From what I've heard from people who are involved in the process (volunteers that foster the dogs and are involved in their training for about the first year), that's about right. The dog itself is going to cost $1-2,000, plus another $1-2,000 for first year food, medicine (assuming nothing goes wrong), and supplies, and then they will probably work with professional trainers. Some of those dogs won't make the cut to go on to "college" to become a service dog (and I'd assume some who do won't graduate, but I've never been told that).
my daughter has a sweet lab since he was 6 weeks old and is training him for the blind, she will have him a year and then have to give him back fully trained...its going to be hard cause she loves that little bugger...the Organization if for the blind in Rochester, michigan...they have been doing it since 1939 and that pup learns fast.
A small group probably not in business too long...the Leader Dogs for the Blind in Michigan is totally self supporting via donations. There is a video on them, they also have a program in one of the prisons and those trained have a higher rate of acceptions than others....Many of their pups are from females that didn’t quite make the cut...mostly labs. The prisoners cry when they have to turn the dogs over, but they feel like that did something good...great video on youtube