Some dogs from this program are absolutey wonderful and some dogs are dreadful. The owner of 4 Paws was extremely rude to me, even after I had been a volunteer for almost a year. She expects families to do everything her way (even though you're the one paying $22,000 for a service dog), and there's no compromise what so ever.
A lot of the dogs have behavioral issues because they're in their crates a lot except for socializing in public. I've seen dogs with excessive licking, eating dirt out of my potted plants, eating out of the litter box, chewing on my deck furniture, etc. They are also difficult to potty train because the dogs are put on cement and trained to go potty on cement until they go to a foster. This makes it hard for me to enjoy taking the dog in public while fostering, knowing if it has to go, it will stop in the middle of the sidewalk and go potty which can be incredibly embarassing.
Due the high demand, they're trying to train the dogs too fast. At 1.5 years old, a dog is not mature enough to be a full time service dog.
The only downside I have to look at for 4 paws is the president and how she treats some of her volunteers, and the overall facility. It's too small and it's horrendous that that many dogs use the bathroom on cement in little pens in the back.
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