In 1979, Mike Sapp was a delivery truck driver who did a favor for some friends, a deaf couple.
“They were adopting a baby, and they were so worried they wouldn’t be able to hear their baby cry. They asked Mike, who they knew trained Doberman pincers as a hobby, if he would consider training their dog Crystal for them.”
It was a huge success, says Michele Suchovsky, current CEO of Paws With a Cause, the mission that Mike and his late wife Candye built after word began to spread of his talent for training dogs.
Under Mike’s leadership, PAWS expanded its mission to meet the evolving needs of people with disabilities.
It now trains service dogs for mobility, seizure response, children with autism, and facility dogs for schools and hospitals.
“He was one of the first to do that in the field and the silver lining is all those people that have been served over the years because of his vision and what he’s created.”
Over 40 years, PAWS has placed more than 3,000 assistance dogs.
Mike also launched the Prison Partners program in which selected inmates assist in training young dogs.
He established PAWS’ national headquarters and training campus in Wayland, Michigan that places more than 100 dogs a year across the United States.
