Isn't it cruel?

One of the surprising questions we get every now and then is people asking us (or pointing out to us) that training dogs to work with people with disabilities is inhumane or downright cruel. For all of these people we have a simple answer that we then expand on - the dogs love the work, and if they didn't we wouldn't have them working or training. The welfare of our dogs is very important to all of us, and all of our dogs enjoy their work and the time they spend with their puppy raisers, trainers, and handlers.

We ask all of our clients to ensure their dogs have a minimum time each day where they can relax, chill out, and just be dogs. Where possible we ask for some of this time to be spent off leash playing with other (suitable) dogs - this helps the dog experience a different kind of exercise, introduces them to new environments, and allows them to really burn off some energy. This isn't always possible for all of our handlers or clients, so for them we ask instead that a minimum time is spent each day where the dog can play, relax, or just generally be a dog. Dogs learn a great deal through play, and play can be a wonderful bonding tool, particularly for new handler and dog teams.

We also strive to educate all our potential clients about the needs of the dog, ensuring that they understand their disability assist dog is a living, breathing animal who has needs and feelings. We have only had one person sd far who has not gotten this concept, and needless to say they are not one of our clients. So far the dogs coming into the programme that are privately owned already have strong bonds with their owners, and the owners have all shown an intense interest in maintaining the psychological as well as physical welfare of their dogs.

On our Facebook page we maintain a photo album called "dogs just wanna have fun" where we post some of the photos we have taken of the dogs out and about individually or as a group where they have been able to relax and have some fun.

Here is a photo taken yesterday of Angus at one of his favourite off leash parks, you can easily see that he is happy, healthy, and enjoying life. At times it may seem difficult to balance the needs of clients with disabilities and disability assist dogs - but if you make good matches then the bond that develops between the handler and their dog, and the dog and their handler makes almost anything possible.