Why does it cost that much to train a guide dog?
I heard on the news that it cost’s fifty grand to train a guide dog!! Where does all the money go??? Why so much??????
Nah i know the blind person doesn’t have to pay! I mean the government or whoever.
Guide dogs undergo extremely specialized training for their jobs. This type of training cannot be taught by your average dog trainer, which is why organizations specifically set up to train guide dogs exist. There is the cost of breeding, vet care, food, supplies, training, etc. Guide dogs must pass very strict temperament and health tests in order to make it into the training program to work towards becoming a guide dog.
Usually, the cost to the blind or visually impaired applicant is minimal due to grants or donations to the agency training the dog. Contrary to what some may think, tax payer’s money is not used to train guide dogs.
Guide dogs are only one type of service dog. Other types of service dogs help the deaf, those with seizures or mobility impairments, etc. Generally, dogs that are trained for tasks other than hearing alerts or guiding are not able to be given to the disabled person free of charge. Each program has its own policies, but because dogs for the deaf and blind/visually impaired have been around longer, people are most familiar with them and more willing to donate money to those organizations to offset the costs involved to the disabled handler.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:51 am
That’s not true! Where did you see this. I’m sure there is classes with more reasonable prices than that.
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October 7th, 2009 at 3:13 am
You have to pay the trainer. Not just any trainer, one who’s specially qualified to train guide dogs.
Kenneling
Food
Veterinary costs
The cost of raising the pup to training age.
The costs of the ones that don’t make the grade.
The cost of purchasing or breeding the pup.
Sounds reasonable to me.
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October 7th, 2009 at 3:24 am
That’s not true.
I know people who get guide dogs FREE through classes at school. They train them from 5 months to 1 year, then they give them to the service and they see if they pass or not.
If they don’t, they are put up for adoption (there’s usually a waiting list though).
If they do, they are put in more extensive training until they are ready to be put in a home.
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October 7th, 2009 at 4:01 am
Sounds very reasonable to me. You need to pay the trainer who spends 1-3 years with the dog, the breeder who produced the dog, the facility where the dog was raised……
I charge 50$ an hour for training for obedience/agility/rally/herding(90$ per hour) and behavior modification and aggression is 90$ per hour with a signed 8 week contract of 1-2 hours per week. And that is NOTHING compared to what an assistance dog has to go through.
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October 7th, 2009 at 4:35 am
Animal business are very popular now, because many Animal owners love their pets so they want the best. So dog trainers actually have to take classes. The fifty grand dog training I’m assuming you leave your dog there. There also free programs or cheap dog training Ex. Petsmart .
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October 7th, 2009 at 4:56 am
trainers fees for one.. trainers dont work for free.. it also takes a long time to train a guide dog.. MONTHS, if not closer to a year. Not to mention the care of housing, feeding and providing medical care to the dog during that time.
Once the dog is trained as a guide dog, there is also a training program between the dog and its new handler, which is several weeks to a few months (depending on if the person has had a service dog before or not).. they have to be trained to work together as a team also.
There are also health tests and evaluations done on the dog before they even begin training to assure that the dog is healthy enough, and has a stable temperment to be used as a service dog.
References :
October 7th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Guide dogs undergo extremely specialized training for their jobs. This type of training cannot be taught by your average dog trainer, which is why organizations specifically set up to train guide dogs exist. There is the cost of breeding, vet care, food, supplies, training, etc. Guide dogs must pass very strict temperament and health tests in order to make it into the training program to work towards becoming a guide dog.
Usually, the cost to the blind or visually impaired applicant is minimal due to grants or donations to the agency training the dog. Contrary to what some may think, tax payer’s money is not used to train guide dogs.
Guide dogs are only one type of service dog. Other types of service dogs help the deaf, those with seizures or mobility impairments, etc. Generally, dogs that are trained for tasks other than hearing alerts or guiding are not able to be given to the disabled person free of charge. Each program has its own policies, but because dogs for the deaf and blind/visually impaired have been around longer, people are most familiar with them and more willing to donate money to those organizations to offset the costs involved to the disabled handler.
References :
disabled and waiting for a service dog
October 7th, 2009 at 6:18 am
A Guide is a very specialized dog that does very difficult work, one cannot just grab some random mutt from the pound,teach it a few commands, throw a harness on it and expect it to be able to work properly.
These dogs have been specifically bred, raised and trained to do just one thing…..guide the blind. Guide Dogs For The Blind has been breeding specialized dogs for over 60 years just for this one purpose. For every 100 dogs that enter the actual guide training, 65-75 will be disqualified for various reasons. This means that a very large number of dogs need to be bred and raised just to get to the small number that will end up actually working as guides. This takes a lot of money. There is the whelping, raising, vet care, vaccinations, feeding, spaying and neutering, Nylabones and dog toys and all the other incidental costs that every one of the dogs incurs……even the ones who do not make it to be guides.
Then there is the cost of the physical facilities—the kennels, the vet offices, the whelping rooms, the training grounds, the offices for conducting business, the dorm rooms for the students, the buses for transportation, the specialized equipment each dog needs, the utility costs for water, power, natural gas and phones, cleaning supplies and everything else that one has to have to operate efficiently.
One cannot forget the cost of employing qualified trainers, vets and vet techs, support personnel, drivers, kennel workers, secretaries, social workers and many others.
Finally, there is the cost of having the students at the guide school for the required hands-on training. They have to be housed, fed and transported for anywhere from 2 weeks to a full month until training is completed.
All this adds up to quite a sum, one that in some circles the estimate of 50K is considered rather conservative.
One nice thing is that one of the premiere guide providers in the US, Guide Dogs For The Blind, is funded entirely through charitable donations. GDB receives no government money whatsoever…..it is totally dependent on the generosity of everyday folks like you and I. Plus, much of the non-training work done at both their San Rafael, California and Boring, Oregon campuses (things like socializing the pups, playing with the dogs, walking the dogs, etc.) is done by volunteers who love working with animals and just want to help.
All in all, the expenses are worth it in the long run…..when you see a blind person take their first confident and independent steps out of their shell thanks to their new "eyes", it is worth every penny. And then some.
References :
Husband of Guide dog user and 4-H Guide puppy raiser. Yes, she is blind and uses a Guide, and we are raising a pup so some other blind person can be more independent.