Skip to main content
Donate

About the Foundation

Experience turned toward public good.

Partners Dogs Foundation was created to extend education, training access, rehabilitation, and research further than a commercial training business alone can reach. It is an independent nonprofit: it shares its name and history with Partners Dog School, but runs its own governance, decisions, and programs.

See our mission Contact the Foundation
A trainer demonstrates leash handling to another person while an adult Goldendoodle stands leashed nearby.

Our mission

Dedicated to dogs and the people who care for them

The Partners Dogs Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of dogs and the people who care for them. We fund rehabilitation grants, professional education grants, and research into dog behavior and genetics because access to good information and capable support should not depend on luck. Our goal is healthier relationships between people and their dogs, built on a better understanding of what dogs actually need, now and in the years ahead.

Who this reaches

Real dogs, real families, real follow-through

Every grant, training session, and research project ties back to a specific dog and a specific family working through something hard, not an abstract mission statement. That is who the three pillars below are built for.

See our grant programs
A family relaxes together on a porch swing in the evening with an adult Golden Retriever resting on the rug beside them, string lights overhead.
The people and dogs the Foundation's work is built around.

How the mission works

Three pillars, one mission

Rehabilitation Grants

Grants that help dogs in need of professional training and rehabilitation reach it, when cost or circumstance would otherwise stand in the way. Unresolved behavior problems are a common, well-documented reason dogs lose their homes, and a grant that funds professional help early can change that outcome for one dog and one family.

Professional Education

Grants that help emerging and current animal professionals access affordable, high-quality education in dog training, behavior, and care, so the field has more capable people in it. Growing the number of well-trained professionals in the field has a multiplying effect: one trained person can help many dogs over a career.

Research & Innovation

Investment in research into dog behavior and genetics, aimed at predicting a dog's health and behavioral needs early enough to build a personalized care plan, so families and professionals are working from evidence instead of guesswork.

Part of the Partners Dogs family

How the Foundation relates to Partners Dog School

Partners Dogs Foundation and Partners Dog School share history, people, and expertise. Partners Dogs Foundation grew out of a training practice with 70,000+ dogs trained since 1997 (28 years, Partners Dog School program records). The Foundation keeps its own charitable purpose, decisions, records, financial controls, conflicts process, and public accountability, separate from the School's business operations.

When the Foundation purchases services, uses shared resources, refers participants, or works with an affiliated company, the arrangement is documented, reasonable, mission-aligned, and reviewed under the conflict-of-interest policy. Foundation grant or service requirements are never designed to provide private benefit to Partners Dog School or any other commercial company.

Partners Dog School Professional dog training programs Partners Dogs University Professional education platform
How the Foundation is run

Governance and leadership

The Foundation is led by members of the Partners Dogs team and its professional network, contributing program direction, expertise, mentorship, and partnership.

  • Mission-first decision-making.
  • Documented conflicts and recusals.
  • Clear grant authority.
  • Financial and restriction controls.
  • Privacy and data minimization.
  • Safe reporting and concern pathways.
  • Transparent outcomes and limitations.
  • Periodic board and policy review.
A small group of professionals reviews documents around an office table while a calm adult Labrador Retriever rests on the rug nearby.
Governance decisions get the same rigor as any professional board table.
Who leads the Foundation

Leadership

  • Christopher Oosthuisen

    President & Founder

  • Leighton Oosthuisen

    Chairman & Founder

What happens next

Have a question about a grant, a donation, or how the Foundation is run? The Contact page routes every inquiry to the right team, or explore the grant programs directly.

Explore our grant programs Contact the Foundation