Defense Department service dog program will fund 29 nonprofits that train dogs for veterans in 2027
The Wounded Warrior Service Dog Program, run by the Uniformed Services University with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, announced the grants on Veterans Day. Awards average $500,000; the program had told its grantees in 2025 that there would be no money for 2026.
Bethesda. Twenty-nine nonprofits that raise, train and place service dogs with wounded service members and veterans will receive grants for 2027 from the Wounded Warrior Service Dog Program, a Defense Department program, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences announced on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
The university runs the program through its Center for Advanced Research for Military Optimization, Readiness, and Rehabilitation, with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, the nonprofit that has issued the grants since it was selected in 2024. The announcement did not list the 29 grantees or the total; it said awards average $500,000.
Congress started the program in 2015 as a pilot with $1 million under the Defense Health Program and made it permanent in 2021. It has since helped provide more than 2,900 service dogs and made 240 grants in 28 states, the university said. Its money comes from a yearly appropriation: in a letter posted on the foundation's website in June 2025, the program's project manager told grantees it would receive no funding for calendar 2026.
What the grants pay for
The foundation's call for applications, issued Aug. 3, expected to allot $14.6 million for 2027, with no award above $2 million, for grants running Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. Applicants had to be 501(c)(3) organizations in the continental United States that train the dogs themselves, and must provide dogs, training, veterinary care and reasonable travel and lodging at no cost to the service member or veteran. Grantees agree to audits, site visits and data reporting. The call asked for requests in line with the median 2025 grant, $491,275.22.
Most requests pay for trainers, kennel staff, veterinarians and staff who manage data, said Alison Kovach, the program's project manager. Most grantees train dogs, over 18 to 24 months, for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma.
Two of the grantees
Dog Tag Buddies, a Billings, Mont., nonprofit, pairs veterans with untrained dogs and trains them together once a week for two years at seven sites across the state, alongside occupational therapy. The grant covers its facilities, staff and all costs for veterans, said DeeDe Baker, its founder and executive director. It has graduated 110 veteran and dog teams.
This Able Veteran, in Carbondale, Ill., trains puppies for 18 to 24 months before matching them with veterans, who take a 10-week online class and then a 21-day program on site. Malia Nix, its executive director, said the funding eased year-round fundraising, helped keep trainers and paid for home visits. The organization placed its 100th dog this year.
“We would not be able to do what we are doing for Montana veterans without this grant.”
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