Healthy Animals, Healthy People: Our partnership with Support Dogs

Meet “Spot” the Elanco UK & Ireland sponsored support dog

Hi, my name is Emma, and I am one of the UK Strategic Account Managers here at Elanco in the UK and Ireland affiliate. An extra element to my role is working with an amazing charity you may not have heard of called “Support Dogs”. They are a small but amazing national charity dedicated to improving the lives of both children and adults with various challenging medical conditions. The charity train, provide and support dogs in family homes to take on these vital roles.

The programme covers three main areas:

Autism assistance dogs - for children with autism
Seizure alert dogs - for people with epilepsy
Disability assistance dogs - for people with a wide range of disabilities

We’ve previously told you all about our Elanco Support Dog, Spot.

Black Labrador Spot is now four years old and is the best of friends with his young human, Xander, who is autistic.

Autism assistance dog Spot has made a huge difference to the lives of seven-year-old Xander and his family.

Young Xander was ferried around in a pushchair until he was almost five as it was the only way the strapping lad could be restrained while out and about.

And his mum, Natasha, never wore flip flops in summer – she wore trainers as she had to run after Xander, who, like most autistic children, has no sense of danger. At one point, she chased after her son as he hurtled towards a pond. Luckily, she caught him in time.

With other methods, including reins, not helping – especially as an anxious Xander was unable to hide from the world this way – his mum turned to national assistance dog charity, Support Dogs, for help.

Lovable black Labrador Spot, trained by the national Support Dogs charity, moved in in late 2022 – and since then, Xander has not run off.

Now a trip to the supermarket – or anywhere else, for that matter – is much easier as Xander’s parents know he’ll walk calmly with Spot by his side.

The family have even managed a staycation to Great Yarmouth – which hadn’t been possible before Spot bounded into their lives.

Spot has also helped Xander to develop his language and social skills.

“He is such an intelligent dog – he knows what Xander needs, he knows when to leave him alone and he knows when to get closer,” says Natasha. “We are a team. We couldn’t imagine life without Spot.”

Support Dogs, which trains and provides specialist assistance dogs to help people affected by a range of medical conditions, faces an overwhelming demand for its services.

It recently acquired a warehouse with capacity four times that of its existing site, offering the potential to not only increase the reach of its work more than three-fold but also the range of services it offers.

In 2025 the charity will be launching a capital appeal to renovate this warehouse into a new national centre, allowing Support Dogs to make the huge step change that is needed.

To find out more about Support Dogs’ new national centre of excellence and how to support it, please visit www.supportdogs.org.uk/national-centre or email chris.daykin@supportdogs.org.uk