Every year Sal & David and the whole Petpals team at Darlington & Yarm love to get involved with a new challenge to support the community.

*** Update****

Hi, the fundraising slowed down a little whilst we had our own exciting life events, new grandchild, daughters wedding and our 25th wedding Anniversary along with the fact that I damaged my Achilles so unfortunately  I am not going to be able to do the Great North run on September 10th but we are still going to be throwing a fantastic Ceilidh the night before at Darlington Masonic hall 7.30pm on 9th September. Tickets are £20 per person and include a pie and peas supper . So come on everybody, come along enjoy a good time with family and friends in aid of this fantastic charity. tickets are available from Sal and David or any of the Petpals team. Tel 07816 585 422

This is how it started.  We were approached by one of our customers who told us about this world ground breaking project to provide assistance dogs to for people still living at home who are affected by dementia.

What an amazing project to be involved with. We all know somebody with dementia and have seen the heart-breaking consequences it delivers to families. We work with dogs every day of our lives with our business and understand the instant joy and happiness dogs bring to our lives, so the opportunity to support a project like this; to see and share the impact with their customers was an opportunity that couldn't be turned down.

The Dementia Dog Project is a collaboration between Alzheimer
Scotland and Dogs for Good.  This pilot project will explore how trained
assistance dogs can help people to live well with dementia – for both the person with a diagnosis and their carer. 

An initial pilot study over the past three years in east Scotland has involved training and placing 3 assistance dogs (all Labrador/Retriever types) with couples who are living with dementia at home.  This was the first time this approach had been trialled in the world.  The dogs are trained to help maintain a structured routine at home, be a social connector within the community and an emotional anchor. 

Responding to an alarm, dogs will retrieve a medication pouch, or water bottle, to a person’s lap to remind them to take their medicine
or hydrate.  They can help someone to wake up and get out of bed in the morning, remove their clothing and open doors.  They can retrieve shoes and their lead when it is time to go on a walk, with a dual lead and dog harness enabling both the person with dementia and carer to hold a lead, helping improve balance and physical exercise.

Dementia dog ‘Kaspa’ was trained and went to live with Glenys & Ken in 2012. She says, “Kaspa has given us our life back. He greets Ken in the morning, so starts Ken’s day being happy. Kaspa has removed my fear that Ken had gone, life is so much better for both of us now. Ken is happy and it has taken so much stress away from me as well. Every day we wake up knowing it’s going to be a good day thanks to Kaspa.”

Over the coming three years the project plan to train and place a further 8 assistance dogs for couples like Glenys and Ken. 

Any donations raised by the Petpals community throughout 2017 will contribute towards these life changing partnerships.

Please help us to make a difference to people like Glenys & Ken

Thank you for reading

David, Sal & the team at Petpals Darlington & Yarm