomplishments that I had acquired while making the transition to Owner and Trainer of The Clever Canine.

During this time, my daughter and I had become more active in fostering with our local animal rescue. When two hoarding cases were relinquished in the same week, I showed up at the adoption center with minimal knowledge of the situation, other than a mother and puppies were among those surrendered. A terrified black Labrador mother guarded her 7-day-old puppies with weary eyes and growls of warning. With the knowledge that she would unlikely find a foster that could handle a mom with behavioral concerns and 7-day-old puppies. My instincts said to take her. And thus began the whirlwind adventure I am on now. That terrified black Labrador mom became known as Mystique and had a very gentle soul. Something she had passed onto her puppies. As my daughter and I began to win over this black dog, we nurtured and cared for her puppies, starting to notice hints of some exceptional qualities in them, especially two of the golden colored girls. Here I had just received my certification to train service dogs, had an amazing team I was helping navigate the world, and two potential rescue puppies quite literally fell in my lap. I did what any insane person does, and called my best friend and pitched the idea of the non-profit to her. And because she is as sane as me, rather than talk me out of it, Stephanie joined me on this adventure. So here we are today, with Celeste and Lorelei “my golden girls” socializing with the world, learning how to be good puppies, and healing the missing pieces of every human they touch. The mission continues to grow with each passing day, but my original vision of taking rescue dogs and letting their true capabilities help people in need remains. The dogs will be paired with people that compliment the dogs abilities and will remain as part of Hope Paws and Second Chances family for the entirety of their lives. What this means is that there will always be financial support for the dogs and the family they are paired with, and will be returned to the organization if something were to happen to their human or their human is unable to care for them into retirement.

These dogs will never be a “rescue” again.