Giving to Empower Assistance Dogs means those in need are empowered to lead a more independent life! Assistance dogs are trained to enhance the quality of life of physically or mentally challenged persons whilst still maintaining as much independence for the handler. This means that the dog will be a permanent working companion for the disabled handler and will assist with a myriad of task work but whilst still having the handler work and interact as much as physically and/or mentally possible. Assistance dogs can do a myriad of task work such as turning lights on and off, pushing traffic light buttons, opening and closing doors, picking up dropped or wanted items, indicating when a handler needs assistance either by alerting a carer or pushing a medical alarm and much more. We train each dog to the individual handler’s needs. There are basic tasks that are taught to each assistance dog but every handler will have different physical needs so there will be different individual tasks required for every handler. Empower Assistance Dogs is a unique Assistance Dog not-for-profit organisation as they are the only Queensland Government certified and approved training institution to gain certification to train both Guide, Hearing and Assistance dogs thus providing a specialised service in the assistance dog world to those persons with multiple disabilities that previously would not be able to access their own assistance dog due to having numerous training outcomes to be covered. This opens up avenues for those persons who need the companionship and working abilities that a dual purpose Guide, Hearing or Assistance dog would give. For this reason, Empower Assistance Dogs sought out trainers from all three fields to be employee trainers with Empower Assistance Dogs. With the decision to tackle the issue of helping persons with multiple disabilities comes the added cost to resources. We receive no official funding from the government and we rely solely on donations, grants and fundraising. We’d love any support you can help us with the ensure we can place more dogs with the handlers that need them!