Do you have a friendly pet dog or cat that enjoys meeting people? Do you want to share the love of your pet with others to help them get through their day? Have an hour a week or a month to spare? Able to get to somewhere to visit by car or public transport? If so then this might be for you....
Our Therapet Volunteers will visit, with their assessed and approved pet dog or cat, people who are in need of some support. We typically visit hospitals, hospices, care homes, assisted living facilities, individual homes, and day centres, as well as prisons, emergency service staff and other organisations helping people to de-stress or enjoy their day through the interaction with the animals and the chat with our volunteers. Some of these other organisations utilising our free services include carers groups, mental health organisations, and charities such as Alzheimer Scotland, CHAS, Sense Scotland, and Barnardos. We also support school pupils through our 'Reading with Dogs' visits, and our popular 'PAWS Against Stress'® sessions have expanded from universities and colleges to also support corporate wellbeing days. We work with Highland Council supporting residential schools and you may have seen us briefly in Inverness Airport or our regular Canine Crew in Aberdeen Airport.
We do have pre-requisites for the dog/cat which must be a minimum of 1 year old and been with the current owner for at least 6 months. They cannot be on a raw meat based diet and they must be vaccinated and on a regime for parasite control recommended by your vet. Banned breeds and XL Bullies are not accepted, and we cannot take working assistance dogs (except those from Canine Partners). We will also obtain a Protection of Vulnerable People (PVG) Certificate for prospective volunteers from Disclosure Scotland prior to volunteering commencing. An information pack is available from our office info@canineconcernscotland.org.uk.
