We see a need! We will work on a plan!

It has come to our attention three times so far this week that there are wounded warriors and disabled veterans here (and everywhere) that already have well behaved dogs that could be "self trained" as their service dogs. The common theme is that "it's too expensive to get the dogs professionally trained and certified".  This does NOT have to be the case! ADA law protects the rights of disabled owners that do their own training. It is NOT necessary to pay a professional dog trainer to train your dog for service. Normally a fully trained service dog sells for up to $25,000. The average cost for having someone train your dog is $5,000 to $10,000.  I think it's a shame that these men and women are the reason that these trainers have the freedom to own and operate their businesses and set their prices as they do and yet they do not offer their services to wounded warriors free of charge... Well it's true... Freedom isn't free!

The wait for a professionally trained service dog through a service dog agency is one to two years on average.  If an owner sends their own adult dog or older puppy to live at a facility to be trained the wait is anywhere from 6 months to a year depending on the level of previous training the dog has had. It just seems to make more sense to leave the dog and handler team in tact and train them together. This allows continued bonding between the team and allows the handler to identify their true needs and have more input on the specific task training.

While I've spent a lot of time the last few weeks making contacts with other rescues and service dog agencies as well as getting some of our documentation together and working on our sites. I think I'm going to take a break and start working on the problem we are seeing in this circle of real people and address this need. I'm going to start working on an informational E-Book advising owners of their rights and responsibilities under ADA law. This will include an explanation of acceptable service dog standards for training and behaviors. Owners will have to agree to these in writing before we start helping them to train or certify their dog. I'm also going to develop a training plan and resources to help wounded warriors and disabled vets to get their own dogs trained and certified.  It's not as easy as it sounds and you can't just go order a vest and stick it on your dog and expect public access without confrontation.  If a dog's credibility is challenged it could mean having to prove their training and testing in a court of law. We will also advise owners on this process as well once their dogs are ready for certification.

We have offered our assistance to the people we have met here and will continue to do so in Missouri. I think at this point we have discussed this issue and have decided to offer training sessions to help owners learn to train their own dogs once we are settled in Missouri. Look for these sessions to start next spring. We will also assist owners in certifying their dogs for public access and service once they have passed the Canine Good Citizen test through AKC.  Since there are a number of reasonably priced basic obedience classes already out there we won't seek to duplicate those. But for owners that are serious enough to take the first steps then we will help them the rest of the way!

Look for a new program available on our website in the near future! And as with all of our services this will also be free of charge to the wounded warriors and disabled veterans! Later we will get our 501C3 in order and can take donations to cover the costs we incur such as travel expenses and training aids.