Service dog

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We are applying for an autism service dog for my son, but we have to do fundraising for the agency to help cover some of their costs. Do any of you have any ideas? Unfortunately, with 2 AS parents, we are not a terribly social family, so we do not belong to a church or other large groups such as that.

I have started an Etsy shop with all the proceeds going to the agency. If anyone is interested, I will post it, but I do not want to be pushy here. I hope to continue the Etsy shop after raising the funds for the service dog agency. I would like to be able to help raise funds for a couple of non-profits that have been very helpful for my son.

can you PM me the name of the shop? thanks!

there are some service dog agencies that do not charge, they are completely funded through donation or other means. its worth looking into if you havent committed to an agency yet.

also, ADUC (assistance dog united campaign) takes applications in april and may for their voucher program, which gifts up to $5500 for an assistance dog. you have to go through an agency off their list of member agencies, but there are a few on the list that do autism service dogs.

we have been looking into service dogs since the beginning of the year, and have decided to train our own. the cost is the main reason, we also dont have a support system to rely on to help with fundraising, my SO is unable to do anything like that, and i cant do it all on my own. we also dont want to wait the 1-2 years before we would get the dog. we are planning to bring a dog home in january to get started on our own.

Unfortunately, the ones that don't require you to raise any money generally have a 2-5 year wait. At least the one I like requires $5000, almost all the others are $10,000-$13,000.

I have thought about getting one on my own, but for me, the support of the agency and their assistance in getting the dog full public access is a big plus.

You may look at "causes" and or setting up a "Facebook" page.....I have never done this so you might contact both to ask how to do it and what is the legality of it. I know I have people who have Facebook pages set up and have a link for Paypal for donations that I have given to. Most are people involved in animal rights or activism but I have seen people raising money for a service dog before.

I was also just thinking if you have any "Mom and Pop" or "individually owned" shops around where you live you could ask them if you could put a can by the cashiers for donations for your sons service dog.

Thanks for the ideas liloleme!

just wanted to make sure its known that the agency doesnt do anything for securing public access, except its normal training of the dog. the ada laws are actually very favorable for the disabled and service dogs. if the dog is trained to do even ONE thing for the disabled person relating to their disability, then the dog is a service dog and has all the same public access rights as its human does. there is no certification or licensing required for service dogs, not to obtain access or for any reason. the dog doesnt even have to have a tag or vest identifying it as a service animal. establishments arent allowed to ask you for certification, license, training certificates, about your disability, or a demonstration to prove the dogs training; they may ONLY ask if it is a service dog required because of a disability and what tasks its trained to do. anything else is a violation of federal law.

most training agencies are decent, but there are also a lot of non-training places that will try to sell you certification of some type, but most of those are just taking advantage. its snake oil.

azurecrayon - thanks for the information. I was not aware of all the laws regarding service dogs.