[NAGDU] Ownership in Germany - for Rebecca and everyone who's interested

[Lisa]

Hi Rebecca,


you asked if I could explain how ownership is handled in Germany. I'll 
try. ;-)


Over here, a guide dog is listed as an aid to midigate a disability like 
a wheelchair or a cane. This means health insurance pays for the dog. 
You have to get a prescription from your eye specialist, find yourself a 
school that suits you and then apply for cost acquision with your health 
insurance company. In most cases, this is a long and annoying process 
because many people get denied at first. Not because of concerns 
regarding your ability to take care of a dog but because of the high 
costs a guide dog brings. But anyway, after you succeeded in applying 
and also in training with your new guide, your health insurance company 
becomes the owner of the dog. They remain the owner until you retire 
your dog. Then you can either keep it and become the owner yourself or 
find him/her a home.

There are only two schools in Germany that handle ownership differently. 
They remain owner of the dog and the health insurance still pays for the 
dog.

The big difference to the US is, in my understanding, that we don't have 
the opportunity to get ownership for our working dogs at all.


I should also add that even though your health insurance company is the 
owner of the dog in most cases they don't care about it much. I have to 
send in documents that say Taylor gets vaccinated once a year, a worm 
preventative twice a year and I have a liability insurance for him. 
Apart from that, they aren't interested in what I'm doing with my dog.


Lisa