Frequently Asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Most of our volunteer opportunities require someone 18 or older. However, we do have quite a few volunteer activities which can be done by younger volunteers, particularly those who have participated in one of our Summer PAALS camps.
Minor volunteers must have their parent’s or guardian’s permission to volunteer and must always be under the supervision of an adult. The volunteer application for a minor must be completed and submitted by the parent or guardian.
Minor volunteers under the age of 15 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all times when volunteering for PAALS.
Once your application is submitted, it will be reviewed by a staff member.
If additional information is needed - you will be contacted.
Once your application is approved, you will be notified and you will be placed on a list to be notified when the next volunteer orientation session is scheduled.
You will also have access to the online volunteer portal. While most opportunities require completion of the orientation class, there are some activities you can volunteer for immediately.
Absolutely. We frequently have volunteer projects which need a team of people to complete them.
Rather than completing the online application, please fill out our CONTACT FORM.
Certainly. We have many opportunities for after-hours and weekend volunteers.
Training of our service dogs takes years of learning and practice. So volunteers are not allowed to serve in this capacity.
However, we do sometimes have opportunities for volunteers to participate in evaluations and take notes during training and/or evaluation sessions.
Only our specially trained Weekend Foster PAALS are able to take PAALS’ dogs home on the weekend.
After you have become a PAALS volunteer and completed volunteer orientation, you can apply to become a weekend foster.
Visit our APPLY page and read the types of dogs/training we offer, and select that dog type to read the required steps/process.
We require clients to attend a Team Training which has a tuition fee of $5,000 to help offset some of the cost of the training. We encourage everyone to apply, and we can help you with ideas for fundraising if you cannot afford the team training tuition. We also can provide marketing items for you to use upon request. We do not decline clients based on their ability to pay this amount.
No. We do not have the resources to train dogs outside of our program.
It take an average of 6 months to be accepted as a client. Finding the right dog can take months to two years, or maybe longer. We strive to place dogs as quickly as we are able, but we value finding the right dog to team with each client, more than speed of placement.
No. Home Skilled Companion dogs, Career Change dogs, and Facility dogs, are not granted public access.
It takes approximately 2 years to train our dogs. We expose the dogs to many situations, places and people and they participate in many community programs to aid with the training process. During this time they gain great experience and the trainers can assess their strongest abilities to match them to a waiting client.