Message from Our Founder – 2025: A Year of Life-Changing Service

2025 has been a meaningful year of life-changing service. Across our campuses, events, and communities, we have seen steady progress, achieved significant milestones, and positively impacted many lives through our work. It was a year of growth, teamwork, and continued dedication to our mission of pairing highly trained service dogs with those who need them most.

What stands out most is the commitment of everyone involved—our staff, volunteers, recipients, donors, and partners. Your support helped us strengthen our programs, reach more people, and build on the strong foundation we’ve created over the past 15 years.

Here are the accomplishments we can celebrate from 2025:

We marked 15 years of transforming lives—with a special milestone celebration in Pittsburgh that honored the stories of recipients, dogs, veterans, and families alike.
We expanded our signature event, Mutt Strut, to a national virtual platform, inviting supporters across the country to walk, raise awareness, and uplift veterans and first responders.
We received a generous matching gift of $60,000 to strengthen our Recipient Veterinary Relief Fund, ensuring every service dog receives essential medical care throughout their working life. There is still time to match these funds before the end of the year!
We were honored as a finalist for the 2025 Defender Service Awards presented by Chase—national recognition for our impact and dedication.
We earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, reaffirming our commitment to excellence, accountability, and donor trust.

And as always, the achievement that matters most: we maintain zero suicides among our working teams and continue to see lower-than-average divorce rates—powerful proof that our partnerships between human and dog are truly life-changing.

Thank you to every donor, volunteer, team member, trainer, and supporter who made this year extraordinary. With your help, we step into 2026 ready to change more lives and expand our reach to support veterans, first responders, and individuals in need.

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Carol Borden

The Founder and CEO of Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, Inc., Carol Borden, titled her first dog at the age of ten. Mrs. Borden has logged nearly 60 years training dogs in multiple disciplines, from competition to training a dog for a movie, to training the #1 Service Dog in the US, which was the first service dog to ever become the Top American Dog Hero winning over all categories of working dogs in the United States. She started the non-profit Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs organization in 2010.

Mrs. Borden’s expertise and accomplishments are acknowledged by numerous national awards from various industries and agencies including the 2018 Corporate Pet Industry Woman of the Year and multiple awards for her organization’s work in mental health and suicide prevention.

She is frequently requested as a Keynote Speaker, and as an Industry Consultant to teach service dog laws to judicial systems, attorneys, and businesses, and to assist in service dog bills in multiple states that were passed into law. In 2020, she started an Institute for Higher Learning and the Borden Veterinary Hospital. Additionally, she has written and teaches college-accredited/VA-approved apprenticeship courses on dog training and service dog training.