It means we’ll pair you with a friendly volunteer who has a dog and they will visit you together. This will enable you to reap the benefits of dog companionship, as well as making a new (human) friend.

We befriend anyone over the age of 55 who may be experiencing loneliness or social isolation. You can either refer yourself, be referred to by a loved one or another organisation or charity.

In your application form, we will ask if you have any preferences in terms of dog size and if you already have any pets at home so we can match you suitably.

We’re excited to hear you’d like to come onboard! Please start by filling out our volunteer form on our volunteer page so we can get to know you and your dog better. The next step will be a phone call with one of our volunteer onboarding team, followed by a DBS check and some references before you complete our short online training.

No, we are a small charity that pairs up older people with locals in their communities who have dogs so that everyone can benefit from canine companionship.

Absolutely! We are a completely volunteer-run organisation so rely on operational volunteers to keep the charity running. Please do get in touch at hello@caredogs.org.uk with your CV and a blurb about your interests and talents. We’d love to hear from you!

Yes, CareDogs is a charity so we don’t charge our clients anything.

Sadly, we don’t have the resources to help with dog adoption research. However, if our clients decide they are able and would like to offer a dog a home themselves, we can provide them with some tips that may help in their search. We encourage older people to consider older dogs (over the age of 7) since these dogs are often still playful and energetic and are simply looking for a place to call home and rest their heads. With the average dog’s life expectancy being 13, we hope more people will consider adopting older dogs.

There is no legal definition but we follow a similar demographic that Age UK look after as our benchmark which is around the 55+ mark, so please do get in touch if you’re in that age bracket and above.

Yes you can! We can talk to you primarily on the phone on 07570 984 565 or through a friend or family member if necessary.