Become a Home Handler
As a Home Handler, you’ll play a vital role in the development of our future service dogs by:
- Teaching Home Manners – Reinforce basic obedience, household routines, and appropriate behavior in everyday situations.
- Socializing in New Environments – Introduce dogs to different locations, people, sounds, and experiences to help build confidence and adaptability.
- Participating in Dog-Friendly Activities – Enjoy walks, outings, community events, and other experiences that expand the dog’s exposure to the world.
- Continuing Their Training Journey – Practice training techniques and skills consistent with Bronze Star Service Dogs’ methods and standards.
- Providing Love and Stability – Offer a safe, structured home environment where dogs can learn, grow, and thrive.
Why Your Role Matters
Service dogs need more than formal training—they need real-life experiences in caring homes. As a Home Handler, you help bridge the gap between training sessions and everyday life.
By opening your home, you will:
- Help dogs develop confidence in everyday environments.
- Reinforce important skills through consistent practice.
- Provide affection, guidance, and structure that complement their professional training.
- Play a meaningful role in preparing a service dog to provide greater independence and support to a person with a disability.
Flexible and Rewarding
You don’t need to commit to long-term fostering to make a difference. Whether you can help for a weekend, a few days each month, or on a regular basis, your involvement has a lasting impact on a future service dog—and the person whose life they will one day change.
Bronze Star Service Dogs provides everything you need—food, supplies, equipment, training support, and veterinary care. You provide the love, guidance, and experiences that help shape a future service dog.
Advanced Dog Handler Program
The Advanced Dog Handler Program gives dedicated volunteers the opportunity to learn service dog training techniques while helping prepare future service dogs for the people who need them most.
Participants work alongside our service dogs in training, gaining hands-on experience in obedience, public access skills, confidence building, and real-world training scenarios. Handlers help take puppies and dogs into the community, exposing them to a variety of environments, people, sights, and sounds that are essential for developing well-rounded service dogs.
Through working with multiple handlers, our puppies learn to be emotionally resilient, adaptable, and responsive regardless of who is holding the leash. This important foundation helps ensure they can confidently transition to their future partner and provide greater independence when placed.
The program is educational, rewarding, and fun—offering volunteers the chance to make a meaningful difference while building valuable dog-handling skills and helping shape the next generation of life-changing service dogs.