Help is a four-legged word.

Founded in 1975, Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) is a non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships. Headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA, CCI is the largest non-profit provider of assistance dogs, and is recognized worldwide for the excellence of its dogs, and the quality and longevity of the matches it makes between dogs and people. The result is a life full of increased independence and loving companionship.

Our Foundation

This life changing result begins with the CCI breeding program.  Using advanced technology, the breeding program meticulously selects and pairs dogs for breeding

Volunteer breeder caretakers provide homes for the breeder dogs and whelp the puppies, returning the puppies to CCI national headquarters in Santa Rosa, California at age eight weeks.

Raising Puppies; Changing Lives

From there the puppies are placed with volunteer puppy raisers across the nation for socialization and obedience training.  Between the ages of fifteen and eighteen months the puppies return to  one of five CCI Regional Training Centers across the country for six months of training.

Some Angels Have Wings,
Others Have Tails

We train four types of assistance dogs to master over 40 specialized commands: Service Dogs, Skilled Companions, Hearing Dogs and Facility Dogs. After completing training, the dogs are teamed with a graduate during an intensive two week training period, Team Training.