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Overview
Increasingly, individuals need to receive more specialized assistance dog training for disabilities other than blindness, which has led to the creation of the Capable Canine® Program offered by the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc. An integral part of the Foundation’s program services, training for staff and volunteers now incorporates skills needed for other types of assistance dogs.
Students receive the dog, necessary equipment, personalized instruction with a comprehensive training program, and aftercare services free of charge. The Guide Dog Foundation strives to be the leading resource and provider of premier services to facilitate the independence of people with special needs.
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Veterans
If you are a veteran and wish to receive a service dog, please click here to apply for a service dog through our VetDogs program.
Where do we serve?
Please note that our Capable Canine program is a very small program, and is generally only available in the following states: New York (within a 60 mile radius of Smithtown); Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, Georgia and Florida. If you do not live in one of these states, please go to Assistance Dogs International (ADI) where you will find a list of accredited service dog schools.
The dogs we train
In addition to guide dogs, the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind trains:
- Service dogs – these assistance dogs are trained specifically for assistance tasks such as retrieving objects that are out of a person’s reach, opening and closing doors, and assisting ambulatory people to walk by providing balance and counterbalance.
- Companion dogs – these dogs enhance a disabled person or senior citizen’s life in their home, nursing home, or center.
- Therapy dogs – these dogs accompany a caretaker who visits a nursing home, school for the disabled, hospice, and/or hospitals to provide therapeutic benefits.
- Facility dogs – these dogs are trained for, and assigned to, a facility, such as a nursing home.
We do not train hearing dogs or seizure alert dogs.
Contact us
To find out more about the Guide Dog Foundation’s Capable Canine program, please call our Consumer Services Department at 866-282-8047.
Useful links
To find out more information about service dogs, please click on the links below:
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