Grant Applicant: Puppy Prodigies

The feature below is brought to you by Puppy Prodigies, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Puppy Prodigies,
​ please visit their website: here.

Puppy Prodigies is a non-profit organization that provides paws-on healing through canine-assisted surfing, paddling, swimming, playing, therapy and other initiatives through our Waves of Empowerment program. We provide no-cost assistance to kids with special needs, people with disabilities and wounded warriors and veterans with PTSD.

We have applied for a See Beautiful Grant, and are honored that our application has moved to their next round of review. We look forward to partnering with See Beautiful in uniting diverse populations through the challenges they face.

We create more beautiful through our unique and innovative organization that utilizes service, therapy and emotional support dogs. Our  highly effective, non-traditional approaches enhance and improve the quality of life for individuals with physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities.

We are a grassroots organization that prides itself on our pioneering efforts and innovative programs. We are rooted in the human-canine bond and are dedicated to helping individuals grow in mind, body and spirit through the unconditional love and acceptance only a dog can provide.

Every 65 minutes a veteran with PTSD takes his or her life by suicide. That’s 22 lives a day! Kids with special needs and people with disabilities are two of the most marginalized and excluded groups in society. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four, and the third leading cause of death in children 19 and under. However, the danger of drowning is much higher for children with special needs. In fact, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

We are determined to reduce these staggering statistics and improve the lives of our physically and emotionally wounded war heroes and children with special needs while embracing diversity and creating an all-inclusive, non-judgmental environment for our participants.

Opportunities are provided that enable veterans to continue their lives of service, while finding new purpose by engaging in community service  by mentoring and inspiring future generations. Our objective is to empower and enrich the well-being of veterans and civilians of all abilities and backgrounds, taking them from the battleground to the playground.

Each veteran becomes a mentor, and is paired one-on-one with a child who has special needs for a day of canine-assisted activities. We find that being of service to another individual affords a sense of responsibility and self-worth. The goal is to connect diverse populations through the challenges they face, bringing them together for their greater good and the greater good of the community.

Our Waves of Empowerment program is three-fold:  1) improving the PTSD symptoms of active duty service members and veterans by helping them transition from military to civilian life through recreational and canine-assisted activities. 2) Exposing kids with special needs and people with disabilities to adaptive surfing and other recreational activities. 3) Providing swim lessons to kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other special needs in an effort to reduce the high incidence of drowning.


Canine-assisted swimming is the newest facet of our program. We strive to reduce the number of drowning incidents among kids with ASD and other special needs by providing a unique approach to water safety and swim lessons through our partnership with Special Fishies. We focus on underlying roadblocks that often manifest as anxiety, distrust, combative behavior, non-compliance, and unresponsiveness. Our newest pup, Cori heads up the program and provides an expeditious conduit that breaks through barriers much faster than her human counterparts.


What can take months or years with traditional lessons can often be accomplished in one miraculous session! Click here to watch a video of three-year old, Caiden who was anxious and crying until Cori joined his lesson.  

Surf Dog Ricochet is the most known dog in our program. In 2009, she made an  independent decision to jump on a surfboard with a boy who is quadriplegic. A "kleenex alert" video of this surf session went viral on YouTube and has over 6.5 million views. As a result, she became the only SURFice dog® on the planet, and has been surfing with people/kids with disabilities ever since. She adjusts her surfing style based on the person's disability. Kids often hold on to her back end while she balances the board so they can stand up.

Although surfing has been at the forefront of Ricochet's work, it’s not the act of surfing that makes her interactions so life changing. It’s her extraordinarily powerful ability to make immediate, deep, heart-to-heart connections with the individuals she interacts with. She intuitively and empathically alerts to their emotional and physical changes which allows for profound paws-on healing interventions.​
Ricochet has taught us an exponential amount about the​ healing power of dogs. Thus, we are privileged to share it on the “unleash your dog’s healing power” page of our website. We hope the information provided will further unleash your dog’s abilities to see more beautiful too!
For more information, please go to http://www.surfdogricochet.com

And on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/SurfDogRicochet
https://twitter.com/SurfDogRicochet
http://instagram.com/surfdogricochet/

Written by Jody Fridono, Executive Directory of Puppy Prodigies

Edited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful