PPH SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

SERVING TEXAS, OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, LOUISIANA, ARKANSAS, MISSOURI

South Central Region

Service Area: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri. Click a button above to visit the San Antonio, TX location.

Map of the United States highlighting the South Central region in orange, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri, with San Antonio, TX marked by a purple star.

PAWS FOR PURPLE HEARTS SUCCESSES

13,147

Lives we’ve directly improved.

22,263

Therapy session participation.*

*(session slots filled)

Many Warriors attend multiple sessions.

159

Dogs we’ve deployed.

DONATIONS HELP WITH:

  • Icon of a pet food bowl with a paw print on it, outlined in white against a dark purple background.

    Food And Dietary Supplements

    To learn nearly 100 service dog commands, each Paws for Purple Hearts dog needs proper nourishment. This includes premium food, supplements, and of course, treats to motivate learning. In the two-year service dog training period, nourishing each pup costs about $1,400.

    In addition, high quality nourishment is essential to helping PPH pups thrive. After all, thriving puppies today become tomorrow’s top tier service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members. And just as importantly, it helps them live long, healthy, and productive lives.

  • A purple circular badge featuring a white medical cross with a paw print in the center, representing veterinary or animal medical services.

    Medicine, Vaccines, And Veterinary Care

    At PPH, we aim to to raise the healthiest and happiest service dogs for our Warriors. Puppies are vulnerable to illness, parasites, and many medical issues, so routine vet checkups and preventive treatments are critical. Paws for Purple Hearts spends an average cost of $2,925 on vet visits, exams, vaccines, and preventative care to ensure each our of dogs are in great health.

  • A prize ribbon with a paw print at the center, indicating recognition or award for animals or pets.

    Training Equipment & Simulation Materials

    It’s a marvel to see our amazing PPH service dogs perform tasks. Paws for Purple Hearts dogs can open and retrieve items from the refrigerator. They can pull a wheelchair bound Warrior up a ramp. They nose light switches and elevator buttons. Teaching service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members to help means training them where people do these tasks.

    This could be in a home-like environments created in our centers. For other tasks, we go to the right kind of location to work with them. On average, we spend about $2,500 per dog on training equipment for service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members.

  • Icon of a dog house with a paw print on it, outlined in white on a purple circular background.

    Operating PPH Training Centers

    A PPH center is busy place! At any given time, we may have dogs at various levels of training, volunteers making treats or cleaning kennels, puppy parents doing pick-ups and drop-offs, or members of the community touring the facility.

    Paws for Purple Hearts centers also hold therapeutic intervention sessions. Each week, Warriors take part in Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy at our PPH centers where they work with our highly-skilled trainers to learn to train our dogs.

    Our centers are the hub for our important work – training service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members. While we try hard to control costs, each center costs around $300,000 to open and an addition $200,000 to operate per year.

Donate Now
Three black service dogs with purple vests sitting on the sidewalk in front of a sign for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Menlo Park VA Medical Center, Palo Alto Health Care System, located at 795 Willow Road, with trees and bushes in the background.

Our History

Paws for Purple Hearts is the first program of its kind to offer therapeutic intervention for Veterans and Active-Duty Military.

A young woman with dark hair in a ponytail smiling and holding a golden retriever puppy with a purple service dog vest against a purple wall with a white map outline and the word‘Virginia’ written on it.

Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy®

Under the guidance of PPH instructors, service members engage with specially bred Golden Retriever and Labrador puppies.

A man sitting on a folding chair hugging a black dog with a purple collar, smiling in a room with a wooden floor and sparse furniture.

How the Program Works

Read more about how Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy® helps ease a Warrior’s symptom severity through assisting PPH trainers with soothing, light-hearted contact with PPH puppies and dogs.

A white paw print icon on a gold circular background.

ELIGIBILITY

Service Dogs

We place service dogs with Service Members and Veterans facing challenges such as:

– Mobility issues. Our dogs can help with tasks such as: retrieving items, pushing buttons for elevators and doors, turning lights on/off, plus many more.

– Diagnosed trauma-related conditions (PTSD or TBI). Our dogs help by performing a variety of tasks specifically designed to reduce symptom severity.

Through our thorough application process, our qualified staff determines if a PPH service dog will be a fit for your specific needs.

Facility Dogs

Facility dogs are placed with managers who work in care facilities that serve Service Members, Veterans, and/or military families. They are also placed with counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists (and other specialists) who serve military-connected individuals and wish to integrate a dog into their clients’ treatment plans. Facility dogs provide invaluable benefits to the populations they serve, but they do not meet the legal definition of a service dog and do not have public access rights outside of their assigned facility. Facilities must serve at least 50% of military-connected individuals to qualify. 

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.

Donations to Paws for Purple Hearts can change a Warrior’s life from hopelessness to optimism.

Your generous, tax-deductible donation helps thousands of Warriors facing the visible and invisible wounds of war.  Our Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy helps them heal as they help others – all with the goal of raising top tier service dogs for Veterans and active duty Service Members with mobility and trauma challenges.