By Alice Evans
In this week’s episode Alice and Lucy talk with fellow animal lover Ashley about the support humans get from their animal companions. We thought this might be a good opportunity to clear up some confusion about the different kinds of support animals out there and why those distinctions are important.
Everyone has seen those comedy sketch shows where someone turns up to a fancy event with a so-called emotional support donkey, or heard the story of someone claiming their badly behaved poodle is a therapy dog whilst it chews through the furniture. And although Alice’s stories about Lola show that even the most well trained assistance dogs can be cheeky, a true assistance animal receives a high level of training and is protected by laws that don’t extend to the average loopy Labrador.
The term “assistance dog”, lets face it we are usually talking about dogs (although there are instances of horses and cats being registered as different types of assistance animal), covers dogs who have been trained, like Liam Neeson, to have a special set of skills. What these skills are varies from organization to organization but they all serve to protect or help a disabled owner. An “assistance dog” could refer to anything from a guide dog for a blind or visually impaired person to a medical alert dog for someone with epilepsy or a therapy dog used to support vetrans.
Here in the UK we don’t have a register for assistance dogs and you don’t need to carry proof that your dog is an assistance animal, and that’s where some of the confusion comes along because only animals trained by an Assistance Dogs UK accredited organization is protected under the Equality Act. This means you can’t just put a coat on Percy the Pug and rock up to your favourite restaurant expecting he’ll get served.
You might also have heard the word “service dog” bandied around, generally “service dog” and “assistance dog” are terms that can be used interchangeably although in the UK the preferred term is assistance dog, whilst service dog is what is more commonly used in the US. Choosing to use “assistance dog” can also help reduce further confusion as “service dog” is often associated with dogs trained specifically to work with disabled ex-service and military personnel.
There are currently 10 organizations in the UK accredited by Assistance Dogs UK, they include the ones you’ve probably heard of like Guide Dogs, Canine Partners and Hearing Dogs, as well as the less well known Darwin Dogs and Dog A.I.D.
Here’s a brief run down of how the pups in each of these organizaitons supports people. We’ve included links to all their websites too if you want more information!
Guide Dogs UK: Obviously we had to start with Guide Dogs, probably the largest organizations in the list with nearly 5,000 current working dogs. They help with guiding and orientation for blind and visually impaired people. You can spot a qualified guide dog by its white harness with flourscent yellow stripes and the long handle used for guiding. Look out for the dogs with additional red flashes as their owners have both vision and hearing loss. In recent years the organization has also introduced Buddy Dogs for children and young people with sight loss. https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/
Autism Dogs: Run by autistic people for autistic people, Autism Dogs are trained to provide practical support by prompting their owners to take medication, retrieiving dropped or important items and even offering pressure therapy for comfort during times of anxiety. https://autismdogs.co.uk/
Canine Partners: With about 400 working dogs out there Canine Partners dog’s help people with physical disabilities, mobility difficulties and pain to carry out tasks that may be difficult for them, like unloading the washing machine and helping with shopping. They wear a very fetching purple! https://caninepartners.org.uk/
Darwin Dogs: One of the newer and smaller organizations on the list Darwin Dogs support people with mental health and autism disagnoses to live safe, full lives. They support people to train their own personal dogs to develop specialist support skills. https://www.darwins.org.uk/
Dog A.I.D: Another smaller organization that helps people train their own dogs to be assistance dogs, qualified Dog A.I.D dogs get a striking bright red jacket. What does the A.I.D stand for? Assistance in Disability and the charity works with people with a variety of needs. https://dogaid.org.uk/
Dogs for Good: Formally Dogs for the Disabled this charity has been around since the late 80’s. After changing it’s name in 2015 the charity has expanded to support people with physical disabilities, mental health conditions and neurodiversities in both practical and therapeutic ways. https://www.dogsforgood.org/
Hearing Dogs: An organization dedicated to supporting the D/deaf community Hearing Dogs wear burgundy and help people with hearing loss by identifying and notifying people of sounds as well as providing compainionship and promoting safety. https://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
Medical Detection Dogs: These clever pooches are, as their name suggests, trained to detect the smallest changes in the smell of their owner to indicate a possible health emergency. The organization supports people with long-term or life-limiting health condition, such as diabetes or cancer. https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/
Service Dogs UK: An assistance dogs organization for members of the Armed Forces and Emergency Servies experiencing trauma. They have a specialist Police Wellbeing Initiative, OscarKilo 9 which aims to help police officers with post-traumatic stress disorder to regain trust, sensitivity and confidence. https://www.servicedogsuk.org/
Support Dogs: Another smaller organization Support Dogs provide dogs for people with a variety of disabilities who need assistance with practical daily tasks such as dressing and undressing and loading the washing machine. They also provide seizure alert dogs for people with epilepsy and support dogs for autistic people. https://www.supportdogs.org.uk/
The Seeing Dogs Alliance: The not-Guide-Dogs-guide-dog, the Seeing Dogs Alliance is a much smaller organization that has been slowly growing since becoming accredited by the International Guide Dog Federation in 2016. Their mission is to provide guide dogs to blind and visually impaired people but to offer owners more autnomony and freedom than the larger Guide Dogs UK. https://seeingdogs.org.uk/
Veterans with Dogs: Does what it says on the tin, this organization provides assistance dogs for ex-service and military personnel with diagnosed mental health conditions. These dogs are trained to help with socialization, managing anxiety and even safely interrupting people during flashbacks and nightmares. https://veteranswithdogs.org.uk/
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