Volunteer Foster Home
Become a foster
We believe dogs do their best work when they are kept in a warm, loving environment, which means each of our dogs goes home with a foster every night and we do not use kennels. We are flexible to suit your schedule. We provide the training and you provide a safe and loving home.
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The dogs learn the scent work and alerting necessary to become a Diabetic Alert Dog (DAD). We are a small organization, and often have several dogs in a holding pattern before classes. In order to place more people with the life-changing and life-saving care of a Diabetic Alert Dog, we are in constant need of more fosters!
Types of fosters
Short term fosters generally live within 15 miles of the facility and drop the dog off at our training facility daily when we are open (M-Th 10am-3pm). This can be weekend only, weekday only, or some combination of the two.
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Long term fosters can be for a week or a few months! Long term fosters work on keeping the dog's service skills sharp. They do not have to be local, as long as they are willing to transport dogs to/from the facility as needed. This could be before a dog begins its training or after a dog is ready for placement waiting for class.
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Transitional Fosters are households where at least one person has type 1 diabetes and is willing to take a dog for 6-8 weeks. This vital step in our training process, requires logging of blood sugars and dog alerts to track progress before our dogs are placed with their partner, they go through three to four transitional homes where they must meet certain alerting standards.
