Homework
Copy this page onto a blank document. Write in your answers to each question.
These are not easy questions, and you may need some time to think about the answers and write them. These answers require
more than a simple yes or no. Carefully answer the questions in each section, considering your abilities, resources,
and preferences.
Participating in this exercise will help prepare you in the journey of getting
a service dog. These questions, in this section, will determine which path you will take in progressing towards your
goal. Some of these questions will be asked by the source of your dog. Having the answers ready will make the
process go more smoothly. In doing this exercise, you are begining the process of getting a service dog.
Section One: Provider Organizations
First, do your research.
- Look at five websites containing stories by people who have gotten service dogs.
Which websites did you explore? List the addresses.
- Carefully read stories which discuss experiences people have had with provider
organizations.
- Locate at least three people in your area with service dogs. (Watch for them
in the mall, on the street, at the grocery store). Approach each person and ask her or him about how s/he got a service
dog. Listen carefully to what they tell you. They are the people most likely to have information that will help
you in getting your own service dog. List the people you talked with, and summarize what each of them said to you.
- Look at websites of provider organizations. Find five provider organizations
that could be a match for you, considering their specific criteria, geographic range, and type of dog placed. List these
organizations and their criteria and information about their placement process that influences your decision.
- Join at least two on-line discussion groups specifically about service dogs.
What are the addresses of the discussions groups you joined? What have you learned from them?
- Ask questions about the experiences people in the discussion groups have had with
the various ways of obtaining service dogs. What are three questions you asked, and what answers did you receive?
Then, answer these questions:
1. What do you think would be the advantages for you
of going to a provider organization to get a service dog?
2. What do you think the disadvantages would be for you in going to
a provider organization to get a service dog?
3. How do you feel about your physical, psychological and financial
ability to travel and stay at the organization's location for two to three weeks during the placement process?
4. Discuss how your feel about your ability to attend daily classes
for two to three weeks for the placement process?
5. Discuss how you feel about your ability to deal with the stress of having
to learn everything about how to work with a service dog in a very short period of time?
6. List three examples of experiences people you have read about online
have had with provider organizations.
7. How would you feel if your application to a provider organization is
rejected?
8. How would you feel if you went to the location of the provider organization
for placement, but there was not a dog there that matched with you.
9. How would you feel if your application to a provider organization was
accepted, but you had to wait three years for the placement process to begin?
10. How will you determine if a provider organization is reputable
and has experience in successfully training and matching service dogs
11. What other questions have occured to you about working with a provider
organization to get a service dog?