Honor Therapy and Assistance Dogs Inc. has been placing trained therapy dogs for over 40 years and was licensed in 2000 as a 501©3 national non-profit charity. It is our mission to place beautiful, intelligent, sweet-tempered, and well trained service and therapy dogs into special needs circumstances. We continue to support recipients of our dogs through training maintenance and health information for the life of that Service/Therapy Dog.

History: Honor Goldens placed “Liberty” in the White House in the 1970’s with President Gerald Ford and Mrs. Betty Ford. Ann Chase may be the only dog trainer in history to have worked with a Presidents family pet in the oval office and White House private quarters. Later during a publicity photo shoot with the Ford’s, Ann was inspired by the emotional and physical response of an autistic girl interacting with “Liberty’s” sister “Molly” – a trained therapy dog. The ideas from that parlayed into a viable modality of recovery through canine assistance for emotionally and physically traumatized children and adults.

Ann then organized the first Pet Facilitated Therapy seminar in Oakland, California in the early 1970’s. (It was a special day designated for the city by then Mayor Diane Feinstein.) For exhibitions, 4-H Drill Teams were trained for personal appearances, thrilling the children in special education schools making national and local news headlines.

Soon thereafter, specially trained golden retrievers were placed in the San Mateo Special Ed School System (CA) making dramatic emotional strides in students that the teachers and school principals had not previously witnessed.

i. An FBI Crisis Response Team located in Los Angeles, CA. has traveled extensively with two (2) trained Crisis Response dogs. Some of their work has been to Hurricane Katrina victims and visiting the aftermath of the Florida hurricanes, counseling those with Post-traumatic stress syndrome. These dogs have also been counselors at TAPS (after 9-11) yearly re-union as well as countless other therapeutic visitations, and were amongst the first on the scene of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

ii. One of the HTA goldens is with a widow of the Pentagon terrorist attacks from September 11th, 2001. She uses the dog to counsel children and survivors of the attacks. She and “Belle” were a featured story on CNN’s 4-year memorial of 9/11 with Ben Stein.

iii. Another outstanding champion HTA male cares for individuals with severe head trauma in a hospital unit in Michigan.

iv. Five HTA goldens are working therapy dogs for Georgia Veterans Hospitals and Macon Behavioral Institute and have been instrumental in starting an awareness of needs and the growth of community volunteers to help these special needs groups.

v. Two generations of goldens have ministered with a resident physician to an entire hospital in Denver, Colorado, but especially to the Alzheimer’s units there.

vi. HTAplaced the first Alzheimer’s trained therapy dog in to a Kansas Jewish hospital.

vii. Two generations of HTA goldens work with a specially trained teacher in a handicapped school in Anchorage.

viii. A special HTA golden was just named “United States Therapy Dog Of The Year” by the Red Cross for her diligent and impressive work at Camp Lejune hospitals for returning war victims from the middle east and her photo is displayed in the White House.

ix. A 13-year-old HTA golden has been serving with a psychiatrist in California nearly all her life, impacting the doctor’s practice immensely.

x. Four HTAgoldens have been employed by an orthopedic surgeon to calm patients going through blindness and surgery.

xi. A special HTA male has been trained to lift spirits of children dying of cancer at Camp Courage during the summer, and during the winter ministers to the local veterans home and rest homes in Minnesota.

xii. The Youth For Christ national organization received their very first trained dog to work with their counselors through HTA.

xiii. A 7-week old puppy was placed through the Make A Wish Foundation for a 3-year-old girl who is terminal and suffering from brain damage. Another year old trained golden was sent as a seizure alert dog to a special home in Iowa through Make A Wish Foundation.

xiv. A popular and syndicated national television show was developed because of the work of a Hearing Dog for “Sue Thomas F. B. Eye”. Sue Thomas’ current Hearing Dog “Grace” was bred and trained by Honor Therapy and Assistance Dogs Inc. .

xv. Other examples include goldens being used in: Special Olympics work, numerous Alzheimer’s units, children’s cancer camps, rest homes, hospitals, families with autistic children, paraplegics, orthopedically handicapped, mentally retarded, hospital psychiatry, Parents Of Murdered Children, Camp Good Grief, abused and abandoned children through social services, veterans hospitals and many young and old with severe emotional disturbances.