Our eligibility criteria are as follows:

1. You must of been diagnosed with OR reasonably believe you are disabled in a way that can be mitigated by the support of training your own Assistance Dog.

2. You are 100% comitted to training force-free. We do not even allow headcollars on our Assistance Dog training program. 

3. You must read and agree to all of our policies shown here.

4. You are a UK resident.

5. You agree that Infinity Dogs will be your only Assistance Dog training provider – including exclusion of specialist online training programme providers. The only exceptional circumstances would be if a prospective partnership currently has an ADI sourced and provided programme dog where the handler has sourced specialist permission from both their current programme and Infinity Dogs CIC. The programme must also train exclusively without aversives.

6. You agree to veterinary and behavioural screening if approved for the first stage of the application process. 

7. You agree it is very likely you will be asked to train with an allocated trainer in the Midlands for at least 24 hours over a minimum of 6 months until we are able to offer full coverage nationwide.

Multi-purpose Assistance Dogs
The majority of our partnerships will involve training multi-purpose Assistance Dogs. These dogs are trained to alert and respond to various medical conditions, neurodivergencies, and mental health issues. We believe that categorising psychological or psychiatric Assistance Dog work under medical alert/response is more helpful, as it avoids separating conditions and acknowledges the role of the handler’s nervous system in these episodes.

Examples of medical alert/response tasks include seizure alert and response, blood sugar alert and response, shutdown/meltdown alert and response, PTSD alert/response, and heart rate alert/response. We also aim to train IgE change alert/response for conditions like MCAS in the near future.

Psycho-social Assistance Dogs
We also train psycho-social Assistance Dogs, which help handlers participate in social environments. This can include teaching specialist behaviors related to an Autistic person’s interests, assisting with leadwork for those with severe social anxiety disorders, integrating a healthy routine for those with severe depression, and providing grounding and a reassuring presence for conditions like ARFID.

Assistance for those with physical disabilities
For physically disabled individuals who may not require mobility assistance, we train dogs to perform tasks such as fetching dropped items, removing clothing, handing over wallets at checkouts, providing deep pressure therapy for pain management, and opening/closing doors and cabinets.

Mobility assistance
For those who require mobility assistance, we train dogs in tasks like light guidework, active and static forward momentum, and light counterbalance. These tasks help individuals navigate overwhelming situations, maintain balance, and climb stairs with support.

Areas not covered
While we are open to training other types of Assistance Dogs, we do not provide training where the main needs are for sight loss or hearing loss, and we do not train allergen detection for anaphylactic allergies due to the risk of accidental exposure during owner training. Additionally, we believe that tethering is not ethical for dogs or handlers.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of tasks and behaviours that we can train handlers and their assistance dogs in.

To participate in our training programme, Assistance Dog partnerships until qualification are expected to pay a monthly fee of £40 which provides them with a minimum of 24 hours of real-life training support over the course of the programme, with the opportunity for much more than this. It is worth noting that this fee is significantly lower than what you would typically pay per hour in the traditional private sector, making it a much more affordable option.

Some councils will fund this training – ask your Social Worker if you have one.

On qualification, the fee drops to £6pm, or a one-off annual fee of £60. 

At Infinity Dogs CIC, we understand that the expenses of living as a disabled person can be quite high. That’s why we strive to minimize costs for our partnerships as much as possible. However, it’s important to acknowledge that there are various expenses involved in running Infinity Dogs CIC, such as trainer CPD, hosting guest trainers, venue charges, trainers’ travel expenses and equipment. These costs contribute to the overall running expenses of our organisation.

Our primary goal is to rely on fundraising as our main source of funding. This way, we can ensure that any money raised goes directly towards funding services that will benefit our partnerships.

Infinity Dogs CIC does not directly provide Assistance Dogs, but instead offers support to handlers in training their own Assistance Dogs. We are open to assisting individuals who own most breeds of dogs, with the exception of breeds that are considered illegal in the UK, such as the Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brazillinaro, and XL Bully.

We do not support the use of any bull breeds in our Assistance Dog programme. This decision is not based on the belief that these breeds pose a higher risk to the public, but rather to avoid the possibility of support being abruptly withdrawn by the government or any future government.

Furthermore, we do not recommend the use of brachycephalic (brachy) breeds due to serious concerns regarding their health issues. It is crucial for Assistance Dogs to have the ability to breathe properly, and normalizing certain physical features of brachy breeds may not be in their best interest. We want to ensure the wellbeing of the dogs and prevent potential negative perceptions from the public.

Infinity Dogs CIC’s Assistance Dog programme has specific age milestones to ensure dogs are ready for each stage of training. Here are the minimum ages for each stage:

Applying: Dogs must be at least 8 weeks old.

Candidate Stage: Dogs must be at least 6 months old.

Basic Training: Dogs must be at least 12 months old.

Advanced Training: Dogs must be at least 14 months old.

Full Assistance Dog: Dogs must be at least 18 months old.

Ambassador Dog: Dogs must be at least 2 years old.

These age milestones guide partnerships through their training journey, ensuring they develop the necessary skills and maturity for each stage.