Dog AID (Assistance in Disability)

Misson and activities:

Dog AID (Assistance in Disability) is a nationwide U.K. charity helping
people with physical disabilities to train their OWN pet dogs to be generally obedient, and in many cases, to train their pets to work as Assistance
(Service) Dogs.
The dogs are taught many specialised tasks to assist the disabled owner
gain greater independence in their everyday life, and their trained pet can
also become an advantage in breaking down social barriers; our clients
have found that being accompanied by their dog encourages strangers to approach and talk to them on an equal footing, whereas previously they would have been ignored purely on the basis of being disabled.

Our organization works at the national level.

Our organization is not run, controlled and represented by disabled people.

We have expertise, or are interested in cooperating with other organizations, in the areas of:

Awareness raising.
Coalition building and networking.
Independent Living Skills Training.
International development and disability.
We are keen for other countries to help the physically-disabled train their own dogs, under the guidance of Dog AID; we already have interest from Norway.
Pet dog training clubs for able-bodied owners in the U.K. have tended not
to cater for the phsyically-disabled dog owner, so Dog AID enables them
not only to gain the knowledge to train their pet to a general standard of
control, but allows them the choice of training their own pet to a higher
level. The two levels of training we offer makes Dog AID unique.
Our training is done in small groups or at the home of the client, and our
trainers assess each individual case, ensuring that the needs of the client
are specifically met.

Dog AID actively encourages dog clubs to join our scheme, making them
more aware of the problems faced by people with disabilities who are dog owners.
We have cooperated with organizations in other countries before:

Turid Rugaas of Norway is internationally-acclaimed for her work on
"Calming Signals" amongst both wolves and dogs. During her travels
around the world to advocate her gentle methods of dog handling, she
became aware of Dog AID and was particularly interested in the idea
of educating existing dog owners with disabilities to train their pets.
She will in the future oversee the development of a similar organisation
in her home country of Norway, under the Dog AID umbrella, and has
joined our advisory panel, allowing us to call upon her vast knowledge
of dogs and dog behaviour/communication.

Contact us:

This entry added: Wednesday 24th May 2000. (record #329) Changed: Saturday 2nd April 2005. Link checked Tuesday 27th February 2024.