Waggel Interviews Chris Daykin From Support Dogs

Support Dogs is a small, national charity based in Sheffield that helps save and change the lives of adults and children all over the UK who are affected by some of the most challenging conditions.

At Support Dogs, we train specialist assistance dogs for three different programmes to help children and adults with autism, epilepsy, or a disability.

I don't feel like there is necessarily “a typical day” at Support Dogs, but I can give you an idea of where the magic happens and what the trainers are doing!

We generally have around 50 dogs in training so they'll be under the guidance of our trainers who are helping them, along with our volunteer puppy socialisers, to get their basic obedience to as high a level as possible.

The dogs will continue to be trained in obedience until they reach, what we call, Big School. Here they’ll begin to learn more specific tasks and work for various programmes because, at this age, it can be difficult to know exactly what programme they're destined for. Getting them used to all sorts of tasks can be very beneficial to all.

The final stage is when they are matched with a client. Our instructors work extremely closely with the dogs during the final stage of training to make sure that they are comfortable working on all sorts of tests.

Once the dogs have been assigned a client and have passed their tests, they're off to their homes to do the real thing and change lives.

In addition to this, our admin staff work hard in fundraising to make sure that we keep Support Dogs thriving and growing.

Well, it costs us around £24,000 over a two-year period to train one of our dogs.

They work for about eight years at an additional cost of around £2,500 a year so donations from Waggel mean the world to us.

As a charity, we're completely reliant on voluntary donations and recognise that we’re all facing a really tough economic situation. We don’t receive government funding so the money given has a considerable impact.

The money that we get from Waggel customers will simply be used to help train another dog. In the near future, we'll be asking Waggel customers to help us name a new puppy as they come and join us. This essentially means that customers get to go on the journey with us as the dog goes through their training and goes on to change someone's life.

At Support Dogs, we're always looking to increase the number of dogs that were able to train.

Currently, the demand for our services is very high. We believe this has happened as awareness of autism as a condition has grown as well as an improved understanding of early diagnosis. This has led to increased applications meaning we’re receiving around 5,000+ inquiries every year for our services. However, we’re only able to train around 30 new dogs a year.

Another big thing that we're working towards is looking for a new site. Having extra space means we can have improved facilities and that would immediately make a huge difference to the number of dogs we’re able to train each year.

Once we achieve that goal, we're also always looking to boost our work with rescue dogs.

We've been the only charity until recently to work with rescue dogs as assistance dogs. Statistically speaking, one in four of our dogs comes from a rescue background. We're always looking to build on new relationships with rescue charities and to give dogs a second chance, not only to have a happy, healthy life but to go and change someone else's life too.

At Support Dogs, we're always looking to increase the number of dogs that were able to train.

Currently, the demand for our services is very high. We believe this has happened as awareness of autism as a condition has grown as well as an improved understanding of early diagnosis. This has led to increased applications meaning we’re receiving around 5,000+ inquiries every year for our services. However, we’re only able to train around 30 new dogs a year.

Another big thing that we're working towards is looking for a new site. Having extra space means we can have improved facilities and that would immediately make a huge difference to the number of dogs we’re able to train each year.

Once we achieve that goal, we're also always looking to boost our work with rescue dogs.

We've been the only charity until recently to work with rescue dogs as assistance dogs. Statistically speaking, one in four of our dogs comes from a rescue background. We're always looking to build on new relationships with rescue charities and to give dogs a second chance, not only to have a happy, healthy life but to go and change someone else's life too.

Well, for me personally, as a fundraiser, meeting the people whose lives changed thanks to our dogs is the biggest motivator.

I’ve had to get a bit stronger since I started this job because I was in tears for the first few months just speaking to people and learning about the difference the dogs have made to their lives!

I think, particularly, it can be very emotional when parents of children with autism explain the way Support Dogs have changed their child’s life. Some parents have told us that they’ve heard their child speak for the first time and say ‘I love you’ due to the positive impact of one of our dogs.

Their children have gone from being diagnosed with clinical depression to living a fulfilling life, attending school again, and feeling genuinely happy.

That’s the biggest motivator you can imagine.

Fundraising is a pretty tough job, especially in the last few years, and so for me, knowing that every time we raise £24,000 (the cost to train a dog) it’s going to change someone’s life is really the best motivation for me.

Take lots of time to relax and sleep so that you can perform at your best.

Donations mean the world to us and can change the life of a family with a child with autism or an individual with epilepsy or a disability.

No matter the size of the donation, any money contributed to Support Dogs will have a massive impact on somebody's life.

We’ve got lots of exciting things coming up such as our Puppy Love comedy night, the Mucky Pups Walk, puppy graduation, and anything dog-themed really!

We're also getting involved in things such as the National Three Peaks Challenge and the London Marathon whilst also working towards throwing our first-ever charity ball later this year.

Sponsoring and volunteering are simple but very effective ways for people to support us. This can lead to more income for us and it's something that a lot of our supporters really enjoy doing as well.

We understand that we’re currently living in a difficult financial situation so always offer other ways for people to support us. At the moment we’re running a fundraising programme where we accept recycled jewellery and stamps and also encourage those who want to help to choose us as their chosen charity on Amazon Smile.

What we really need is for people who live within an hour of our Sheffield base to volunteer to look after our dogs. Surprisingly it is always a challenge to make sure we have enough volunteers to do this amazing job!

Puppy socialisers will look after them when they're in their first 14 months of training and then we'll have them pretty much 24/7, whereas the foster carers will have them for their Big School part of training. During this time they'll be with us in the centre 9 am to 5 pm and then get looked after outside of these hours by their foster carers.

If volunteering with puppies is something you’re interested in, we urge you to get in touch.

Our sensible answer is to find more ways to save energy, operate more sustainably as a charity, find our new home, and increase the number of dogs we train.

Our non-sensible answer, on behalf of our dogs, is to get more sleep and eat more treats.

To visit Support Dogs, make a donation, or find out how to volunteer visit their website.