Canines With a Cause (CWAC)

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Canines With a Cause (CWAC)

The mission of Canines With a Cause is to unite veterans and rescued dogs to heal emotional and psychological wounds.

If you need to reach us please call during regular business hours or visit our website. Thanks to our prison training program, we don't have a shelter or kennel facility and our veteran training classes are private. The dogs we choose for our programs are carefully evaluated at shelters for behavior, health and overall temperament for service dog training. From there, they are spayed or neutered,

vaccinated and microchipped. They are placed in our prison training program, where inmates give the dogs basic training and constant socialization while they're being paired with a military veteran who needs them. Some will be available for public adoption as companions through our Penitentiary Pups program.

08/06/2026

CWAC is having an open house on July 16th! It’s open to everyone interested in our program! Stop by to chat about our program, dogs, & mental health support.

04/06/2026

When Copper joined Canines With A Cause in 2019, he was carrying more than most people could see.
After serving in Iraq during Operation Enduring Freedom, he came home with PTSD and serious health complications from his military service. During deployment, he had been exposed to depleted uranium while working in extreme conditions. That exposure left him with lasting lung issues and painful irritation on his arms and hands, a constant reminder of the sacrifices he made in service.
Like so many veterans, he was trying to navigate life after service while carrying both visible and invisible wounds. That is where Mater came in.
Mater was a rescue dog with a big blocky head. From the very first meeting, Copper knew Mater was his dog. They chose each other immediately.
At CWAC, that bond is where everything starts.
Week after week, Copper showed up. He was one of the most dedicated handlers we have ever had.

Here Copper & Mater are pictured at one of our events

Then COVID changed everything.
Classes moved online. Public outings stopped. Our prison program shut down. For many veterans, the isolation was one of the hardest parts. Training classes are not just about teaching dogs, they are about our veterans rebuilding confidence & practicing being in public again.
Losing that routine and connection was incredibly hard, but Copper kept showing up.
He set up his phone, practiced every skill with Mater, & stayed committed to the process. When outings were no longer possible, he worked Mater through every level of the AKC Trick Dog program staying engaged through covid.
If you ever saw Mater riding in Copper’s big truck, happily sticking his head out the window wearing his dog goggles, you probably smiled too. Copper spent weeks teaching him to wear them safely because that dog meant everything to him.
That is what service dogs do, They bring routine when life feels chaotic. They bring confidence when the world feels overwhelming. They bring comfort, companionship, and often, a reason to keep going.
Copper and Mater graduated together around the end of 2020, and their story is a reminder of why this work matters.

02/06/2026

June Events!

Canines With A Cause will be at Yappy hour & the Post Tramatic Growth conference this month!

Stop by our Booth at Yappy hour & find Our trainer Harleigh & Demo dog Giza at the Post Traumatic growth check in booth & walking around the conference.

01/06/2026

🐾 Make Your Daily Searches Count for Dogs in Need 🐾

What if something as simple as searching the internet could help feed and care for shelter dogs?

With DogDog.org, every web search helps generate funding for animal shelters and rescue organizations. The search engine donates a portion of its advertising revenue to support food, medical care, adoption efforts, and other critical needs for dogs waiting for their forever homes.

It’s a small change that can make a meaningful difference, just search the web like you normally would and help dogs along the way.

Have you tried DogDog yet? Let us know what causes you support through your everyday actions! 🐶❤️

28/05/2026

Behind every successful dog is a community that helped shape them and sometimes, a second chance that almost didn’t come. One of those dogs was Stella.

Stella came to us from Vernal after having a litter of puppies. Something had gone wrong during the birth, and without veterinary care, part of the umbilical cord and placenta had remained inside her. She became severely ill, and by the time the local shelter reached out, they didn’t think she would make it. They were preparing to humanely euthanize her if they couldn’t find a rescue to cover veterinary costs.

Our shelter partners are so important to us. They know the types of dogs we look for and reach out when they see something special. They reached out for Stella knowing she was an extraordinary dog, and hoping we could step in to cover the care she desperately needed.
She arrived to us transported in a truck lined with hay to keep her warm. She was covered in it and incredibly sick. But she made it to us alive, and she got her chance.
We brought her into the prison program, got her the veterinary care she needed, and the women there helped nurse her back to health.

