With your support, 2 young visually impaired will have a Guide Dog in November.
Being young we want to be like everyone else and do what everyone else does and not always have to rely on our parents all the time.
Being visually impaired can make one feel different and isolated. You are in constant need of a helper taking you to meet friends or go to school and all the things a visibly able can do without having to ask someone for help all the time. Pawsitive Assistance Dogs are about to change this.
Dog behaviourist expert Karin Holmström Forster has worked with people and their wellbeing all her life. Through her love for dogs and an urge to give something back to someone special, Karin became an Assistance Dog Trainer and is now chairman of Alertalegria – Associação de Cães de Assistência Internacional, Association Assistance Dogs International.
Karin now has the unique opportunity to take 2 dogs to train, with one of UK´s most experienced Guide Dog trainers called Alan Brooks, this summer.
After the dogs are qualified GUIDE DOGS, Pawsitive Dogs Algarve will kindly grant them to two young visually impaired living in Portugal.
Dog behaviourist expert Karin Holmström Forster from Pawsitive Dogs Algarve has visited Portugal for longer periods since 1999. In all these years she has only seen 1 guide dog! In the past, Portugal used to give 67% government funding for guide dogs. Today there is no funding!
Families with a disabled member have very little support in Portugal from the government. Medical costs are high. Specialist treatments often mean traveling to other parts of the country or outside Portugal. It puts an enormous strain on already economically burdened families and their children. To buy a Guide Dog is therefore out of the question in spite of having the best laws for assistance and Guide Dogs in the world. Access everywhere!
The charity project to grant 2 Guide Dogs has just started in May 2017 and will finish in November this year, when the training has finished.
The different parts of the charity project are...
• Raising money to allow Karin and the dogs in the three months training
• Matching the two visually impaired with the two dogs
• Two months hand-over-training for visually impaired with their dog and continual support
With your contribution the lives 2 of the 1000 visually impaired in Portugal will change!
If you really want to make the difference in the life of another person, this is your opportunity!
We kindly invite you to...
• Offer your donation by clicking on this link: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/2-guide-dogs-for-2-visually-impaired-children
• Share our Facebook Event with all your friends https://www.facebook.com/algarvedogtraining/
• Contact us: karin.pawsitivedogs@gmail.com mobile +351 91 707 60 40
• Like our page – Pawsitive Dogs https://www.pawsitivedogsalgarve.com
• Join our Charity Event in July
• Come celebrate our Hand-over Event in November
You or your organisation can make the difference in the lives of two impaired children by supporting this charity event. Everyone is invited to help raise € 40.000- in aid of the campaign.
About Karin Holmström Forster
Dog behaviourist expert Karin Holmström Forster has been working with dogs and their humans in Portugal since almost two decades.
Originally from Sweden, dog psychologist Karin always had her focus on rehabilitation. She has worked as a nurse, massage therapist, got a qualification in Kinesiology and is still running classes as a Pilates instructor.
When she got interested in the canine community she felt motivated to improve her knowledge and started intensive courses and seminars with Karen Pryor in the USA, Fernando Silva in Portugal, Audrey Finns and Gary Landsberg in the USA and Cilla Danielsson in Sweden, Victoria Stillwell in the UK and Grisha Stewart and Ian Dunbar in the USA. All are international dog behaviourists that are very well respected in their field. Karin is currently finishing a three-term course on Ethology and on Dog Behaviour & Cognition at Linkoping University in Sweden.
Today she educates new instructors both in Sweden and the Algarve. With her company Pawsitive Dogs, she trains dogs and their humans full time and helps with dog behaviour issues.
As an expert in her field she is a catalyst for change in dogs’ wellbeing and is a favourite speaker at dog related events. She recently was a key note speaker at an animal cruelty prevention seminar run by Safer Communities Portugal. From that an animal welfare umbrella group for shelters and individuals started, seeking information and assistance with animal welfare issues.
With her many qualifications, Karin hopes to further her involvement in dog training, especially service dogs.
In 1999 the half English, half Swedish family moved from the UK to the Algarve. Today their sons are grown up and the family is spread to the UK, Sweden and Algarve. The family includes a mixed breed of dogs, including two certified Assistance Dogs.
Karin represents the organisation Assistance Dogs International / Associaçao de Cães de Assisténcia International, as one of only two apprentices chosen per year to work with Alan Brooks, who is a recognised expert and has over 30 years of experience in training guide dogs.
You can meet Karin this weekend, June 3 & 4, at the Algarve Dog Show in Lagoa, at Pawsitive Dogs own training ring next to the main ring for the Dog Show.
