Make an assistance dog puppet

We’ve put together some examples of types of assistance dogs, what they do, and what they might wear. You can find more information about assistance dogs on the Assistance Dogs UK website. Some different types of assistance dogs are:  

Guide dogs: A guide dog enables its blind or partially-sighted owner to get around safely and independently. It guides its owner in a straight line, unless told otherwise, avoiding obstacles – including those at the owner’s head height. It’ll stop at kerbs and steps and find doors, crossings and places that are visited regularly. It'll guide its owner across the road, but it’s the owner who decides where and when to cross safely. Guide dogs normally wear white harnesses with yellow, fluorescent stripes. (Source: Guide dogs UK, 2024) 

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People: Hearing dogs help deaf people by alerting them to sounds they’d otherwise miss, such as smoke alarms, alarm clocks and even a baby’s cry. Hearing dogs have also saved countless lives in their important role, including fire alarms sounding at the dead of night, alerting them to the shouts of a loved one who is in peril, even saving their deaf partners from potential car thieves. Hearing Dogs for Deaf People normally wear burgundy jackets. (Source: Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, 2024) 

Autism Assistance Dogs: An Autism Assistance Dog is trained with a very special set of skills. They can include medication reminders, deep pressure therapy using the dog’s body weight, picking up dropped items, retrieving items and meltdown response. Meltdowns occur when the Autistic person experiences intense distress in response to sensory overload, frustration, confusion or fear. During a meltdown, the Autistic person feels a loss of control and struggles to express their feelings to those around them. Assistance Dogs are trained to remain calm when exposed to erratic movement, screaming, self-injury or destructive behaviour. Autism Assistance Dogs normally wear blue jackets. (Source: Autism Dog Charity, 2024) 

Dogs for Good: Dogs for Good assistance dogs support adults and children with physical disabilities, autism and dementia. They can help with practical tasks, such as retrieving dropped items, opening and closing doors, helping with dressing and undressing, helping with physiotherapy routines, loading and emptying the washing machine, pressing a pedestrian crossing button and reaching up to shop-counters with items, such as a wallet. Dogs for Good Autism assistance dogs are for children and wear a special harness which connects it to both parent and child.  They act on instructions from the parent while the child is encouraged to walk alongside the dog. Dogs for Good normally wear green jackets. (Source: Dogs for Good, 2024) 

Medical Detection Dogs: Medical Alert Assistance Dogs support individuals with complex health conditions who have limited awareness of an impending life-threatening medical event. These dogs are provided to clients by the charity or can be dogs owned by clients. Using their amazing sense of smell, dogs can be trained to identify minute odour changes emitted prior to an emergency and alert the person to take preventative action. Our dogs are currently working for people with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), Addison’s disease, severe allergies, Type 1 diabetes, other endocrine disorders and episodes of sudden health deterioration. Medical Detection Dogs normally wear red jackets. (Source: Medical Detection Dogs, 2024) 

Dog AID (Assistance in Disability): Dog A.I.D. (Assistance in Disability) works with physically disabled people to coach them to train their own pet dog, utilising the bond that already exists between the owner and their pet, to become an Assistance Dog partnership accredited by Assistance Dogs International (ADI).  [Source: Dog AID (Assistance in Disability), 2024] 

Canine Partners: A Canine Partner assists with everyday tasks which are difficult, painful or impossible for individuals with a disability to perform, such as helping with undressing, loading and unloading the washing machine, retrieving or picking up dropped items, helping with the shopping, retrieving money and card from a cash machine, opening and closing doors, pressing a pedestrian crossing or lift button, fetching help in an emergency. Canine partner assistance dogs can even put their own food bowls in the sink, help turn their disabled partner over in bed, tidy their own toys away, help strip the bed and flush the toilet. Canine Partner dogs normally wear purple jackets. (Source: Canine Partners, 2024) 

Support Dogs: Support Dogs provide, train and support specialist assistance dogs in three specific programmes.

• Autism assistance dogs for autistic children: The dogs are trained to provide safety for the child and reduce stress in social environments. Seizure alert dogs for people with epilepsy where dogs are trained to provide a 100% reliable, potentially lifesaving alert up to 1 hour before an epileptic seizure. This enables the client to find safety and be in control over their seizure. 

• Disability assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities: The client’s own pet dog is trained to perform tasks which are specifically tailored to their individual needs. Support dogs normally wear blue jackets.

(Source: Support Dogs, 2024) 

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is a discreet sign that someone has a disability that is not immediately apparent and may need additional support, understanding, empathy, patience and kindness.

Some people use the phrase "hidden disability" to describe conditions that may be non-visible or less visible than others. People might also use phrases such as "non-visible disability" or "invisible disability". 

Conditions that may be non-visible or less visible than others include but are not limited to:

• sensory, including difficulty seeing, hearing or speaking
• physical disability that may not be obvious, like arthritis
• neurodivergence, which includes autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia
• neurological, like Parkinson's
• cognitive, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease
• mental health, such as anxiety and depression
• rare diseases, illness and recovery, and respiratory 

You can find more examples on the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower website. 

Disabled people can choose to wear the Sunflower to let people know that they might need an offer of help, understanding, or just more time. The Sunflower is there to support disabled people in public places such as shops, at work or on transport.

The Sunflower was launched at Gatwick Airport in 2016 to support passengers with additional needs.