Anything is Pawsable training therapy dogs for the community
Helping someone is usually a process involving two hands and two feet, but a local business is adding four paws to the mix. Anything is Pawsable (AIP) is a non-profit organization located at 1216 Indiana Avenue in St. Marys, which is co-located with K9to5 Doggy Daycare, and whose purpose is to train therapy and service dogs at no cost to those who are in need of a working dog.
“We’ve been going since March of 2020, and got our first dogs a month before COVID hit,’ said Store Manager Jessica Skaggs.
The idea came from discussions between Skaggs, Assistant Manager Mackenzie Vorhees, and two others.
“We discussed wanting to give back to the community in some way, shape, or form,” said Skaggs. Skaggs said that a fully vested and trained service dog can cost upwards of $40,000.
“We started advertising for it, and were seeing a need in the community, especially for therapy dogs in various facilities,” said Skaggs. Currently the animals they’ve trained are being used locally, and at other locations in the state.
“Samoa is in Bellefontaine
at a middle school in an at risk community, Boston is with the Mercer County ESC, Annie is with the Mercer County Juvenile Court, Rusty is training for Coldwater Schools, and Woody is at Shelby Hills Preschool, and we have several other dogs in training,” explained Vorhees.
The process to get one of their dogs starts at their website.
“There is an application on our website, AnythingIsPawsable. org. They can turn it in via e-mail, or bring it into the facility. We then decided if they qualify for the program