Question about dog charity in Cavan

Cinoley

I'm just wondering if anybody has heard of a charity in Cavan which trains dogs to use as therapy with autistic children. I am supposed to give them my 2 dogs (as I'm leaving the country and cannot bring them) but I cannot find any trace of the charity online and I'm beginning to think its a sham.

DBB

Tread extremely carefully.
Are you certain it's in Cavan?
There is a certain dog training establishment in Louth who are providing this service, I would not under any circumstances leave any dog with them. They are not a charity.
That's not to say there aren't super, genuine charities providing this service, but you would have no difficulty finding their online presence.

Have your dogs been assessed as suitable candidates for training? If not, run a mile. The genuine charities who train up dogs have a pre-selection assessment that they carry out before taking in any dog. If your dogs have not been assessed, then you have no way of knowing what happens if they fail the assessment or training.
You might want to just rehome them, forget about the whole therapy end of things (being a therapy dog, let me assure you, is no walk in the park).

With mod hat on, please take care not to mention any organisations by name if there is negative stuff to be said.

tk123

Cinoley wrote: »

I'm just wondering if anybody has heard of a charity in Cavan which trains dogs to use as therapy with autistic children. I am supposed to give them my 2 dogs (as I'm leaving the country and cannot bring them) but I cannot find any trace of the charity online and I'm beginning to think its a sham.

How did it come about OP - Did they approach you or did you approach them?! How do they know the dogs are suitable and what happens if they're not? I know some guide dog puppy walkers - the success rate is pretty low - for example one dog is back with the walkers after the whole litter failed!

Cinoley

DBB wrote: »

Tread extremely carefully.
Are you certain it's in Cavan?
There is a certain dog training establishment in Louth who are providing this service, I would not under any circumstances leave any dog with them. They are not a charity.
That's not to say there aren't super, genuine charities providing this service, but you would have no difficulty finding their online presence.

Have your dogs been assessed as suitable candidates for training? If not, run a mile. The genuine charities who train up dogs have a pre-selection assessment that they carry out before taking in any dog. If your dogs have not been assessed, then you have no way of knowing what happens if they fail the assessment or training.
You might want to just rehome them, forget about the whole therapy end of things (being a therapy dog, let me assure you, is no walk in the park).

With mod hat on, please take care not to mention any organisations by name if there is negative stuff to be said.

Thanks for the reply. The man definitely said he was in Cavan. I wasn't speaking to him though, my partner was. They have not had a pre assessment. They said there would be one and if they don't pass it the dogs will be rehomed. It all sounds very shifty. Thank you for the advice

Cinoley

tk123 wrote: »

How did it come about OP - Did they approach you or did you approach them?! How do they know the dogs are suitable and what happens if they're not? I know some guide dog puppy walkers - the success rate is pretty low - for example one dog is back with the walkers after the whole litter failed!

They approached us after my partner posted an ad. In the ad we said that we would be coming to look at the place in which they are being rehomed as I'm very worried about them getting into the wrong hands.

andreac

So you posted an ad about rehoming your dogs and someone contacted you about this?? Def run a mile. Sounds very very dodgy.

Are your dogs neutered/spayed? If not, please ensure this is done before anyone takes them, regardless of who they are.

tk123

Cinoley wrote: »

They approached us after my partner posted an ad. In the ad we said that we would be coming to look at the place in which they are being rehomed as I'm very worried about them getting into the wrong hands.

If only it was that easy - think of the dogs that could be taken out of pounds and trained.

At least you've questioned it now OP before handing them over so well done. Some people would hand them over without a care in the world.

DBB

What sort of pooches are they op?
Might be worth sticking them up on the rehoming thread here, and maybe some of us could help you to at least get them "advertised" on a genuine rescue's page :-)

Lemlin

Cinoley wrote: »

I'm just wondering if anybody has heard of a charity in Cavan which trains dogs to use as therapy with autistic children. I am supposed to give them my 2 dogs (as I'm leaving the country and cannot bring them) but I cannot find any trace of the charity online and I'm beginning to think its a sham.

I'm from Cavan and the main rehoming organisations would be <snip> and <snip> in Bailieboro. Both recieve a significant amount of coverage in the local paper here, the Anglo Celt.

I have never heard of a charity which trains dogs in Cavan for the purpose listed above.

maggiepip

I wonder what they're up to. That's after giving me the shivers.

andreac

Tell them you want to see paperwork to prove who and what they are and ask say you want to come and view their premises etc and see what kind of a reaction you get.

tk123

Is it an offence to impersonate a charity? I'd get the address and let the guards decide tbh. Call the dog warden while you're at it to make sure they have a licence for the site

aonb

As the others have said OP RUN A MILE! Any charity that trains dogs for assistance have a very rigorous breeding/selection/training regime. I dont imagine that many (any?) take adult dogs in to their schemes - I think puppies that are monitored physically and psychologically would be the norm. I sponsor a guide dog for the blind, and its an incredibly rigorous process. Not every dog who enters the training program (after being hand selected and living with puppy training families for a year etc etc) succeed in becoming Assistance Dogs. It costs a huge amount of money to produce an Assistance Dog. Any dogs that fail to be selected to be an Assistance Dog are rehomed. As DBB said, its a hard life for a dog - constantly working and on alert.

I would be very worried that this person is looking for dogs to sell on, or probably more likely, for other unmentionable reasons. Rehome your dogs yourself - check the owners home and be happy that they will take care of your dogs.

DBB

aonb wrote: »

Any charity that trains dogs for assistance have a very rigorous breeding/selection/training regime. I dont imagine that many (any?) take adult dogs in to their schemes - I think puppies that are monitored physically and psychologically would be the norm.

Just to clarify this point if you don't mind aonb, whilst IGDA do indeed breed their own guide dogs and dogs for autistic kids using their own tried and tested lines, I'm not entirely sure that all dogs intended for assistance purposes are always specially bred.
Certainly general-purpose assistance dogs for disabled people are regularly surrendered pet dogs, as are various therapy dogs. I'm not hugely familiar with the story for dogs for autistic kids outside the IGDA, but I've an idea these may be sourced via surrendered dogs, but when you get into specific purpose dogs like this, you start to get into stricter requirements, including that dogs working with autistic kids are generally bigger types, as they can cope with potential extra hands-on stuff that can come with the territory better than small dogs can.
Hopefully someone who has worked or studied in the area can clarify more about this, but there is certainly quite widespread scope for surrendered pets to work within the assistance dog industry