Wag and Company North East Friendship Dogs

Wag & Company enables professionally assessed volunteers and their special dogs – Visiting Wag Teams – to regularly and safely visit and befriend older dog lovers in their own homes or in care and medical establishments across the 12 unitary authorities of the North East of England.

The grant from PWCF has allowed Wag to recruit assess, induct match, insure, deploy, equip and support 10 Visiting Wag Teams who now share their dogs and befriend the elderly.

As each Visiting Wag Team visits, on average. 8 elderly friends over 30 weeks each year, this grant has resulted in over 2,400 visits every year bringing friendship and the company of a dog to those who need it most. Volunteers report that on their visits they see people respond, walk, talk, smile and laugh for the first time in weeks or months even. Families have also fed back that Friendship Dogs have interacted with their loved ones who are at the end of their lives and have previously been unresponsive and holding a furry paw has raised a smile. Every week the Visiting Wag Teams are brightening people’s lives and making a huge difference all over the region.