We recently connected with Victoria Warfel and have shared our conversation below.

Victoria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

After being diagnosed with Neurocardiogenic Syncope at age 19, I reached out to service dog organizations and was told they could not help me. I ended up training my own dog as my service dog while in my mid-20s. People would come up to me when I had her out in public, asking me questions about their dog. When people started sending other people to me, my dog training career was started.

When people found out my dog was my service dog, they would come to me for help with their service dog. The would come to me for personal training sessions, group classes, or board & train, but it wasn’t enough. We put together a service dog training program, which included lifetime personal coaching sessions, along with our online course. But some dogs just were not cut out for service dog work. Golden Retrievers have been my number one recommended breed, and some people would go and get any golden.

We had a choice to make, do we want to train service dogs, and hope that people got the right dog for their situation, or do we want to breed, raise, and train the ultimate service dog? Starting with the parents, full health testing, supplements and care before and during pregnancy, how the puppies are delivered, what the puppies are exposed to, we looked at everything! We also created Hope Service Dogs, Inc, a 501(c)3 non profit. We are changing lives and providing HOPE for tomorrow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We love when the puppies are born, and the care and attention they receive while with us. Talking to people who are interested in one of our puppies, and how they can change their lives. Go home day is my absolute favorite. Seeing how excited their new owners are, and how quickly they become best friends together, there is nothing that compares.

When people find out we purpose breed golden retrievers as service dogs, often they comment “I could never get rid of the puppies, I would keep them all!” During go home with one of the families, the mom told me “You don’t understand how much you helped my daughter. You changed her life, and the lives of all the people she interacts with. Friends. Family. Her future spouse. Any children they may have. All have been changed, because of you and the service dog you bred and trained for her.” That is powerful.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

We share everything – through our podcast, tiktok, instagram, Facebook, YouTube, webinars, online and in person schools. Showing behind the scenes, what the puppies are learning, what to do in specific situations, we leave nothing out. Our transparency is key to the know, like, and trust so we end up with the ideal clients that we do our best work with.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Share it all. Things you think won’t get any traction end up with the most views. Respond to comments. Block the trolls. Use social media as part of your funnel, to grow your audience. We use ours to link to our website and grow our email list.

Contact Info:

• Website: hopeservicedogs.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/hope.service.dogs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hope.service.dogs.inc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZxqGtEreogvPwAEpDh44Sw
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@potsservicedog https://open.spotify.com/show/2MXmrcGoOYvcPTj72Zxu2M?si=35ae966abb584421

Image Credits
Victoria Warfel