In the UK, assistance dogs can be owner trained, trained by an independent trainer or trained by a charity (an ADUK one or a non-ADUK one). It doesn’t matter who trained them or where the training took place but the key thing is they are highly trained.

Here at ADUK we don’t train or provide assistance dogs as this is done by our assistance dog member organisations.

Some of them work with people to train their own dog as an assistance dog where there are mobility related issues. You can find out more about our members at Find an Assistance Dog Charity – ADUK (assistancedogs.org.uk) and contact them directly if they are suitable.

Some of our candidate organisations work to train pet dogs as assistance dogs for mental health conditions, such as PTSD and anxiety. You can find out more about our candidates at Candidates – ADUK (assistancedogs.org.uk)

There may be other organisations who could also help with training but we cannot recommend anyone outside of our membership 

Some people work with an independent trainer to train a pet dog. We cannot recommend anyone outside of our member organisations, but an internet search may bring up suitable local trainers.

Positive Behaviour Training

All of our members and candidates use positive behaviour training.  Our member organisation Hearing Dogs for Deaf People have a page on their website which explains why it is so important that they work in this way – Why we use reward based training at Hearing Dogs

One of our members, Dogs for Good, also have a very general Good Advice – Dogs for Good section which includes some basic training information.

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