Assistance dogs can only carry out their demanding tasks if they are not disturbed while they are working.
If you come across an assistance dog team, you can help by:
- Not distracting, touching, calling or feeding the assistance dog. However, you are welcome to talk to the owner – and to ask them if you can stroke their dog.
- Putting your own dog on the lead when you come across a working assistance dog (which you can recognise because it will be walking next to the wheelchair and tied to it by its lead) and walking past quickly. Assistance dogs are allowed to play with other dogs when they are free running off the lead.
- Wheelchair users with assistance dogs are allowed access anywhere, as long as their dogs are wearing their blue working harness.