The challenge of service dogs is not limited to the physical care and financial cost of caring for the dog, but it also lies with getting a service dog in a first place. There are multiple obstacles including the cost and just the overall lack of supply. Service dogs are normally very expensive to obtain, "Owning a service dog can also come with some challenges such as cost" (Lindsay and Thiyagarajah, 2021). The low supply likely contributes to the cost along with the time and resources put into their training. In the United States alone, there are around 2,273 service dogs placed every year as of 2021, however there are 3.9 million people under
20 who have one or more disabilities and many that could potentially benefit from a service dog (Lindsay and Thiyagarajah, 2021). A reason for the low supply may be the training process. According to "Enhancing the Performance and Selection of Service Dogs", most dogs do not successfully complete their training, "An additional obstacle is that, even after undergoing rigorous selection and training, large numbers of dogs who enter training fail to complete these programs, largely for behavioral reasons" (Bray et. al, 2021).