To be eligible for our program 3 of the tasks must support your medical, care, emotional and support needs. We've split these into categories to make it easier to navigate but you can choose any of the tasks below as long as they support your specific needs relating to being disabled. 

For families self funding the assistance dog program, we have a subsidised membership fee of £45 pcm. 

For non-family funded places on the assistance dog program (e.g. paying through short breaks, charity funding, local authority funding, NHS continuing care budget, EHCP/ personal budget) the program costs a membership fee of £70 pcm.

Upon passing the gold award, regardless of the funding method membership drops to £12.50pcm.

Bronze Award

The first stage of our assistance dog program is the bronze award. This is 'pre assistance dog in training' status with us and covers important handling skills, obedience and canine theory - everything you and your dog need to know and do to be ready to begin public access and task training once they've passed the bronze award. 

The great news is you can apply to start the bronze award right away! For more information on the bronze award please click here! 

Silver Award & Gold Award

Once you've passed the bronze award your dog will become a Pawsitive Squad assistance dog in training and start working towards the silver award which mostly focuses on assessing your dogs public access skills and behaviours (such as can they tuck under a chair & can they walk through a shop without sniffing) and then on to the gold award which assesses that your dog is now reliably meeting the expectations of a fully train assistance dog AND that they can reliably perform three assistive tasks in public spaces. 

Fully trained partnerships

Training doesn't just stop once you've passed the gold award! All clients will fully trained assistance dogs keep access to all of our training resources and are encouraged to continue attending classes occasionally to keep topped up on skills and develop new tasks as the needs of the young person change and develop. Fully trained partnerships continue to have some paperwork requirements including submitting annual reports, vet & vaccine records and health & care records and also have an annual reassessment each year to ensure the dog remains at the standard required of a fully trained assistance dog. Good news! While you keep access to all the provisions of the assistance dog program your fees reduce to just £12.50pcm once your dog is fully trained. This can be paid annually or monthly. 

You can sign up as soon as you're ready. We aim to have processed your membership and granted your access to begin training within 7 days of application & 100% score on our application quiz (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WYFQFMY)

To consider your application, please submit the following to the drop box link below:

- The signed application form & client agreement (these are within the same document for easy access)

- Copy of your microchip registration (this must be in your name & under your current address)

- Evidence of insurance including public liability (at this stage just pet insurance is fine, you may need to change policies once they've passed the bronze award)

- Evidence your dog is up to date on their vaccinations. They must have had at least their first puppy vaccine to join but they can be due to have their next vaccine if aged under 16 weeks. For dogs over 12 months old they must be up to date with their boosters or you must provide evidence from titre testing proving immunity. The only vaccine NOT required under Pawsitive Squad is kennel cough. 

You must also score 100% on our application quiz - it's just 10 multiple choice questions can should take under 10 minutes, designed to ensure understanding of our expectations and the commitment required. Here is the link for the quiz. Please ensure your email address on the survey matches the email on your application:  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WYFQFMY

You can try this as many times as you need to but we do require a 100% score to process your application. All the information can be found either on the website areas about the assistance dog program or bronze award, the application form or the client agreement.

PHEW! I realise all that admin can feel like an awful lot so if you've made it this far, thank you & well done! 

Now you have:

1) Uploaded the fully completed & signed application document & client agreement AND microchip, vaccination & insurance evidence to the drop box link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/mOtRVgCFY0L6sFOB691k

2) Completed the application quiz and scored 100%

The very final stage is to complete the membership electronic application below. This creates your online learning account. Once we've reviewed your application, your access to the program will be granted through this login & we will email an introductory email with everything you need to know. We aim for this to be provided within 7 days of application (and it's usually quicker than that!).