Non-Profit Organization
These service dog providers are organizations with the non-profit tax exempt status that are usually equipped to train large quantities of dogs. They have the ability to seek funding from large corporate donors to keep their training program running. They do their absolute best to keep the cost of these animals as low as possible for the disabled handler. Some non-profits can even offer their dog free of charge to handler. Lower cost to the handler is obviously a huge Pro with this method of obtaining a service dog. However, because the demand is greater than even they can supply these organizations have extremely long waiting lists. One of the largest non-profit service dog organizations claims their waiting list is about 1600 people long, and they can only train about 180 dogs at their facility at time. Because of this skewed supply and demand ratio a disabled person can wait from 1-5 years for their service dog. Also, while many non-profits tell you that they can provide you a dog for free, they still require you to raise money for their organization. Most of these organizations can require you to raise anywhere from 1000 to 8000 dollars. However, even that amount is still a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to train a service dog. Most organizations will tell you it will take between 10,000 – 30,000 dollars to raise, care for, and train a service dog. Also many nonprofits will not allow you to have pets living in the home with the service dog. Therefore is you have pets you will need to rehome them and if you don’t have pets you will not be permitted to get a pet while your service dog is living with you. Many people think the no pet policy is not a right policy to have. However, I can tell you from experience, that having pets in a home with a working dog is a lot of work. Work that I enjoy, but we have done a lot of work with my pack to ensure a peaceful and loving living environment between our pets, a service dog, and all people involved.
Once the person is finished raising money, and their turn comes up on the waiting list then there is the cost of getting to the training facility to select and train with your dog. If you are not local to the non-profit organization then it is up to you to fund accommodations, travel expense to and from the facility, and food for the duration of your stay. If you are able to work, then you must take time off of work to go train. Some (not all) organizations will also require you to provide medical documentation of your disability in order to determine if qualify for their program. Which is not a negative thing, just me mindful when you are looking into obtaining a service dog from a nonprofit of what documentation they require from you. And make sure everything you supply them is organized to help facilitate a timely response.
Pros and Cons with Nonprofit service dog organizations
Pros: Lower cost to the handler, larger pool of dogs to choose from.
Cons: Long waiting lists, travel, fundraising; time off of work, you might have to supply detailed medical documents; most large organizations will allow you to have pets meaning: you will either have to rehome existing pets or if you don’t have pets then you must agree to not have pets.