Dog in training

Find out what our dogs learn in training

At around 14 – 18 months old, our dogs leave their volunteer socialisers and embark on the next stage on their journey to become life changing assistance dogs. This is when they come into the Training Centre and we start their formal training as assistance dogs.

With the support of our Puppy Coordinators, our socialisers have already carried out obedience training with our puppies. The socialisers will have also practiced skills such as grooming and health checks with the puppies. They will have also introduced them to lots of different environments. We need them to begin their formal training as confident and happy young dogs. Did you know that you can sponsor one of our puppies and help us improve life for more individuals?

Our Trainers and Instructors teach our dogs all the clever things they’ll need to know to transform the lives of people with disabilities, and carefully match them with their new owners. Our dogs wear special assistance dogs in training uniforms to help them understand when they are working.

You can click below to find out what our dogs learn in each stage of training:

Early training with our Trainers
Advanced training with our Instructors

Looking after our assistance dogs in training

At our training centre

At our training centre our dogs are cared for by our Kennels and Welfare Team. They take care of our dogs when they aren’t working with their Trainers or Instructors and make sure our dogs are always happy and healthy.

Cared for by volunteers

Our dogs live in the homes of volunteer Temporary Boarders who bring them into our training centre each day and collect them each evening. They provide a loving home in the evenings at at the weekends. This gives our dogs the chance to have a well earned rest from training.

Dogs for Good – A dog’s day in kennels from Dogs for Good on Vimeo.

How can you help?

As you can see, there is a lot of work to get our dogs ready for training and we couldn’t do it without help from our supporters. If you or your company could sponsor a puppy, it will help us bring more dogs into our training programme. Alternatively, perhaps you could help us buy a one-off item for our dogs in training, such as a uniform or a collar?