Dogs for Good

Dogs for Good specialist advice and support has brought life-changing benefits to whole families. Research has shown that the families Dogs for Good works with have lowered parental stress, they go out more together and children with autism have fewer meltdowns as a result of their pet dog.

Dogs for Good provides three services:
Assistance Dog: training assistance dogs to support adults and children with physical disabilities and children with autism;
Family Dog: providing advice and support to people on how their pet dog can benefit their whole family;
Community Dog: training activity and therapy dogs and their specialist handlers to work in communities and schools.

Dogs for Good launched its Dementia Dogs pilot in 2013 with the first assistance dogs in the UK helping couples with one partner affected by early stage dementia. The scheme is currently being evaluated by the University of Edinburgh and economic and social research consultancy EKOS.

Community Dog for Schools has placed specially trained dogs in two Special Educational Needs schools. Using Animal Assisted Intervention techniques, this service is exploring how a dog, working with our School Dog Instructor, teachers and therapists, could bring benefits to students in their learning, social, physical and emotional development.

Dogs for Good has become the first charity to support adults with autism. Our Instructor works with a trained activity dog alongside four people supported by the Kingwood Trust. The charity hopes to expand this service in other centres across the country.

Dogs for Good (formerly Dogs for the Disabled) was established in 1988 and its headquarters is in Banbury, Oxfordshire; it also has centres in Bristol and Culcheth, Warrington.

Costs

Dogs for Good must raise £12,000 to fund each dog to fully-trained Assistance or Community Dog and a further £8,000 to cover the costs of its working life from qualification to retirement.

It costs nearly £3 million pounds a year to run Dogs for Good and the vital services it provides. The charity receives no government funding and relies entirely on donations, fundraising and volunteers to continue its pioneering work: 77p from every £1 raised or donated goes directly to support its work. With over 2000 enquiries each year there are many more people the charity could help. It’s estimated that more than 100,000 people in the UK could benefit from an Assistance Dog.

Family Dog Service Workshop series
Family Dog workshops are specially designed to provide parents of children with autism with the advice and long-term support needed for choosing and training a dog to benefit the whole family.
Our Family Dog Workshops are ideal if you:
Are at the early stages of considering getting a dog to help your child
Know that you want to get a dog and are looking for help choosing and handling a dog
Already have a pet dog but would like training ideas and support