Who we are
New Horizons Service Dogs, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that partners trained dogs with the disabled, mostly in the area of wheelchair and mobility assistance. We are headquartered in Central Florida and provide service dogs to disabled clients primarily throughout the state of Florida.
Please explore our website. You’ll find out more about our organization, what a service dog is and how to treat one, how to become a puppy raiser, how to apply for a dog, and how you can help us. We also have pictures of pups-in-training, graduate dogs, and informative links.
Our Mission
- Provide quality, trained service dogs to people with disabilities.
- Educate the public and raise awareness regarding the needs and concerns of persons with disabilities.
- Provide on-going support to a recipient of our dogs and assure a successful working partnership.
Our Services
We train our service dogs primarily to assist adults and children in wheelchairs and also to assist those individuals with other mobility and balance problems. We have specialized programs for veterans with disabilities and children with autism. We also have facility dogs assisting in other working situations such as rehabilitative facilities, nursing homes and private homes, depending on the dog’s temperament and abilities. See more about our programs under the Volunteer section.
Board of Directors
Janet Severt – Executive Director
Address:
Orange City, FL, Volusia County
Founder and Executive Director of New Horizons Service Dogs
- Served on the Board of Directors since founding New Horizons Service Dogs, Inc.
- Graduated in 2011 with a degree in Leadership, Palm Beach County.
- Served on numerous boards and committees in the health care and veterinary industry, as well as the Florida Rehabilitation Council.
Barry Farber – President
Address:
Hendersonville, NC
Affiliations:
- Spouse is a New Horizons Service Dog User
- Former Owner of HHP Associates, A division of ESI
- Served on the New Horizons Board of Directors since 2012.
- Long-time hands-on volunteer who has served on many industry-governing Councils and in all facets of our operations, including six years as a Puppy Raiser-Trainer & Breeder Caretaker.
- Committee Chairman for the trade association’s Florida data collection and distribution.
- Years of service interacting professionally with many U.S. defense contractors and former military.
Barton Weiss – Vice President
Address:
Miami Beach, FL
Miami-Dade County
Affiliations:
- Client
- Donor
- Owner and Founder of Barton G.
- Miami-based event designer, producer, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
- Served on the New Horizons Board of Directors since 2018.
- Co-founded the Barton G. Weiss Kids Hear Now Foundation. Opened in 2010 and housed in the
- UHealth Ear Institute, emphasizes the viability of cochlear implants and auditory verbal therapy as an
- option for deaf children to become part of the hearing world.
- Provides events management and production, weddings, off -site catering, destination management, and restaurants. In addition to private clients, the company has created more than 20,000 events for celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, and sports associations, including BMW, Giorgio Armani, NBC, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Cartier, the NFL, and PGA.
Faith G. Miller, MMC, MPA – Secretary
Address:
Lake Helen, FL
Volusia County
Affiliations:
- 35 years of executive and managerial experience in local government
- New Horizons Board of Directors since 2023
- Member, ICMA, FCCMA, Volusia League of Cities (Finalist, 2006 City Clerk of the Year Award)
- Served on numerous Board of Directors (Public Risk Management of Florida, Past President,
- Executive Board Member of Florida Association of City Clerks)
- Program Review Certification Comm. Member, International Institute of Municipal Clerks.
Christopher DeFronzo – Trustee
Address:
Lake Mary, FL
Seminole County
Affiliations:
- Founder and CEO, Emergency Flood Restoration Services, Inc.
- Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2018.
- Local Business
- Puppy Raiser
John Satariano – Trustee
Address:
Mt. Dora, FL
Lake County
Affiliations:
- Service Dog User
- Retired Florida Highway Patrol
- Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2015.
- Former member of the Board of Directors at Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Richard Kane – Trustee
Address:
Wellington, FL
Palm Beach County
Affiliations:
- Parent of Service Dog User
- Volunteer Breeder Caretaker
- President and CEO, Verijet. Founder and President of Coastal Technologies Group, Coastal Aviation Software
• Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2018.
