[nagdu] Ownership of guide dog

[Cindy Ray]

Yes, that is true what Margo said. My last dog, Wayne, was going to be a "home turn over" arrangement. They don't prefer to do that, but they have the same agreement with their students. The dog is yours. If you find it doesn't work within the first year, then you can bring it back and get a replacement, called an adjustment, and you aren't required to pay the additional fee. So that $50 that you might have paid for your second dog, or $150 for the first, is just transferred in their books to that second dog. I have a sense, though, that if you were willing to pay that cost again, you could do it and not return the dog. I've always just returned the dog for their evaluation and so they could determine what they would do with it. After a year, though, if the relationship doesn't work out, then you have to pay the cost again for a new dog, or at least you do in two years. I had Wayne two years and almost half another year, so if I had elected to do it, for sure I could have kept him as a pet. I returned him in the event they could find a suitable arrangement for him because of his age. 

Cindy