To be eligible for our program 3 of the tasks must support your medical, care, emotional and support needs. We've split these into categories to make it easier to navigate but you can choose any of the tasks below as long as they support your specific needs relating to being disabled. 

For families self funding the assistance dog program, we have a subsidised membership fee of £45 pcm. 

For non-family funded places on the assistance dog program (e.g. paying through short breaks, charity funding, local authority funding, NHS continuing care budget, EHCP/ personal budget) the program costs a membership fee of £70 pcm. Please see the funding support paragraph below for more information on funding support options which may be available to you. 

Upon passing the gold award, regardless of the funding method membership drops to £12.50pcm.

**Families with children with 

There maybe support available for fund the assistance dog program for you/ your child. Below is a list of some options which may be available to you. 

1) Funding through your local authority including through short breaks. Some adult clients have been granted funding for 12 months of the assistance dog program as part of their social care provision. This is usually capped at 12 months however so it's important to have a plan for how you pay for the program moving forward. You would need to discuss this possibility with your social worker. 

We have several families who have been granted permission to use their short breaks funding for the assistance dog program where the young person would not realistically be able to access other provisions where the primary care giver goes off site/ where they would go out with other carers. Most disabled young people who recieve mid or high DLA are eligible for short breaks funding. Search your local authority website for more information or speak with your social worker/ family support worker for more information.  We have a proposal letter which can be downloaded here to submit to your local authority short breaks team to request permission to use the short breaks funding for us: Short breaks proposal for pawsitive squad assistance dog program .pdf

2) Funding through a personal budget as part of the EHCP - If the young person wanting to train their dog as an assistance dog is not able to access a full time education, the local authority may consider funding the assistance dog program as part of their educational provision. You can download a proposal letter for the assistance dog program as an educational provision here: Educational proposal for asistance dog program commissioning.pdf 

please note, this is for the assistance dog program outlined here. For a more bespoke 1:1 animal centred educational provision, we have an alternative provision service. Please go to alternative provision to find out more. 

3) Grants from disability-specific charities - There are lots of charities that provide grants to disabled children and young people, each coming with its own specific eligibility criteria. When looking to obtain a grant towards assistance dog training from charities, we recommend you apply to charities that offer support for your specific disability. Even if these charities are unable to support you, they may be able to signpost you towards other potential funders. 

4) Grants from accessing work & building better opportunities (BBO) projects and programs in your local area -This may be an option for prospective clients aged 16 - 25 if you would need an assistance dog to be able to access employment. Simply search for your local access to work/ building better opportunity project provider  If they're not able to provide funding support they may be able to signpost you to potential funding sources. 

5) Crowdfunding - There are several crowdfunding platforms where sharing your assistance dog aim may enable you to get donations from the general public towards your journey. Tree of Hope offers a crowdfunding platform through their charity which has lots of benefits including being able to add gift aid to donations and being more likely to obtain matched funding and corporate funding. Other crowdfunding platforms which may be suitable include Go Fund Me and Just Giving.

6) Personal Health Budgets from the NHS - If your receives continuing care from the NHS or you receive NHS Continuing Healthcare you're eligible for a personal health budget. In some circumstances, you may be able to use this personal health budget to fund your assistance dogs training. You can read about an assistance dog (not with Pawsitive Squad) who was trained using their personal budget by clicking here.

7) Other grant providers, community organisations etc - It maybe worth approaching your local rotary club or similar organisation to ask if they're able to provide funding support. 

8) US - Where a young person has a significant life-threatening/ life-limiting condition (expected under 5 years) , we may be able to offer a discounted price to enable you to access the program. This would only be available to families who provide evidence of financial hardship and where all other avenues of potential funding have been exhausted. 

Training your dog to be an assistance dog is not a challenge which should be undertaken lightly. It's takes a lot of time and effort and full commitment because essentially you are providing the training to your dog to become a full time professional carer... and you wouldn't allow an under qualified and poorly trained human carer to support you/your child, would you?

Training an assistance dog isn't just slapping a jacket on, having them with a disabled person and taking them anywhere you please, it's far more complex than that. The dog needs to be impeccably trained - be able to maintain focus on their handler even when there's food on the floor, other dogs in the environment and people trying to distract them and they need to be able to reliably perform the tasks which decrease the impact of the persons disability in all environments, of course the dogs are dogs, living beings capable of making mistakes but their socialisation, training and the handlers education and handling skills should ensure mistakes are rare and the dogs maintain a high quality, reliable level of skills & obedience. Unfortunately, not all dogs are cut out to be assistance dogs, some are unsuitable due to breed suitability for the tasks required, personality, anxiety and desire to work. 

As an assistance dog program clients with Pawsitive Squad, we have strict expectations of our clients which are laid out in the signed customer agreements, regrettably, if clients fail to meet and maintain the agreement requirements this would result in removal from the program except in exceptional circumstances. These requirements include:

• Commitment to being open and honest about your disabilities and needs including providing evidence when requested.
• Commitment to keep written records on the templates provided and uploading these 3 monthly by the due dates.
• Commitment to regularly attend classes, at least virtually once a month while assistance dog is in training.
• Commitment to doing structured training exercises with your dog whether at home or in public yourself at least 3 times a week.
• Commitment to use our positive training and handling techniques and not use aversive handling techniques or equipment (i.e not using an fear, pain or discomfort) 

Bronze Award

The first stage of our assistance dog program is the bronze award. This is 'pre assistance dog in training' status with us and covers important handling skills, obedience and canine theory - everything you and your dog need to know and do to be ready to begin public access and task training once they've passed the bronze award. 

Silver Award & Gold Award

Once you've passed the bronze award your dog will become a Pawsitive Squad assistance dog in training and start working towards the silver award which mostly focuses on assessing your dogs public access skills and behaviours (such as can they tuck under a chair & can they walk through a shop without sniffing) and then on to the gold award which assesses that your dog is now reliably meeting the expectations of a fully train assistance dog AND that they can reliably perform three assistive tasks in public spaces. 

Fully trained partnerships

Training doesn't just stop once you've passed the gold award! All clients will fully trained assistance dogs keep access to all of our training resources and are encouraged to continue attending classes occasionally to keep topped up on skills and develop new tasks as the needs of the young person change and develop. Fully trained partnerships continue to have some paperwork requirements including submitting annual reports, vet & vaccine records and health & care records and also have an annual reassessment each year to ensure the dog remains at the standard required of a fully trained assistance dog. Good news! While you keep access to all the provisions of the assistance dog program your fees reduce to just £12.50pcm once your dog is fully trained. This can be paid annually or monthly.