Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services (PAALS)

PAALS trains assistance dogs for adults with disabilities, children with autism, veterans/first responders with PTSD or other disabilities, and facilities/organizations that serve those populations such as therapists, hospitals and schools. Most approved applicants are asked to pay a small portion of the $40,000 it costs to train an assistance dog for two years, however PAALS covers 100 percent of the cost for applicants who are veterans or first responders. The only service dog organization that meets the high performance standards of Assistance Dogs International, PAALS also co-sponsors numerous animal assisted intervention activities, including PAALS Patriots, a 10 week alternative therapeutic program that uses assistance dogs and well-trained horses to help veterans with PTSD improve their communication and coping skills; Summer PAALS and Afterschool PAALS, ongoing educational camps for children both with and without disabilities that teaches them how to care for and train dogs; Prison PAALS, a program allowing incarcerated state prison inmates to learn a valuable and unique skill and help others by working with PAALS instructors to train service dogs; year-round Reading PAALS sessions in conjunction with local Girl Scout troops to help struggling readers overcome their anxiety by reading aloud to a calm, non-judgmental PAALS dog; regular visits to homeless shelters, nursing homes, and other places where people can benefit from the soothing and reassuring presence of an authentic assistance dog; and much more.