About PawPrint Ministries
PawPrint Ministries is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on serving our community through the love, support, and compassion of canine companions.
Sharing the Comfort of God's Love Since 2014
During any given month, PawPrint Ministries' Comfort Dog Teams can be found in nursing homes, cancer care centers, memory centers, hospitals, schools, and libraries, not to mention providing comfort during tragedies, emergencies, and disasters.
Our handlers come from our own community, with backgrounds encompassing everything from family life, educational institutions, and the corporate world, to social workers, counselors and the ministry.
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We employ a professional dog trainer who dedicates more than 100 hours of training to each Comfort Dog Team to ensure they're prepared for a variety of situations. These include specific skills such as a gentle "paws up" maneuver to comfort patients in hospital beds, as well as diverse techniques to help dogs and handlers work effectively and maintain a calm, supportive presence in all sorts of environments.
Our handlers have access to a dedicated Chaplain for emotional and spiritual support, and our Board provides a ready resource of specific strengths in legal, financial, and community services.
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Together we channel our skills and energies to make a difference in the lives of the people we visit, in the hearts of our handlers, and in the overall well-being of our community—all at no charge to the people we serve.
As a 100% donation supported organization, we encourage your generous sponsorship, in-kind gifts, and regular donations to keep our mission strong.
PawPrint Comfort Dogs Benefit Our Community in Multiple Ways
Supports Learning
The presence of a comfort dog has been shown to improve a student's focus, confidence, willingness to learn, and academic performance. [Source] [Source]​
Reduces Stress
Interacting with a dog helps lower blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol (stress hormone). [Source] [Source] Comfort dogs also help students manage the stress and demands of university life. [Source] [Source]
Mitigates Pain
People recovering from accidents or surgery can experience less pain after seeing a comfort dog. [Source]​ [Source]
Offsets Social Isolation
​Our comfort dogs' inherently calm, non-judgmental, supportive presence helps individuals overcome social apprehensions, and elicit positive emotional response, which often leads to social interaction with our handlers. [Source]
Lessens Depression
The History of PawPrint Ministries
The inspiration behind PawPrint Ministries began with Jenn and Mike Dahn, long-time residents of Decatur, Illinois with a passion for helping others. Not long after completing a disaster response training program through their church, they were called to respond to a small Illinois town that had been ripped apart by a tornado. It was there they met their first comfort dog team—a moment that changed their lives forever—and began working out the details for establishing a comfort dog organization in their own community. After many months of research and the support of family and friends, PawPrint Ministries was born in April 2014.
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Today more than 45 trained comfort teams provide encouragement, love, and heartfelt consolation across a variety of circumstances, from reading programs at libraries, and cheerful visitations to senior homes, to compassionate support during tragedies, emergencies, or disasters.
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The common denominator? The deep joy and privilege we all share by serving as instruments of God's love in our own community.