Cost of Independence

It takes teamwork to create a life-enhancing, lifelong partnership: teamwork involving the client, the puppy parent, the dog, the trainer and the aftercare assistant. This teamwork all through a canine partner’s journey with us results in life being transformed for the better - increased confidence, increased independence.

But what price is independence? Creating a canine partnership costs the charity £20,000 which covers selecting and training a dog for the disabled, assessing the applicant and ongoing support for that partnership for up to ten years. But to the person with the disability who may have spent many years dependent on a variety of people in order to cope with everyday life – a canine partner offering independence is priceless.

Sponsorship options:

From £800, enabling Canine Partners to purchase another puppy for training, to become an assistance dog of the future.

Would you like to follow a puppy through training and possibly reserve a name now, for a future puppy recruit?

£10,000 - puppy to partnership. Includes the purchase, cost of training equipment, toys, vets bills, insurance, transport and the expenses associated with placing and training a puppy with their volunteer puppy parents for the first 12 months of puppy training, ready to move on to "university" with the trainers at our National Training Centre, in West Sussex. The puppies will be between 14 - 18 months old and then enter the advanced training scheme for four to five months after initial health and suitability assessments. All training is reward-based using motivational techniques and specifically geared to the individual needs of each applicant.

£4,000 – the cost of assessing and training an applicant. During the advanced stage, the dogs will be matched with their future partners and training is tailored to the applicants’ individual needs. The final stage of training is an intensive two-week residential course where applicants are taught how to manage, care for and continue training their dogs, resulting in the start of a unique, fulfilling, lifelong partnership. Residential accommodation at our training centre is of the highest quality, with state-of-the-art facilities for people with even the most complex of disabilities.

£6,000 – the cost of providing ongoing support for the lifetime of the partnership. We have a network of occupational therapists and aftercare assistants all over the country who provide ongoing support for every partnership. This support underpins a lifelong relationship we have with our clients who may benefit from several canine partners during their lifetime.

Inevitably, some puppies are not suitable for the life as a canine partner and we would offer you an alternative puppy if at any point we felt it necessary to withdraw your sponsored puppy from training with us.

To simply find out more and speak to someone about sponsoring a Canine Partners puppy, please contact Julie James on 01730 716 015 or email juliej@caninepartners.org.uk.

Canine Partners for Independence. Registered in England No. 2516146. Charity Commission Registered No. 803680. Scottish Registered Charity No. SCO39050