Foundation Swiss School for Guide Dogs for the Blind Allschwil provides its dogs to people who are blind or visually impaired at no charge. This policy was expanded (from 2012) into the more recently-established divisions for assistance and autism service dogs. In addition, the school also pays the costs involved in keeping a dog (e.g. visits to the vet and dog taxes), irrespective of whether the dog is a guide dog, an assistance dog or an autism service dog – as long as the same costs are not covered by third parties, such as the disability or health insurance schemes.
Training costs
It costs close to CHF 65,000 to produce a trained guide dog for a blind person. The training period for an assistance dog or an autism service dog is somewhat shorter; costs then amount to about CHF 48,000. In the case of social support dogs, participants are charged at cost price for training if their dogs come from outside the school. The school pays all the training costs in the case of its own dogs.
The Foundation itself pays more than 90% of the costs incurred in training our dogs. Financing is mainly achieved through donations, legacies and bequests, as well as from the sale of promotional items. All of this income is invested in breeding and training the dogs and in running our school (which employs a staff of about 55), as well as advising and supporting the people who have our dogs.
Part financing by a disability insurance scheme
The disability insurance scheme (IV) assumes responsibility for the costs involved in deploying a guide dog with a visually impaired or blind person by making a one-off payment of CHF 10,000. It also pays a rental payment (currently CHF 350 per month) to the school for every guide dog currently in service. This arrangement for financing through the disability insurance scheme is linked to successful testing – on the one hand, the dog is tested at the end of its training period; on the other, the guide dog team as a whole is also tested at the end of the introductory stage. The disability insurance scheme pays the one-off payment and the rental fee from the date on which the dog is introduced to the blind or visually impaired owner. The guide dog school in Allschwil therefore generates a financial advance with every dog.
Development of a scheme to finance assistance and autism support dogs via the disability insurance scheme
In 2019, Damian Müller, Member of the Swiss Council of States from Lucerne, put forward a motion asking for the financing of assistance dogs for children and young people. His demands were accepted by the Council of States in March 2020, and by Switzerland’s National Council a year later. From January 2024, the position is as follows:
- The disability insurance scheme now finances “mobility assistance dogs” for physically disabled people from the age of 16.
- The one-off payment to the training institutions is increased to CHF 20,280.
- The disability insurance scheme also now pays a one-off payment of CHF 20,280 for autism service dogs for children aged between 4 and 9.
It is a pre-requirement for payment that the delivery point for these dogs should be certified by the Assistance Dogs International (ADI) organisation. The guide dog school in Allschwil has been an accredited member of the ADI since 2014.
Click here for more information.