Helpful Hounds Assistance Dogs is a Charity that changes the lives of young people and their families with trained Assistance Dogs

Helpful Hounds Assistance Dogs is a Charity (Registered in England and Wales No.1181017) that helps to change the lives of young people and their families, living within Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Surrey. We also embed Assistance dogs within Schools that have Special Needs students.

Helpful Hounds was started in order to help with the growing demand of young people who, with their families, would greatly benefit from having an Assistance or Therapy Dog. We generally use the term “Assistance Dog” as one that works with a Physically Disabled Person, including the need for Medical Alerts and a “Therapy Dog” for one that works with Autism, Down’s Syndrome and other emotional issues.

Helpful Hounds is dedicated to training Assistance and Therapy Dogs for:

• Young People who are Physically Disabled, have Autism, Down’s Syndrome, PTSD, or other emotional issues.
• Schools that are Special Needs or have Special Needs Departments or Students.
• Adults that are living with similar conditions and are having difficulty in replacing an existing dog or applying for their first dog elsewhere.

Our experienced Training Team use force free, positive and kind training methods in order create a strong bond for future partnerships, which, in turn, will be life changing for the young people and their families.

To process an application for a Helpful Hound, we work with the following criteria:

The Family should:

• Live within Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey or Wiltshire.
• Have a medical diagnosis of the disability or be in the process of getting the medical diagnosis.
• Be between the ages of 5 years-25 years old.(We will consider older ages where a replacement dog is needed)
• Have a secure back garden.
• Be able to exercise the dog regularly
• Allow the dog, once it is placed with your family, to have a minimum of two hours of downtime where the dog is not working.