Assistance Dogs.
What they do, who they help, and how they're trained.
Everything you need to understand assistance dogs - from what they are and what they can do, to how they're trained and how the system works in India.
An assistance dog is not a pet that happens to be helpful. It is a dog that has been carefully selected, trained over months, and assessed for reliability before being matched with a specific person. The dog performs trained tasks that directly help with the effects of their disability - and lives with that person permanently.
Assistance dogs are different from therapy dogs, which visit multiple people in settings like hospitals and schools, and from emotional support animals, which provide comfort but are not trained for specific tasks. Understanding the difference matters - both practically and legally.
New to assistance dogs? Begin with these.
Three articles that give you the foundation - what assistance dogs are, the different types, and how they're trained.
What can an assistance dog actually do?
Assistance dogs are trained for specific tasks tied to a person's disability. These articles explain what those tasks are and how the dogs learn them.
Can an assistance dog help with a specific condition?
What trained dogs can and cannot do for specific conditions, and where the evidence is strong, promising or still limited.
Assistance dog, therapy dog, service dog - what's the difference?
The terminology can be confusing. These articles explain what each term means and why the distinctions matter.
How are assistance dogs prepared for a working role?
The training process is long, methodical and built on force-free methods. These articles explain what it involves.
Assistance dogs in India
India has millions of people with disabilities and almost no assistance dog infrastructure. These articles explain the gap, the legal landscape, and what's currently possible.
HeartDogs is training India's first cohort of rescued Indie dogs for assistance and therapy roles.
Eight rescued Indies. Eight women in rural Karnataka training them. One programme building what India doesn't yet have.