About Our Dogs

Summit Assistance Dogs currently trains dogs for people with mobility and hearing disabilities, and therapy dogs for medically fragile children or for use in schools or other institutions where a dog can provide therapeutic intervention. Our dogs are obtained from our own breeding program, other breeders, and from people needing to rehome a pet. We also obtain many of our dogs from shelters and breed rescue groups, thereby giving these deserving animals a "new leash on life". Prospective candidates undergo extensive evaluation before being accepted into our program to ensure that only healthy dogs with suitable temperaments are placed. Although we will use suitable dogs of various breeds, the most commonly used are Labrador & Golden retrievers and crosses thereof.

Service Dogs

Service dogs provide assistance to people with mobility disabilities by performing such tasks as retrieving items, turning on/off lights, opening doors, pulling wheelchairs, etc. Dogs may be custom trained to meet a variety of specific needs.

Hearing Dogs

Hearing dogs provide assistance to people with hearing disabilities by alerting to sounds such as doorbells, phones, alarms, etc. Dogs are trained to lead their partners to the source of the sound and can be custom trained to meet specific needs.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs provide social interaction and therapeutic intervention in conjunction with a healthcare professional or caregiver to assist people with any number of disabilities. They are frequently used in institutional settings such as schools, hospitals or by social workers/psychologists to aid in counseling. Therapy dogs may also be placed with young medically-fragile children who are not mature enough to fully manage a service dog.

To learn about applying for an assistance dog please visit our application page.