Veterans Day is a federal holiday meant to honor those who have served in the military. In celebration of Veterans Day, we sat down with Francess “Myrph” McMahon of Stand With Me, a nonprofit organization that places service dogs with veterans. Stand With Me takes a unique approach by teaching veterans to train their own dogs instead of bearing the expense of a serviced trained dog. Here are 5 questions we asked to learn more about Stand With Me and their important work with veterans and service dogs.
1. What is the mission of Stand With Me and how was it founded?
The goal of Stand With Me is to teach veterans with service-connected mental health disabilities to train their own dogs to become a service dog. The organization also helps veterans to find and pay for a puppy suitable for service work if they don’t already have their own dog.
Myrph has been a professional dog trainer for 45 years. She’s worked with service dogs closely across her career. Nearly a decade ago she started receiving multiple requests from veterans, all of them echoing a similar story. Because the price of a service trained dog is too costly, veterans asked Myrph for training help. By chance, one of her students happened to be a lawyer who advised her on starting a 501(c)(3)…
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