Shawn Griffin – Trustee
Address:
Hobe Sound, FL
Martin County
Affiliations:
- Handler of Facility Dogs
- Former Procter & Gamble National Sales Manager, currently Chief Operating Officer/Managing
- Partner of Interim HealthCare of the Treasure Coast (homecare, hospice, and medical staffing)
- Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2015.
- Served on several nonprofit and for-profit Committees or Boards.
Estalee Marchessault – Trustee
Address:
Manchester, NH
Affiliations:
- Puppy Raiser – Trainer
- Service Dog User
- Commercial banking and real estate, promotional work in the radio industry
- Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2018.
- Parent of a child with multiple organ transplants.
- Long-time hands-on volunteer, public speaker for many animal- and health-related nonprofits, especially kidney disease organizations.
- Nine years as our volunteer Prison Pup Program Weekend Furlough Coordinator
- Served on New Horizons Board of Directors since 2003.
- Past President of the Board of Directors, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Palm Beaches.
- Retired First Grade Philadelphia School Teacher.
- 20-year volunteer in a Philadelphia area hospital.
Donna Brown – Treasurer
Address
Palm Coast, FL
Affilations
- Breeder Caretaker
- Charles Schwab: Financial Services SpecialistFor clients, provide general investment, equity, and fixed income. Retirement, IRA, Small Business, and I401k Plans, Inherited IRAs, Consultant to Schwab Branch Advisors and Representatives, and Schwab Independent Advisors. With regards to products and services offered by Schwab.
History & Growth
New Horizons Service Dogs, Inc. is a Florida-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that breeds, raises, professionally trains, certifies, and places service dogs with individuals who have mobility and balance problems. We have specialized programs for wounded war veterans, veterans with PTSD, and children with autism. We also have facility dogs assisting in other working situations such as rehabilitative facilities, nursing homes, and private homes, depending on the dog’s temperament and abilities.
Since 1995, we have successfully trained and placed over 1,000 service dogs with recipients throughout Florida. Our dogs assist individuals by performing daily tasks such as pulling wheelchairs, opening, and closing doors, helping with laundry, retrieving dropped items, bracing, getting a phone in an emergency, and preventing a child with autism from wandering off.
New Horizons Service Dogs provide a lifetime of unconditional love and service. They increase our recipient’s self-sufficiency, independence, mobility, self-esteem, and social interactions. Our dogs enable their partners to attend school and gain employment. Service dog ownership is linked to improved health, fewer doctor’s visits, better self-care, and improved overall quality of life.
Janet Severt is not only the Founder of New Horizons Service Dogs, Inc., but she is also a service dog user. “My dog can pick up dimes or credit cards off my tile floor,” explains Severt.
Since age 7, Janet has been a C-5, C-6, C-7 quadriplegic suffering from arteriovenous malformations. In 1968, she began puppy raising seeing-eye dogs, and has dedicated her life to helping people with disabilities using service dog’s ever since.
The service dogs, as well as potential recipients must go through rigorous training. For about a year-and-a-half, the dogs are rotated between foster homes and the prison program where inmates raise them.
The dogs then return to New Horizons, where the staff perfect and work on the 80 commands the dogs are taught. At this point, matches of the dogs and recipients are made. Personalities of both the dogs and recipients are considered. The recipient must then go through a two-week training program of in-classroom learning, including a written exam at New Horizons, and be tested with commands in public surroundings with the dog.
“The dogs know everything at this point,” says Severt, “but not the people.” It takes time and patience on behalf of the recipients to earn the dogs’ respect and learn the necessary commands. “I really enjoy working with recipients; they learn from me,” explains Severt. “Because I have a disability, I can tell people, ‘What do you mean you can’t do that!’”
Currently, there are 139 people, equivalent to 1+ years, on the NHSDI’s waiting list to be matched up with a service dog. In general, the cost for breeding, training, and placing a service dog can range from $45,000-$50,000.
The dogs not only provide assistance for the disabled, but also provide comfort and companionship. “It is really rewarding to see the difference these dogs make in people’s lives,” says Severt. “They bring them self-confidence.”
New Horizons has graduated over 1,000 recipient/dog teams!
