Specialist assistance dogs in high demand following pandemic setbacks

Alex, an affectionate, eager young Labrador, has recently moved in with his new owner, Amanda Davidson. Injured in the line of duty as a police officer, Amanda was forced to retire as her health and mobility deteriorated. 

Alex, her second assistance dog, has completed nine months of training and is quickly learning the ropes from his loyal predecessor, Jupiter. 

"He can do such a long list of things," she says. "He can fetch my stick and bring it from the kitchen to the living room for me. He'll pick my phone up and hand it to me, especially when I've dropped it."

Alex also enables Amanda to go out to work more easily and can carry out basic household tasks.

"He presses buttons, like access buttons, lift buttons, so you can call the lift. His favorite thing is loading and unloading the washing machine, putting it into the dryer," she says.

READ MORE

Christmas is canceled in Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus Christ

'Gaza facing unprecedented levels of hunger' says UN agency

France's cheap green car initiative

‌For Amanda, who relies on a wheelchair to get around and has limited energy for everyday tasks, taking on assistance dogs has changed her life. 

"One of the biggest things is I started to feel more like myself. I became independent, I started going out," she says. "I didn't need people to help me in the shops, Alex will take things off the bottom shelf that I couldn't reach. So, I don't need to be reliant on people as much."

‌The Support Dogs charity in Sheffield conducts this specialist training to provide dogs to people with epilepsy, autistic children and the disabled. It is a lengthy process of around two years, starting off by socializing young puppies, who are then selected for full-time training at 14-15 months old. 

A big gap

Prospective owners are then paired with suitable dogs and put through their paces, learning commands and how to work safely with a specialized dog. While assistance dogs are becoming increasingly sought after, the knock-on effects of breeding delays during the pandemic have led to long wait times for those in need of a special four-legged friend. 

"We have around 5,000 requests for our work every year and we've only got about a 100 working support dogs at the moment in the UK, there's a big gap," says Danny Anderson, Head of Fundraising at Support Dogs. 

The charity counts on volunteers to help foster puppies who are selected for training, but struggles to find enough support. 

"Resources are a big issue, so voluntary help is absolutely vital to us, and since the pandemic there's been a real drop in the number of people volunteering," he says.

‌There is a similar shortage for all types of assistance dogs in the UK. Guide dogs have provided crucial support to blind people for over a century, but now the current wait times are up to 16 months. 

Increase in interest

The Guide Dogs charity says it is slowly recovering from the pandemic and restructuring its service, so they can reduce the wait times, but breeding and training new guide dogs takes time. 

The charity Medical Detection Dogs is also experiencing an increase in interest for support dogs from people with a wider range of health issues. 

"Weekly we're getting interest from people who have got these medical conditions that we specialize in," says Chris Allen, Head of Canine Training at Medical Detection Dogs.

"And other medical conditions that they're contacting us about, to see if we can train a dog to support them, or to alert them."

The charity is already doing extensive work with dogs that can help people with health problems. 

"We train dogs to alert their clients to an oncoming life-threatening medical condition. And this is all done through odor. They will be trained to respond to their unique odor, depending on what medical condition they have," explains Allen.

Naturally, dogs also offer unconditional comfort when their owner needs it most. 

Alex is the picture of contentment, snuggled up on Amanda's lap on the sofa, with eyes and ears twitching, ready to jump up to help. While dogs like Alex are in short supply, their future potential is immense.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday