What is a canine companion?

A canine companion is placed in a home where there is an adult or a child with a physical disability or condition who would benefit from the companionship and emotional support a dog can provide, but where practical support from the dog is not required. These special dogs also give other social benefits of dog ownership, such as friendship and reduced loneliness.

Our canine companions will have reached a level of socialisation and behaviour during our training programme but for various reasons, it has been identified that they are not suited to a working life. For their wellbeing, they are instead placed as a companion and able to provide an individual or family with all the associated benefits of dog ownership such as routine, regular activity, a sense of purpose, and reduced loneliness due to an increased feeling of being part of a community.

All dogs and all canine companion homes are different, so these special dogs are still carefully matched with families or individuals, who after an initial settling-in period, would be fully adopted by their new family. It is therefore necessary that these families can meet all of the care needs and costs involved in having one of these dogs in their lives including providing adequate exercise and health care.

Interested in finding out more?

If you or a family member has a physical disability or condition and would like to find out if you would be eligible to apply when we reopen to canine companion applications, please see our canine companion applicant information pack by clicking the button below.

Download the canine companion applicant information pack

How do I apply for a canine companion?

Thank you for your interest in applying for a canine companion.

To manage demand for our services and the time that applicants are on our waiting list, we will open our waiting list at specific times and to specified locations.

Due to the application process, matching process, and the support provided during the initial settling-in period, our canine companions will be placed within certain areas. You will find details of these areas on this page when our next reopening dates are published.

The information you will need to provide and how to make a first-stage application for a home assistance canine will appear on this page at least four weeks prior to the next opening date. This is to ensure that you have enough time to check your eligibility and prepare for making your first-stage application. We recommend keeping an eye on this website page and our social media for announcements.

Due to such high demand, upon receiving all first-stage applications, a set number of these applications will then be automatically and impartially selected by a computer program, to go through to second-stage assessment. This approach enables all potential applicants a fair opportunity to apply, whilst enabling us to best manage our wait times for those who do go on to join our waiting list within our resources available to support our home assistance canine partnerships in all regions of the UK.