Professional Facility Dogs

Facility Dogs are professionally trained working dogs. They are trained to help people in places like: schools, hospitals, funeral homes, counseling offices or courthouses.

Unlike our Assistance Dogs, who help one specific person and have access to public space, Facility Dogs help many people! Our Facility Dogs work with their handler, to help people in ways such as: giving comfort, offering a feeling of safety/well-being, emotional-social learning, recovery goals, learning goals, etc.

Professional Facility Dogs are employees at the organizations in which they work. Our school resource dogs are even featured in the yearbook!

To learn more about our Facility Dog, Riley, watch the video below!

Deafinitely Dogs starts all Facility Dogs as Service Dogs in Training. This means every single Facility Dog has experienced a wide variety of public settings and people. As our dogs in training mature, we learn that some are very social and prefer the company of many people. To keep true to our core value of letting our dogs choose their career, our social butterflies are allowed to choose Facility Dog work, so they can be surrounded by people who need their comfort!

If you would like to apply for a Facility Dog for your organization, please complete this form. Our Facility Dogs for 2021 are $4500. Our Financial Team will meet with you about fundraising once you are approved. Our approval process consists of receiving your completed application and application fee of $50.00. Deafinitely Dogs will then set up an interview with the primary handler to learn about your facility and those you serve, the environment, and how you envision a Facility Dog within your program(s). Once approved, and the $4500 is received, Deafinitely Dogs will introduce potential Facility Dog(s) to the handler. This can take between a few months-twenty four months depending on Facility Dog availability. Team training will be scheduled (typically five days) which the handler must attend. Teams will be tested and graduate. After graduation, Deafinitely Dogs will remain in touch for the life of the dog.

We are very proud of our Facility Dog program at Deafinitely Dogs. We have many Facility Dogs working that are helping clients and staff in a variety of settings. This program is a natural fit to our belief that each dog is an individual and should choose their career. If you would like more information about our Facility Dog program, please contact our office at 319-930-3647.

Fill out this form to be sent an application for a professional facility dog.

Please note that Facility Dogs are different than therapy dogs and at this time, Deafinitely Dogs does not train therapy dogs. Therapy dogs are dogs who visit settings such as hospitals, retirement homes, schools with their owner (handler) to provide comfort and support to people.