Your gift of any size today creates freedom for those who experience disabilities.
Domino Service Dogs (DSD) assists people with disabilities who are training their own service dog by providing a 2-year owner-trained service dog program. We are located in Lakewood, Colorado. At DSD, we believe that training the handler is as important as training the service dog, so we have developed a program that trains both the service dog and the handler at the same time. Our program uses humane, reward-based training and teaches important dog-handling and caretaking skills.
We have been helping people to train their own service dogs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 2013, and have graduated dozens of service dog teams. DSD is run BY people with disabilities FOR people with disabilities. We fill a unique niche in Colorado by providing service dog training at an affordable rate.
DSD is also an important community setting where people who are often isolated can join others with disabilities in gaining new skills and exploring the public in Denver. People with disabilities join us, and together with our dogs, we learn, try, fail, try again, and succeed. We broaden our clients’ worlds by practicing accessing the public with service dogs in training. We are so proud of our clients: they have learned and accomplished amazing feats, and they have made their lives better.
The mission of Domino Service Dogs (DSD) is to break down barriers to service dog ownership by empowering individuals with disabilities to train their own service dogs using humane, reward-based methods
Our Story: Born from Love & Determination
Every nonprofit has a story. Ours begins with a daughter.
Domino Service Dogs was founded in honor of Caitlin Tyra Brady, whose courage, compassion, and deep love for dogs inspired her mother, Barbara Henry, to take action. When Caitlin was injured and began using a wheelchair, her family quickly encountered the formidable barriers surrounding service dog acquisition: price tags running upward of $25,000 to $45,000, multi-year waiting lists, and limited access to qualified local instruction.
Refusing to let those obstacles stand in the way of her daughter's independence, Barbara spent two years learning to train Caitlin’s first service dog, a Great Pyrenees named Badger, who assisted Caitlin with mobility tasks and pulling her wheelchair. What began as one mother's determination to empower her daughter has grown into a statewide movement. Today, Caitlin’s legacy lives on through every child who gains confidence, every family that finds hope, and every service dog team that discovers greater freedom.
Breaking Down Barriers to Independence
Founded in 2013 and based in Lakewood, Colorado, Domino Service Dogs (DSD) is a disability-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit—run by people with disabilities for people with disabilities. We believe that financial hardship or physical limitation should never stand between a person and the life-saving partnership of a service dog.
Instead of assigning fully trained dogs from an outside agency, our evidence-based owner-train model empowers handlers to train their own canine partners using positive, reward-based methods. Under expert professional guidance over a 2-year curriculum, handlers master:
Custom Task Training: Teaching dogs specific tasks tailored to physical, psychiatric, or developmental needs (e.g., mobility support, retrieval, deep pressure therapy, alert behaviors).
Public Access Excellence: Ensuring dogs are reliable, calm, and fully obedient in complex public environments like stores, transit, and crowded events.
Handler Rights & Advocacy: Equipping handlers with complete legal knowledge regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and fair housing regulations.
The Domino Effect: Restoring Community & Dignity
At DSD, training the handler is just as vital as training the dog. Living with a disability often brings social isolation. Our Lakewood facility serves as a welcoming community hub where handlers connect with peers who truly understand their journey, building a network of mutual encouragement and lasting friendships.
Through The Caitlin Tyra Brady Training Fund, we directly offset tuition costs and provide scholarships for low-income Coloradans, ensuring our programs remain reachable for those who need them most. To date, DSD has helped over 200 service dog teams across Colorado unlock new levels of autonomy, dignity, and active community participation.
Why Your Support Matters This Season
When you donate to Domino Service Dogs through Colorado Gives, your gift goes directly toward scholarship assistance, task evaluations, and lifelong support for our handler teams.
Your generosity fuels the domino effect: transforming a dog into a reliable partner, empowering a handler with life-altering independence, and honoring Caitlin’s memory by keeping the doors open for families across Colorado.
Organization name
Domino Service Dogs
other names
DSD
2012
Tax id (EIN)
46-3426784
Category
Human Services
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
1455 Newland StMailing
PO Box 140245Jefferson County, CO, US