Service With a Wag

8-10

Average number of years in a service dog’s career

$35,000

Minimum cost for nonprofits to raise and train a service dog

6

Number of Assistance Dogs International-accredited training facilities in Texas

but service dogs can ease the burden. Since the 1910s, guide dogs have assisted people who are blind, but the first known instance of service dog training wasn’t until 1975. On a trip abroad in the ’70s, California special education teacher Bonnie Bergin witnessed donkeys helping people