I get asked all the time whether a specific service dog organization is good or what service dog organizations I’d recommend, particularly when talking about service dogs for disabled veterans.

It’s a great question because there are so many places out there saying they provide service dogs  for veterans, people really want to help, and potential candidates for assistance dogs want to know where to apply, but it’s confusing.  How can you know which ones are the best and which are the ones to avoid (and, make no mistake, there are ones you want to stay away from)?

I’ll give you an answer in a minute that will let you very quickly and easily narrow things down to the very best organizations, but first lemme tell you a true story about one place that, to put it as nicely as I can,  just isn’t good and pretty much exemplifies the kinda things you want to avoid.

In this particular case, there was a significant problem with a “service dog” that was given to a wounded warrior who was a severely injured amputee rehabbing at one of the major military medical centers. When I read about this situation over a year ago, there were a number of obvious red flags that anyone associated with a recognized first-class service dog program would immediately spot, including:

• The dog was provided by a completely unknown and newly-created organization with no apparent detailed formal application or evaluation process for either the dog or human.

• The dog was a breed not normally associated with service dogs – a pit bull (Yes, I know non-traditional breeds can be great service dogs; no, I’m not down on pit bulls and strongly disagree with Breed Specific Legislation; and, yes, I’m happy to see them being rescued, but, trust me, it’s not accidental that you see so many Labrador and Golden Retrievers as service dogs.).

• The placement was made way too early in the veteran’s rehabilitation process, less than six months after the initial injury (for example, Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), based on its 34 years of experience with severely injured candidates, requires applicants to be one year “post-event”).

• There was no indication whatsoever of any regularly scheduled follow-up actions with the person receiving the dog, a critical element of any placement.

So why would anyone be involved with a place like that?  Well, here’s where the problem starts…

This organization was founded by a wounded veteran who is, no doubt, very well-meaning, and who continues to get a fair amount of good press, including from some very well-known veterans support groups and at least one famous dog trainer (who, frankly, should know better). But, hey, it’s not “cool” to say anything bad about a wounded warrior, people are desperate to do anything to help disabled veterans, and many also like the idea of saving a pit bull and putting it to good use.

That’s all understandable, but do you see the problem here? None of that has anything to do with placing a qualified service dog with a disabled veteran.

Beyond that, I’ve also never understood why this person felt he needed to establish another organization. What does he think he could do better than the many organizations that have been placing service dogs (including many with veterans) for decades? Did he contact one of them and was turned away? If there’s a specific need that those places were unable to meet, then I could understand starting a new one. But even then, the underlying elements necessary for a successful assistance dog placement don’t change, I’d still expect to see those in the newly-created organization, and I don’t.

I haven’t been able to find current information about this particular dog and veteran (yet another problem with this organization), but it appeared to me that the wounded veteran wasn’t getting the help I’d expect him to get from a service dog. And, even if he thought he was being helped, from my perspective, whatever good might have been done was far outweighed by the negative perception which the rest of us involved with providing service dogs for veterans continue to deal with to this day. For one thing, we’ll never know how many wounded combat veterans have missed out on the opportunity to receive a service dog at this particular medical center in the last year-and-a-half because of all the bad stuff and terrible publicity associated with this dog.

So…how do you stay away from this kinda thing and get to the right places? Simple…

There are a lotta things you can look for, but if you only do one thing, do this: check to see if the organization is accredited by Assistance Dogs International.  Not if they are “ADI members”, but  “ADI accredited“. (Right now you could be one and not the other, but that will change by 2010 when all voting members will be required to be accredited.)

ADI describes itself as “a coalition of not-for-profit organizations whose purpose is to improve the areas of training, placement, and utilization of assistance dogs as well as staff and volunteer education”. I’d describe it as the standards governing organization in the assistance dog world, and the biggest piece of that is accreditation – you can see what that consists of here – it’s significant:

“What is ADI Accreditation?“

Now I’m not gonna tell you that a service dog organization that isn’t accredited by ADI is automatically a bad one, or that an individual can’t possibly train an excellent service dog for themselves, or that ADI-accredited places are  all perfect.  But I WILL tell you that you greatly increase the chances for successful dog placements by working with an ADI-accredited organization, they could all use your support, and I’d strongly recommend you go to them first because that’s where your support will be most effective.

And if you’re a potential candidate for an assistance dog – well, simply put, if you’re applying to a non-accredited organization without first talking to one of the accredited ones, you’re doing yourself a disservice and making a big mistake. Sure, those accredited organizations might not be able to serve you, but, please, give them a chance and ask them first.

One other thing you should know about ADI – they’ve made a big effort to get organizations to join by helping them get ready for accreditation and providing the accreditation at what I believe is a very affordable price. I’ve heard there has been some concern over the cost since many of these organizations are small operations, but I have to be honest – if somebody says they aren’t in ADI, the first question I’d ask is “Why?” Now I guess there could be some legitimate reason I’m not thinking of, but right now I can’t imagine what that would be.

Look, somebody’s gotta say it, so let me be the “bad guy” here, take the pressure off of you and just be my usual blunt self. The way the law reads, I can slap a cape on any dog and call it a service dog. That’s a real bad subject for many of us – including me – and makes us particularly sensitive to the idea of only being involved with recognized organizations that produce true service dogs.

So, please – let’s not add to the problem by putting any more of these marginal “service dogs” out there. There are plenty of ADI-accredited service dog organizations providing dogs for veterans (I can think of four or five off the top of my head, three of which are very active with OEF/OIF veterans) – just contact me if you’re having trouble finding them.