GIVING BACK: Warrior Canine Connection

Blog

September 03, 2025

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

The stated mission of the Warrior Canine Connection (WCC) – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – is to support active-duty service members and veterans recovering from service injuries by raising and training highly skilled assistance dogs for veterans with disabilities. It also conducts a service-dog training program called Mission Based Trauma Recovery (MBTR), in which service members and veterans themselves engage in the therapeutic mission of helping train future service dogs for a fellow veteran.

WCC is headquartered in Boyds, Maryland, where the organization’s staff, clients, and volunteers work to raise and train the dogs in a beautiful natural setting. Additionally, training classes and MBTR programming occur at the headquarters.

WCC also runs MBTR training and services at several different military medical treatment facilities across the country, at a number of community-based program sites, and through Veterans Administration (VA)-sponsored Veterans Treatment Court programs across the country. Each of the 13 program sites is staffed with highly skilled professional service-dog training instructors and multiple service dogs in training that will eventually provide years of mobility and social support to veterans with physical and mental-health challenges.

Rick Yount, WCC founder and executive director, has been in the social-services field for 30 years; he has involved animal-assisted therapy in his practice for the past 22 of those years. He combined his education plus his experience in the service-dog training arena to develop MBTR as a way to help service members and veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

All classes, training, and placement are free of charge to service members and veterans.

For additional information, visit https://warriorcanineconnection.org/.