Since setting up our Online Academy, we've met more and more dog owners who have struggled to apply for an assistance dog, or have failed to get help with training their own dogs.
Waiting lists are full and it's simply not easily accessible, taking many owners further away from their dream of training their dog to assist them in everyday life. This means owners are left with the challenging, and sometimes impossible task of training a dog themselves!
Having taken care of my own mother through a debilitating disability, which saw the complete loss of her ability to move independently and communicate, and seeing how much an assistance dog would have benefited her life and given her some much needed freedom and independence, we wanted to find a way to give back to the community and help people like her to live life to the fullest. This is my memorial to her.
The Online Academy was created during Lockdown 2020 whereby we've steadily created over 400 video tutorials which have supported the training of dog owners worldwide.
With the success of the Academy and the amazing community that has grown around it, we've been donating our own income generated from the Online Academy to support the training of assistance dogs.
This includes
Providing free training to puppies gifted to our assistance dog programme
Providing gifted residential stays (32 weeks gifted so far)
Providing discounted residential stays (77 teams supported)
Providing a low cost 'assistance dog academy' (Over 250 teams supported)
This means that whilst we're working hard to provide content and support for our Online Academy members, we're then donating our income from this to support Assistance Dogs in training!
What will you get for becoming a member?
By supporting us, you'll receive top quality online training for you and your dog, which includes:
Instant access to over 400 video tutorials, available to watch at a time to suit you
Train your dog in your own time and at your own pace, with our personal support
Take part in monthly challenges, to keep your training on track
Submit videos to earn your Canine Community Awards
Submit videos to earn your Trick Dog Titles
Watch Live training demos with novice dogs, to show realtime troubleshooting
Weekly Live Q&A with Mike, so you can ask questions about your dog's training
Post videos of your training sessions for our personal feedback
We'll help you to build weekly training plans, so you know which videos suit your dog
Share your training wins with our friendly & inclusive community
New videos are created all the time, and added FREE! Never pay more for the content we create!
Other ways you can help!
You can sign up and gift your membership to a dog owner in need!
We often have owners who would love to sign up to our training, but can't afford to do so. So your contribution can help to give vital training to those in need.
Training is valuable and helps to keep dogs in their family homes and out of rescue centres. If you'd like to donate your membership, please sign up and then email us direct to let us know: info@adolescentdogs.com
Do you need help with training your own Assistance Dog?
Do you have a dog who you are training yourself to become an Assistance Dog?
We recommend signing up to our Online Owner Trained Assistance Dog Programme
Written by Jenny Newland
Adolescent Dogs, Director & Head Trainer