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Services
Support built around you and your dog

PAL CIC works to make assistance dogs accessible to all.

We support disabled people and their dogs through individual guidance, ethical training pathways, assessments, advocacy and practical help.

We also work with dog trainers, businesses, transport providers and public organisations to remove the wider barriers faced by assistance-dog handlers.

Our services are:

  • Disabled-led
  • Welfare-centred
  • Inclusive
  • Individual
  • Honest about limitations
  • Transparent about fees and responsibilities

Not sure which service you need? Email contact@palcic.org and we will help you identify the most appropriate next step.

Find the Right Support

Assistance Dog Pathway

Individual guidance for people considering, raising or owner-training an assistance dog.

The pathway can help you:

  • Understand whether an assistance dog may be right for you
  • Consider the suitability of a prospective dog
  • Identify disability-related tasks
  • Develop an Assistance Dog Support Plan
  • Find appropriate training support
  • Access progress and welfare reviews
  • Prepare for public-access assessment
  • Receive continuing support

Training may be delivered by PAL CIC, an appropriate independent trainer or a combination of services.

Explore the Assistance Dog Pathway

Assessments and Public Access Tests

Welfare-first assessments for prospective and existing assistance-dog partnerships.

Services may include:

  • Temperament and suitability assessments
  • Training-progress reviews
  • Mock public-access assessments
  • Public Access Tests
  • Reassessments
  • Welfare and retirement reviews

Our assessments focus on readiness, safety and welfare—not perfection.

View Assessments and Public Access Tests

Advocacy and Access Support

Practical support for assistance-dog handlers experiencing barriers, access refusals or discrimination.

We may be able to help with:

  • Shops, cafés and public venues
  • Taxis and transport
  • Workplaces
  • Education
  • Housing and accommodation
  • Healthcare and public services
  • Reasonable-adjustment requests
  • Complaints and escalation
  • Wider policy and systemic barriers

We work alongside people rather than speaking over them.

Ask About Advocacy Support

Training for Businesses and Organisations

Practical assistance-dog awareness training informed by disability, lived experience and dog welfare.

Training and consultancy may be available for:

  • Businesses and hospitality
  • Employers
  • Taxi and transport providers
  • Schools, colleges and universities
  • Leisure and community facilities
  • Healthcare services
  • Housing providers
  • Local authorities and public organisations
  • Customer service, security and reception teams

We can also provide policy reviews, incident learning sessions, workshops, and bespoke projects.

Arrange Organisational Training

Dog Trainer Partnerships

We are developing a network of ethical, inclusive and welfare-focused independent dog trainers.

Trainers do not need to specialise in assistance dogs. Assistance-dog partnerships may also need support with:

  • Puppy development
  • Everyday life skills
  • Confidence
  • Behaviour
  • Cooperative care
  • Disability-related tasks
  • Public-access preparation
  • Maintenance training

Participating trainers remain independent and choose which referrals they accept.

PAL CIC operates a transparent 5% referral fee for work arising from a PAL CIC introduction.

Work With PAL CIC

How the Assistance Dog Pathway Works

1. Tell Us What You Need

Contact PAL CIC and provide a brief overview of your circumstances, your dog (if you already have one), and the support you are seeking.

You do not need to understand every available service before getting in touch.

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2. Initial Guidance

We listen to your goals, discuss your circumstances and help you understand the available options.

This may include considering whether an assistance dog is appropriate, what tasks could help and what practical support may be required.

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3. Build Your Individual Pathway

Where appropriate, we help develop a pathway considering:

  • The needs of the disabled person
  • The dog’s temperament, health and welfare
  • Training priorities
  • Accessibility and reasonable adjustments
  • Location and available support
  • Realistic goals and timescales

There is no single programme that every team must follow.

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4. Access Appropriate Support

Support may be provided through:

  • PAL CIC
  • An independent trainer introduced by PAL CIC
  • A trainer already chosen by the service user
  • Supported owner-training
  • Remote guidance
  • A combination of professionals

The service user remains involved in deciding who they work with.

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5. Review Progress and Welfare

Plans may be reviewed as the partnership develops.

Reviews consider more than completed training goals. They also consider:

  • The dog’s physical and emotional welfare
  • The handler’s needs
  • Emerging concerns
  • Whether goals remain appropriate
  • Whether the pace or direction should change
  • Whether other professional support is required

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6. Prepare for Public Access

When appropriate, the team may receive:

  • Public-access preparation
  • A training-progress review
  • A mock assessment
  • Guidance on areas requiring further development

The pathway will not rush a dog into public environments before they are ready.

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7. Public Access Test

When a team appears ready, PAL CIC may provide or arrange a Public Access Test.