She recovered and showed us exactly who she was meant to be. She was exceptional. The half dead farm dog who came to us at her lowest went on to became a confident, capable service dog in training. She went on to thrive in ways no one could have predicted in those early moments.

And on weekends, when volunteers like the Adobe group took dogs out into the world, Stella was one of them. The dog once too sick to stand was suddenly out in parks, exploring new environments, building skills, and preparing for a future that once seemed impossible.

These are the stories behind the dogs. Not just where they ended up, helping Veterans, but where they started. The hard beginnings, the second chances, and the people who chose to believe in them anyway.
Stella is a reminder that sometimes the dogs who need the most are the ones who give the most in return.

On our website, you can choose to donate directly to our veterinary fund to help dogs in need like Stella.

Share the story of where your dog started and how far they have come below.

27/05/2026

We’re honored to be featured by TownLift and share more about the mission behind Canines With a Cause ❤️🐾

From rescue dogs to psychiatric service dog teams, this work is about healing, purpose, and second chances for both veterans and dogs. Thank you to TownLift for helping tell these stories and highlight the impact these teams make every day.

Read the full interview here:
https://townlift.com/2026/05/canines-with-a-cause-pairs-rescue-dogs-with-veterans-working-through-trauma/

25/05/2026

This Memorial Day, we remember the men and women who gave everything in service to something bigger than themselves.
Their sacrifice is the reason we live with the freedoms we often take for granted. Today we honor the fallen, support those still carrying the weight of service, and remember that freedom has never been free. 🇺🇸

23/05/2026

🎉 IT’S OUR 15TH BIRTHDAY TODAY!!! 🎉

For 15 years, Canines With a Cause has been transforming lives by rescuing shelter dogs and pairing them with veterans as psychiatric service dogs. These specially trained dogs help veterans manage symptoms of PTSD through life-changing task work such as deep pressure therapy to calm the nervous system, interrupting nightmares and flashbacks, and alerting to rising anxiety or heart rates.

Today, we celebrate 15 years of healing, hope, purpose, and second chances — for both veterans and rescue dogs alike. 🐾💜

To honor this milestone, we’re asking our community to donate $15 in celebration of 15 years of nonprofit work. Every donation helps us continue rescuing, training, and placing service dogs with veterans who need them most.

If you’re unable to give financially, we encourage you to take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to reflect on and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country, protecting the freedoms we enjoy every day. 🇺🇸

Thank you for believing in our mission and helping us continue changing lives together.

To donate, go to www.canineswithacause.org/donate/

21/05/2026

Andrea “Andie” Morris, CWAC client & Advocate.

As both a veteran and a VA employee, Andie understood firsthand the challenges many veterans face, and dedicated her life helping everyone around her. She saw the need for something more, something that could reach people in a different way. When she first approached us, it was because she believed that dogs could make a real difference for the veterans in her group therapy sessions. And she was right.

Andie became one of our earliest and most dedicated advocates within the VA. She helped introduce veterans to our program, encouraged them to take that first step, and played a key role in helping us establish ongoing orientations so more veterans could learn about service dogs and how they might benefit.

She had a gift for recognizing potential, knowing which veterans were ready for the commitment and would thrive in the program. Because of her, many found their way to us and went on to build life changing partnerships with their dogs. Andie didn’t just support the program, she became part of it.

She trained her own service dogs through Canines With a Cause, going through the program with her first dogs Winston & Oz, and later training Oz’s Son Seven with CWAC.

Outside of her professional life, Andie was equally remarkable. She was raising two adopted children on her own, a son from China who was blind and a daughter from Guatemala with special needs.

Andie was a true friend to Canines With a Cause and one of our strongest voices within the VA for many years. She believed deeply in this mission, and she made sure others had the opportunity to believe in it too. Even while battling cancer, Andie arranged dog evals with CWAC staff whenever she heard about a dog being rehomed.
Her passing left a space that cannot be filled. She is survived by her two children and 4 dogs, all of whom are being cared for by Andie’s family and friends.

But her impact lives on in every veteran who found hope through a service dog, in every team that began because she reached out, and in the foundation she helped build for this program.

She is deeply missed, and she will always be part of our story.

20/05/2026

Zoey is learning to heel next to a mobility scooter as part of her training. She’s doing great!

Address

Telephone

+18017921737

Website

http://www.canineswithacause.org/, https://linktr.ee/canineswithacause, https://www.petfinder.com/member/us/ut/holladay/

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