Meet the Founder, Joe Jeffers

Diamond is a proud partner of Warriors’ Best Friend, a nonprofit organization that professionally trains service dogs for veterans, service members and students. Through Operation Enrichment, Diamond is providing a consistent source of balanced nutrition to Warriors’ Best Friends’ canine recruits, giving them all the sustenance they need to succeed. Here we meet Joe Jeffers, the executive director and founder of Warriors’ Best Friend, to learn more about the great work the foundation does for veterans, service members and school students.

Growing up in a military family and spending decades volunteering at shelters inspired Joe Jeffers to develop a dog training program that combined his passion for homeless dogs and the military. After spending two years carefully researching other training organizations in the United States, Warriors’ Best Friend was founded in 2012.

Operation Homestead and Operation Schoolhouse

Initially Warriors’ Best Friend was focused on providing dogs to veterans who had traumatic brain injury or severe post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal was to help these veterans reacclimate back into society — go to the store, go to a sporting event, be around people, family and friends again.

When Liberty High School in Liberty, Missouri, reached out to see if Warriors’ Best Friend could modify their training program to provide assistance to children in crisis, they also started placing facility dogs in schools. These dogs help students in many ways, including supporting children in crisis, children who need assistance with reading vocabulary and those who have behavioral challenges. The dogs are there to comfort them, help them recover quickly, get back to learning and help the classroom move forward.

Warriors’ Best Friend also places dogs with service members who are active military, meaning they’ve been approved to have the dog with them on base. It’s not only the service member that benefits but their family, other staff members and the base in general.

Finding a Gem in the Rough

While Joe acknowledges that bred dogs are important and provide a function within the training environment, for Warriors’ Best Friend it was really important to provide opportunities for rescue dogs. That’s why all of their dog recruits are from shelters.

“We look at about 500 dogs to find one dog for our program,” Joe said. “When we’re evaluating dogs at a shelter, there are the obvious things like size, breed and age, but there are also the intangibles. There’s the dog’s ability to have empathy and to have unconditional acceptance.”

One of the criteria for graduation from the training program is to make sure the dog can walk focused for three hours. This may not seem like much, but it allows a veteran to go to a movie, go to church — things that are normal for most people but overwhelming for the veteran. The dog provides support and companionship and can be a conversation starter. Little things like a conversation help normalize life for a veteran, something that may not be possible without their dog’s support.

“The veterans who we place a dog with in our program are combat veterans. Many of them have stability issues, sensitivities, stiffness. They may have lost an arm or a leg. They may have memory loss, confusion, frustration,” Joe comments. “We intentionally place large, very fit dogs with our veterans as they’re very stable. Our dogs allow the veteran to put weight on the dog to be able to help get them out of bed or a chair.”

Nine Days Can Change a Life

For Joe, the most rewarding thing about Warriors’ Best Friend is the ability to help people. He notices a difference from when a veteran starts the nine-day training process to when they leave with their dog and a smile on their face. They also get responses back from their families and their communities.

“All of the veterans have been referred by their psychologist, psychiatrist or Veterans Affairs. They are accepted into the program if we feel like we can provide a dog for them that’s going to assist them, that’s going to help them further their lives.”

Once a veteran is accepted into the program, Warriors’ Best Friend covers all of the expenses. The dog is free and they provide the travel, hotel and food for the veteran to stay in Liberty, Missouri, with them for nine days. They typically do training in classes, with 3 to 4 veterans at a time. That way there are other veterans experiencing the same thing. 

The trainers and veterans start out by doing simple things like taking the dog for a walk or going to a grocery store. The dog stays with the veteran in their hotel, and by day seven or eight they’re doing things like going to a Royals game, going bowling or going to a movie theater. The veterans gain confidence that they can do these types of things and can see how their dog helps them.

“It’s pretty amazing when they get done. We have a graduation on day nine, and from our point of view, that’s a reward,” Joe said. “When you see how these dogs are able to help the veterans go back, do things that maybe they thought they couldn’t do, like going back to school to get a different degree. Finishing out their military career. Having a good social life.”

Operation Enrichment

Through Operation Enrichment, which began in 2024, Diamond is proud to provide Diamond Naturals dog food for each meal of every canine recruit, nourishing them with purposeful, quality ingredients, carefully determined levels of protein, guaranteed probiotics and more.

“About two years ago [2022] we made a decision to change the dogs’ food,” Joe reports. “The dogs seemed a little large and didn’t have the energy that they did. We switched to Diamond Naturals and since then we’ve seen great results,” Joe reports.

What’s Next for Warriors’ Best Friend?

Going forward, the goal of Warriors’ Best Friend is to teach other organizations and individual trainers what they do — expanding their reach and results by helping others do what they do.

“Diamond is playing a great part in allowing us to expand the awareness of what we’re doing for these wonderful dogs and people,” comments Joe.

Learn more about Operation Enrichment — our partnership with Warriors’ Best Friend.