Metro woman starts program to train therapy dogs and help domestic violence victims

OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok (KFOR) — One metro woman has a goal to train rescue dogs to become therapy or service dogs for domestic violence victims. It's something she's been passionate about for a long time and now wants to help in any way she can.

"The world becomes less scary when they have a dog to share that experience with, said Kennedy Rinderer who founded the Canine Impact Foundation.

Kennedy Rinderer has been a professional dog trainer for nine years working with domestic violence victims and their dogs.

After researching what was next and how she can continue to help, ideas started flowing in her brain.

"Why not do it at all and just start my own thing and do everything I can to not only help all of our dogs that are getting euthanized daily, but also to help victims," said Rinderer.

Rinderer has a special passion for domestic violence victims and therapy dogs.

"I came from a bad background, so growing up in that and seeing the impact, my safety was always dogs," said Rinderer.

That reason is why she started the Canine Impact Foundation.

It's a non-profit she hopes will help other domestic violence victims, thrive.

Rinderer works with different rescues to find dogs that could be trained to become a therapy or service dog.

"We evaluate temperament. So when I go and meet a dog, I touch on their ears, pull on their face, pull on their tail, make sure that the dog is not willing to bite," said Rinderer.

From there, she works with local dog trainers and counselors to get the dog ready and help pair the dog with a victim.

"We assess it for a therapy dog role to maybe go to domestic violence victim shelters and participate in group therapy if they're a good candidate for service work," said Rinderer.

Rinderer has big dreams for the Canine Impact Foundation.

One day, she said she would love to have a training facility that also has a shelter for survivors of abuse.

"Not only do survivors of abuse have a place to go with their pets, you know, we want to make it pet friendly, but also they can get active in the training of these dogs and help other victims," said Rinderer.

Rinderer said she hopes her training will also help dogs get adopted if they end up not moving into a therapy dog role after all.

The Canine Impact Foundation works solely on donations. To learn more, click here.