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The Heart of Fidos Changes Lives!

The foundation of a service team or a hearing team is the happy, well-adjusted dog doing a job for which the dog has been well trained and is well suited to do, both physically and emotionally. Our program is geared to selecting, training, and preparing that dog to take its place with a client to assist that client in his or her day to day life.

The training department at Fidos is comprised completely of volunteers, including all of our trainers and puppy raisers. This group of dedicated volunteers prepares dogs to become service dogs for individuals with physical disabilities or hearing dogs for deaf or hard of hearing individuals.

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Dog Programs

Service Dogs

Service dogs are trained to aid individuals who are mobility impaired to achieve their desire to be independent by performing tasks that are physically demanding.

They assist physically challenged individuals by performing tasks, such as:

  • Retrieving out-of-reach objects
  • Opening doors
  • Counter-balancing a person who is walking
  • Assisting in chair-to-chair or floor-to-chair transfer
  • Pulling a  wheelchair (short distances)
  • Assisting with dressing or undressing
  • Helping a person stand who has fallen

Hearing Dogs

Hearing dogs are trained to reliably alert people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to all of the significant sounds in their environment, such as:

  • Telephone
  • Smoke detector/Fire alarm
  • Alarm clock
  • Microwave oven
  • Someone calling your name
  • Items that have been dropped (keys, pens, etc.)
  • Baby’s cry
  • Door knock/doorbell

These special dogs that are trained by Fidos volunteers will spend approximately 2 to 3 years being socialized, learning basic obedience, and the specialized work that they will perform once they are matched with a client who can utilize their special talents.

Please see our Journey of an Assistance Dog page where you can follow the progress of these special dogs, through puppy hood, matching and going out to work with their special partner.

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Skilled Companion Dogs

In-home Skilled Companion Dogs provide the same assistance as Fidos other service dogs do to individuals with disabilities. However, these specially trained dogs to not have public access and only provide this beneficial assistance in their partner’s home.

Assistance Dogs for Veterans

Fidos For Freedom trains dogs for combat-related PTSD, mobility, or hearing loss to meet the needs of military veterans. We have experience with a wide range of disabilities. We can enhance a veteran’s ability to move about in public by training our dogs to perform tasks that can help a veteran live a more independent life.

Skilled Companion Dog
Perry doing grounding

Skilled Companion Dog Maya and her partner Joyce, along with her husband Louis, and Maya’s training team of Brian, Tracy and Samantha.

Service Dog Perry providing grounding for his veteran partner.   

What We Don’t Offer

Fidos does NOT provide assistance dogs for children or people with:

  • Vision loss/impairments
  • Autism
  • Seizures
  • Diabetes
  • Mental health challenges (bipolarism, depression, anxiety, etc.)
Fidos does not provide training for PTSD other than combat-related PTSD.

Fidos does NOT train nor certify privately owned dogs.

Fidos can NOT meet the need of someone that must have a hypo-allergenic dog.