Geographies of Assistance Dog Partnerships
My PhD research has been funded through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (SGSSS - ESRC) and I continued this research through a ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.
The research aimed to explore the geographies of care and training between physically disabled people and their assistance dogs. In doing so, I worked with a Dog A.I.D., a UK charity that helps people train their pet dogs to be assistance dogs. This provides a unique perspective as most assistance dogs are trained by the charities and provided to the client, not trained by the client.
To explore the relationship and interactions between humans and their assistance dogs I completed video ethnography, observation, photography, interviews, and online surveys. In particular my video research, utilised through an ethnomethodological approach, has been able to show how humans and dogs train together and how they care for one another. In presenting this data through the form of graphic transcripts I was able to show doggy agency through this interaction.
Through this research I have been able to provide a direct impact to the charity and there clients through a number of ways:
Presenting research on behalf of Dog A.I.D. at the Assistance Dogs International (ADI) Conference 2021.
Completing a presentation and Q&A to clients of the charity.
Writing about the research in the Scottish Royal Geographical Society’s magazine ‘The Geographer’ (invited).
Writing about the research for Dog A.I.D.’s magazine ‘Paws For Thought’.
Writing about the research for Prof Nickie Charles et al’s website ‘Interspecies Connectedness’ (invited).
Research used by the charity in application for funding from the Pets at Home Foundation - which they received a 60k grant for a full-time two year fixed post at the charity (see Press release).
A report for the charity Dog A.I.D.
Coming soon…
An article on anthropomorphism in assistance dog training (under-review at Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers).
An article on language and communication in training an assistance dog to open a door (under-review for a special issue of the Scottish Geographical Journal).