Courthouse Dogs Foundation

Programs: Training and technical assistance for governmental and nonprofit agencies: the foundations staff spends most of their daily activity providing training and technical assistance to people that contact the organization for answers to questions about how to implement a courthouse dog program. Most of this is done over the phone or by email; during 2017, 39 new courthouse dog programs were begun, including agencies in california, illinois, indiana, louisiana, maryland, ohio, oklahoma, pennsylvania, south carolina, tennessee, texas, utah, virginia, and washington.

education of legal professionals: one of the foundations primary missions is to educate the public and legal professionals about the benefits of incorporating facility dogs into legal proceedings. During 2017 the foundation held its fifth annual international courthouse dogs conference, which was attended by over 130 legal professionals. The foundation also completely redesigned and updated its website at www. Courthousedogs. Org to provide current information on developing a courthouse dog program as well as best practices in utilizing a facility dog in the legal system.

support to assistance dog organizations: with the increasing demands for facility dogs it is very important for our foundation to support the assistance dog organizations that breed, raise, and train the dogs and their legal professional handlers. This requires training them about this placement in the legal system, and supporting their non-profit organizations so that they can acquire the funds to continue their work. During 2017, we worked closely with fifteen different nonprofit assistance dog organizations accredited by assistance dogs international.

facilitate scientific research on courthouse facility dogs: the utilization of facility dogs in legal proceedings is still in its infancy and subject to legal challenges. Providing the courts with scientific data that supports the need for the dog is important. To advance this need we are establishing a research committee of academic professionals to coordinate work in this field.