Owner Trained | Pre-Trained
Owner Trained Service Dog
If you have a dog at home or would like to purchase a specific breed of dog to utilize as your service dog, this is the program for you.
Please see below the details for the owner trained service dog program:
Forms to be filled in:
- Application form
- Health form and release
- Support System form
A service dog needs the following:
- KUSA CGC Bronze and Silver - this can be done at most good quality dog training schools including our pet school, Just Dogs in Sunningdale, Cape Town.
- Public access award - To show he/she is stable and confident and basically invisible to the public.
- Task training award - To be able to perform a minimum of 3 tasks in a few key locations.
- A health certificate from a vet.
All costs for food and health covered by you, and work done is added up and invoiced monthly. Please see our pricing structure below for more detail.
After we have received your application form and medical letter, your dog will need to be assessed (or sourced with our assistance should you not have a dog already).
You and your family will be interviewed so that we can understand your needs and advise a plan of action. Please note that for Psychiatric Service Dogs, we require you and your dog to begin your training journey with the Just Dogs Emotional Support Dog Skills course – for more information or clarification, please contact justdogsesd@gmail.com.
Once the family and dog have been approved, training can then commence. If you are local to our training area in Blouberg CPT, you can attend our Just Dogs group classes or undergo private lessons with our specialised trainers and behaviourists. If you are not local to us, we can offer virtual training, and recommend trainers in your area to assist you.
Just Dogs group training academy is a class offered at the Leadville Dog Park in Sunningdale. This class is perfect for general training and encouraging your service dog to focus on you in distracting environments. The aim of these classes is to prepare you and your dog for KUSA canine good citizen testing.
Private lessons are for task training, public access, general behaviour, private lifestyle or canine good citizen training.
You may wish to do a workshop if you do not live close to the Blouberg area. Workshops are either for public access or task work. The workshops cannot overlap, but can be done consecutively.
When you and your dog are ready, we can test and qualify you.
You must be working with Honey’s Garden for a minimum of 6 months before testing can take place (ADI requirement). Your dog must be at least 18 months before testing can take place.
We cannot issue your dog with an in-training vest and letter until you have completed 5 hours of public access training with our trainers.
Please bear in mind it is not always easy to train a service dog, we are here to support you wherever we can, however, you are responsible for your own dog's training journey and for ongoing maintenance training with your dog, even when you have graduated as a SD team.
Pre-Trained Medical Service Dog Program
Please see below the information for obtaining one of the pre-trained service dogs from our program:
Forms to be filled in:
- Application form (adult, child or dependant)
- Health form and release
- Support system form
- Reference letter
For our pre-trained service dogs, we ask for a family contribution of R75, 000 to cover our costs for training – note that Honey’ Garden is a non-profit company. We can offer assistance with fundraising initiatives and also are able to assist with private finance options – please reach out if you know that this will be a struggle for you. We also allow payment plans as long as payment is made in full by the time graduation occurs.
The waiting time for matching and graduating as a team is currently between 12 and 18 months. It takes us approximately 2.5 years for us to train a service dog. This being said, if finances are not a concern, and we have a trained dog readily available for your family (that suits the needs and lifestyle), a dog could potentially be obtained within 6 months of application.
We are happy to assist with fundraising tools and payment plans.
In order to commence with obtaining a program dog, we need you to complete the attached forms. We will then review your application (this may take up to 30 days).
Once your application has been approved, we will require a 10% deposit.
We will then conduct an interview of you and your family with 2 weeks of receiving the deposit (this will include a home visit – virtual if not local).
Once you have been matched with your service dog, we will be able to give you a timeline for graduation. If you are close to our training centre, we encourage you to begin working with your dog on a regular basis in what we call a “slow integration”.
If you are not local to us you will be required to complete a workshop when your dog is ready to graduate. This is 2 weeks long with approximately 3 hours of training per day, plus homework. Your accommodation during this time is to your own account. We can recommend some pet friendly accommodation in our area (Blouberg, Cape Town) should you require.