Today, we’re excited to share some important changes that will help us enhance our mission’s impact.
We are proud to announce that we are now exclusively focusing on providing service dogs to children as well as veterans with mobility challenges. As part of this change, we will no longer be placing service dogs with new adult clients who are not veterans. These changes should have a minimal impact on our existing families as we will continue to support and place service dogs with all of our existing clients. We want to emphasize that we have placed very few service dogs with adults in the past, and going forward, we will be referring new adult applicants to other qualified ADI organizations. This decision comes after careful consideration, reflecting our mission to provide the best possible support to those who most actively seek out and rely on our services.
We are also updating the labels used for our service dogs. In order to protect the privacy of our clients, we will no longer label our dogs based on the disability they serve but rather the tasks they are trained to perform. Our commitment to providing exceptional support remains unwavering, and we believe these changes will enable us to better achieve that goal.
In order to clarify these changes we have created an infographic explaining our new service dog labels here as well as a FAQs below. For case-specific questions regarding this change that are not covered in the FAQ please feel free to contact Taylor via email at TaylorDyer@4pawsforability.org.
We are immensely grateful for your enduring support and understanding as we implement changes we feel will best serve current needs. Your continued involvement, whether through volunteering, donations, or advocacy, remains the cornerstone of our organization’s success.
FAQ regarding placement and label changes at 4 Paws for Ability:
- If I (or my child) currently has a service dog, are they still eligible for a subsequent service dog after reaching adulthood?
Yes, we will continue to support and place service dogs with all of our existing clients.
- If my child is an adult, but I have legal guardianship, are they still eligible for a dog?
We will continue to place individuals with service dogs if they fall into this category.
- Why are you changing the labels of your service dogs?
In order to protect the privacy of our clients, we will no longer label our dogs based on the disability they serve but rather the tasks they are trained to perform.
- If I am a client that already has a 4 Paws service dog can I still refer to my dog with its previous label?
Yes! We do not expect our clients to change the way the labels they have been accustomed to using. Moving forward 4 Paws for Ability will be changing our official communication and website to reflect the changes in labels. We have created an infographic to help clarify the changes to our service dog labels here.