What a dog guide assessment is
A dog guide assessment describes your situation and explains why a dog guide will help you in your day-to-day activities and working towards your goals.
The assessment includes information about how a dog guide will reduce your functional limitations and help you in different environments, such as at home, at work or in public spaces.
The assessment also describes your experience with animals and any dog guide trials you’ve completed.
Tip: Assistance animals, guide dogs or dog guides?
We use the term assistance animal to describe all specially trained animals that help people with disabilities. The most common assistance animal is a dog guide. We use the term dog guide because people with different disabilities use assistance animals, including people with vision impairments.
What a dog guide assessment is for
In the assessment, we ask for evidence from:
- an accredited dog guide provider
- a qualified dog guide mobility instructor
- you (the participant or representative).
This assessment and evidence helps us decide if a dog guide is an appropriate NDIS support for you. It also helps us determine if a dog guide meets the rules for the kinds of supports the NDIS can fund.
What the dog guide assessment is like
We have templates available to help with dog guide assessments. You don’t have to use the dog guide assessment templates if you don’t want to, but the evidence you provide must include all the information described in the template.