Dogs for Better Lives

Established in 1977, Dogs for Better Lives (formerly Dogs for the Deaf) is a national non-profit organization that rescues, breeds, professionally trains, and places dogs with people who have different disabilities and needs throughout the United States. Our three primary programs include Hearing Assistance Dogs, Autism Assistance Dogs (currently placing in OR, WA, and CA), and Facility Dogs (that work with teachers, counselors, and physicians), all placed at no cost to the client.

To pursue a truly National Organization will require implementation of an organizational model that

Goal One: Significantly scale the number of mission placements with a specific goal of annual placement growth in the ‘West Region.’

Goal Two: Operate at break-even financially by focusing on annual giving while better defining the board’s assistance in fundraising efforts.

Goal Three: Be good stewards of organization’s assets, focusing on retaining strong reserves or determine if those reserves should be used to scale the mission.

CEO working with Human Resources Director and leadership team, to provide educational trainings, webinars, and annual all-staff strategic planning meetings with entire staff.

Over the last year, DBL has adapted in several ways. Fortunately, we were able to quickly move the majority of staff to remote work with laptops, communication ,and access to all work via cloud-based software. Obviously, in some critical staff (e.g. training program) needed to be on campus. Since a number of our dogs come from shelters and other rescue facilities, we were certainly challenged with finding these businesses open. If shelters were open, we often found it difficult to find enough suitable dogs for our Assistance Dog programs. Fortunately, we were already in process of developing partnerships with other sister Service Dog organizations. In addition to Guide Dogs for the Blind (CA, OR), we now partner with Guide Dog Foundation (NY) and Southeastern Guide Dogs (FL), who we acquire dogs annually from. Further, we are a founding member of Assistance Dogs International (accrediting body), and through their national ABC Cooperative, we have received 5-10 puppies annually over last two years. This has especially benefitted us in 2020-21. Now with staff in eight different states and all being monitored with different state guidelines, particularly as it relates to the COVID19 pandemic, it has been a little challenging at times. All of our staff have (to varying degrees) flexibility in building their weekly schedules, with approx 80% of staff have flexibility to continue working remote, even beyond the pandemic period.