If you cannot raise a puppy yourself, but you still would like to be involved in a puppy’s journey to becoming a hero’s service dog, you can sponsor many different phases of a puppy’s life.
Sponsors can be individuals, families, groups of individuals (e.g. a team or troop, etc.), or businesses. Payment can be made in full at the time of your sponsorship pledge, or spread in installments over a period of time. If you are interested in any of these sponsorship opportunities, please email hero@hero-dogs.org or call 1-888-570-8653.
Please consider sponsoring a Hero Dog today. Your generosity will change a Veteran’s life.
- Veteran/Hero Dog Team Sponsorship
- Advanced Training Sponsorship
- Puppy Sponsorship
- Puppy Scholarship
- Benefits to Sponsors
Veteran/Hero Dog Team Sponsor – $16,000/Team
After the Hero Dog and Veteran have been matched, they undergo an intensive, one-on-one training program lasting six to twelve months. The team trains together under the supervision of a Hero Dogs staff trainer for at least 120 hours in a variety of public and private settings, including the Veteran’s home, school or workplace, community, stores, public transportation, etc. The training program is individualized to the particular Veteran’s needs and abilities. This intensive program is in addition to the hundreds of hours of training that the dogs receive with their puppy raisers and at our facility before being matched with their Veteran partners. The Veteran/Hero Dog Team Sponsorship directly supports the costs of:
- Creation of individualized training plan and documentation for the team by Director of Training
- A minimum of 120 hours of private training, including the costs of trainer, assistant, and facility use
- Weekly field trips for training in public locations
- Food, supplies, veterinary care, and routine preventive medications for the dog during the training period and the six-month probationary period which follows certification
- Any specialized training equipment adapted for the Veteran’s needs
- Administration of the certification examination
- Six-month follow-up evaluation before ownership of the dog is transferred to the Veteran
If you are interested in sponsoring a Veteran/Hero Dog Team, please email hero@hero-dogs.org or call 1-888-570-8653.
Advanced Training Sponsor
The total cost to raise, train, and place a Hero Dog with a Veteran is $39,500, although there is no charge to the Veteran for either the dog or any associated training. A large fraction of this cost (approximately $17,000) is incurred during the time the dog resides at our facility in the Advanced Training phase. Most dogs spend from 8-12 months in this phase of training, during which time we provide them with room and board (including a staff member on site 24/7); food, medications, and supplies; routine and sick/emergency veterinary care; and daily private professional training as well as weekly group classes and training outings in the community.
You can sponsor any dog in the program at any level you choose by donating directly to that dog’s fund. Please click here to choose which dogs you would like to support.
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Hero Dogs Puppy Sponsor – $5,000/Puppy
When you sponsor a puppy, you make a donation that covers most of the puppy’s basic supplies and routine care up until the time he leaves his puppy raiser home and enters our kennel for Advanced Training (usually between 16-18 months of age). Note: training costs for this period are covered by our Puppy Scholarships.
Although this list is not exhaustive, these are the types of things that a Hero Dog puppy needs and that your gift of sponsorship will help us pay for:
- crate, bed, mat, bowls, leash and collar(s)
- toys and chews
- grooming supplies
- Hero Dogs puppy and service dog vests
- specialized training equipment
- microchipping, licensing, and registration
- 15 months of veterinary care: well-puppy visits, routine vaccinations, sick/emergency visits
- 15 months of heartworm and flea/tick preventives
- spay or neuter surgery
- hip and elbow x-rays
- other health screenings
The durable items that the Puppy Sponsorship pays for (e.g., crate, vests, specialized training equipment) will travel with the puppy from his puppy raiser home to his new home with his Veteran partner. Thus, the Puppy Sponsorship ultimately directly benefits the Veteran as well.
If you are interested in Puppy Sponsorship, please email hero@hero-dogs.org or call 1-888-570-8653.
Hero Dogs Puppy Scholarship – $1,500/Puppy
During the first 16-18 months, while the puppy lives with a foster puppy raiser, puppies and their raisers attend weekly training classes. The puppies also go on field trips accompanied by the trainers to work on their socialization, manners, and skills in public. The Puppy Scholarship helps offset the training costs (trainer hours, facility use, classroom supplies) during this critical period of the puppy’s learning and development.
If you are interested in providing a Puppy Scholarship, please email hero@hero-dogs.org or call 1-888-570-8653.
Benefits to Sponsors
In return for their donation, the sponsor receives a tax deduction letter, recognition in our newsletter and on the puppy’s personal home page, links on our website (if the sponsor has a website), a standing invitation to visit and observe the puppy/dog during any regularly scheduled training session, invitations to special Hero Dogs events, recognition at graduation via presentation of a certificate of appreciation from Hero Dogs, Inc., and a photograph of the graduating team.
Hero Dogs, Inc. is recognized as a tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Hero Dogs are deductible under section 170 of the Code. A copy of our current financial statement is available on request by contacting Hero Dogs, Inc. at P.O. Box 64, Brookeville, MD 20833-0064. Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of copying and postage.
