Interested in Joining Lila’s Friends?

Thank you for your interest in Lila’s Friends NFP! Our program provides highly trained service dogs to children of military and veteran families. These are not emotional support animals or pets—they are service dogs trained to perform specific tasks such as diabetic alerting, scent detection, medication retrieval and reminders, psychiatric alerting, mobility assistance, and more. Each dog is uniquely trained to meet the specific needs of the child they will serve.

Our service dogs spend approximately six to eight months in training to prepare for their vital roles. All dogs are public access trained and undergo rigorous testing, including the AKC Puppy Star, AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC), and the Public Access Test (PAT), to ensure they are fully prepared to assist their handlers.

Program Requirements

To ensure the best match and support for each child, we have specific requirements for participation in the program:

1. Military or Veteran Family: Applicants must be part of a military or veteran family.
2. Child’s Needs: The child must have a medical or emotional condition that a service dog can assist with, supported by documentation from a licensed healthcare provider.
3. Family Commitment: Families must commit to ongoing care, training reinforcement, and integrating the service dog into the child’s daily life. Additionally, families must be willing to travel to Illinois once the dog completes testing and spend two weeks working with the trainer and the dog to finalize the training process. This ensures the family and dog are a great match and that the family is fully equipped to maintain the dog’s training.
4. Living Environment: Families must provide a safe, stable, and welcoming environment for a service dog.

Important Information

At this time, we only train one to two service dogs at a time to ensure personalized attention and quality training. This may result in a wait, but we are dedicated to providing the best match possible for each child. All service dogs are provided completely free of charge to the families we serve.

How to Apply

While we currently cannot accept online applications, we would love to hear from you! If you’re interested in learning more or want to see if your child qualifies for our program, please reach out via email.

📧 Email: info@lilasfriendsnfp.org

Please include:

• Your name and contact information
• A brief description of your child’s needs
• Your connection to the military or veteran community

We look forward to answering your questions and guiding you through the process. Thank you for considering Lila’s Friends NFP to help improve your child’s quality of life!