Happy International Assistance Dog Week!

2^nd until 8^th August marks International Assistance Dog Week, the worldwide acknowledgement of the work done by organisations and charities that work to connect assistance dogs and those that need them.

During the week, there are campaigns to help raise awareness and educate the public about Assistance dogs, recognise and honour the work done by assistance dogs, recognise the voluntary work done by those that look after and train puppies and of course, recognising the heroic deeds performed by assistance dogs in the community.

There are a number of organisations across the UK that work hard to help provide those that need them with assistance dogs and who also provide training to those dogs. These organisations are often charities that receive no government funding and rely solely on donations from the public. Though this is a difficult time for everyone financially, it has been especially hard on charities and other charitable organisations as many of their fundraising campaigns have had to be cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Because of this, we at TfA thought we’d take this opportunity to shout about some of the amazing organisations that work as part of Assistance Dogs UK.

Guide dogs for the Blind Association

This charitable organisation is probably one of the more well known assistance dogs charities. They help provide specially trained dogs to support visually impaired and blind people, they also provide a range of other support services for people who are blind and partially sighted people and their families.

The Seeing Dog Alliance

The aim of this organisation is to help blind and partially sighted people live within their own communities by training and providing assistance dogs.

Hearing dogs for Deaf People

This charity trains dogs to support deaf people so that they can live independent lives. The dogs are trained to alert their owners to every day sounds that their owner would miss such as fire drills, door bells and other important sounds.

Support Dogs

This organisation works with people who live with conditions such as epilepsy, autism and other similar conditions. Dogs are trained to recognise when their owners are having seizures and other symptoms of their condition and to help them.

Dog Aid
Dog Aid works with disabled people and registered trainers to help the disabled person train their own per dog to become an assistance dog.

Medical Detection Dogs

Dogs can naturally detect certain medical conditions and this charity helps to train dogs to recognise oncoming medical emergencies such as diabetic comas or allergic reactions. The charity also works with the NHS to develop research in using dogs to help detect cancer and other conditions.

Now you know a bit more about the different Assistant Dog organisations in the UK, make sure to help support them in whatever way you can this International Assistant Dog week!