Joining the pathway does not guarantee that a dog will pass.

Assessment decisions are based on the team’s performance, safety and welfare, not on how long they have worked with PAL CIC or how much they have paid.

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8. Continuing Support

An assistance-dog journey does not necessarily end after an assessment.

Continuing support may include:

  • Training reviews
  • Additional task work
  • Reassessment
  • Welfare check-ins
  • Advocacy
  • Support through changes in circumstances
  • Retirement planning

Not Everyone Will Need Every Stage

The pathway is designed to be flexible.

Some people may contact PAL CIC only for:

  • Initial guidance
  • A specific assessment
  • Help finding a trainer
  • Advocacy following an access refusal
  • A progress review
  • Organisational training
  • Signposting to another service

You will not be required to purchase services that are not relevant to your circumstances.

A Pathway, Not a Registration Scheme

The PAL Assistance Dog Pathway is not a government registration or legal certification scheme.

Working with PAL CIC does not:

  • Automatically make a dog an assistance dog
  • Guarantee that a dog will be suitable for assistance work
  • Guarantee a successful Public Access Test
  • Create a legal licence
  • Remove the handler’s responsibility for the dog
  • Guarantee future behaviour
  • Replace veterinary or specialist behavioural support
  • Require the service user to use one particular trainer

Our role is to help people make informed, responsible and welfare-conscious decisions.

Our Approach

Disabled-Led

Our services are shaped by the lived experience of disability, neurodivergence, and assistance dogs.

We understand that accessibility is not simply about whether someone can enter a building. It can also involve communication, processing time, fatigue, finances, sensory needs and previous experiences of discrimination.

Welfare-Centred

The needs of the disabled person matter, but the dog’s wellbeing is never secondary.

We will not recommend continuing assistance-dog training where doing so would be unsafe, unrealistic or harmful to the dog.

Sometimes changing the pathway—or deciding that assistance work is not right for a particular dog—is the responsible outcome.

Individual

Every person, dog and partnership is different.

Support should reflect:

  • The person’s disability-related needs
  • The dog’s individual temperament and abilities
  • The tasks required
  • The handler’s experience
  • Available practical support
  • Accessibility requirements
  • The partnership’s changing circumstances

Inclusive

PAL CIC welcomes disabled, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ people.

We aim to provide clear, non-judgemental support and make reasonable adjustments wherever practicable.

You do not need to fit a particular image of what an assistance-dog handler should look like.

Collaborative

Making assistance dogs accessible requires more than one organisation or trainer trying to do everything.

We work with appropriate independent professionals while keeping roles and responsibilities clear.

A trainer can contribute their particular skills without presenting themselves as an expert in every part of assistance-dog work.

Transparent

We aim to be open about:

  • What PAL CIC can and cannot provide
  • Who is responsible for each service
  • Prices and payment arrangements
  • Independent trainer relationships
  • The 5% referral fee
  • Assessment standards
  • Conflicts of interest
  • How income supports our community purpose

Further information is available through our Financial Transparency information.

The 5% Referral Fee

Where PAL CIC introduces a service user to an independent trainer, the trainer pays PAL CIC a referral fee equal to 5% of the fees received for the referred work.

The fee is paid by the trainer. PAL CIC does not add an additional 5% charge to the service user’s bill.

It contributes towards:

  • Referral coordination
  • Accessible communication
  • Reasonable adjustments
  • Assistance Dog Support Plans
  • Pathway and welfare reviews
  • Maintaining our systems
  • Advocacy and community education
  • Subsidised support where funding allows

Payment does not allow a trainer to purchase priority, recommendations or favourable assessment outcomes.

All referral-fee income is recorded within PAL CIC’s accounts. Any surplus is reinvested into our organisation and community purpose rather than distributed as private profit.

Costs and Funded Support

The cost of support depends on the service required.

PAL CIC will explain the cost of its services before you agree to proceed. Independent trainers set and communicate their own prices and terms.

Some advocacy support is offered on a donation basis, subject to capacity.

Where funding is available, PAL CIC may also offer concessions, payment arrangements, subsidised support or help through the PAL CIC Solidarity Fund.

Funded support cannot be guaranteed.

Not Sure Where to Begin?

You do not need to identify the correct service before contacting us.

Tell us a little about your circumstances, and we will help you understand the most appropriate next step.

Please email contact@palcic.org and include:

  • Your name
  • Your general location
  • Whether you already have a dog
  • A brief description of the support you are seeking
  • Any relevant deadline
  • Any communication or accessibility adjustments you need

You do not need to send detailed medical evidence as part of an initial enquiry.

Email contact@palcic.org to start the conversation.

Individual pathways. Shared responsibility. Assistance dogs accessible to all.