Solidarity Dogs

03/07/2025

Breed/ Type and the individual dog.
I've grouped these two together even though they're two important distinct points. You need to think about both when looking for your match. So many well meaning people will just get "a Labrador" because they're good for assistance work. But it doesn't follow that "any Labrador" is a good match! Remember we're trying to stack the odds in our favour in the gamble.

Side descriptions: All slides have the disability pride flag as a background, and my Solidarity Dogs logo.

1. How to find an assistance dog prospect, a very rough guide, part 3 (with a picture of a fruit machine)

2. Breed/type Is this type of dog suitable for what I'm hoping they'll do ?
- There are physical considerations (a chihuahua can't do guide work)
- There are behavioural considerations (an average Akita probably won't like sudden contact or seizure activity.)

3. Is this type of dog a good fit for my lifestyle?
- How much capacity do you have for leaving the house/hiring a dog walker/spending time engaging with your dog? Does that fit with the typical energy requirements of the breed/type you're looking for?
Are there specific breed traits that really don't fit with my life? (I.e. if you hate clingy dogs, maybe you don't want a spaniel)

4.Individual Dog

This is what to look for once you've decided the other factors.
-Health
- Temperamemt
- A dog who will hopefully love a working life, not a square peg you're pushing into a round hole.

5. Health

Lots of people know about hip and elbow scores (great) But I'd also want to find out as much information as I can about;

Gl issues
Age grandparents/great grandparents have died
Any health issues in relatives
Any noted behavioural issues in relatives (which can often be a sign of pain)

6.Temperament

Depending on what age of dog and where they're from I'd be looking at;
-l Is the mother the sort of dog you could "take anywhere "
Would she have made a good assistance dog herself?
I'd want an honest account of the parents/this individual, not just vague assurances

03/07/2025

It turns out that being as "brief as possible" still involves a lot of words from me.
Side descriptions: All slides have the disability pride flag as a background, and my Solidarity Dogs logo.
1. How to find an assistance dog prospect, a very rough guide, part 2 (with a picture of a fruit machine
2. Lifestage
Lots of people get puppies as their assistance dog prospect.
Their are advantages and disadvantages to this. A non exhaustive list of the positives;
Can gather information on health and temperament of previous generations and previous litters.
Can start with early habituation from the start Wider selection of potential dogs.
3.Lifestage
A non exhaustive list of the negatives;
- Puppies are Not blank slates, you still need to do significant work selecting a good match
- You have to raise a bitey puppy, and then survive adolescence
- It will take a long time just helping them become well rounded dogs before they can be expected to assist you (we don't ask babies to work)
4. Lifestage

Adult Dogs
For lots of people, raising a puppy just isn't accessible. There is absolutely no shame in that.
There are three main ways to get an adult dog;
Buying a partly or fully trained dog.
Getting a dog through a rescue
Getting a dog from a private rehome

5. Trained or Part Trained dogs

- This really is a "buyer beware" situation, there are so many scams, or just poorly trained dogs for sale.
- This option costs more upfront (although not necessarily overall, depending)
- If you go for this option -as a minimum - please ask to speak to other people who have had trained assistance dogs from them, and verify this.
But, when done well, it is invaluable to many people

6.Rescue Dogs

Not all rescues are happy with the idea of a dog as an assistance prospect
- You also usually won't have access to health tests from parents
It's usually much easier to see the temperament of dogs who are in foster homes than in kennels
- You should be upfront about what happens if your prospect ends up not being suitable for assistance work.

[Cont. In comments]

03/07/2025

Finding a dog who could be your future assistance dog is a huge and daunting task.
There's also far more information than I could fit on these slides, this is a rough guide and there's nuance in every point, and that isn't explicitly stated here because it's an Instagram post, not a comprehensive guide to follow.

