Pawsitive Squad CIC Paws of Hope, Paws of Love, Paws of Life |
- Home
- Growing up & the impact on assistance dog partnerships
Growing up & the impact on assistance dog partnerships
As an organisation, we are committed to providing long term support to the families who wish to remain with us. This is why, as long as the young person applied before their 26th birthday we will support the young person through their current dogs whole working life (usually around 8 to 10 years) AND train their successor dogs with us (when their previous dog retires) no matter how old they are at that stage.
So, for example, if you join the program at 25 years old with a 4 month old puppy, we will support your dog through training to, if possible qualification and their working life. We would aim for their dog to retire at around 10 years old when the young person is 35 years old. At 35 if the client then buys a new dog to train as an assistance dog they'll be eligible to train this new assistance dog with Pawsitive Squad. If their dog doesn't manage to complete training & qualify, we will still support training their replacement prospective assistance dog, no matter how old the client is at this point.
Changing needs & other implications
Due to the age range we work with, many young people transfer from home living to independent/ supported living during their dogs working life or from school to university. While most supported living facilities do allow assistance dogs, some don't and you would need to be able to independantly meet your dogs needs to live with your assistance dog in one (eg toilet, groom, exercise etc.). Unfortunately, many universities do not permit assistance dogs and therefore you would need to consider how your partnership would continue if you went to university.
If you're applying at 14 years old or older we will ask about these plans. For us, every assistance dog is a huge investment and we would not be willing to support partnerships where we feel the dog is likely to be withdrawn soon from work/ training due to home moves, going to uni etc.