What Summit Dogs Do
Summit trains service dogs to assist people with a wide range of mobility challenges. Our highly skilled dogs help with everyday tasks such as retrieving dropped items, pushing buttons, turning lights on and off, opening doors, and tugging off clothing—enhancing their partners’ safety, independence, and quality of life while providing loyal companionship.
Summit is proud to be fully accredited by Assistance Dogs International. Service dogs have legal access to most public places where pets are not permitted.
Who Qualifies
Summit accepts service dog applications from people of all ages who have sustained injuries or are affected by conditions that significantly impact their mobility. Dogs will only be placed with a client (or their parent or legal guardian) that has sufficiently demonstrated the ability to care for a dog financially, physically, and emotionally in a safe and stable environment.
At this time, Summit serves only the Pacific Northwest region, including western Washington and Oregon, and lower mainland British Columbia. If you live outside this area or are seeking a different type of assistance dog, we encourage you to visit Assistance Dogs International to find other accredited programs and resources.
Please note:
Summit focuses exclusively on training service dogs for people living with mobility disabilities. We do not train dogs for counterbalance work, autism support, PTSD, anxiety or depression, dementia, seizures, other medical alerts, or hearing and vision assistance. We also do not train facility dogs, therapy dogs, emotional support animals (ESAs), or personal pets.
Available Dogs:
Available dogs are only considered for placement once all the necessary steps have been completed. Ready to begin the process? Click the button down below to begin!
Sandy
Are you someone who gets out in public frequently and would enjoy an energetic and silly helpmate? Are you someone who could use a dog for retrieving all sorts of items? Tugging off clothing like jackets, sweaters, and socks? Hitting buttons at doors and crosswalks? A dog who would be happy to alert you to specific sounds? A dog who enjoys tasking for you out in public? Meet Sandy! She is a Labrador Golden mix who is a serious worker but needs someone who won’t take her too seriously, because she loves to play and have fun too! Sandy loves to please and earn treats and praise. She would love someone who would also enjoy going places regularly with her, and bonus companion points if you enjoy training new skills using positive reinforcement training (rewarding for appropriate behavior). Sandy is not a bump-on-a-log kinda gal, although she does love to snuggle and be near her person at home. She is a “what are we doing today?!” service dog. She settles nicely at home and out in public, but is always ready to spring to action when you need a task done. Food, play, and praise are a few of her favorite things. She isn’t the Energizer Bunny, but she does need a human teammate who can use up her smarts in a productive way on a regular weekly basis. She has a bit of a faster walking pace, so we feel she would do well with a wheelchair user.