Therapy, Comfort and Support dogs:

 

Kiwi Pride Australian Labradoodles has been successfully breeding healthy Australian Labradoodles since 2002 with sound temperaments and over the past 18 years of breeding we have worked hard to develop lines from multigenerational dogs with beautiful calm and steady therapy natured temperaments that lend themselves well to all types of therapy/companion work.
 

Our therapy puppies offer a unique opportunity for therapy support / comfort and companionship for individuals and families in New Zealand with a child or family member that would benefit from a special bond with one of our labradoodle fur babies.
 

The Kiwi Pride Australian Labradoodle has such an amazing and versatile temperament and being such a family friendly breed, highly intelligent and easily trained it can suit many types of family lifestyles as it has a non-shedding and asthma/allergy friendly coat that will give pretty much anyone the opportunity of having a therapy/companion dog.
 

Our criteria for a puppy is very broad and inclusive, covering a range of conditions, syndromes, illnesses and combinations of conditions affecting a client's ability to lead a full and positive life of opportunity, however the family member may not qualify under New Zealand law for a certified disability assist dog but would benefit from a Kiwi Pride Australian Labradoodle puppy that has been carefully selected for its temperament attributes and given a fully designed training programme developed for the age of the puppy to allow it to enter a family’s home easily offering affection, comfort and love while also arriving with sound manners and well socilized.
 

There are many conditions and syndromes where a therapy/companion puppy can support a family.  Some of the conditions featured on our programme include:
 

* Anxiety

* Depression

* Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

* Down syndrome

* Head injury or trauma

* Confidence issues

* Chronic illness

* Difficulty relating in social situations/forming friendships

* Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

* Diabetes

* Developmental delay syndrome

 

Kiwi Pride wanted to fill a niche in the community for individuals and families that didn't meet the criteria for a fully trained disability assist dog in New Zealand, or who have found the waiting list for a fully trained service dog too long for their needs or didn’t require the level of training that a disability assist dog can offer and not need the public access that these certified and extremely trained adult dogs can offer, so this is where our puppies help to fill this gap etc.
 

Our puppies are given age relevant therapy training from 8 weeks – 12 weeks of age, a family on our waiting list will be notified when an individual puppy has been identified and at 6 to 8  weeks of age will be confirmed to possess the necessary temperament and attributes to be suitable for the family’s needs.
 

Once placed with a family, we work with them so we can make sure we match their puppy to their needs and communicate how they are progressing until they leave us at 12 weeks of age. We  encourage further training from a competent trainer in the families local area for support and we offer a life time membership to Baxter and Bella which is a online learning platform run by service dog trainers offering live sessions, a library with many training videos , live puppy classes and more.

 

Many of our puppies are placed up and down New Zealand . Some families opt to use therapy puppy jacket's to help to identify it as a therapy/companion labradoodle, this does not give this puppy "public access" like a fully certified disability dog under New Zealand Law, however under arrangement with individual businesses, schools and facilities it may be arranged for the therapy puppy to enter the premises on a case by case basis, but it is the discretion of that individual premises to allow access or not.​

Kiwi Pride Facility Therapy:

​

A Kiwi Pride Australian Labradoodle is also well suited to providing facility therapy support and comfort due to its asthma/allergy friendly coat as they are able to be utilized more fully across many situations without impacting with many health-related illness. This is a permission gained by each individual approach and approval to that facility the family are wanting access to.

 

Therapy versus Facility Therapy:
 

A Kiwi Pride Therapy/Companion Labradoodle puppy has had basic training and has the necessary temperament attributes to help give comfort to persons with different health/medical conditions within a home environment as described above, whereas a facility therapy dog is invited into a facility or situation to provide therapy/ comfort along with their handler. This puppy will also possess the same temperament attributes as our therapy/companion natured puppies but this puppy will go into the community to a facility who has given approval for the visit and give comfort to others.
 

* Hospitals – patient therapy and comfort

* Schools including reading assisted learning programme’s and disability unit therapy

* Library - Reading to Dogs Programme

* Courtroom Therapy – supporting children with anxiety

* Airport – passenger relaxation and therapy

* Nursing home - supporting dementia / Alzheimer’s

* Private Practice

* Community Group Therapy

 

** Please note our Therapy/Companion puppies under our training programme do not have access rights to animal restricted environments and are only allowed where they have been invited to visit.**​

​

During the training programme puppies are socialized and desensitized to many sights and sounds as per the puppy culture program we use ENS (early neural stimulation) which starts from birth which helps to create a puppy that has been used to small amounts of stimulation and stress from a young age and therefore can cope with more stressful situations throughout its life . Socialization is done according to the vaccination status of the individual puppy we can arrange  hospital visits if required, we can offer socialization with other animals, home environments and lifestyle situations per each family’s requirements.

​

Through the start given with our Kiwi Pride training program's and the continuation and commitment given by our families/handlers with the training of their therapy puppies/dogs once they leave us, helps to represent our Kiwi Pride philosophy which is to have a well-rounded, good mannered Kiwi Pride Australian Labradoodle that the owner and ourselves can be proud of into the future.