Joybound Shelter to Service (Formerly ARF Pets & Vets)
Thank you!
Your visionary support for the ARF Pets & Vets campaign laid the foundation for Joybound’s Shelter to Service Program’s achievements today. Thanks to your investment in our training headquarters, Joybound continues transforming the lives of both animals and people. We hope you enjoy this mission update.
Continue reading to learn about:
- National Expansion
- ADI Accreditation
- Program Evolution
- Veterans’ Support Network
- Bringing Healing to More

National Program Expansion Slated for 2025
Your generosity in constructing Joybound’s first dedicated Shelter to Service training center launched a vision of healing and hope for the nation. While Joybound’s Walnut Creek campus continues serving the regional community and operating as our model for psychiatric service dog training, the Shelter to Service program is set to expand in 2025 with a St. Louis pilot operation.
Both operations will implement the program’s innovative new structure. (Read more about program advancements inside.) This milestone expansion is made possible by national strategic partners Nestlé Purina Petcare and the American Pet Products Association, which represents more than 1,000 pet manufacturers, importers, suppliers, retailers, and service providers. Both organizations have pledged $1 million to expand Joybound and its Shelter to Service program into St. Louis.
Looking forward, Joybound’s national vision identifies four additional geographies for expansion, with the goal of ultimately establishing operations in six major regions of the continental United States. Your foundational investment in the Englestad Hall Shelter to Service Training Center laid the cornerstone for this inspiring vision and flourishing mission. Together, we’re not just expanding a program — we’re advancing a national movement of healing and second chances through the human-animal bond.

“There’s no question that the human-animal bond is a powerful, unbreakable lifeline, especially when people are dealing with intense, personal issues. That animal can mean the difference between coping and thriving, drastically enhancing their independence and security.”
– Sam Stiede, Shelter to Service Program Manager
Pets & Vets’ Shelter to Service Evolution
In 2024, Joybound’s Shelter to Service program emerged as a strategic evolution of ARF’s Pets & Vets initiative. Shelter to Service innovations streamlined the path to successful service dog partnerships, to increase participant success rates, and create professional development opportunities for Veterans, other program participants, and program volunteers.
Shelter to Service requires participants to complete a two-week training intensive with dogs prepared for success by dedicated volunteers. This improves on the Pets & Vets program’s year-long participant commitment to training shelter dogs, which proved deeply challenging for many Veterans experiencing psychiatric conditions.
The new streamlined approach, along with personalized follow-up support, enables more Veterans and other participants to complete the program successfully, creating lasting bonds with their service animals without unnecessary obstacles in the early phases of training.
In the new model, volunteer foster-trainers prepare shelter animals for 15 weeks prior to participant matching, following service dog sector best practices known to improve graduation rates. This approach creates opportunities for both service dog recipients and the dedicated volunteer foster trainers. The volunteer foster-trainers gain valuable experience in professional dog training — an in-demand, well-compensated field — while preparing rescued animals for their life-changing roles as service dogs. The result is a more efficient, effective program serving more of our community’s evolving needs while maintaining the highest standards of service dog training.
The revised program holds additional benefits for the animals. Every shelter dog entering the program receives essential training, creating two possible paths to enriching lives. Dogs who successfully achieve Shelter to Service qualifications become service animals. Other dogs may “career redirect” to service as emotional support animals (ESAs) for Veterans and others who seek support from the human-animal bond but do not require full psychiatric service skills. Career redirects also make exceptional family pets, ensuring that every animal trained in the program can offer meaningful service and companionship.
Interested in giving back to your community as a volunteer foster trainer? Know of a business or organization looking for service projects? Learn more!
“Jake is constantly watching me for signs of anxiety or depression. He is trained to perform several service tasks, but his mere presence in a stressful environment is often enough to assist me in times of need.”
– Tony, Coast Guard Veteran (not pictured)

Creating Connections: Joybound Expands Veterans’ Support Network
Your support has transformed Joybound into a thriving regional hub for Veterans services. Each month, Joybound coordinates with government and nonprofit partners to strengthen the support system available to Veterans in the community. This collaborative approach was showcased in October 2024, when the East Bay Veterans Community Association chose to host their Resource Fair in Engelstad Hall on Joybound’s Walnut Creek campus. At that event, hundreds of Veterans were connected with 42 essential support programs. “Building trust within the Veterans community requires more than just services. It demands reliability, unwavering commitment, and a true understanding of Veterans’ challenges,” notes Shelter to Service Director Amanda Conlon. “Our partnerships are essential to sustaining these relationships and fulfilling this mission.”
As part of Joybound’s extended commitment to those who serve, we have further expanded Veteran support to include comprehensive pet-related services such as waived adoption fees, free wellness clinics offered at both Joybound’s campus and VA medical centers, direct access to vocational training opportunities, reduced or no cost grooming services, and free food for Joybound Veteran service dogs. Together, we’re creating a stronger, more connected community of support for those who served.
Bringing the Healing Bond to More in Need
Joybound’s Veteran psychiatric service dog program is more than a mission. It’s a testament to the healing power of compassion that consistently reveals new insights into the transformational qualities of the human-animal bond. Working with Veterans demonstrates the many ways a service dog offers hope, stability, and renewed purpose to individuals facing mental health challenges. The program also provides a holistic blueprint for addressing growing mental health challenges across broader communities. In 2024, Joybound expanded access to the Shelter to Service program to individuals with qualified medical referrals for a psychiatric service dog. This includes first responders, survivors of violent crimes, and others facing mental health challenges. The program also began generating trained facility dogs and cats to provide essential support in group situations such as Veterans centers, courtrooms, hospitals, and behavioral therapy and crisis centers. The community has provided an overwhelmingly positive response to this new inclusivity, which has already generated partnerships with organizations such as Embark Behavioral Health, Berkeley Youth Alternative, and the Floyd Marchus School Counselling and Education Program. The expertise and compassion our Veteran participants have developed during their own healing journeys has become a powerful resource for supporting other program participants, allowing these remarkable individuals to once again offer service and pathways to hope in our communities.
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