Our story
Lisbon Assistance Dogs began with a single partnership and a simple conviction: that a well-trained dog can give a person back their independence. From that starting point we have built a small, standards-driven program based in Lisbon, Portugal.
We focus on quality over volume. Every dog is health-screened, raised with positive training methods, and matched carefully to the person it will support. Each team completes a documented public-access assessment before a record is issued.
Our history
From a personal need to a working, verified assistance-dog program: the milestones along the way.
Born from lived experience with a cardiac condition, the founder saw how few people in Portugal can access a properly trained assistance dog, and how little clarity surrounds the records that should support them.
A year of groundwork: studying the Standards of Assistance Dogs International (ADI), establishing positive-reinforcement training protocols, and putting veterinary, welfare, and assessment procedures in place before a single dog is placed.
The program is formally established in Lisbon, Portugal, committing to the ADI standards for the training, welfare, and placement of assistance dogs, with every placement overseen personally.
Our first assistance-dog candidate is chosen after health screening and temperament assessment, beginning training as a cardiac alert & response dog.
Foundation work starts: socialization, obedience, and graduated public-exposure training that builds the calm, reliable behavior public access demands.
Training advances to specialised tasks: detecting changes in heart rate and breathing, alerting to oncoming cardiac episodes, assisting during emergencies, and nighttime alerting.
Our first team passes the Public Access & Task Proficiency assessment and is issued our first completed training and public-access record.
We launch the public verification service so any record we issue can be confirmed by its license number, bringing transparency to assistance-dog documentation.
Our next chapter: placing more teams, deepening partnerships with clinicians and venues across Portugal, and continuing to raise the standard for assistance-dog training and verification.
We are a small, hands-on program. Every placement is overseen personally, from health screening and early training through to the final public-access assessment and the record we issue.
Questions about working with us? Get in touch.