Breed dogs for therapy dogs? Advertise here
Buyers and trainers use this page to find breeders whose lines do this work. List your kennel free, tick the industries your dogs work in, and advertise litters and stud dogs from proven working lines.
No breeders are listed here yet, so the first profiles get the page to themselves.
- Free basic profile: your breeder or company name, website, social media, location, breeds and industries.
- Litters and stud dogs advertised in their own sections, never mixed with puppies for sale.
- Premium showcase for your services and prices, previous customers, awards, video, gallery and health certificates, with your phone and email shown to buyers.
- Sponsored articles about your breed or industry, written and published by our team.
- Featured placement at the top of this page, labelled as sponsored.
Is it free to advertise here?
Yes. A breeder profile and your litter and stud dog adverts are free. Premium profiles, featured placement and sponsored articles are optional paid extras; see pricing.
Do I need a licence to advertise puppies?
In England you need a dog breeding licence from your council if you breed three or more litters in 12 months or breed and sell dogs as a business, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes. Licensed breeders show their licence number and issuing council on every advert. Puppies must be at least eight weeks old before they go to new homes.
Is my listing already here?
We add licensed breeders from councils' public registers. Search for your kennel name; if it is listed you can claim it and edit everything.
About therapy dogs
A therapy dog is an ordinary, well-mannered pet that visits people who benefit from its company: patients, care home residents, pupils, prisoners, students in exam week. It is not an assistance dog and has no legal access rights. That matters for breeders, because the honest message is simple: any breed, pedigree or crossbreed, can become a therapy dog if its temperament is right, and no breeder can sell one ready-made.
What this discipline is
Therapy dogs work in animal-assisted activity and animal-assisted therapy. In the UK this almost always means a volunteer taking their own dog into a hospital, hospice, care home, school, university, court or prison, usually for an hour at a time. The dog’s job is to be stroked, to sit calmly, to accept unfamiliar equipment and unpredictable handling, and to leave without fuss.
Therapy dogs differ from assistance dogs in two ways. They help many people rather than one, and the Equality Act 2010 gives them no right of entry: they visit by invitation of the establishment. Nor is there any UK register or certification of therapy dogs; the visiting schemes assess dogs for their own purposes.
Who trains or supplies these dogs in the UK
Two national charities dominate. Pets As Therapy (PAT) requires that a dog is at least a year old and has lived with the volunteer for at least nine months, is vaccinated, wormed and flea-treated, and passes a temperament assessment. PAT accepts pedigrees and crossbreeds but not breeds listed under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Its assessment paperwork notes that jumping up is the commonest reason a dog is deferred, along with pulling or erratic behaviour on the lead.
Therapy Dogs Nationwide (registered charity 1167622) is run entirely by volunteers and has around 2,500 of them. It accepts dogs over nine months old that have lived with the volunteer for at least six months, assesses each dog for its ease around people and its lead manners, and charges a small annual fee to cover administration and insurance.
Beyond these, individual NHS trusts, universities and schools run their own visiting arrangements, and some professional therapists use their own dogs within clinical work. In every case the dog is trained by its owner: nobody supplies therapy dogs.
Breeds and lines
There is no therapy breed. Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Cockapoos, Greyhounds and Staffordshire Bull Terriers all visit successfully, as do dogs of no fixed breed. What matters is the individual: a dog that seeks out people, tolerates clumsy handling, is not startled by wheelchairs, hoists or trolleys, and settles quickly in a new room.
A breeder can influence this. Temperament is partly inherited, and the first eight weeks shape a great deal of the rest. Puppies raised in a busy household, handled daily by different people and exposed to noise and novel surfaces have a head start. Breeders who keep in touch with their puppy owners often know which of their lines produce the steady, people-focused dogs that later pass a PAT or TDN assessment, and that knowledge is worth stating.
What a buyer should ask a breeder
- Have any dogs from your lines gone on to volunteer with Pets As Therapy, Therapy Dogs Nationwide or a similar scheme?
- Can I meet the dam, and ideally the sire, and see how they behave with strangers?
- How do you socialise the litter in the first eight weeks?
- What health testing applies to your breed under the RKC Health Standard, and can I see the results?
- Is your breeding licensed by your council, if you breed enough litters to need it?
Be cautious of any breeder who sells puppies as “therapy dogs” or “emotional support dogs”. Those labels carry no UK status, and a puppy’s suitability cannot be known until it is an adult.
What breeders can list here
Breeders in this hub can describe the temperament of their lines, their socialisation practice, their health-test results and any dogs from their breeding that now volunteer with a therapy scheme. They may not describe puppies as trained or certified therapy dogs, and Canine Breeder does not supply therapy dogs or assess them. The charities named above are independent of this site.
If your lines produce the gentle, people-loving dogs that visiting schemes rely on, list your kennel under therapy dogs so that the volunteers of the future can find you.