By Jennifer Fernandez

Late last year, an Apex man pleaded guilty in connection with a now-shuttered nonprofit accused of selling poorly trained, or untrained and aggressive dogs to families seeking service animals for their children with disabilities.

Victims paid between $4,500 and $16,710 for Briard breed dogs that Ry-Con owner Mark Mathis said were trained to help people with disabilities.

“Selling fake service dogs isn’t just fraud — it robs children with disabilities of support they rely on and puts them at risk,” Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a statement issued in late December 2025.

In North Carolina, more than 1.4 million people have at least one disability. For some of them, a trained assistance dog can support them physically or emotionally, help them with daily activities, keep them involved in their community or alert them to certain medical conditions.

Dogs can be trained to perform a variety of tasks — from guiding a visually impaired person at the store, to helping someone get out of a chair, to turning a light on at home.

In 2024, there were 15,210 dogs partnered with someone in the U.S. and Canada through organizations accredited through Assistance Dogs International. ADI is one of the major accrediting organizations for assistance dogs, an umbrella term that includes guide dogs that help people who are blind or visually impaired, hearing dogs that alert people who are deaf or hard of hearing to specific sounds, and service dogs that help people with other disabilities with a variety of tasks.

Nearly half of dogs trained in the 170 ADI-accredited programs are mobility service dogs, who may stand still so their human can lean on them as they climb out of a wheelchair. The next highest is autism service dogs, which make up 23 percent of dogs in ADI training programs, providing companionship and helping with calming emotions. Dogs can also be trained to help people with psychiatric issues and to support veterans with post traumatic stress disorder.

NC Health News spoke with ADI Executive Director David Locklin and Maria Ikenberry, executive director of Hillsborough-based Eyes Ears Nose & Paws, to find out how families can find a properly trained service dog.

How do you pick a trainer/organization?

You can look for organizations accredited through ADI on its website.

Locklin said a good trainer or organization will ask you questions to find out what it is that you’re looking for in an assistance dog, and how that dog can help you and integrate into your life.

The trainer/organization should let you speak to other people who received a dog from them. If they don’t, that could be a red flag, Ikenberry said.

An exception would be if the organization or trainer is so new they don’t have anyone who has completed training with them, she said.  

“We all had to make our first placements once. And that takes someone who believes in you … (who) is willing to work closely with you,” said Ikenberry, whose organization is one of about 50 ADI-accredited groups that operate a prison-based training program. 

Is accreditation required?

Individual trainers or organizations don’t need to be accredited to offer well-trained service dogs, Locklin and Ikenberry said.

However, accreditation is a good indicator that the training follows industry standards, Ikenberry said.

ADI only accredits charitable organizations. The accreditation process includes a two- to three-day site visit with assessors from accredited organizations who have been specifically trained to look at everything from kennels to documentation to veterinary practices. The report gets reviewed by a committee of experts who decide on accreditation, which lasts for five years before needing to be renewed.

“They (ADI) have a pretty stringent accrediting process,” Ikenberry said. “So any organization that is accredited by Assistance Dogs International is going to have already been vetted by experts in the industry to have not just a strong training program, but really ethical placement guidelines and a strong organization that will be there to support clients through the life of that placement.” 

Can any dog be a service dog?

Short answer: Possibly.

A lot depends on what tasks the dog needs to perform and the dog’s temperament and personality. A small dog wouldn’t work well for someone who needs mobility support, Ikenberry said. But they might work well as a medical alert dog or a guide dog for the hearing impaired, Locklin said.

There are no particular breeds connected to certain tasks, but some organizations may stick with a breed. Many groups, like Eyes Ears Nose & Paws, use Labrador and golden retrievers, Ikenberry said. Often, that’s because there are more of those dogs available, she said.

Some breeds are associated more with protective work — Dobermans as guard dogs or German shepherds for police work, for example. But that doesn’t mean an individual dog couldn’t work as an assistance animal, Locklin said.

“That’s really down to the trainer to assess that individual dog, to determine if it has the temperament, the potential for the skills to become an assistance dog,” he said.

A range of dogs can be trained, based on the list of certified animals through the Assistance Dog Assessment Association in England. There’s Gertrude, a poodle/chihuahua mix, and Presley, a great Dane, along with Pomeranians, labradoodles, a husky mix/crossbreed and a standard poodle/Newfoundland mix.

“There’s plenty of other breeds, rescues, even, where you’re not even sure what the breed is, that still can make very nice assistance dogs,” Locklin said.

How do you know if a service dog is properly trained?

Dogs should have gone through rigorous testing to ensure that not only are they performing the tasks needed, but they’re also able to perform those tasks in public settings, Locklin said. Whether that’s hotels, restaurants, the store or on public transportation, the dog is able to perform the task and is well behaved within that environment.

