Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust: Enriching lives with service dogs
At Petdirect, we’re passionate about making life better for both animals and their people. That’s why we’re proud to highlight the incredible work of Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust (ADNZT), a charity that’s transforming the lives of young kiwis’ living with disabilities through the power of purpose trained Assistance Dogs.
What Does Assistance Dogs New Zealand Do?
ADNZT is a not-for-profit charitable organisation dedicated to providing purpose-trained Assistance Dogs to enrich the lives of kiwi’s living with disabilities.
Primarily working with young New Zealanders with neurodiverse conditions, ADNZT are the only internationally accredited service dog provider in Aotearoa to work with children under 16 years of age.
These remarkable Assistance Dogs are trained to perform tasks that help improve the independence and quality of life of their clients, and their families.
How Do Assistance Dogs Help?
ADNZT dogs are specially matched and trained to assist their human partners. To reach qualification, each dog must perform at least three key tasks to support their clients. Some of the tasks these dogs can perform include:
- Provide safety in public through the use of a tethering harness
- Helping to improve motor skills
- Retrieve essential items like medical equipment
- Pick up dropped items
- Interrupt self-harming behaviour
- Providing deep pressure therapy during moments of overwhelm
These dogs are vital companions that allow their clients to live more independently, offer emotional and physical support, and help to reduce feelings of isolation.
The Training Process
Training an Assistance Dog is a comprehensive process that starts from when the dog is a puppy. Over two years each dog undergoes thousands of hours of specialised training, learning how to assist with the unique needs of their future client. The training ensures that the dog is fully prepared for the specific tasks required to help their partner. By the time they’re ready to be placed, they’re experts in their field, ready to make a real difference in someone’s life.
Assistance Dogs form strong long-term working relationships, and friendships, with their clients - one that can last up to 10 years.
Who Benefits from Assistance Dogs?
Assistance Dogs help young people with a variety of disabilities, including (but not limited to; Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Brain Injury, Down Syndrome, Epiliepsy and Sensory Processing Disorder.
With a unique focus on serving young New Zealanders and their families, new clients need to apply before they turn 18 years old.
While each Assistance Dog carries out a variety of tasks for their clients, the benefits of these dogs are much further reaching.
For many families, before getting an Assistance Dog, just going to the supermarket or a café can feel impossible, An Assistance Dog helps to make these things possible, with the dogs support clients are able to join their families for seemingly simple moments many of us take for granted like going for a walk or having a family meal out.
“Our Assistance Dog makes living with a disability visible and positive. Because of her, our son has been able to participate in family activities, holidays and trips that would not have been possible otherwise. This all contributes to his mana, self esteem, wellbeing and growth and has made such a difference for us as a cohesive family unit.”
How You Can Support ADNZT
Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust is a charity that relies on donations to continue its essential work. Training an assistance dog costs over $75,000, and ADNZT provides these dogs free of charge to the people who need them most.
To find out more about their work, or to make a donation please visit www.assistancedogstrust.org.nz.