Making life possible for communities in Bristol
Julia and Georgie
12/01/2026
Story
Julia has worked at Dogs for Good for 13 years as a Community Dog Handler. She works alongside golden retriever, Georgie, supporting people in the community with a variety of different physical and emotional support needs.
"A community dog session usually involves me and Georgie, the person we're working with and someone like a healthcare professional or family member, who supports that person," Julia explains.
"Georgie brings lots of different skills. She offers a lot of emotional support to people, she's also great fun and is a very natural motivator. So, a lot of the time when we work with someone who perhaps doesn't want to engage with a session, as soon as Georgie comes along and joins in, it changes everything. She brings a lot to the table."
Our Community Dog programme offers support that is unique to each person or group of people, moving at a pace and level that enables them and our dogs to benefit from time spent together. "It's quite normal for someone to feel nervous when doing something they've not done before, so we go at their pace," Julia explains. "We personalise the sessions, depending on the people involved so they really are designed with the individual in mind. It's very important to us to keep it person-centred, and really, the sessions are just a lovely way to spend time with a dog and explore some new things along the way."
I love seeing the change that Georgie brings to someone's day. Sometimes they're long term and sometimes they're just in the moment but just seeing someone's face light up when Georgie walks in is amazing.
The aims of the Community Dog sessions depend on the person who is being supported. Julia explains: "Some of the sessions will focus on short term goals but a lot of the time we're looking at long term goals such as improving fine motor skills, working on speech and language, sometimes working through things like grief and loss, and reducing social isolation and reintegrating back into the community. We'll also work with a healthcare professional to ensure that all the goals align."
Of course, Julia thinks about the sessions from Georgie's point of view too. "I need to make sure that she enjoys the session, she's happy being in the environment and that I facilitate a nice interaction between her and the person we’re working with," Julia says. "Equally, I want to make sure that the person feels comfortable with Georgie, and they have a really nice time too."
Having a 'natural motivator' like Georgie around makes people a lot more inclined to engage with the sessions. "If someone is perhaps a little reluctant to go for a walk or visit a café, we can put the focus on Georgie and say 'Georgie would really like to go for a walk or visit a new place with you' and that's usually enough for someone to say 'Oh well, if Georgie wants to go, then I would like to go too.'
"Having a dog alongside you breaks down a lot of barriers. Most of us will know if we leave the house and have a dog with us, people will talk to us!"
Lots of Dogs for Good's community-based activities are created in partnership with specialist services such as young people's mental health, social care for adults who have learning disabilities, or dedicated support for people with dementia.
Our Community Dog team works collaboratively with everyone involved in the sessions to measure progress and success. "Working with a healthcare professional, we use a scoring system that's charted pre and post session, so we have everything in numbers. But also, we get verbal feedback from the people we're working with and of course our own observations," Julia explains.
We spend a lot of time with our dogs, like Georgie, so that we can be sure the work they do in the community is both safe and effective. Julia says: "[We teach our] dogs to make sure they're polite, have nice manners etc, and they also must be dogs that naturally enjoy this type of work because not all dogs do.
"We also spend time teaching our dogs specific skills, depending on the activities we're working on. We make sure we have a good structure in place that's safe and enjoyable for all concerned."
Julia says she sees growing demand for services like our Community Dog programme "pretty much everywhere".
"I think we all know someone, somewhere, who would like more support in their lives, whether that's emotional support or even physical support such as helping with physio exercises for example. But I definitely think in terms of mental health and emotional support, there's a huge demand out there."
Dogs like Georgie open doors, they connect people, they keep families together, they help make life possible in so many ways.
Your support will enable more people to benefit from our dogs.
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