Join our mission to help people to get their independence back with the help of their Assistance Dog.
Welcome to Good Karma Assistance Dogs
Our Mission
Good Karma Assistance Dogs provides specialised support and training for individuals seeking to train their beloved canine companions as psychiatric assistance dogs. We serve clients of all ages and accommodate a wide spectrum of psychiatric conditions, ranging from anxiety to PTSD.
About Assistance Dogs
What is an Assistance Dog?
An Assistance Dog is a task trained dog that helps an individual mitigate their disability and is protected under the Equality Act 2010 to accompany their handler in public places.
An assistance dog is NOT the same as an emotional support animal or therapy dog. Under the Equality Act 2010 Emotional Support Animals and Therapy Dogs DO NOT SHARE access rights as an assistance dog.
An Emotional Support Dog is not the same as a psychiatric assistance dog and are not required to perform tasks. Only comfort to their owner.
Assistance Dog Registration and Identification
In the UK, there is no official registry for Assistance Dogs. ADUK issues a yellow booklet to their members, and some organizations provide IDs with legal information for their members, but these are not required and should not be requested. Owner Trained or Organisation Trained/Private Trained Assistance Dogs are not required to provide any form of Identification.
Registrations have been set up to scam vulnerable people, there is no government approved registry system to register assistance dogs on.
Do i need to get a certificate to have a assistance dog?
Assistance Dogs are not legally required to have a certificate. Organisations and individuals who issue certificates will issue them to show a person will have completed their training, although they’re not legally binding they will help if you’re applying for employment or further/higher education to show that necessary training has been completed, a risk assessment will usually require these.
Certificates outside of organisations are not required to show proof that your dog is an assistance dog. They have no legal binding.
Assistance Dog Laws
An assistance dog is legally protected by the Equality Act 2010 and must accompany their handler/owner in all circumstances.
It is ILLEGAL to maim and harm or otherwise kill an assistance dog. punishable with a prison sentence.
it is illegal to prohibit the access of an assistance dog in most settings except in certain environments such as:
- Sterile areas such as a kitchen where food is prepped, some poolsides, hospital surgery rooms.
- Locations that have certain wildlife that pose a risk to other predatory animals such as Primates.
- Some places of worship will accept assistance dogs under their own discretion.
It is illegal to prohibit the access of an assistance dog for these reasons:
- You have allergies to dogs.
- You have a phobia of dogs
- Your religion or beliefs claim they’re unclean or whatever they may state. Even during times of the year like Ramadan and Eid, an assistance dog cannot be legally refused access.
There is ways to accommodate an assistance dog and their handler, such as disinfecting the areas the dog has been in, taking the appointment over zoom/teams or get someone else to take the appointment for you, the list isn’t exhaustive.
A business can only legally request an assistance dog to leave if they are:
- fouling and urinating
- barking excessively to a point it’s causing a disturbance.
- wandering around unattended (find a person/get help is different)
- They are an assistance dog in training and there is no proof of an access request.
Assistance Dogs in Training do not have any legal right to enter a public place without permission. They are not fully trained until they have completed public access training.
More information can be found on the ERHC website by following the link below.
Our Services and prices
Full Membership £40pm
Our full membership is open to those who wish to train their dog as an assistance dog with the Organisation.
The payments can be made on a monthly direct debit and will end when you complete your public access.
You get access to:
- Our Membership page
- Our secrete Members Only Facebook Group, link given upon joining.
- free 1-2-1 support throughout your training with us
- Organisation vests for your dog and accessories to go with it that come from the very best gear maker selected by us.
- A Membership Number and Member ID.
Refresher Course £35pm
Our Refresher Course is open for anyone who has already trained their assistance dog and wish to teach tasks for their mental health or tidy up any bad habits that might have been picked up.
The payments for this can be set up as a monthly direct debit and will end when you complete your public access.
You get access to:
- Our Membership page
- Our secrete Members Only Facebook Group, link given upon joining.
