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Get your Service Dog Toolkit

If you’re weighing a service dog for yourself or someone you love, you probably have more questions than answers — and a few you don’t yet know to ask. This is where to start: a free guide built from nearly two decades of the questions families actually call us with — what a dog can really do for your disability, what it costs, how long it takes, how other families paid for it, and how to tell an honest program from one that will just take your money.

What’s inside

Three Things This Toolkit
Actually Does for You

It’s the guide we wish every family had before they called anyone, us included. Here’s a preview of what’s inside — so you know the kind of answers you’ll get before you give us an email address.

The printed Service Dog Toolkit on a desk

What a service dog can do, and how it fits your life

Before anyone's money changes hands. What daily life with a working dog actually costs in time and money, what a dog can and can't do, and the honest reasons a service dog is the wrong tool for some families.

How a service dog helps you live with your disability — and what the research does and doesn't show
Four myths, answered head-on — including the one where the dog fixes everything
Does my life fit a service dog? — daily care, yearly cost, and the training you keep doing after placement
What happens when the person who needs the dog can't be the handler
The trained tasks for your disability, task by task

Choose a provider without getting burned

The service dog industry has no federal certification body, no licensing, and no audit process. This is the part almost nobody publishes, because most organizations would rather you didn't ask.

Why obedience training is not service work — and how to tell them apart
The “free service dog” that requires you to fundraise $15,000–$20,000 first
Low base prices with fees layered in later — 30% to 60% above the original quote
Contract clauses that let an organization reclaim the dog years after placement
Programs that make you give up your other pets, or bar you from homes that have them

Know exactly what to ask

A one-page checklist you can carry into a conversation with any organization — including ours. The right ones welcome the questions. The wrong ones hedge, and that tells you most of what you need.

The 25 questions to ask any service dog provider, as a printable page
What a complete, written, all-in cost breakdown should include
The wash-out question — what happens if a dog doesn't make it through training
Who owns the dog after placement, and when ownership actually transfers
What post-placement support looks like when your needs change

What it answers

The Questions You’ve Been
Trying to Get Answered

If you’re new to service dogs, the hardest part is often knowing what to even ask. Most families aren’t sure where to start — so we gathered the questions that matter most and answered every one inside the toolkit, in plain language with real numbers.

01What does a service dog actually cost — every program, all in?
02How long is the wait, and why is it that long?
03What tasks can a dog be trained to do for my disability?
04Can a dog really alert to a seizure or a medical episode?
05How do families afford this, and what fundraising actually works?
06Are service dogs tax deductible?
07What's the difference between a service dog, a therapy dog, and an ESA?
08Can one dog work for two people in the same family?
09What does daily life with a working dog cost me in time?
10How long does a service dog work before retiring?
11What happens if the person who needs the dog can't handle it themselves?
12How do I tell a real organization from one that will take my money?
01What does a service dog actually cost — every program, all in?
02How long is the wait, and why is it that long?
03What tasks can a dog be trained to do for my disability?
04Can a dog really alert to a seizure or a medical episode?
05How do families afford this, and what fundraising actually works?
06Are service dogs tax deductible?
07What's the difference between a service dog, a therapy dog, and an ESA?
08Can one dog work for two people in the same family?
09What does daily life with a working dog cost me in time?
10How long does a service dog work before retiring?
11What happens if the person who needs the dog can't handle it themselves?
12How do I tell a real organization from one that will take my money?

A woman reading the printable Top 25 Questions checklist from the toolkit, a golden retriever resting nearby

The checklist

25 Questions to Ask
Any Service Dog Provider

The service dog industry is one of the least regulated in healthcare. There is no federal certification body, no required licensing for trainers, no mandatory standards for breeding or task training, and no audit process to check that an organization delivers what it advertises. A family writing a $40,000 check has fewer consumer protections than someone buying a used car.

So the toolkit ends with a printable page of twenty-five questions most families never think to ask — each one shaping how you’ll live with the dog. Ask them of everyone you’re weighing, us included: the answers show whether a program truly fits, and the right organizations welcome them while the wrong ones hedge.

An Arizona Goldens service dog with the child it was placed with

From a placement family

“We will always be indebted to Brian and Debbie and Arizona Goldens for bringing this life-changing experience and incredible Ollie to us.”

★★★★★

Sarah S.

AZG Service Dog Ollie · 2023

Paying for it

How to Get Started with Fundraising

Almost every family funds their service dog somehow — and it’s more doable than it looks once you can see the path. Here’s where to begin, what actually works, and how to build a page that keeps raising while you sleep.

Start With the Toolkit

Two minutes of questions. A toolkit built for your situation. No obligation, ever.

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Questions? Call (480) 205-6810

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Three Things This ToolkitActually Does for You