Find a different school. If the school is charging you $25000 for a dog, you should run away as fast as you can. Most schools are free, or they charge you like $150.

If you are being charged more than a nominal fee for your dog, you need to take a good hard look at the school that you have applied to. The only schools that tend to charge their clients for the dog are often smaller regional operations that may not be IGDF accredited. Personally, I am not aware of any reputable school that charges their clients $25,000.



Take a look at this list of certified schools available within the US:
https://www.nfb.org/resources/guide-dog-resources



For more information about the International Guide Dog Federation standard, see:
https://www.igdf.org.uk/



Arguably the three most well known schools in the US are Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB), and The Seeing Eye.

What made you choose this guide dog school over the others that place dogs for free, or $150 (The Seeing Eye, I believe)?

Most schools charge little to no money. Are you being scammed?

Why are you paying that much? The top three guide dog schools in the US don’t change you at all (well, The Seeing Eye asks for $150 for your first dog but they won’t refuse you if you can’t pay it; it’s a philosophy thing more than anything else). Someone is scamming you I think. Apply to a different school.

I agree with the other comments-- this seems fishy. The only thing I can think of is OP is going to miss a lot of work for training and maybe needs to travel far? Still 25000 seems like an AWFUL lot.

This might sound silly, but have you actually seen the amount you'll be charged on the agency's website? It costs about $30,000 to raise and train a guide dog, but blind people are never charged this much. Perhaps you misunderstood the information you were given.

I've never heard of a school charging that much for a guide dog. Most cover the cost themselves, but some do charge a nominal fee (maybe $100 to $200).

Which school are you applying to? Beware of ones asking for you to pay all that money out of pocket. I worked for an agency once that charged that amount for their dogs and the dogs were not high quality. Send me a private message if you have any questions. I know a good bit about each of the schools in the United States.

The guide dog school where I went only cost $65 dollars for an application. The dog was completely free. They do fundraiser and have donations from people for the dogs. The school is called Guide Dogs for the Blind. Check them out. They are one of the best guide dog schools in the world.

Pick a different school

[deleted]