Life Saver Dogs is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization helping people with disabilities get a service dog for their ADA-qualifying disabilities. Every person (i.e. service dog candidate) is carefully vetted for our program. Once approved, service dog candidates are able to join our fundraising network, where we are generally able to raise around 90% of the total costs for their custom-trained service dog–a dog specifically tailored to the person. The average amount raised is around $40,000 to $50,000 per dog.
Once enough money has been raised, Life Saver Dogs will begin the process of selecting and training the service dog. All dogs are carefully selected to make sure they are the best possible candidate for the person and their disabilities. Most dogs are purchased as puppies from reputable service dog breeders in our network but Life Saver Dogs also tests, selects, and trains dogs from shelters and personal dogs people own already, when possible.
Once the dog has been selected, our professional service dog trainers will begin the training process and the person will be included in the process as the training progresses until the dog finally transitions full-time to its working home.
Regardless of selection, any potential service dog can “wash out” during the training process. That means, the dog proves to be unable to handle the stress of working in a service capacity. In these cases, the dog will be re-purposed and a new dog selected and trained. If we selected the puppy, no additional fundraising is necessary. If the dog was from the home of the service dog candidate or a shelter animal, additional fundraising may be required to purchase a puppy.