TerriAnn Tucker-Warhover

 

As a Mizzou alum, TerriAnn Tucker-Warhover has made a great impact in Columbia and around the country with the organization Puppies with Purpose, which she created. It’s an organization associated with CHAMP Assistance Dogs. Puppies with Purpose’s mission is to raise and socialize puppies to become service dogs and help decrease the deficit in service dogs available to assist individuals with disabilities, and to help create a disability conscious community. 

 

Her Campus Mizzou: So I’ve seen that you, yourself are a Mizzou alum, and I was wondering was there any organization at Mizzou that made you want to start this organization?

 

TerriAnn Tucker-Warhover: No organization here gave me the idea, because this is the first program of it’s kind in the state of Missouri. Actually an organization in Xenia, Ohio — 4 Paws for Ability — has a similar program at Whittenberg State, University of Kentucky and a few other colleges, and they have the program that was the inspiration for PWP. Most aspects of our program are different, but the basic premise of students raising and socializing puppies to become service dogs is the same.

 

HCM: What made you want to get into service help with dogs from first going into veterinary school? 

 

TTW: I have been involved with service dogs for a number of years. I have been a veterinarian in private practice for 25 years. I sponsored Guiding Eyes for the Blind puppies for one of my clients for a few years, and have been the veterinarian for a number of service dogs over the years. I am the veterinarian for the Puppies with Purpose puppies, and I also take care of the service dogs in training at the women’s prison in Vandalia, where our puppies are trained.

 

HCM: What’s your favorite part of this organization and what do you want to improve? 

 

TTW: My favorite part is hard to tell at this point. There are so many aspects I really enjoy, including working with some very amazing students, watching little kids show me what they have learned about service dogs, and especially working with the trainers at the prison, and seeing their dedication to the program and the love they have for the puppies in their care. Right now what I would like to improve upon is our community outreach program. Right now we do not have enough students to have education programs at the schools, on campus and in the community to the extent that I would like for us to have. We have a very large class of new members this year and hopefully with those students we will be able to expand those programs in the near future.

 

HCM: Is anything that you learned from working there that you try to incorporate into Puppies with Purpose? 

 

TTW: The organization we are associated with, CHAMP Assistance Dogs, does not charge the clients for the service dogs, so the only funding we receive is through donations and grants. As of now, CHAMP is only able to place service dogs in the St. Louis area, but our hope is that as our program grows, we will be able to help CHAMP be able to place service dogs in the Columbia area.