Prices and Fund Raising
The natural first question that most people ask us, is "How much does an assistance dog cost?". This unfortunately is a complex question to answer.... Depending on what you need from your dog, we will have to put different numbers of hours into training.
If you go to any of the fallowing websites www.nwrain.com www.k94life.org www.summitdogs.org www.kss.org , you will see the ball park of what it costs to raise and train a dog for any given line of service. A lot of places like to be illusive about the amount of money that they want for a dog trained to do what YOU need. That is because it is hard to determine what things will go into the training and medical costs of the dog. These organizations and private trainers, are still excellent places to get an assistance dog, if we personally can not help you. Most of them will help you raise the money for their dogs, therefore price should not stop you from getting the dog you need.
Our dogs are bred and trained, so that we may study all aspects of canine behavior, and the human/canine bond. They are a part of our family that we could keep forever, but have a calling. We study every little thing that they do, right down to color, genetic health, nutrition and diet, natural instincts, and aptitude for learning. Therefore we factor some of the costs out of the selling price for our own research, and alleviate that cost from what the client pays for the dog.
Please feel free to fill out our Service Dog Inquiry Form, and tell us your specific needs. We do ask for a training deposit, so that we know you are serious about your commitment to having a personal assistant trained for you. Although we do allow payment plans, dogs do not begin specific task training for a client, until the training deposit has been received in full.
Dogs may go to their new home, once half of the funds are paid or raised. This allows the evaluation period to take place, before ownership is transferred. This also helps to make sure that the Service Dog, is living up to the expectations and needs of the client.
We do raise funds for our clients, if you can not afford to pay towards your dog. This does take a while (about 8 months - 1 2 years). We also ask for proof of poverty. We try not to be over invasive, paperwork from any government office, employment office, or a note from a case worker will be sufficient.
We train dogs to fallow their natural instinct, and nurture their natural gifts. At any given time, we have dogs that are waiting for the right person. Not every dog that alerts to seizures is perfect for every patient. Some dogs will alert by whining urgently, some will nudge you, some are outright forceful about getting you to safety quickly. None of these behaviors are wrong.... It is for this reason, that we must find the right person, who needs a dog that does exactly what our trained dog does. Some Autistic children, need a dog that will cuddle with them and rock, some autistic children need a dog to keep them in the yard, or even keep them from hurting themselves. Here again, the right dog must go to the right home..... So for this reason, we do not charge an application fee. We work with a small amount of dogs, so therefore we do not find it practical to keep a waiting list. We do look over past applicants, when new dogs are ready to place. We only get one chance to put them in the perfect home.
The In Home Evaluation Period
Much in the same way every person in life is not destined to clique, service dogs are no exception to the rule...... For the first 3 months that your service dog lives with you, you will be in the bonding or "Honey Moon" period.
OnQ Siberians will call you every day for the 1st 4 weeks (more times upon request). For the remaining 2 months, OnQ Siberians will call three times a week, unless otherwise requested.
During this period, you will do as few things as possible without your dog. Your dog should be in the room that you shower in when you shower, in the kitchen when you cook, in the room with you while you sleep, and on a leash walking with you when you get the mail. If we have determined that you qualified for an assistance dog, this means that you need 24/7 supervision. Any time spent away from the dog, should be spent in the crate that the dog arrived in. However, it will cause the dog psychological damage if you are hurt out of his view,.... or even worse, in his view when he can do nothing about it.
If you have other pets, and they interfere with the bonding period, we ask that you make arrangements to have other pets boarded elsewhere until you have evaluated the dogs ability to assist you. Remember that most pets have a hard time accepting new family members. This is no reason to abandon the pet that you have already. You must simply deal with those issues after the first half of the evaluation period. All of our dogs are raised with other animals, and are generally tolerant of even the most erratic behavior.
Any problems that should arise with your dogs behavior or health, should be reported night or day immediately to OnQ Siberians. Because this is an evaluation period, the dog still belongs to OnQ Siberians for this time. We want to know anything urgent, while it happens if possible.
All applicants must fill out our Service Dog Inquiry Form