Is there an alternative way to provide service dogs; we want your feedback

This article is a thought piece. I’d love to get feedback.

As many of you know Project2Heal’s mission is to donate pups to successful and ethical service dog organizations around the country. The goal in doing so is to reduce the cost and time it takes for these organizations to place a service dog.

PRoject2Heal pups, over the last 5-6 years, have illustrated a success rate of close to 80% in an industry where the average rate of success for a pup placed in training has approximately a 48% rate of success. Obviously the principle on which we were founded is proving successful. The philosophy or, principle upon which our organization was founded is this: The adult dog which a puppy grows up to become is the result of both nature and nurture. We know this from research. We also know that nurturing received during the critical phase of the pup’s life, 0-12 weeks, about the same time it spends with Project2Heal before being donated, is the key determinant of what that pup will become as an adult. This time therefore plays a big role in whether or not that pup will succeed in becoming a service dog. Our process of nurturing, imprinting and early operant conditioning along with a critical analysis of the pedigrees of the dogs we use in our breeding program all contribute to the ultimate success or failure of our pups when they are placed in service dog training by one of our partner organizations.

I recently learned that the cost for a guide dog, the hardest and most stressful application of a true service dog, is about $45,000 -$55,000 while the cost of a service dog for other purposes such as mobility assistance, autism, PTSD is now being said to be in the range of $25,000-$30, 000 or more. Almost all service dogs are placed through non profits.

Donations to non profts allow the donor to take a tax deduction for the amount that they contribute. In essence that donation removes revenue that could go to the government for sponsored programs. In my opinion the government is the least efficient “business” in the world. However, taxpayers are the owners of non profits and if they don’t collectively check the efficiency of the organizations they are donating to then non profit organizations can tend to become big, bloated and inefficient.

Before I move onto the idea of people training their own service dogs, lets look at the non profit service dog model. Many of these organizations, at least many of the ones we partner with utilize incarcerated offenders to train their dogs. While there is a social element benefit to this, there should also be a very good financial benefit to it. Yet do the costs of organizations using such a method bare that out?

What costs can be associated with a service dog? The first cost is breeding, nurturing and imprinting an impeccably bred puppy. Why an impeccably bred puppy? As noted above when you use nature and nurture to breed you can breed a pup with a substantial health history in its pedigree, use the critical phase to ensure it receives proper nurturing, socialization and even teach it how to learn through the early implementation of 0perant conditioning. The argument we often hear is “why don't you just use shelter dogs”? There are two reasons why in our opinion they should not be used. 1) A longitudinal study done by one of the country’s largest service dog organizations ultimately showed that about 1 out of 8 dogs taken from a shelter passed the rigors of service dog training. Thats about a 12% efficiency rate and nonprofits have a fiduciary responsibility to utilize donor dollars as efficiently as possible. Non profit missions should not be “co mingled”. In other words rescues should do what rescues do and service dog organizations should do what service dog organizations do. Unfortunately this touchy feely idea of lets save shelter dogs by using them for service work arose some years back but research proves it is just inefficient. 2) While reason number one is enough to answer the question reason number two pertains to the individuals service dogs serve. It is of premier importance that a service dog organization know as much possible about the dogs they place in training to ensure the absolute safety of the child or adult the dog is placed with. This cannot be done with a dogs where a) little to nothing is known about parentage and b) little to nothing is known about the mental or physical health history of the dog in training. Remember, these are animals we are talking about, not machines and leaving such things to chance is just not acceptable unless you have a good reason to do it. I cannot think of one compelling reason why a dog from a shelter, lacking both a nature/nurture history, should be considered to be placed with a person with a special need. Sure some will work but many will not. Cost is certainly an issue but ultimately safety is the bigger concern. Read on to understand.

At eight weeks of age a puppy raised in a barn with very little social contact may appear on the surface as happy and well adjusted as a pup raised with the best nurturing and parentage. Behavioral idiosyncrasies however can begin to emerge to the trained eye only a couple to a few months later. However, behavioral changes such as isolation or aggression may not emerge until as late as 3-5 years. Any organization placing service dogs has as its first priority, the absolute safety of the person that the dog they place will serve. I understand that some shelter dogs end up being great pets but a pet is not a service dog. Some shelter dogs even become great service dogs, but it appears from studies that not enough would qualify to make the use of such dogs the optimal option for such work. Lets put the safety of the people these dogs serve first and leave the finding of quality pet homes for shelter dogs to the estimated 13,600 non profit shelter dog organizations and county shelters around the country. They deserve support too in this endeavor.

Now that that issue has been addressed lets get to the costs of a service dog so we can consider the question of people training their own service dogs and if that makes sense for an organization like Project2Heal to help with. Perusing the financial statements of one of the country’s largest service dog organization that has its own breeding program I came up with an estimate of about $4,300 to breed and nurture a puppy. Of course overhead expenses, as they are for all non profits, are a part of that cost per pup.

