Meet our Head Trainer and Co-Founder, Christi Christiansen!
I was born with a deep love for animals. As a child, I was always the one bringing home the lost, the hurt, and the lonely animals that needed help. But despite my compassion, I was severely allergic to anything furry. My mom often said I was a stubborn child who never took no for an answer. I had to find things out for myself, even when others were right. If someone told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t do something, I found a way to do it anyway. I wasn’t a screamer or a fighter—I simply proved, quietly and with determination, that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. And that included being around animals.
My favorite animal was the dog. My mom tried to get me to stay inside and read about dogs instead of snuggling up with them. But I always found a way to be outside, breathing and sneezing at the same time, as I practiced the dog training techniques I had read about. I dreamed of becoming a vet or a dog trainer, even though my mom patiently explained, time and time again, why that would never be possible for me due to my allergies. But fate had other plans—during my pregnancy with my son, my allergies miraculously disappeared. Since then, I’ve never had a single symptom from being around animals.
Around the time Mitch and I started dating, I began experiencing strange, new symptoms—symptoms unlike anything I had ever dealt with before, and they only seemed to worsen. I visited many doctors, but rather than offering solutions, it felt like they just kept adding new diseases to my ever-growing list. As things between Mitch and me grew more serious, I offered him a way out. I told him that, as my condition worsened, I had become a mess, and it was a lot to handle. My symptoms kept escalating, and I didn’t want to trap him. His response was simple but powerful: “We’ll take it one day at a time.”
A year after our marriage, we discovered that a service dog could truly make a difference in my life. However, the cost of training a service dog was astronomical. There were programs that provided free service dogs, but the waitlist was up to ten years long. A friend told me that the Americans with Disabilities Act allowed me to train my own service dog, which gave me a glimmer of hope! But I had no idea where to start or what I would need to properly train a dog for this purpose.
Mitch and I began researching and studying everything we could find. We reached out to renowned authors and dog trainers, but there were hardly any resources available to help people train their own service dogs. Then, Mitch, being Mitch, suggested, “If there’s no resource available, why don’t we become the resource?” That question sparked a journey that would change our lives forever.
Starting a nonprofit was a daunting task, but it was also one of the most rewarding decisions we ever made. Service Paws has undergone many changes to become what it is today. It will continue to evolve and grow, adapting to the needs of those we serve. With every change we make to improve the lives of others, I grow stronger and learn more about myself than I ever thought possible.