- free 1-2-1 support throughout your training with us.
Optional extras - Please email if you wish to include this after purchasing.
- Organisation vests for your dog and accessories to go with it that come from the very best gear maker selected by us.
- A Membership Number and Member ID.
Public Access Training £25
This is Strictly for those who have already trained their assistance dog but want the support of an Organisation while undertaking their Public Access Training for an ease of mind.
The cost is a one off payment.
You get access to:
- Our Membership page
- Our secrete Members Only Facebook Group, link given upon joining.
- free 1-2-1 support throughout your training with us
all resits are free if you don’t feel satisfied with the end result before you receive your certificate.
Become a member
Frequently Asked Questions
Towards the end of 2023 I (the Director and Head Trainer) wanted to become a dog trainer in general, training dogs from all walks of life. Teaching anything from basic obedience to advanced trick training and then moving on to bite work and protection training.
In the beginning of 2024 I decided that this is not something that I wanted to do. Although I’m part of the training community, I didn’t feel like that sort of training was for me.
I am part of the disabled community and most of my friends and followers have or want assistance dogs. Where I live in the UK doesn’t have an assistance dog organisation that is within a reasonable distance for me to travel to with my other commitments outside of this community.
Ultimately I decided to set my own up. After doing a lot of research, reading up on a lot of things to set up an organisation like this I started creating Good Karma Assistance Dogs.
The name was taken from my old training company name and decided that by adding ‘Good’ in the name would show that everyone with a disability deserves some good karma in their lives.
I rallied around, asking friends if they wanted to join me and help me on my journey, I was delighted when they said yes.
We are always expanding our journey and could be on the look out for more trainers in the future. Keep an eye on instagram or Facebook for open vacancies.
Good Karma Assistance Dogs is funded through donations from individuals, and grants from foundations, you can support our mission by donating today.
NO
We are a force/fear free organisation who uses positive methods of training.
We don't allow tools such as:
- prong collars
- ecollars/stim collar/pulse collars and bark collars
- choke chains/Slip leads/martingale collars and Grote collars
- Head collars
All these tools are prohibited from use during any of our training and any of our group meet ups.
We provide our members with a vest featuring the organization's logo. Members are given an "Assistance Dog in Training" vest during their training period. Upon completion of the program, they receive an "Assistance Dog" vest, which doesn't include the "in training" designation.
For those who are only taking the Public Access Test and already have their own vest, an additional organization vest is not required.
If you are participating in our refresher course and already possess your own vest, having the organization vest is optional.
Dogs with dog reactivity are not allowed to join the program due to the unpredictability of their behaviours. This is to keep us safe and the general public safe.
Purely for ethical reasons, we won’t accept applications from dog owners with dogs over the age of 6. Purely because larger breeds tend to retire earlier due to health conditions such as hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and blindness.
There is no legal requirement to register an assistance dog. Such registration is a scam, they’re set up to take money from vulnerable people. If anyone tells you their assistance dog is registered, they have been scammed. This however doesn’t mean they don’t have an assistance dog. The behaviour of the dog and the training makes the assistance dog.
All our moneys that get given to us whether it’s from a customer becoming a member, a donation or given to us as a grant will go back to our Organisation. We do not profit from the money, we don’t have a payroll to create a wage, all staff members are unpaid and do their jobs entirely voluntarily.
It takes roughly 18 months to 2 years to fully train a dog to become an assistance dog, handlers and trainers put in tireless effort to get their dog where they need them.
While under our Organisation members will not be passed on their public access before 6 months of being a member but we will allow members to go at a slow pace and take their time.
Help Our Cause
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and help us give independence back to those who need it. Your generous donation will fund our mission.
if you have any question or concerns email at
Admin opening time :
Monday - Sunday
9 am - 10 pm
Our Partners
Copyright © 2025 Good Karma Assistance Dogs - All Rights Reserved.
Company number: 16082897
Created by Nina Shaw and Nico Aikman on Go Daddy