Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
We understand that you may have questions regarding our organization, services, and programs. This section provides answers to the inquiries we receive most often. If your question is not addressed below, please do not hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
For detailed information regarding Service Animals and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including commonly asked questions, please refer to the official ADA FAQ page.
Service Dogs for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Mobility Assistance.
Therapy Dogs to provide love and comfort to our community, local schools, and businesses.
Facility Therapy Dogs- Specific Therapy Dogs that will remain assigned to a specific facility for their working career at an organization, school, or business.
Please note we do not train for autism spectrum disorder, seizure alert, diabetic alert, medical alert, visual impairment, or psychiatric support dogs. Please see our Service Dog FAQ What Tasks Can a Service Dog Do? for a more specific answer.
Therapy Dogs provide love and comfort to many people, and service dogs are trained to perform specific tasks to mitigate a disability for one person, their handler. Properly trained service dogs are granted public access rights, but therapy dogs have no public access rights. Emotional support animals don’t require any training but don’t have any public access rights either. Only service dogs are allowed to accompany their disabled handler in public places.
Any person with a permanent disability may benefit from a service dog but at this time Mission Working Dogs only trains service dogs for those with PTSD and/or severe mobility impairments like the kind that qualify you for handicapped parking. Your medical care team must recommend a service dog for you and must fill out our provider forms to document your diagnosis and ability to care for a service dog.
Our preferred breed is the Golden Retriever due to their love of people, intelligence, gentleness, and desire to work and please their humans. We have also trained other breeds such as the Doodles, Bernese Mountain Dogs, and Labrador Retrievers. If a client needs a specific breed, we will work with the client, but we do not have a source for breeds other than Golden Retrievers. While technically any dog could be a working dog, it’s not recommended for brachycephalic dogs (short nosed breeds who often have trouble breathing and with heat tolerance) or with many of the more stubborn breeds.
Our dogs are trained to assist those with diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or with severe mobility Impairments. Our dogs are highly trained dogs that respond to commands that help mitigate an individual’s disability for either PTSD or mobility impairment. They are trained for their person’s needs. Common tasks include but are not limited to fetching and retrieving items, alerting to a person approaching the handler from behind, deep pressure therapy, opening and closing doors/ drawers, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving medications, providing non-protective boundary control, and turning lights on and off, just to name a few.
Service Dog – Most of our dogs are in training for 18 to 24 months, with a required minimum of 120 supervised hours of training, and usually are placed with a client when the dog is around 2 years old.
Therapy Dog– approximately 1 year, but can be less or more depending on the dog’s temperament and knowledge of the commands and obedience. We will not certify under 1 year of age.
Dogs work as long as their health allows them to perform their tasks. Most service dogs work alongside their handler until they are 8-10 years old.
The current fee is $6,000. This fee is for either a Mission Working Dogs provided dog or for our Owner Trained Program. However, the actual cost of an owner-trained dog is over $15,000, and the cost of an MWD-provided dog is upwards of $48,000, but through beneficiaries and grants, we can fulfill our goal to help all of our eligible recipients afford their dog.
A service dog can make the difference between being able to go out in public and not. Our exceptionally trained dogs accompany their handlers in a variety of public and real-world situations so that the handler has the assistance they need to live a more independent life.
We try to pair a dog to your energy level and lifestyle. Our dogs’ personalities vary from quiet and subdued to energetic and always ready to be active. As a Golden Retriever, our dogs will shed and are not hypoallergenic. They will likely weigh between 60-90 lbs.
Mission Working Dogs cannot tell you when to take your medication. They cannot do any sort of medical alert. Due to their size, they are limited in how much they can support your weight and provide balance assistance.
To be certified as a Mission Working Dogs Service Dog, the dog must receive an annual veterinary exam, heartworm/tick panel test, fecal analysis, and be up-to-date on vaccinations. They are required to be vaccinated for Rabies, Bordetella, Lyme, and Leptospirosis. They are also required to either be up to date on their DAPP (distemper) vaccine or have a yearly titer showing protection. They need to be on heartworm, intestinal parasite, flea, and tick preventatives year-round.
Application and Approval Process
People with either a physical disability requiring mobility assistance or an individual with a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis, or a person with both which are verified by an appropriate medical provider. Clients seeking a PTSD service dog must have been in treatment for at least 9 months before applying. The applicant must also demonstrate that a service dog will enhance their independence or quality of life, and demonstrate the ability to care for the dog physically and financially, to be eligible to apply properly.
