Welcome to H2H!
Home 2 Home is a non-profit canine orphanage revolutionizing the way dogs find their perfect homes. With high standards and a premium facility, our orphans are provided with a safe and loving environment. All of our dogs are kept in small packs. This allows for proper daily exercise, and it helps build and maintain good socialization skills with both humans and other dogs. This natural environment allows for a better presentation to potential families.
We consider ourselves an orphanage versus a traditional shelter because we provide needs-based care. This includes temperament testing all dogs to ensure a proper fit for our environment and the eventual forever home of that animal. With 15 acres of land available, to them, our dogs are given a safe, vacation-like environment in which to play, make friends, and meet all exercise needs.
No dogs are stuck in cages. Instead, dogs are kept in small, human-supervised packs to build and maintain good socialization skills with both dogs and humans. This also allows us to present dogs’ natural personalities to prospective adopters.
Dogs become what their environment makes them. Due to the unfamiliar circumstance and possible past trauma, some dogs are terrified in cages. Others bark constantly when caged, but not when free. It’s much more fair to the dogs when they’re allowed to be themselves and put their best paw forward when looking for a home. We also have licensed trainers on staff, veterinary care, flowing water, and always-available beds. Their better life starts when we get them, but their best life is after they’re adopted to their forever home.
Our Story
Home 2 Home Canine Orphanage was founded by dog training and caretaker veteran, Kristen Duhr. Here is her story, which led to the creation of a dog rescue, daycare, boarding and grooming facility, training classes, and vaccination clinic.
1998 – Left for college at University of Denver and got a black lab. This was the first dog Kristen ever had in her entire life!
1999 – Returned home with her dog because college wasn’t a fit. She found a job working as an office manager at an electric company, but needed a daycare for her dog while she worked. As she looked for a daycare, she ended up being hired to dog walk and pet sit for the daycare owner’s clients! This began her journey into the world of pet care.
Fast forward a couple years, and Kristen quit working for the daycare when a dog was left unattended in the owner’s backyard with lots of other dogs. Tragically, this poor dog was essentially maimed to death – the story even made headlines.
Kristen continued working for the clients she had grown to love during the past few years. She began to build a small business in Chicago pet sitting and dog walking.
2001 – Kristen moved to St. Louis where she started selling CutCo knives. She left business cards with people while selling knives, and they hired her to walk their dogs. Through that method, she began building a business house sitting and dog walking right here in St. Louis, Missouri.
2002 – Kristen started frequenting the APA in Granite City, IL and taking dogs back to STL to rehome them herself. During this time, she also started helping her established client base rehome their dogs when they needed help.
2004 – She began boarding dogs in her home in St. Louis near the airport. Business became extremely busy. While she was boarding the dogs, she started to train them.
Her dog walking business also exploded, to the point where Kristen was conducting 20-30 dogwalking visits in a day, plus daycare and boarding.
2010 – Kristen moved to Villa Ridge to get a taste of country life and provide more land for the dogs.
2014 – Kingdom Canine was officially opened along with Home 2 Home Canine Orphanage after Kristen saw a need for a new method of conducting a dog rescue. Since then, H2H and Kingdom Canine have served thousands of dogs each year.