Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
Support Dogs
  • Search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
Contact Us Donate
Menu
  • Home
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Welfare & our work with rescue dogs
    • Trustees & Patrons
    • Impact stories
    • Job vacancies
    • FAQ
    • Talks and publications
    • News and events
      • News
      • Events
  • Apply for help
    • Autism assistance
    • Epilepsy seizure alert
    • Disability assistance
  • Volunteer
  • Sponsor a dog
  • Support us
    • Donate
    • Fundraise
    • In memory giving
    • Wills and legacy
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Where your money goes
  • Shop
  • Admin
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Autism assistance

Autism assistance

Our autism assistance programme is life-changing for both the child with autism and their family. Autism assistance dogs are trained to provide safety and to facilitate a more independent and socially inclusive life for both the child with autism and their family.

 Our clients are children with autism who are often unable to communicate or express their feelings in a way that is understood by others. They have little sense of danger or of the consequences of their actions. 1 in 100 children in the UK are diagnosed with autism. Half of these children will have a tendency to bolt and wander off from their care givers, which can be very dangerous, and has often resulted in injuries to the child.

 Autism assistance dogs are trained to provide safety and companionship, helping to bring independence and a more socially inclusive life to both the child and their family. They have been shown to:

  • Reduce stress for family members
  • Promote positive changes in behaviour
  • Provide comfort for children with autism when upset
  • Reduce behavioural outbursts

Autism is a condition that affects each individual differently. Our autism assistance programme works in a number of ways:

Many of our clients have a very limited sense of danger or of the consequences of their actions. They often have a tendency to bolt and wander off from their care givers, putting themselves in danger and often resulting in injury.

Our dogs are trained to keep a child safe using a wide range of methods, reducing the risk of injury or distress for the child and reducing stress and anxiety for the child’s family.

Please note: We  normally place dogs with children aged between three and ten years, and within a catchment area of any distance that can be driven in two hours from our national training centre in Sheffield.

Sadly due to the impact of the Covid pandemic we are currently dealing with a huge backlog of applications and so currently can only accept new applications for children aged between three and seven years of age. We of course aim to increase this as our resources and capacity allow.

Please click here to read our autism assistance info pack. This provides information to enable you to assess whether you are eligible to apply.

How to apply

Please click here to register your interest in benefiting from our programme and to be alerted when our next information day is taking place.

To apply for this programme you must first attend an information day at our training centre in Sheffield. Information days are held once or twice per year and have a very limited number of spaces. To register your interest please complete the form below. Once we have a date confirmed for the next information day you will then receive an email alert which will enable you to apply for a space. These spaces are allocated on a first come first served basis for those that meet the programme criteria.

Please be aware that as our current waiting list is very high we can only accept applications from children up to the age of 7 years old. This is due to the limited resources of our charity. This age may change dependant on the demand for the programme and resources of our small charity to support it.  

Read stories about our life-changing work.

or 

Watch Azerley and Cohen's story 




Published: 15th March, 2018

Updated: 24th August, 2021

Author:

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • Bluestone

  • Three canine heroes change Ann’s life

    Three canine heroes change Ann’s life

    As Support Dogs celebrates its 30th anniversary, long-term client Ann, who has epilepsy, looks back over some memorable moments with her three life-saving seizure alert dogs – and at what life was like before her first support dog.

  • Support dog of the future Alex makes two families proud

    Support dog of the future Alex makes two families proud

    Puppy Alex is keeping the memory alive of a young man called Alex who died after an epileptic seizure.

  • Lockdown silver lining for Diana and her support dog Lennie

    Lockdown silver lining for Diana and her support dog Lennie

    Diana and her Labrador Retriever Lennie qualified as a disability assistance partnership despite starting their training in unpromising circumstances.

Most read

  • Autism assistance

    Autism assistance

    Our autism assistance dog programme works to increase safety and the ability to have more socially inclusive life for children aged between 3 and 10 years of age with autism and their families.

  • Disability assistance

    Disability assistance

    Our disability assistance dogs are trained to support their owners by carrying out tasks tailored to their needs such as dressing and undressing, loading and unloading the washing machine, and raising the alarm. They also enable clients to lead more sociable, independent lives.

  • Epilepsy seizure alert

    Epilepsy seizure alert

    Our seizure alert dogs are trained to provide a 100% reliable warning up to 50 minutes prior to an oncoming epileptic seizure, enabling clients to get to a place of safety, and enabling them to live more independently.

  • What we do

    What we do

    Support Dogs is a charity training autism assistance dog, epilepsy seizure alert dogs and disability assistance dogs for those affected by a wide range of physical conditions including MS, Cerebral Palsy and fibromyalgia.

  • Job vacancies

    Search here for Support Dogs' jobs' vacancies.

  • Foster Caring - Bed and Breakfast

    Foster Caring - Bed and Breakfast

    As Support Dogs doesn't use kennel facilities for its dogs-in-training, we are always looking for evening and weekend and stay-at-home foster carers to provide a loving home for our canine trainees.

  • Volunteering with our dogs

    Volunteering with our dogs

  • How much does it cost to train and maintain a Support Dog? .

  • Could you be a puppy socialiser?

    Could you be a puppy socialiser?

    Could you do something amazing in 2022? We are looking for volunteer puppy socialisers to join our team to provide a loving home and help us prepare our puppies over their first year in training.

  • Recycle your old stamps

    Recycle your old stamps

    Recycle your stamps to raise vital funds for our work

Sign up to our newsletter

Sign up to receive our twice yearly charity magazine and very occasional email updates about our Support Dogs campaigns, news, appeals and fundraising.

Sign up


Useful links

  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & conditions
  • Environmental Policy
  • Privacy policy

Find us

Support Dogs
21 Jessops Riverside,
Brightside Lane,
Sheffield, S9 2RX

Registered Charity No. 1088281

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  BBC Children in Need