In addition to the cost of breeding the puppy needed to produce a service dog there are many other costs. For their first vet visit, we pay $70. There are the costs associated with their first vaccines. Pups must be wormed. Those initial vaccines and worming may cost $100 or a bit more. There is an annual vet visit. Lets say two before the dog is placed or $150. There are monthly flea, tick and heart worm medications. Lets say at a cost of $20 a month for 22 months or $440. Then there are food costs which we can estimate at $900, toys $200, orthopedic X rays $400. These are “hard” costs and estimated, all total, to be around $6,500. In this estimate about 65% of that cost is being assigned to the breeding and nurturing of the pup. In addition to our mission as stated above our goal at Project2Heal must include diligence in trying to maintain an acceptable cost to breed and nurture the pups we donate. Animal husbandry is a labor intensive and capital intensive business. The proper care of animals, especially during the most critical period of their lives, and in this case, especially given what they will be called upon do to must be done with the utmost care.

One of the main reasons a person that needs a service dog shouldn't train there own service dog is one related to the potential emotional cost. What is the emotional cost to the person who started out obtaining a pup and then trains that pup sometimes for up to 14-16 months before it is realized the dog is not suited for the role?

Can we reduce the potential of that emotional cost. We can when using pups that have a pass rate of closer to 4 out of 5 rather then 2.5 out of 5 . There are other questions that need to be asked before such a task is undertaken. They should include: Is the pup being chosen a breed that is likely to be successful as a service dog? Labrador retrievers, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherd are amongst the best service dog breeds along with a few others. Assuming it is one of these breeds, did it come from a well thought out litter with a long health history? Did it receive proper nurturing and socialization to increase its viability as a service dog? Even if the answer to all these questions is yes, what if the dog does not have what it takes and the owner goes through a whole process of trying to train it? How much was lost financially in the process? (This is one of the ways Project2Heal pups with their high success rate can reduce costs for the organizations they are donated to). Do they find a new home for the animal after developing a bond with it, keep it then find a new dog and start again? You can see the challenge here as there is a potential of accumulating a herd of dogs before one makes it. It just doesn’t appear to be a method for success, but, can subtle changes be made to make it more effective and successful?

Sometimes we have to think outside the box and that outside the box thinking is what led to Project2Heal. If hard costs for food, vet care and other necessities during the two years of training are estimated to be $6,500 and the average cost for a service dog (other than guide dogs) is estimated to be $30,000 top side then about $23,500 of the average cost to produce a service dog can be estimated to go to overhead such as lease, utilities, administration, salaries, insurance, etc. That’s about 75% of the average cost of a service dog.

Think about success stories like Allied Financial a bank without bricks and mortar. Without the high cost of capital structures and the people needed to service those offices they have greatly reduced their overhead as a financial services organization. What about retailers like Amazon? How do their costs compare to the large box retailers who offer so many of the same products? Do they pass those saving on to their customers or keep them to provide higher margins and share price appreciation for their shareholders?

Can a non profit like Project2Heal, with the help of its donors, truly bring relevant social change to those in our country in need of service dogs by implementing a method that reduces the overhead expenses associated with the typical service dog non profit whose cost to produce a service dog, it appears, out of necessity, include a lot of overhead compared to hard costs? Given technology, a tremendous network of dog trainers available around the country through associations like the APDT(Association of Pet Dog Trainers) who have the skills and hearts to help, the first non profit organization in the country that has one goal, to reduce the cost and time it takes to place a service dog by donating puppies to service dog organizations and the success of our pups it may make it sense for us to look deeper into this question? Its worked for banks, its worked for retailers why cant it work for a non profit that doesn't have to serve shareholders if donors will agree to help? My concern as the founder of a non profit is the people we ultimately serve, people with special needs. Maybe it won’t work. Is it time to get some minds together to figure out if it can?

As the founder of Project2Heal I wanted to present this information to you, our fans, and donors. First, it is important to note that non profits need to remain forward thinking. It bothered me when I heard that only one out of two dogs placed in training to become service dogs made it and we did something about it. Project2Heal now serves about 10 service dog organizations across the country with our pups in an effort to reduce their costs. Our goal is to serve more of those organizations who do a great job of keeping costs in check and/or to also serve individuals in need of such dogs directly through a less costly model; if it can work.

So, the next question becomes, and I present it to each of you, does it make sense to utilize some of our pups, given their success in passing the rigors of service dog training, to place into a program that will reduce the 2 to 3 years a veteran has to wait to get such a dog? Can we come up with a model that will reduce the current cost to provide such a dog so that we can also reduce the time it takes for those in waiting to receive one? If we can come up with such a model it will allow those who use it to provide a similar number of dogs at a lower cost thereby allowing a reallocation of donated capital to other areas of need. I think its time to take a critical look at how we deliver the resource of a service dog that serves many people with special needs. Financial resources are not unlimited. Therefore we should be doing everything we can to assure we are spending them wisely in an effort to help those in need. That means a constant examination of a non profit’s processes and procedures. I’ve been involved tine service dog industry through Project2Heal for 12 years and I do not know of any attempt of the industry to brainstorm a way to quelll the rising costs of these great animals. So, I reach out to all of you for suggestions.

In Part 2 of this article I will present an idea on how this might be achieved.