The phone/in-person consultation is used to establish a connection between you and our staff. We want to learn more about you and make sure that we understand your needs as well as help you understand our process. The meeting lasts about 15-45 minutes and will be crucial to you getting further documents to apply for a service dog. This is a great time to have a genuine conversation and ask us any questions you may have.

Once you complete and send in all of the required documentation and everything looks correct we will write up a customized contract for you that goes over the details. We want to make sure this is the right decision for you, so  it is crucial that you take your time and discuss all of your options with your family. You can take as long as you need to make your decision. It is very important to both you and the dog that you analyze the benefits and downfalls of receiving a service dog from Golden Healers.

If you decide to move forward with Golden Healers, we will have you return the contract with a minimum deposit of $1,000. This deposit of $1000  will go towards your money to receive a Golden Healers service dog. This initial deposit is non-refundable. A Golden Healer service dog costs our organization approximately $40,000 – $60,000 on average to purchase, train, and place. We ask our recipients to be responsible for fundraising a small portion of our cost which is usually a goal of around $15,000. We provide tools and resources to help, including a personal fundraising campaign page.

Once your fundraising goal is met, recipients are currently waiting an average of 2 - 3 years to receive their dogs, but keep in mind this is average, and could take less time in some cases. While it is great to be excited about receiving your dog, we have found it best to expect longer than average, and be pleasantly surprised if your wait is shorter.

Working hard to raise your fundraising goal quickly will make the process much faster.