The Top Dog is Back in the House!
Marcie and Lovey welcome their good friend Richard Lord, Top Dog at Assistance Dogs Australia and Chair of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) back to the show. Richard shares all the latest information in the assistance dog industry. He talks about the innovative and successful Parents Autism Workshops (PAWS) program and the impact these dogs are having on children with autism and their families in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands. He also gives us the scoop on fake service dogs and ADI’s role in setting assistance dog standards worldwide. Richard is definitely the Top Dog in the assistance dog industry!
BIO:
Founded in 1996, Assistance Dogs Australia is a national charity which trains Labradors and Golden Retrievers to help people with disabilities, providing them with greater freedom and independence.
Assistance Dogs Australia provides a free service to people with disabilities. Our recipients include those born with developmental disabilities like cerebral palsy and spina bifida, those who acquire debilitating illnesses like multiple sclerosis, and those who have been in tragic accidents and will never walk again.
We also provide dogs for children with autism, people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and are excited to launch a new pilot working with people living at home with dementia.
Each Assistance Dog takes two years to train and requires an investment of over $27,000 – however Assistance Dogs are provided to people living with disabilities free of charge throughout Australia.
As a result of our program these highly trained dogs allow recipients to have greater mobility, gain confidence and allow them to have higher self-esteem.