Slide Descriptions;
The background for each slide is the disability pride flag and my business logo.
1. There is a picture of a fruit machine and text reads: How to find an assistance dog prospect
(a very rough guide)
Part 1
2. Text reads
An "assistance dog prospect" is what people often call a dog who you are hoping to train to be your assistance dog.
This is part of the "owner training" process.
Even though we call it "owner training" - it's a good idea to have professional support. You don't need to be completely alone in this
3.How to find a prospect-
They need to be able to meet your needs - and - you need to be able to meet theirs.
Getting a dog can actually end up being a disabling process-before we start looking, what can we put in place that means that all predictable needs will be met?
This will involve thinking about your current support network, as well as the dog's lifestage and breed tendencies.
4. (There is an image of four playing cards) Assistance Dog training is a gamble.

There is no guarantee that a dog will be able to go on and work as an assistance dog, for many reasons.

Finding a suitable prospect can help us stack the cards in our favour.
If you'd like more support, please get in touch and we can book in a session to work through the considerations together

15/06/2025

Save the Date-
Our intro session for "Dogs Club" is on Monday 30th June!

This is a stand alone session ahead of the launch of regular weekly sessions.

Who's it for- Young people age 11-18 who identify as neurodivergent or disabled. (And their dogs!)

All young people to bring an adult - supporting friends are also welcome (but please let me know who's coming in advance for numbers)

Who's running it? - Me, Rachel! I'm a qualified dog trainer, and volunteer youth leader.

Where is it? - St Augustines, Whitchurch. A wheelchair accessible building, with level access. Quiet spaces will also be marked out during the event.

What will we do? - We'll start with drinks, snacks & getting to know each other's dogs. Then we'll learn some new tricks. I'll be running to a time table so it's predictable in advance, but everyone is free to opt in and out of each activity as they choose. There's no pressure or expectations to engage a certain way.

How much does it cost? - The one off costs £20.
The regular classes will hopefully run on a sliding scale.

How do I book? - message me here or on 07702049267

Questions? - Great. Please ask.

12/06/2025

Little Dog ❤️

We can't be exactly sure, as she's a rescue. But we think that Lily's 11th birthday was this week.

So, obviously, Lily is retiring. But, she's retiring on her own terms. This is a dog who wants to be active, who wants to come with me, who always wants to be doing 'stuff'.
I tried bringing her activity levels down last year, and that was absolutely wrong for her. Actually her physio was one of the people encouraging me to keep her working at that time.

So rather than stopping all things work overnight, we're changing what "work" looks like.

In the same way you build up an assistance dog's public access work, we're winding it down. The bits she doesn't find joyful we've already stopped.

She's coming with me "off duty" to work, with occasional short "on duty" bits now. For us that mostly means she gets to be feral and joyful and silly and take part in classes and 1:1s as she is free to opt in and out of demos and exercises.

Right now she's still opting in a lot more than opting out. And when she's opting out, it's because she's decided to do her own thing (i.e get into my backpack to look for treats).

We have the privilege of her reaching retirement, and that for her we're switching from "sensible assistance dog" to "silly feral adventure dog" over the next few months.

So you'll still see her as much as you ever have, but less vest and (if you can believe it) more sass.

29/05/2025

18/04/2025

What's in a name? The story of Rachel Trains Animals and Solidarity Dogs.

Rachel Trains Animals was never meant to be a business name. It was actually just the name of this Instagram account where I showed off what I was doing with my animals, mostly for the that started in lockdown.
I was working for another training business at the time, but when I decided to go out on my own, the name of this silly Instagram account became my business name (because I do train animals and I am Rachel, so it made sense.)
Right from the start I wanted my focus to be on accessible training. I'm disabled and have faced my fair share of ablism in the dog training world. Fairly quickly the focus started to move into assistance dog training.

Due to the huge need for qualified assistance dog trainers to support owner training teams, that's pretty much all I've been doing for the past few years.

So that brings us to today, aside from my Wednesday nights teaching with , it's only those on the journey to being assistance dogs that I'm working with. "Rachel Trains Animals" is probably too broad a description.
"Rachel Trains Assistance Dogs" is also wrong, because it's not me training them. I'm just supporting their handlers. And "Rachel Trains People To Train Their Own Assistance Dog" is just silly.

I wanted a name that captures my feelings about what assistance dogs are, as well as what the disabled community can be.

So this proudly disabled and neurodivergent led business is "Solidarity Dogs - assistance dog training support.