Generally, an assistance dog shouldn’t react to other dogs or people, Ikenberry said.

“If it runs into another dog, whether it is an assistance dog or just a pet dog that’s out in public … it’s not disruptive. It’s a dog that is not going to be soliciting attention from other people,” she said.

The dog shouldn’t be barking or aggressive or really drawing a lot of attention, she said.

“It’s more focused on the person and what the person needs than it is on the outside world,” Ikenberry explained.

Signs that a dog may not be properly trained: destructive behavior, behavior disruptive to the family setup, or lack of response to commands that aren’t tied to training (for example, refusing to move after alerting someone to a medical situation is a trained response).

That said, dogs can have bad days just like people, Ikenberry said. That doesn’t mean the dog hasn’t been properly trained.

Also, building the relationship between assistance dog and handler can take time. It can take up to a year to really get the partnership fully on track, Locklin said.

“The relationship and the bond is really quite integral,” he said. 

The training doesn’t end once a dog is partnered with someone.

“A thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that when you get an assistance dog and you walk away with a new partner, that’s not the end of the work that you have to do,” Ikenberry said. “There’s a lot of support that goes into making that a successful placement, even after you have the dog in your home working with you. 

“An ethical organization is going to provide that support for you through the life of your placement.”

Then there are times when a service dog and handler are just mismatched, they don’t connect. The trainer or organization should work with you to make another match as long as you made a good faith effort to make the initial match work, Ikenberry said. 

How long does it take to train a service dog?

There’s no standard training time, but ADI requires six months minimum of training for a dog before it can be paired with someone.

“It’s very dog-specific,” Locklin said. “You can work with a dog for 12 months, and it’s still not appropriate to be an assistance dog.”

Ikenberry said the dog’s maturity is also important.

“Generally speaking, it’s less about how long it takes to train the dog and more about how long it takes the dog to mature and be ready to be what we would call a finished service dog,” she said.

What is a reasonable cost to pay for a service dog?

Costs can vary widely. Many organizations will pair assistance dogs with a partner for free. Others will charge a portion of the cost to train the animal. 

On average, it costs more than $50,000 to breed, raise, train and place a service dog, according to the Guide Dog Foundation.

Ikenberry said to look at the whole package of what you’re getting for the fee. If you are an owner-trainer and you’re handling most of the training under the guidance of someone, you shouldn’t pay as much, she said.

“Everyone should be looking at, ‘Is this the best value for what I can get?’” Ikenberry said. “So that’s not always to say that a free placement is the best value, but if you have a placement that is donor-supported, that is free to you and it provides what you need, then that’s going to be the best value for you.”

What should you do if you suspect your dog has not been properly trained?

There’s no central hub or organization that takes complaints about assistance dogs, Locklin said.

He suggested first talking to the trainer or organization about any problems you’re experiencing. If they aren’t responsive, filing a complaint with the state attorney general’s office might be an option, which is the course 50 North Carolina families took in the Apex trainer case. 

At the beginning of the process, make sure you’ve communicated enough with the organization/trainer that you feel confident that they are going to respond to you if you do have issues, Ikenberry suggested.

Do you need a certificate to show a dog has been trained?

No. There’s no law that requires a certificate in the United States, Locklin said. There are plenty of websites that offer those certificates, and it is up to the handler to decide if they want to have one, he said.

ADI offers a digital ID card for its accredited member organizations that they can share with their clients. 

Airlines do require that passengers with service dogs file a form attesting that the animal is trained, Locklin said. ADI is hoping that airlines will adopt the group’s digital ID to simplify that process.

What happens to dogs who don’t work out as a service animal?

Some dogs just don’t make the cut as an assistance dog for various reasons. Locklin referred to them as “career change” dogs. 

“They’re beautiful dogs that just happen to not be appropriate for assistance dog work,” he said.

They can still be placed as working dogs in other ways, Ikenberry said. Some end up as facility dogs or social therapy dogs. Some get transferred to another organization that is placing dogs in a different way. For example, Eyes Ears Nose & Paws has sent dogs to the CIA to do detection work, she said.

Some also end up in homes where there’s someone with a disability in the family. They don’t need a dog trained to do specific tasks, but would benefit from having a well-trained, stable dog, Ikenberry said. Maybe there is someone who is elderly or has a mobility impairment and they just need a dog that can walk on leash without pulling them over, she said. 

“Or maybe a family that has a child with autism, where they’re again, not looking for the service work, so they’re not looking for the dog to go out in public and perform tasks, but they do need a dog that can handle some emotional instability in the home, or just can be an anchoring force for a child with autism,” she said.

Some end up with someone just “looking for a great pet,” she said.

CORRECTION: Maria Ikenberry’s last name has been corrected. It was misspelled as Inkenberry when this story first published.

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.