Paws Forward Foundation

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Paws Forward Foundation

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Paws Forward Foundation provides highly trained service dogs to NWA veterans & trauma survivors for medical alerts, mobility, & grounding.

Beyond the leash, we build a welcoming peer community so no one has to heal from PTSD or MST alone.

10/16/2026

🚨 TOMORROW AT 4:30 PM: The Enchanted Trail Walk & Community Give-Back Festival! 🎃🐾
Northwest Arkansas, the setup is underway, and we are ready for you. Tomorrow, October 17th, we are taking over the Gulley Park Gazebo in Fayetteville for an incredible evening of community connection, local vendors, and family activities.
What you need to know:
📍 Where: Gulley Park Gazebo, Fayetteville
⏰ When: 4:30 PM to 9:00 PM
🎟️ Admission: 100% FREE for the community!
🐕 Dogs: Friendly, leashed dogs are welcome!
The Give-Back Mission:
Instead of an entry fee, we are asking attendees to bring items for troop care packages or new clothing for local foster youth. Drop them off at our main Paws Forward Foundation booth when you arrive, grab your Vendor Scavenger Hunt map, and enjoy the night!
Our therapy and working dogs will be on-site (with strict, mandated decompression breaks to ensure top-tier canine welfare).
Come learn about our trauma recovery mission, meet the pack, and celebrate with the village that makes it all possible. See you tomorrow!

Bo's Blessings DEB Project Deserving Enriched & Blessed- Thrift Boutique

10/15/2026

Ready to change a veteran's life? As our service dog pipeline expands, we need volunteer puppy raisers and socializers! Full curriculum and handler support provided. Send us an email at [email protected]

10/15/2026

🚨 48 HOURS TO GO! Enchanted Trail Walk & Community Festival 🎃🐾

This Saturday, October 17th, from 4:30 PM to 9:00 PM, join us at Gulley Park Gazebo in Fayetteville for a completely FREE community evening of fun, costume contests, local vendors, and family activities!

We need a few more hands on deck!
Are you looking to give back this weekend? We need 4–6 day-of volunteers to help with:

Event setup (starting at 3:00 PM)
Vendor check-in & Scavenger Hunt coordination
Donation station management (collecting troop care packages and foster youth clothing)
Tear-down assistance (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM)

💡 Lighting Status: If you have outdoor commercial lights or battery-operated floodlights you can lend us for Saturday night, please send us a DM today so we can finalize the layout!

Admission is free, friendly leashed dogs are welcome, and we can’t wait to celebrate with our NWA village.

Comment "VOLUNTEER" below or send us a direct message to claim a volunteer shift for Saturday! 👇

10/15/2026

The mission, realized. 💙🐾

When we talk about rigorous Assistance Dogs International (ADI) public access standards, psychiatric task work, and building a trauma-informed recovery village, this is the ultimate goal.

Ace and Jace are together at last.
Our retired local firefighter has officially met his future psychiatric and mobility assistance dog. Seeing Ace in his Paws Forward Foundation vest next to his handler is the physical embodiment of everything this community has fought to build over the last week.

This exact moment is why we maintain uncompromising ADA compliance. It is why our working pack undergoes hundreds of hours of Canine Good Citizen (CGC) prep, scent work indication, and complex environmental desensitization. We are not just training dogs; we are engineering psychiatric and physical lifelines for veterans, first responders, and survivors navigating the heavy weight of trauma and PTSD.

(Swipe to see Bandit looking incredibly sharp in his official working vest, representing the heavy mobility and deep pressure therapy side of our pipeline!)

To the sponsors who funded Ace's arrival and gear: look at what you made possible. The foundation is set. The rigorous public access training begins now. The Rebel Tribe Podcast Maria C. Banks Kimberly Stevens Dorothy Cardiel Jennifer McDaniel Tricia Zimmerman Chase Grace Photography - Kathy Saldivar

10/14/2026

🚨 We are officially 72 HOURS away from the Enchanted Trail Walk & Community Give-Back Festival! 🚨

This Saturday, October 17th, from 4:30 PM to 9:00 PM, we are taking over the Gulley Park Gazebo in Fayetteville for an incredible evening of community healing and family fun! Admission is completely FREE for the community.

We are finalizing the blueprints today, which means we have two massive deadlines closing at midnight tonight:

🎃 LAST CALL FOR VENDORS: Today is the absolute final day to secure a booth. With our new Vendor Scavenger Hunt, we guarantee heavy foot traffic to every single table. DM us right now to get the registration link before the map is locked!

💡 THE LIGHTING SOS: We are still actively seeking a local business or family to donate or lend us outdoor lights by tonight so we can safely illuminate the festival grounds after sunset. (Donations are tax-deductible!)
Pack up the family, grab your costumes, and get ready for the best fall festival in NWA. We are collecting donations for care packages for the troops and new clothing for local foster kids at the entrance.

Tap the link in our bio for all the details, and tag a local business below that needs to grab one of our final vendor spots today! 👇🐾

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/enchanted-trail-walk-and-community-give-back-festival

10/13/2026

While yesterday was about a puppy's very first intake, today is about the rigorous, ongoing physical conditioning of a heavy mobility prospect. 🐾🩺

Meet Bandit, our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog in training.

