Page 17 - K9News_Issue12_July2020

community life. more together and autistic children have fewer
meltdowns as a result of their pet dog.
COMMUNITY DOGS
IMAGINE IF …
The charity’s community dogs work alongside
a specialist handler in community settings such … autism meant your child only ever felt
as schools, hospitals and social care. Over safe at home.
their lifetime, community dogs help dozens of
people to overcome specific challenges and
Dogs for Good autism assistance dogs give
support them with the development of life skills,
families freedom and confidence to go out.
improving communication, overcoming anxiety
and supporting physiotherapy using techniques
During lockdown, we all discovered the reality of
known as animal assisted intervention. Dogs for
Good work with people who have a wide range social isolation and how challenging never being
able to go out could be. Imagine if not being
of disabilities and conditions including autism,
physical disabilities, dementia and learning
disabilities.

Community dogs and their handlers will work
with a person with short, regular sessions over
a few weeks, or even months, to help them
achieve a specific goal. Once the sessions are
finished, it’s hoped that the person will be able
to maintain their goal without being reliant on the
support of a dog.

FAMILY DOGS

The Family Dog service enables Dogs for Good
to share its knowledge and expertise of training
dogs to help families with a child on the autism
spectrum. Through workshops and an aftercare
service, the charity provides parents with the
information they need to source, select, handle
and train a pet dog specifically to respond to the
needs of an autistic child.

For many families that attend a workshop, they
have already witnessed a special bond for
their child with a dog and the specialist advice
and support provided by a team of Dogs for
Good instructors then helps them to explore
that relationship further; bringing life-changing
benefits to whole families. Research has
Emily, and her Dad Steve
shown that the families Dogs for Good works
with their assistacne dog Oslo
with have lowered parental stress, they go out

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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / JULY 2020