I believe in kindness and supporting the being at both ends of the lead.
That training should always be adaptive and individualised.
That safeguarding is something to take seriously.
That high standards of training don't need to be at odds with high standards of welfare.
And that the disabled community can be absolutely amazing.

09/04/2025

New Class Alert!

Starting in May!

"Dogs Club" is an informal social club and dog training class which is designed to be both fun and accessible.

Suitable for dogs over 5 months who are able to cope in a class setting, and young people who identify as neurodivergent.
It costs £65 for the month.

Run by professional dog trainer, volunteer youth worker and neurodivergent human- Rachel Sheppard.

More information; such as accessibility details, location details, and class structure coming soon!

If you have any questions please message or contact me via
[email protected] or text/WhatsApp 07702049267

[Image Description: a poster advertising "Dogs Club" on a graded colour background
Text on poster reads-
*Dogs Club
Weekly dog training and social group for neurodivergent 11-18 year olds.

St Augustines BS14 OLL
Monday Evenings 6:15-7:15pm]

09/04/2025

Starting in May!

"Dogs Club" is an informal social club and dog training class which is designed to be both fun and accessible.

Suitable for dogs over 5 months who are able to cope in a class setting, and young people who identify as neurodivergent.
It costs £65 for the month.

Run by professional dog trainer, volunteer youth worker and neurodivergent human- Rachel Sheppard.

More information; such as accessibility details, location details, and class structure coming soon!

If you have any questions please contact Rachel on
[email protected] or text/WhatsApp 07702049267

[Image Description: a poster advertising "Dogs Club" on a graded colour background
Text on poster reads-
*Dogs Club
Weekly dog training and social group for neurodivergent 11-18 year olds.

St Augustines BS14 OLL
Monday Evenings 6:15-7:15pm]

05/04/2025

I'm hugely privileged to do the job that I do, and work with the people I do. I learn so much from all of you that I work with.

Watching as Sol and his human absolutely smashed their Darwin's ADUK PA test this week made me so proud. Not just because of how effortless they made it look, knowing how much hard work has gone into getting to this point, but because it was done with the core value of never dulling this dog's sparkle.

They are a testament to how working dogs can keep their personality, keep their freedom and their joy, whilst also being highly trained and professional throughout. Those two things don't need to be in tension. We don't need poorly trained assistance dogs in order to centre their welfare needs. And we definitely don't need to squash our dogs into this work in punitive ways.

So thank you, for being absolute ambassadors of joyful, dog and human centred training, you pair of wonderful beings.

Image Description: Sol, a brown standard poodle, stands in a carpark wearing his brand new vest. I like to think he's looking a bit proud of himself. He should be.

03/06/2024

Here is the lovely Yoshi - a young cocker spaniel, who is absolutely smashing learning some cafe settle skills!

Image Description: a tan coloured showline cocker lies on the floor outside a cafe. A lead is hooked around a chair leg. He's looking up and lightly panting (on a warm day).

25/04/2024

Today we nearly had an unpleasant situation which could have easily been much worse - but was avoided because of the quick action of our local
As we were about to leave the store after shopping two off lead dogs came in the door immediately in front of us, and their owner was drunk and very confrontational. One of the dogs was pretty neutral but the other had very very stiff body language, and got right up in Lily's face in a very tense way with a lot of posturing. The sort of body language I'd be concerned to see anywhere, let alone in an off lead dog inside a supermarket towards my on lead assistance dog who couldn't fully move away .
(Also shout-out to Lily who offered a couple of calming signals and then came back away when I started to back off).
The dog's owner then started to shout at me and Lily and she and the dogs kept coming towards us.

The staff immediately surrounded us and made a barrier between us.

I was pretty stressed at this point and a member of staff guided me and Lily into the backroom.
The person and dogs were asked to leave, but were still in the carpark.
So the staff waited with me, brought me water and kept me updated as to what was happening, until Sam was able to collect me.
They let me and Lily out the back and escorted us to the car.

I'm really grateful for how quickly they reacted, and how much they were able to support me through a bit of a panic attack.

Lily is mostly grateful that I bought her treats.