Hi, I'm Nyles. I'm raising funds to help my partner Karin cover the many costs of a service dog!

Karin (pronounced like the beginning of "car insurance"!) is a badass. She has an important job as a nurse working in pharmaceutical research, and many active hobbies, including rock climbing, hiking, and handcycling. Speaking of climbing-- she competes nationally in paraclimbing! She also does a lot to seek and build community with other disabled & chronically ill folks, something that I admire a lot.

Her service dog will help her with a variety of tasks that'll make it so much easier to navigate everyday life. Among other things, the dog will be able to help Karin stay mobile in the community, alert her for specific medical conditions and things related to her impaired vision, and be able to ground her in moments when medical PTSD rears its head.

Karin's already been accepted to work with Spence K9, an awesome organization in Greensboro that trains Service and Therapy Dogs. Their newest litter of pups is already in their first few weeks of life -- and training! In about 8 months, she'll be matched with a dog who is a good fit for her and who will undergo further training to perform the tasks she needs.

Training a service dog who's ready to be a working dog for many years, especially while performing several different types of tasks, is a difficult and expensive endeavor. Roughly, it will cost Karin about $20K total. (We're using GoFundMe's automated goal setting, so the total number on this page will adjust as we raise money.) Below I've included some explanation of some of these costs from Sarah Spence from Spence K9, if you're interested -- her post really helped to demystify this for me.

In addition to this page, we will have a t-shirt fundraiser (with a very cute graphic designed by me, haha) and a drag show fundraiser this Nov.28th -- more details to come soon!!

Anything you can give, will help reduce Karin's financial burden. It means the world to us to feel your support!

-Nyles

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Cost explanation from Sarah Spence:

The amount of time and care that goes into training a service dog typically isn’t fully considered, and most of the time, the price of the dog is still so low that the trainers are not profiting much or being paid very little to care for and train a dog from start to finish for 18-24 months. For reference, here’s some of the costs that go into each service dog. I’ll use the costs in my program as an example:

Dog food- $62.99/bag (bag lasts approx. 1 month per dog so avg. 18-24 bags per dog by the end of training)

Cost of dog- we charge $1000 for a dog from our breeding program which is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the average cost of a well bred dog. Obtaining a well bred puppy from a breeder typically costs $2,000-5,000.

Vet visits- minimum $65/visit. Service dogs need regular checkups to make sure they are maintaining excellent health. We charge $600 in total to cover any expected vet visits or emergencies over 18-24 months.

Pet insurance- $30/month

F&T/HW prevention- $20-30/month

Spay/Neuter- minimum $150

Admission costs- part of socialization for service dogs requires paying to get into places. Zoos, science center, movie theater, ball games, etc. Avg. $15/place.

Equipment- each of our dogs go home with a package consisting of a custom vest, custom collar, bag, leashes, and various other items. The cost of this is about $300

Gas- we have to drive dogs to take them out in public several times a week. Gas prices fluctuate but we charge for about 10 tanks over 18 months at $60/tank-$600

Training hours- We quote at $20/hr for 350 hours which is less than half of the actual training hours each dog gets. $7000

Total: ~$12,000-14,000 for 18-24 months

And lastly, care and maintenance- FREE. We don’t charge for taking care of our dogs. But some of this includes feeding them, letting them out to potty multiple times a day, giving them playtime, baths when they get dirty which is all the time, cleaning the building they stay in, repairing their fenced lot where they play. For the 4 dogs in our program right now this is about 2-3 hours per day, 7 days a week. And when I say we, I really mean me. Yes, I have some help from family members, but for the most part it’s just me until I’m able to afford hiring someone. So for anyone out there considering a service dog, please be mindful when you gawk at their pricing and tell them it’s way too expensive and that it’s wrong to be charging so much or that it’s ridiculous. It’s really not.

For my 4 dogs, I’ll make about $28,000 which in this economy is not livable. So, I also do private lessons and board and trains, and boarding for clients’ dogs. Oh, and I do all the editing on my website, all my own social media posts, all my own accounting, and I’m sure I’m forgetting other things. In total, I work 12-15 hour days almost every day and about half of the work I do is completely unpaid. But I do all of this because I love what I do, I’m great at it, and I get to help others by doing it. So again, PLEASE be mindful when you’re telling someone that their prices are ridiculous, because you have no clue what sacrifices that person may make. This translates to all sorts of small businesses