American Veterans Service Dog Academy

10/11/2025

Thank you to all the great people at the Live LaMore Foundation for their continued support of AVSDA in the memory of fellow Veteran Aaron LaMore.

Join Live LaMore in supporting organ & tissue donation, veterans, & local student scholarships. Your donation provides hope for transplant recipients. Donate today to save lives & make a positive impact.

10/04/2025

If you are in the Libertyville, IL. area, and think you have what it takes......sign up for "The Bad Ass Challenge" put on by our friends at BeWell Fitness as they support the AVSDA Service Dog Program!

Company Match!!

Thank you and the company match of Great Lakes Home Mortgage.

Company matches are an incredible way of multiplying your support.

Support comes first from people you know and trust and that is the same for mortgages and refinancing. Charles is a brother from another mother to me and he has helped myself and many more finance their homes and other endeavors.

We are only 36 days away from the event. Click the links in our bio to donate, sponsor and participate.

09/22/2025

Mark your calendars!12th Annual Bad Ass Challenge is Saturday November 8, 2025. Participate. Sponsor. Donate. Share!All money goes to The American Veteran Service Dog Academy to support and sponsor a veteran and service dog. Click links in bio for ways to support.

08/31/2025

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of a great friend to all Veterans in the Kankakee area. Mr. Don Ball was the backbone of Buddy Check 22, an organization that did so much for Veterans in need. Don also gave much assistance and advice to AVSDA over the years as well as raising funds through the Buddy Check 22 annual golf outing which has grown into a huge event on the Veteran calendar.

Don will be greatly missed by all of us here at AVSDA as well as all of the people whose lives he touched, and the lives he helped save through his charitable work.

Rest easy Don.

https://obituaries.daily-journal.com/obituary/donald-ball-1093040340

06/28/2025

All of us here at AVSDA would like to thank the family and friends of Mrs. Maxine Bertucci who passed away on May 29th, for their support of our Veterans and Dogs. The family had requested that donations to our program be made in lieu of flowers. It is always very touching when people we have never met think of us and spread the word about our healing work.

Thank you again to everyone who donated in Maxine's memory, and we wish you all the best and fond memories as you remember her life.

02/19/2025

It's that time again! Our friends Sherman & Tingle at WDRV - 97.1 The Drive are supporting the AVSDA mission, our Veterans and Dogs! Please visit their website here: https://wdrv.com/event/sherman-tingles-give-a-vet-a-pet-2/

Give a shout out to the guys for their continued support!

Here at 97.1 The Drive , we love our pets, and we salute our vets! For those who’ve given the ultimate service to our nation, it’s often difficult to resume a

09/16/2024

Practicing "study hall" this morning with veterans and their service-dogs-in-training.

We base our training practices on social modeling by the handlers, who learn to let their bodies do most of the talking to their dogs. This helps the dogs get comfortable "reading" their handlers across a variety of contexts/ environments with a broad array of social situations.

As the handlers learn to transition between practice "frames" that we identify as "class," "recess," and "study hall," the dogs become attuned to emotional and physical (nonverbal) signals from their human partners. This helps the dogs learn to recognize when symptoms emerge that require medically necessary interventions the dogs are taught to offer.

I'm so proud of our students, human and canine!

07/08/2024

We are very grateful to the folks at the Live LaMore Foundation for their generous support in honor of fellow Veteran Aaron LaMore who passed a short time ago.

This Friday, July 12th, the Live LaMore Foundation will host a golf outing at the Green Garden Country Club in Frankfort to benefit Veterans charity organizations of which AVSDA is proud to be among!

Please follow the link to their website where you can obtain tickets:

Join Live LaMore in supporting organ & tissue donation, veterans, & local student scholarships. Your donation provides hope for transplant recipients. Donate today to save lives & make a positive impact.

06/16/2024

Thank you to everyone at Lewis University for again allowing us the use of their facilities to conduct airport/airplane training with our Veterans and Dogs!
Special thanks to Craig Neville, Sandra Schuh, and Brian for their help in coordinating this event.
This training is very important for practicing the skills it takes to navigate an airplane trip while traveling with a Service Dog and is a real eye-opener to some of the newer students as to how complicated it can be.
Thanks again to Lewis and we look forward to more of this important training in the future!