Applicants must be old enough to command and care for the dogs themselves.
All applicants should receive a response within 7-10 business days of MWD receiving their application. If you don’t hear anything, reach out in case your application is lost in the mail.
It depends on how long it takes to receive all the necessary paperwork, including receiving our forms back from your medical provider. Once all documents are received, it is on average 6-8 weeks for a final decision.
Our application process includes the application itself, verification of a disability from a qualified healthcare provider, an interview, a handler assessment if applying for a fully-trained service dog (or temperament test if applying for our owner-trained program), and final review. We strive to ensure we are a qualified match for you and your needs.
Wait times vary, but the average is about 2 years.
You will need to provide personal and medical update reports every six months. Once we have a dog matched for you, you will be required to complete 2 weeks of team training at our MWD campus. Team Training will include passing our written test on laws and etiquette and canine first aid and CPR, a public access test, as well as showing proficiency in mastering the vocabulary of dog commands and the ability to handle your dog effectively. You will be required to recertify as a team after one year and every 2 years thereafter.
Service Dog Training
All service dogs in our program must pass a public access test, and restaurant test, as well as be proficient in the tasks they have been trained to do.
MWD Trained Service Dogs also must pass their health assessment, which includes examination, bloodwork, thyroid assessment, and radiographic assessment of their hips and elbows and OFA examinations for their hearts and eyes.
The dogs are matched a few months before their expected graduation date and can be anywhere from 18 months to 2 ½ years old when matched with a handler depending on the tasks they’re being trained to do.
If, for any reason, the dog does not pass our tests and standards, we make sure they are rehomed to a loving home.
This is a very personalized process done by our head trainer. We take very careful consideration to make the best match possible. We take into account the recipient’s lifestyle, age, work life, personal life, activity level, needs, and the dog’s personality and skill set. This is why it is so important to provide us with truthful and detailed answers on our forms, during interviews, and in conversations. We know some issues are personal, embarrassing, or emotional, but without these details, your matching success rate drops precipitously.
Owner-Trained Service Dog Training
Yes, it is possible to train your own service dog but it is very demanding work with a minimum of five hours a day of training required.
The process starts with an application, verification of the appropriate PTSD or mobility diagnosis, a temperament test of the dog, verification of vet records with all necessary health clearances, and a backup handler to ensure the dog can attend as many classes as possible. We require a minimum of 120 supervised hours and attendance at classes at least twice a month.
Yes, if your dog is 6 months or older, we require AKC S.T.A.R. obedience certification. If your dog is 1 year or older, we require AKC Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) certification.
The cost is $6,000, with 25% ($1,500.00) due before beginning training, and the remaining 3 payments of $1,500 are due each quarter thereafter until paid in full. Any credits earned during our fundraising events will be applied to your last payment. All fees are paid non-refundable, regardless of whether the dog fails, is removed from the program, or discontinues training for any reason.
On average, it takes two years to train a service dog.
Therapy Dog FAQ
A therapy dog is a specially trained dog that provides emotional support and comfort to many people in various settings, such as but not limited to hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and libraries.
They must demonstrate basic obedience and safety in our group classes and pass our Mission Working Dog Therapy Dog Certification Tests. The handler must also demonstrate that they are in control of their dog at all times.
About a year but can be slightly more or less depending on the age and temperament of the dog.
They must be at least 1 year old to certify but can start the training process as soon as they receive their puppy vaccines.
Therapy dogs provide love and comfort for a variety of social situations, including but not limited to long-term care facilities, police departments, fire houses, schools, doctor’s offices, group homes, and community events, or in the aftermath of tragedy.
Any breed can be a therapy dog as long as they have the right temperament, an aptitude for working, and are healthy. We want the dogs to work a job they love so it’s important that therapy dogs also like interacting with all sorts of people.
Therapy dogs should be calm, gentle, and good with people and other dogs. They should be able to walk on a loose leash (walk calmly without pulling) and not jump on people. They should be able to control their tail so they are not hitting guests/people.
To be certified as a Mission Working Dogs Therapy Dog, the dog must receive an annual veterinary exam, heartworm/tick panel test, fecal analysis, and be up-to-date on vaccinations. They are required to be vaccinated for rabies, Bordetella, Lyme, and leptospirosis. They are also required to either be up to date on their DAPP (distemper) vaccine or have a yearly titer showing protection. They must be on heartworm, intestinal parasite, flea, and tick preventatives year-round.