Loss of Hortmans fuels donations and requests for service dog training

EDEN PRAIRIE, MINN.- Helping Paws is remembering Melissa Hortman for her work with the nonprofit service dog training organization.
Hortman began training her golden retriever, Gilbert, as a service dog in 2021, but he was too friendly to fit the job requirements, and he became her pet.

Helping Paws Executive Director Alyssa Golob says they’ve seen an outpouring of donations since the killings of Melissa and Mark, but more importantly, more people who want to train a service dog.

She says, “if we can train more service dogs because of what happened to Melissa, then we get to pay it forward and pay tribute to her as all these dogs get matched to their person.”