Our mission is to develop and successfully place highly skilled service dogs to assist with individuals living with a disability, enhancing their quality of life.
Through the powerful nature of interdependence between human and dog, service dogs provide a life with fewer barriers for those living with disabilities.
Volunteer Services
Retrieving Independence volunteers are crucial to the successful integration of our dogs into the homes and communities of their future partners. By becoming a volunteer, you will have the opportunity to change lives one dog at a time. We have four basic types of volunteers…
Inmate Training Program
Retrieving Independence and the Tennessee Department of Corrections have a partnership in which inmates learn to train service dogs. Our dogs go to the Turney Center Industrial Complex where inmates receive 30 hours of intense training before beginning work with a puppy…
Success Stories
Our dogs serve as diabetic alert dogs, seizure response dogs, mobility dogs and assist with a wide range of developmental, intellectual, psychiatric and neurological disorders. Our service dogs provide confidence, independence and enhance the lives of their partners.
I don't like to ask others for help, and being a Type 1 diabetic I sometimes need it. My service dog Jasmine provides greater peace of mind whether I'm driving or sleeping, and greater independence all around.
Having a service dog means greater independence in my life and peace of mind for my family that I'm not alone. Most importantly, it means Levi is a friend who is always by my side.
Having a service dog has greatly impacted me socially; when I meet new people my dog Justice creates a connection that we wouldn't have had otherwise. I also love to teach people about what service dogs can do and Justice loves to show off her skills!
I chose Retrieving Independence after visiting other organizations that made me feel like I had to prove my need for a service dog. The RI team cared about my transition from a retiring service dog to a new match and made the process easy.
