“How To Get A Low-Cost Or Free Service Dog?”

INTRODUCTION to obtaining a “Free Service Dog” or a low-cost one when you, or your loved one, cannot afford to pay a service dog trainer for a year, or more, of their time to individually train a service dog per the ADA reqirement.

I made this page as a resource for those finding themselves disabled to help them understand how the “Service Dog System” works, and point them in the right direction to get help, and/or a free or low-cost service dog at a price point that best fits their financial circumstance.

How do you know it is a service dog?

Service dogs are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are required to be “individually” trained to perform tasks that help their disabled handler or owner.

A “diasability” is defined as one or more physical, mental or emotional impairments that adversely affects a person’s life. A “task” is something a service dog is taught that it would not necessarily do, unless it was taught by its trainer to do so.

For example, just being a bundle of love and joy in the mall barking incessantly at children and real service dogs is not a task, regardless of any perceived benefit, such as relieving loneliness, that the dog’s companionship and barking would provide. LOL.

An example of a task would be a well-trained dog at the mall alerting its owner to an impending panic anxiety attack before the person realized the were freaking out, so they could take medication or use mindfulness to get ahold of themselves, and then the dog applying Deep-Pressure Therapy to relieve their owner’s suffering. That is a task. Being trained for “Public Access” so a dog’s owner could go to the mall and focus on their dog so they do not have a panic attack—because when they are with their dog they use a different part of their brain, could be loosely be considered a task under ADA guidelines.

The problem is fake service dogs that are neither adequately trained for public access, and do nothing other than what a pet dog could be expected to do.

Can I train my service dog myself? 

You can watch YouTube video about how to teach your dog tasks, but almost never is an amateur trainer able to train their dog well enough to accompany them into stores, much less security checks at airports and onto airplanes. 

To me, training one’s dog to accompany them on an airplane is a low bar. If your dog isn’t good enough to take on an airplane, how is someone going to be able to train it to perform tasks that are meaningfully affective at making a disabled person more productive and relieve their suffering? I have trained more than a thousand dogs the last 26 years as a professional dog trainer, including dozens and dozens of service animals. I don’t know either.

THE TWO MAIN REASONS people buy a service dog are:

1) To make them or their child more productive,

2) To relieve their, or their child’s, suffering.

I can definitely teach you everything I know about training service dogs, but you haven’t trained dozens and dozens of them like I have and probably will not be able to implement what I teach you. It would be like me telling you about the martial arts and you being able to defend yourself adequately. It aint gonna happen. A lot of people we train service dogs for, them or their parents, have a Goldendoodle that is a pet that they acquired to train themselves as a service dog, but they were unable to do so.

A professional trainer gets a puppy to train as a service dog at 8 weeks old and does everything right for often over a year. The most important time for service dog training is when the puppy is between 8 and 10 weeks old. If you do not get that right, you can forget about it being a service dog. Every milestone in a puppy’s development is crucial if the dog will ever become a service dog. Be honest. There is no way you are going to be able to do that unless you have trained 100’s of dogs.

 

Q: “Who the heck can afford a $45,000 service dog?

 

THE ANSWER

—There are 22.7 million millionaires in the United States.

—60 million+ Americans have a net worth of at least $500,000.

—Around 2,132,856 households in America have $10 million or more in net worth.

—88% of millionaires graduated from college, and 52% have a master’s or doctoral degree. 

I posted this for the “You don’t learn anything in college” crowd.  Maybe somebody never learned anything in college because they were an idiot? No, you aren’t going to make a million dollars in 90 days by being a social media influencer on TikTok. LOL.  I have two college degrees and would not be able to be a service dog trainer without them.  Tell your kids that.  

 

THE JUSTIFICATION

THE TWO MAIN REASONS people buy a service dog are:

1) To make them or their child more productive,

2) To relieve their, or their child’s, suffering.

 

TRAINED DOGS are money makers, not an expense!!!

Whether you are a billionaire or are the assistant manager at Jiffy Lube or a teacher making $59,428 a year (the average salary in the United States), you will have your service dog for 10 years. 

Using the example of someone making only $59,428 per year, and if getting a service dog made them just 10% more productive over 10 years, the net cost of purchasing a $47,000 service dog would be minus-$12,428. Of course, this hypothetical does not take into account the cost of food and other expenses, but you get the idea.

You say, what does that have to do with my 6-year-old child or teenager? What is the difference what it costs if it is to give your child a fighting chance at being able to live a normal life, and not suffer one iota more than they need to?  

 

—FREE OR LOW-COST SOLUTIONS FOR YOU!!!

 

1) IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY A SERVICE DOG, you need to Google “service dog charities” and submit applications. DO NOT PAY under any circumstance to submit an application. If they ask you for money, it is A SCAM. Registering a service dog, or online service dog certification is also A SCAM.

 

2) ADULTS AND CHILDREN SUFFERING often receive tremendous relief by just adopting THE RIGHT PET DOG or cat. We recommend they Google “Dog Rescue Organizations” in their city, region or state, and ask, “Me or my child have a disability, but we don’t have the $60,000 it costs to buy a service dog, but might you have a dog available that might work?”

Rescue dogs are generally fostered by families, so the organizations have a good sense of whether a particular dog would be a good fit or not for you or your family. There are many good dogs available. Oftentimes, someone has spent the money or time to train a pet, but then they die, get divorced, lose their job, etc. . . . and the dog ends up in rescue. Many of these dogs are WELL-QUALIFIED TO STOP A SUICIDE, relieve someone’s suffering and give the person’s life meaning or reason to stay alive.

 

3) LOSERS BLAME OTHERS AND MAKE A LOT OF EXCUSES. Winners find solutions and reach out to others for help, such as doctors, social workers, teachers, psychologists, government agencies, clergy, lawyers, experts, accountants, people more educated, God, and even service dog trainers.

 

4) THE SQEAKY WHEEL GETS OILED. God helps those who help themselves or their child. What that means is someone needs to decide they are not going to just take the suffering, and refuse to just watch somebody suffer, die, or go down the road of a lifetime of alcoholism, drug addiction and misery.

LET’S NOT PRETEND IT WONT HAPPEN, or hasnt happened to you or your child. Sexual, physical abuse and crime victims, and those who suffer neglect as a child, almost invariably face a lifetime of suffering as a drug addict or an alcoholic. Most die prematurely, never reach their potential, are murdered, commit suicide or wind up incarcerated, or become victimizers themselves and perpetuate THE FAMILY SECRET without intervention.

YOU NEED TO PRAY. If you do not believe in God, you need to pretend you do, and get on the telephone and let God find you, or your loved one THE RIGHT DOG.

THE REALLY HARD PART IS NOT JUST THROWING MONEY AT THE PROBLEM. Rarely does that work. We know people (wealthy celebrities), and children of parents maybe like you, who are in and out of mental hospitals and treatment centers who never get one iota better.

THE EASIER, SOFTER WAY is to pray for God’s will in your life, or for His intervention in your child or loved one’s life.

I KNOW MAYBE YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD, the tooth fairy or Santa Claus, or maybe even quit believing in God, or that God gave up on you. That’s okay. You just need to pretend you believe in Him.

THE ONLY SOLUTION if you have a problem that only God can fix is to ask God for help—before somebody commits suicide, is murdered, or becomes a drug addict, alcoholic or prostitute, if they aren’t already.