Get Involved: Volunteering with Believet

 Foster a young prospective service dog and help prepare it for a lifetime of service. Puppy fosters keep the puppy full time for 4-8 months, until Believet is ready to start their training. Fosters provide potty training, basic obedience training, exposure to everyday events, and socialization with people, other animals, riding on buses, trains and other experiences. Puppies can range from an age of 8 weeks old to 8 months old. Regular puppy training is provided to help fosters have the skills to prepare the pups for greatness. Puppy fosters should be located within a three hour drive of Northfield, MN. 

 Foster a prospective service dog on weekends. The service dogs in training need a home for the weekends to unwind from their weekly schooling.  Our dogs are in training for 1 to 1.5 years and can start their training as young as 8 months old. Weekend fosters give the dogs a home environment where they can be exposed to routine events, and socialize with new people and animals. Weekend fosters pick up the dogs on Fridays and return the dogs Monday morning for their weekly training. 

Fosters must live within an hour’s drive to Believet’s Northfield, MN facility. 

Respite fosters play a vital role in our foster network by providing short-term care for our service dogs in training when primary fosters are temporarily unavailable. Whether it’s covering a weekend when a regular foster is away or caring for a puppy while their foster family is on vacation, respite fosters step in to ensure continuity of care and training. This flexible, on-call opportunity is perfect for individuals or families who want to support our mission but cannot commit to a regular foster schedule. Respite fosters can accept as many or as few assignments as they choose, making it an ideal way to make a meaningful impact on a schedule that works for you.