Bale's Buddies Community Outreach
As many of you know, Bale’s Buddies Therapy Dogs, a not-for-profit organisation, was first established in 2016 after identifying a need for animal assisted therapy to support vulnerable people across Devon. We want to go back to our roots of helping the community by providing animal assisted therapeutic support after seeing the positive impacts therapy dogs have including decreases in anxieties, communication building, independence, self-harming decreases, etc. We want to provide the whole of our community with the same therapeutic support and as a result, we have founded a new support service, Bale’s Buddies Therapy Dogs Community Outreach.
Our aim is to utilise our 4 community dogs: Bale, Grace, Arthur and Bertie. Each dog has been trained and accredited as a Therapy Assistance dog; however, each have their own individual roles depending on the situation. For example, Grace is our emotional support dog, whose main skill is providing deep pressure therapy, reducing anxieties, and providing relaxation. With the community outreach, we will take our community dogs into various settings, dealing with mental health issues, additional needs, elderly, and vulnerable people as well as help individuals who need emotional support. Settings include hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, schools, doctors, outdoor provisions, community centres, and many more organisations and establishments across Devon. The bespoke animal assisted therapy sessions are based around the needs and abilities of the client and can be adapted to suit many needs, maximising the desired outcome.
People will be able to book sessions for our different services including (but not limited to) - emotional support, attending appointments, therapy sessions, hospital visits etc. Some families come to us and have a block of sessions to help them assess their families suitability to a dog, they also use them as a tool to see how much it could benefit the intended recipient. We are fully insured and all our staff have undertaken an extended DBS check.
Therapy Dog visits for the Community
Many studies have shown that having a Therapy Dog present can help reduce depression, anxiety and decrease blood pressure. During visits our Therapy Dogs can offer many benefits to all age groups including:
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Lowering stress levels and blood pressure
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Taking a person’s mind off of personal problems, pains, worry or anxiety.
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Bringing Smiles, Joy and Love.
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Helping with communication from the comfort of the dog
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Can provide Deep Pressure Therapy
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Interactive Games where the dog is involved creating a bond.
Whether it is a visit to a Hospital, School, Family home or Residential, we see smiles light up the room when they see the dog arrive. We see children increasing their literacy skills as they read stories to our Dogs and children who rarely speak come and greet the dog when we arrive. We see the happy faces of the people we visit and hear the joy in their voices knowing that Our Therapy Dogs do make a difference.
What settings do you visit?
Our four-legged team are experienced and qualified Therapy Assistance dogs and love nothing more than paying visits to (but are not limited to):
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Family homes - Children living with
Autism and other additional needs.
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Hospitals
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School settings
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Care homes
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Aged care support
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Mental health facilities
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Dementia wards
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Residential homes
Our community Therapy Dogs are trained to interact with people in ways that will make you smile, help you forget your worries, be fun, educational and heartwarming.
We also hold our Animal Assisted Therapy sessions at Bales Buddies HQ, where we can involve our farm animals in the session too.
What is involved in the Therapy Session?
Experience has taught us that no two clients are the same. During your initial consultation we will discuss everything we can do with our trained Therapy Dogs so we can tailor visits to meet the specific needs of the individual or group.
Home, residential and hospital visits are matched to the client’s needs, abilities and how they are feeling on that particular day. A visit could include interactive games with the dogs such as hide and seek, peekaboo, tricks and agility to name a few. However, all our dogs are just as happy to be tickled on the belly and cuddle up with their client.
They are fully trained in providing emotional support and deep pressure therapy for those those that need it.
Please visit our page 'Who we help' to see in more detail what a session can include and the many benefits that can come from it. Click here
Our Community Therapy Dogs
For more information please feel free to contact us using the form below, by phone, email or via our Facebook page we are happy to answer any questions.