Under strict Assistance Dogs International (ADI) best practices, an assistance dog cannot simply learn complex tasks; they must be physically engineered to execute them safely for years. Because Bandit is a large breed destined for deep pressure therapy (DPT) and future mobility assistance (like bracing or forward momentum pull) for a veteran, tracking his structural integrity, joint development, and growth plates is absolutely paramount before we ever introduce weight-bearing task work.

He crushed his veterinary milestone today and is growing perfectly! However, because he is still completing his foundational puppy vaccination schedule, he has not yet reached the required age for his rabies vaccine.

By state law—and our own uncompromising bio-security standards—this means he legally cannot cross state lines.

🚨 URGENT NWA VILLAGE ASK: 🚨

Bandit's primary handler, Chris, has an unavoidable family emergency out of state the week of Thanksgiving. We urgently need a local Northwest Arkansas "Respite Handler" to open their home to Bandit for that one week.

We provide his crate, ADI-compliant gear, food, and a strict daily protocol. Your only job is to provide a safe, structured environment while Chris handles his family matters.

If you have ever considered volunteering as a Puppy Raiser for our trauma recovery mission, this one-week commitment is the perfect trial run. DM us right now to step up for Bandit and help us hold the line! 💙

Thank you Springdale Animal Hospital and Dr. Waggnor for Bandit's health check up today 💜💙💚

10/13/2026

LAST CALL! 🎃 Vendor applications for Saturday's Give-Back Festival close TOMORROW! We are also actively accepting applications for our Board, Advisory roles, and a Male Peer Coordinator for our trauma support groups. DM us for links to apply and join the mission!

10/13/2026

A working assistance dog’s journey to ADA public access starts long before they ever put on a training vest—it starts with a completely clean bill of health. 🩺🐾

Yesterday, our newest Golden Retriever puppy, Ace, had his official veterinary intake exam. Before we can even begin to teach him complex psychiatric grounding, medical alerts, or bracing tasks, he must be physically cleared to handle the rigors of service work.

A massive thank you to Dorothy Cardiel , our "Bonus Anchor" sponsor from this weekend! Because of Dorothy’s generous overflow donation, Ace’s entire first vet visit was 100% covered. We promised our community that every dollar would go straight to this dog’s well-being, and yesterday, that became a reality.

Ace passed with flying colors and is officially ready to begin his foundational Canine Good Citizen (CGC) prep.

We are building a highly-trained, trauma-informed lifeline, and it is all fueled by this incredible NWA village. Thank you, Dorothy, and thank you to the veterinary team for taking such great care of our newest recruit! 💙 Springdale Animal Hospital and Dr. Betts.

10/12/2026

WE HAVE A HOME! 🐾

The Paws Forward Foundation is beyond thrilled to announce that we have officially found our Sunday training headquarters, and we owe a massive, heartfelt thank you to Inside Out Dog Daycare and Training in Fayetteville!

For months, we have been searching for a safe, consistent, and fully equipped indoor environment where our veterans and MST survivors can focus on the life-saving work of training their service dogs. The owner of Inside Out didn’t just open his doors to us—he welcomed our entire mission with incredible generosity.

Not only do we now have access to a top-tier facility and all of their professional training equipment on Sundays, but we also have the distinct honor of partnering with an owner who is himself a certified scent trainer. In the service dog world—especially for our handlers requiring psychiatric and medical alerts (like cortisol/anxiety detection)—having a scent-work expert in our corner is an absolute game-changer for our Level 1 and Level 2 teams working toward their ADI and CGC public access standards.

To the team at Inside Out Boarding and Doggy Daycare: Thank you. Your generosity is directly impacting the mental health, recovery, and independence of Northwest Arkansas veterans. You are a true pillar of this community.

Please, if you need boarding, daycare, or expert training for your personal dogs, support the businesses that support our veterans. Go follow their page, leave them a 5-star review, and trust them with your pups!

10/12/2026

Healing from trauma is not a journey you have to take in isolation. 💙

At Paws Forward Foundation, we train elite assistance dogs to provide psychiatric grounding and medical alerts, but true recovery requires a complete safe harbor. Whether you are a veteran, navigating the aftermath of MST, or seeking to reclaim your physical and mental boundaries, we are building a village for you.

We have completely FREE, trauma-informed support programs launching this November and December. Spots are open, and you are welcome exactly as you are.

🛡️ Women’s Self-Defense & Empowerment: Nov 14th, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Centerton. Reclaim your physical space in a safe, guided environment.

🛡️ Men’s Combatives Training: Nov 21st, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM. Meet Dread, our Service Dog.

💻 Virtual Heart Math Support Groups: Starting December 2nd. Weekly Zoom sessions with female sessions at 6:00 PM and male sessions at 7:00 PM.

Tap the link in our bio to register at www.pawsforwardnwa.org. Let us hold the line with you. 🐾

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/womens-self-defense-and-empowerment-workshop

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/mens-combatives-event-at-gracie-jiu-jitsu-centerton

Address

Holden, LA

Telephone

+14796519799

Website

http://pawsforwardnwa.org/, https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/paws-forward-foundation, http://www.pawsforwardnwa

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